Executive Summary : | Microplastics (MPs) have been identified in seawater, wastewater, fresh water, food, and air, as well as bottled and tap water. In addition to surface runoff and wastewater effluent (treated and untreated), MPs enter freshwater environments via combined sewage overflows, industrial effluent, degraded plastic garbage, and atmospheric deposition. The inappropriate management has led to the prevalent existence of plastic waste in the aquatic environment which leads to severe stress on all level of the ecosystems. However, there is a scarcity of data on the contribution of the various inputs and their upstream sources. Additionally, the little data shows that MPs due to their large specific surface area and hydrophobic surface nature, organic pollutants, metals and pathogen easily gets adsorbed on the surface of MPs. Further, due to slow degradation, these enter into the ecosystem’s food chain, stay for a longer duration and finally migrate through the tissues of animals. As the processes governing the movement of MPs across water bodies are poorly understood. However, critical factors affecting their movement and distribution will be the MPs fundamental qualities, including their density, size, and shape. Though the information on MPs in sediments along the Indian coast is available to a certain extent the information is completely unavailable when it comes to their behavior with other contaminants (heavy metals) in wastewater. According to the experts, MPs and heavy metals interact often in water bodies and due to this interaction MPs have the potential to transport more contaminants into organisms, posing a severe threat to human health. |