Microplastics in the Environment: Fate, Impacts, Removal, and Management

Microplastics is a collective term for the rapidly accumulating micrometer-sized plastic particles from industrial processes, household release and the breakdown of larger plastic items. Since organisms generally cannot degrade or eliminate these chemically inert pollutants, efforts to limit their impact focus on the prevention of their generation and slowing down their release and distribution.

Microplastics in the Environment: Fate, Impacts, Removal, and Management provides the readers with an understanding of the occurrence and fate of microplastics in the environment and possible management strategies. It is organized into three main parts. Part 1 deals with the fundamental ideas regarding microplastics, including their classification, major sources, their detection and characterization, as well as risk assessment methods. The second part covers the fate and transport of microplastics in various environmental domains, their interaction with ecosystems, and the exposure of humans to environment-borne microplastics. The final part surveys current and future approaches to limit and remove the environmental effects of microplastics. A wide range of measures is discussed here, from replacement of plastics with biodegradable substitutes to more efficient recycling of plastics to their active removal and remediation. With its emphasis on management and remediation, this book is a valuable one-stop resource for environmental scientists, government agencies and researchers working in the field of microplastics pollution.

Rao Y. Surampalli is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (GIEES) in Lenexa, USA.

Tian C. Zhang is Professor in the department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), USA.

Bashir M. Al-Hashimi is Vice-President for Research and Innovation at King’s College London, UK.

Chih-Ming Kao is Professor in the Institute of Environmental Engineering at the National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Makarand M. Ghangrekar is Institute Chair Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India.

Puspendu Bhunia is Professor at the School of Infrastructure, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India.

Sovik Das is Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India.