Plastic and microplastic in the environment : management and health risks / edited by Arif Ahamad, Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India, Pardeep Singh, PGDAV College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India, Dhanesh Tiwari, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Table of Contents
List of Contributors xii
Preface xvi

1 Sources, Occurrence, and Analysis of Microplastics in Freshwater Environments: A Review 1
Anh Tuan Ta and Sandhya Babel

2 Microplastics in Freshwater Environments – With Special Focus on the Indian Scenario 18
Sumi Handique

3 Microplastic Contamination in the Marine Food Web: Its Impact on Human Health 34
Richa Singh

4 Microplastic in the Aquatic Ecosystem and Human Health Implications 49
Ankita Ojha, Ankitendran Mishra, and Dhanesh Tiwary

5 Interactions of Microplastics Toward an Ecological Risk in Soil Diversity: An Appraisal 63
Iqbal Ansari, Marlia Mohd Hanafiah, Maha M. El-Kady, Charu Arora, and Sumbul Jahan

6 Microplastics in the Air and Their Associated Health Impacts 84
Akanksha Rajput, Rakesh Kumar, Antima Gupta, and Shivali Gupta

7 Plastic Marine Litter in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Sea: Current Research Trends and Management Strategies 103
Soha Shabaka

8 Advanced Detection Techniques for Microplastics in Different Environmental Media 129
Arely Areanely Cruz-Salas, Sara Ojeda-Benítez, Juan Carlos Álvarez-Zeferino, Carolina Martínez-Salvador, Jocelyn Tapia-Fuentes, Beatriz Pérez-Aragón, and Alethia Vázquez-Morillas

9 Bio-Based and Biodegradable Plastics as Alternatives to Conventional Plastics 170
Bhabesh Kumar Choudhury, Rupjyoti Haloi, Kaushik Kumar Bharadwaj, Sanchayita Rajkhowa, and Jyotirmoy Sarma

10 Biodegradable Plastics: New Challenges and Possibilities toward Green Sustainable Development 187
Rabindra Kumar and Sumeer Razdan

11 Current Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities for Plastic Recycling 205
Yong Chen and Steplinpaulselvin Selvinsimpson

12 Microbial Degradation of Micro-Plastics 222
Pooja Sharma, Sophayo Mahongnao, and Sarita Nanda

13 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Plastics 245
Kailas L. Wasewar, Sushil Kumar, Dharm Pal, and Hasan Uslu

14 Role of Education and Society in Dealing Plastic Pollution in the Future 267
Nalini Singh Chauhan and Abhay Punia

Index 282

"In recent years, microplastics (MPs) have received special attention from the mass media and scientific community. MPs are ubiquitously found all over the world, from overpopulated to remote regions. Until now, studies on MPs is mainly focused on marine environments. Freshwater environments are reported as the main sources of MPs to the oceans, however, knowledge of MPs in the environments is insufficient. This chapter reviewed the potential sources and pathways of MPs in freshwater environments. A summary of the analytical methods for sample collection, preparation, and analysis of MPs was also presented. Furthermore, the global distribution of MPs in river and lake systems was also reported. This review showed that MPs have been found ubiquitously in freshwater environments from remote to densely populated areas. The MPs pollution in China was reported higher than in other parts of the world. The main pathways of MPs into freshwater environments include effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and solid waste collection, processing, and land-filling. For the sampling of water samples, plankton nets or manta trawls with an aperture size of 333 m are used in most studies. For the sampling of river bottom sediments, most studies employed grab samplers, while grab or corers were used for lake sediment. The extraction of MPs from sample matrices was conducted mainly with saturated sodium chloride as it is inexpensive and environmentally friendly. The visual sorting of MPs is conducted mainly by dissection microscope, however, this is a time-consuming process and can create miss-identification or underestimation of MPs. The polymer types of MPs are commonly identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Since different methods are used for collecting and analysis of MPs by different researchers, it hampers consistency and comparison between studies. Thus, the development of standard methods should be one of the top priorities for further studies on MPs"-- Provided by publisher.

About the Author
Arif Ahamad, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.

Pardeep Singh, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, PGDAV College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.

Dhanesh Tiwary, PhD, is Professor and Head of the Chemistry Department at the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.