Abstract
The global production of plastic has raised to 330 billion tons per year, which is a huge concern in terms of environmental crisis and health issues. Currently there are no devised mechanisms available on industrial scale and in nature by which plastics can be degraded completely into harmless residues. Water constitutes two-thirds of the planet, and almost 70–80% of it is polluted by plastic debris. Marine organisms are facing alarming situations and awful scenarios due to the water pollution caused by plastics. Micro- and macroplastics are the main entities involved in polluting the water bodies, which besides the generation of different health issues are a direct threat to the destruction of natural habitats to marine and fresh water flora and fauna. Human activities, industrialization, and population burst in recent years has contributed to high demands of plastics for the manufacturing of different products most of which end up in oceans and fresh water bodies resulting in their pollution.
We have reviewed that a three domains solution strategy can be employed to fight plastic pollution and for the remediation of water pollution by plastics, which includes (1) the implementation of science and technology to produce bioplastics to replace the synthetic plastics saving our oceans and lakes from becoming plastic repositories, (2) biodegradation of plastics using different microorganisms which produces plastic degrading enzymes to degrade plastics is another excellent strategy, and (3) community awareness and governmental policies. International agencies, nongovernmental organizations, universities, and research institutes can help create awareness in our society to combat water pollution by helping governments around the globe to effectively formulate and implement new policies to counter water pollution by plastics.
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Muneer, F. et al. (2021). Remediation of Water Pollution by Plastics. In: Inamuddin, Ahamed, M.I., Lichtfouse, E. (eds) Water Pollution and Remediation: Organic Pollutants. Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World, vol 54. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52395-4_3
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