Impacts of emerging and novel plastic waste variants on marine and coastal ecosystems: Challenges and implications on the circular economy

Abstract

The twenty‐first century is confronted with the consequences of enormous amounts of global emerging plastic waste resulting from an excessive use of plastic, which has been imparting several negative impacts on the environment and human health. Moreover, some novel variants have also been reported in some coastal environments, so far, as a result of mixing of plastic waste with various other matrices. As a result, the problem of various forms of plastic waste within the marine ecosystem has emerged as a major concern in recent years. The current review is focused on the detrimental implications of various emerging and novel plastic variants, with an emphasis on coastal and marine environments. This review highlights the fate and transportation patterns of plastic waste, along with the contemporary examples of its implications on marine biota. Additionally, this work also examines the impacts of marine plastic waste on the environment. The review further highlights the importance of circular economy of plastic waste for sustainability. Then in the end, the growing anxieties about the impacts of plastic waste on coastal as well as marine environment, along with the strategies for reducing its impacts on ecological sustainability are discussed.