<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>A topic of high interest, the plastic degradation in the environment, is approached in this work, to serve for future research. The problem of plastics pollution became critical with the exponential development of plastic materials industry in last decades. Soil and water are primarily polluted, then degradation to microplastics leads to spatial distribution of plastic debris in all ecosystems. Slow natural degradation and pollutants accumulation on the plastic particles are responsible for environment unbalancies. This work follows the new research about the induced degradation methods, abiotic and biotic, pointing out the most notable results. Most research took place in laboratories, but promising results of some biotic methods will hopefully lead to industrial scale-up.</p>
</abstract>

A topic of high interest, the plastic degradation in the environment, is approached in this work, to serve for future research. The problem of plastics pollution became critical with the exponential development of plastic materials industry in last decades. Soil and water are primarily polluted, then degradation to microplastics leads to spatial distribution of plastic debris in all ecosystems. Slow natural degradation and pollutants accumulation on the plastic particles are responsible for environment unbalancies. This work follows the new research about the induced degradation methods, abiotic and biotic, pointing out the most notable results. Most research took place in laboratories, but promising results of some biotic methods will hopefully lead to industrial scale-up.

Experimental investigations on polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate microplastics’ degradation. A review

Deparment of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Ovidius University Annals of Chemistry

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

A topic of high interest, the plastic degradation in the environment, is approached in this work, to serve for future research. The problem of plastics...

Experimental investigations on polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate microplastics’ degradation. A review

Published Online: Oct 25, 2022

Page range: 156 - 165

Received: Aug 30, 2022

Accepted: Sep 27, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/auoc-2022-0023

Keywords
microplastics, degradation, polyethylene, polyethylene terephtalate

© 2022 Aila-Elmaz Geambulat et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Experimental investigations on polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate microplastics’ degradation. A review

Published Online: Oct 25, 2022

Page range: 156 - 165

Received: Aug 30, 2022

Accepted: Sep 27, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/auoc-2022-0023

Keywordsmicroplastics, degradation, polyethylene, polyethylene terephtalate

© 2022 Aila-Elmaz Geambulat et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
microplastics, degradation, polyethylene, polyethylene terephtalate