Occurrence of microplastics and its pollution in the environment: A review

• Published in: Sustainable production and consumption 2018-01, Vol.13, p.16-23
• Main Author: Jiang, Jia-Qian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Distribution and occurrence of microplastics; Environmental effects; Legislation; Reduce–Reuse–Recycle circular economy
• ISSN: 2352-5509; 2352-5509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.spc.2017.11.003

The pollution caused by microplastics in seas and fresh water is of growing environmental concern due to their slow degradability, biological ingestion by fish and other aquatic living organisms, and acting as carriers to concentrate and transport synthetic and persistent organic pollutants. As well as microplastics, chemical additives added to plastics during manufacture which may leach out upon ingestion, will enter food chains and potentially cause humans serious health problems. Regulations in many counties/regions have been setup or to be implemented to ban the production/sale and use of primary microplastics (e.g., microbeads), which could reduce microplastics in the aquatic environment in certain level. However, the fragments from larger plastic items (second microplastics) are major contributors, and then new legislations have to be proposed and implemented in order to substantially reduce the amounts of microplastics in the environment and the associated environmental impact. Moreover, approaches and measures are to be taken by encouraging companies and all users to adopt the Reduce–Reuse–Recycle circular economy as this will represent a cost-effective way of reducing the quantity of plastic objects and microplastics particles entering and gathering in the marine/aquatic environment. [Display omitted] •Source/distribution and the fate of microplastics in the aquatic environment explored.•Development of microplastics regulations and management policies reviewed.•There is no regulations setup yet to manage the fragments from larger plastic items (second microplastics).•New legislations needed to substantially reduce the amounts of all plastic items into the environment.•Reduce–Reuse–Recycle circular approach is a cost-effective way of reducing the quantity of microplastics.