Abstract : Present work is a brief survey of microplastics found in different materials and their environmental impact. Microplastics and microbeads are very small pieces of plastics used at larger scale in different areas of everyday life such as packaging of food, surgical instruments, cosmetics, s toothpastes, plastic bags and bottles. In body care face wash scrubs and toothpastes these are used as exfoliating material. These are smaller in size and pass out the normal filtration processes. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBS), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS) of microplastics are free floating and non-biodegradable. Once these are washed off and get mixed with any water body they percolate into soil get mixed with water table and get deposited or adhere to the surface. Plastic wastes in environment have been perceived as environmental problem at least since 1970 (according to New York Times headlines). But microplastics have been emerged as a topic of scientific research about few more than 10 years ago. The topic became highlighted after its confirmation in the cosmetics and body care products. The coastal and oceanic water pollution was matter of concern for all since long. Microplastics are spotlighted as the added problem to this. In sea water these were detected in 1970 but considered and marked as microplastics in 2000. Since then, environmentalists and researchers treat this as a reason for increasing plastic wastes in the environment.
Keywords : Micro plastics, Exfoliating materials, Polychlorinated Biphenyl, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Body care products
Cite : Singh, A. (2023). Use of Microplastics and Microbeads in Different Materials and Environmental Sustainability (1st ed., pp. 1-5). Noble Science Press. https://doi.org/10.52458/9789388996587.2023.eb.ch01
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