A review on emerging micro and nanoplastic pollutants, heavy metals and their remediation techniques

Plastics have become one of the most concerning pollutants today. They are non-biodegradable and potentially carcinogenic and lead to the generation of microplastics categorised as an emerging pollutant. Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 microns in size. They are reported in various parts of the biosphere including human blood and tissues of various organs. Industrial and domestic effluents are two major contributing sources of microplastics in the ecosystem. A large volume of microplastics escape from the filtration processes of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). This review studies the various removal methods for these pollutants in large-scale as well as lab-scale models and the present state of art facilities available to deal with it.