Micro- and Nanoplastics As Carriers for Other Soil Pollutants Publisher



Khoshnamvand N¹
Source: Micro and Nanoplastics in Soil: Threats to Plant-Based Food Published:2023

Abstract

Annual releases of plastic to the terrestrial environment are 4–23 times as high as releases to the marine environment. Microplastics can enter the soil in many routes, for example, compost and sewage sludge as fertilizer, plastic mulching, irrigation and flooding, and atmospheric deposition. The process of top-down irrigation into the soil causes MP/NPs to be transported downwards along with soil cavities and eventually possibly into groundwater. Contact of toxic and harmful metal pollutants with M&NPs will inevitably occur during the migration process in the environment. Various factors are considered in their transportation such as microplastic properties, pore water forms, and properties of packing materials to influence microplastic transport that can indicate the environmental chance of microplastics in soil conditions. Among the important roles in the environmental behavior of M&Ms are absorption and migration. Microplastics or nanoplastic particles as a carrier, adsorb contaminants and increase or decrease their transportation. The transfer of microplastics in the soil environment occurs in the form of vertical and horizontal migration and nonliving transport. Microplastics are known to adsorb toxic chemicals such as PCBs, PAHs, DDTs, PFASs, PPCPs, and heavy metals. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.