The detrimental impact of microplastics on the Marine Environment and potential remediation strategies

Abstract

The current Marine environment is always polluted by microplastics, and this problem has been going on for a long time. Microplastics have seriously threatened marine life and marine ecosystems, interfering with their normal life and causing pollution in a great extent. In this paper, various hazards caused by microplastics to the ocean in the past are analyzed, and several typical treatment methods are listed and explained respectively. In this study, four methods are enumerated for treating the pollution, including coagulation method, photocatalysis method, biodegradation method and policy control. Different methods have different characteristics and advantages, but there are also some shortcomings that need to be improved and optimized in the future such as specific circumstances demand, limited governance, or high costs. Additionally, the study found that even though people have adopted many different ways to deal with microplastic pollution, the problem has not been completely solved. On top of the existing methods, more new, environmentally friendly, governance methods need to be developed. But the global pollution problem cannot be solved by a small number of people. This also means that in the future, the public needs to raise awareness of the problem and the monitoring of the Marine ecological environment.