This book offers a comprehensive review of how plastic pollution is affecting fresh and marine waters, and what the current challenges in plastic waste assessment and management in the aquatic environment are. Plastic waste comprises particles with heterogeneous physicochemical properties such as large size-range, different shapes and polymer types with various additives determining their environmental fate and risk. This complexity raises several open research questions which are explored in this book. Examples are the plastic uptake by aquatic organisms, degradation processes as well as sources and sinks in the environment.Readers will discover real case studies of plastic pollution detection and management in different parts of the world, including Asia, America and Europe, which provide an integrated overview of the global scope of this issue.This book and the companion volume Plastics in the Aquatic Environment - Part II: Stakeholders' Role Against Pollution are valuable resources to students, researchers, policymakers and environmental managers interested in plastic pollution and working towards its reduction.

Reviews the impact of plastic pollution in fresh and marine waters

Role of Environmental Science in Solving the Plastic Pollution Issue.- Pitfalls and limitations in Microplastic analyses.- Analytical Methods for Plastic (Microplastic) Determination in Environmental Samples.- Biodegradable Plastics: End of Life Scenarios.- Biological and ecological impacts of plastic debris in aquatic ecosystems.- Impact of plastic pollution on marine life in the Mediterranean Sea.- Plastic in the Aquatic Environment: Interactions with Microorganisms.- Freshwater Microplastic Pollution: The State of Knowledge and Research.- From Land to Sea: Model for the documentation of land-sourced plastic litter.- Plastic waste management: current status and weaknesses.- Plastic pollution in Slovenia: from plastic waste management to research on microplastics.- Marine Litter Assessment on Some Beaches Along the Southeastern Adriatic Coastline (Albania).- Plastic pollution in East Asia: macroplastics and microplastics in the aquatic environment, and mitigation efforts by various actors.- The Microplastics in Metro Manila Rivers: Characteristics, Sources, and Abatement.- Plastic Contamination in Brazilian Freshwater and Coastal Environments: A Source-to-Sea Transboundary Approach.- Marine litter in the Russian Gulf of Finland and South-East Baltic: Application of Different Methods of Beach Sand Sampling.- Role of Environmental Science in Tackling Plastic Pollution.