Microbial Nano-remediation of Microplastics: A review

Microplastics' ubiquity in all environmental matrices worldwide, coupled with poor plastic waste management practices, calls for serious health and environmental attention. Microplastics are persistent and slow-degrading contaminants with a high potential to fragment as well as adsorb other contaminants. Along with macroplastic waste reduction methods such as incineration, recycling, landfilling, pyrolysis, and bioremediation approaches novel methods to remove microplastics from the environment are necessary. The multidisciplinary and progressive area of science, nanotechnology, has the potential for diverse applications with engineered nanomaterials that have superior properties over micro-particles because of their size and surface area ratio. The integration of microbial remediation and nanotechnology holds great promise for the nano-remediation of persistent environmental microplastics. Here, we review plastic-degrading microbes ( Bacillus sp., Diplococcus sp., Klebsiella sp., Moraxella sp., Streptococcus sp., Staphylococcus sp., Micrococcus, , Pseudomonas, , Aspergillus sp), microbial synthesis of nanoparticles (Zinc oxide, iron oxide, copper oxide, magnesium oxide, titanium oxide and others), and nanoparticle synthesis with plastic-degrading microbes. This article also discusses the mechanism of microbial nano-remediation and microbial interactions with nanomaterials. The advantages, limitations, and prospects of microbial nano-remediation of microplastics are discussed. This review suggests the use of metagenomics to further identify a wider range of organisms for bioremediation of microplastics, while also proposing the use of artificial intelligence for the construction of immobilized microbial nano-enzyme composites for degrading microplastics faster