11. A State-of-Art Review on Toxicity and Effect of Micro/Nano Plastic on Water Life: Current Statistics and Bioremediation Strategy

Urbanization and industrialization increases with the increase of population and its demand for goods and services. Use of plastics is very common in our daily life. We all live in the world where people are in practice to utilized plastics bags, bottles, and various items at very fast speed. A study by United Nations in 2022 showed that every year 400 million tonnes of plastic waste produced by humans. As an approx, in year 2021, Five hundred eighty three billion plastic bottles were produced. As per the earth day network study, as estimation, 5 trillion plastic bags were used. Plastic items are made up of many semi-synthetic and synthetic organic polymers which are flexible in nature and gave any shape. Easy production, good constancy and versatility, plastic items have wide range of products. Plastics can be transported from terrestrial ecologies to water ecosystems due to the various physical properties like resistance and hydrophobicity. It is found in all kind of water bodies. Nanoplastics (NPs, 1–1000 nm) and microplastics (MPs, 1 μm to 5 mm) are formed due to biological degradation and photochemical oxidation. This chapter presented a state-of-the-art overview of up-to-date research on nanoplastics and will critically scrutinize the sources of the formation, immigration and deposition of micro/nano plastics in the aquatic system. This chapter also discussed the toxicity of nano/micro plastics and its exposure to human as well aquatic life. Furthermore, this chapter also provides the prevailing remediation practices and future viewpoints for these fine plastics particles.