By: Sarva Mangala Praveena, Ahmad Zaharin Aris and Veer Singh

Article Prepared By: Farah Izana Abdullah

As most of the plastics waste is land disposed, the soil environment is subjected to extensive plastics pollution. Weathering, degradation, microbial activity, and soil content factors gradually break down plastics waste into small particles known as microplastics. As a result, soils are likely to act as long-term sinks for microplastic that are 4–23-fold larger than in aquatic environments. Over the last several years, several studies have concentrated on the occurrence, potential sources, and ecological implications of soil systems. However, a quality assessment on the methodological aspects of soil microplastics studies is lacking and generally remains poorly established. Therefore, a study was conducted to assess the quality of the methodological aspects involving soil microplastics studies by adopting the CRED evaluation method. A total of 35 soil microplastic studies have been evaluated in terms of methodological aspects based on 13 criteria. The quality assessment findings indicated that no study scored a maximum in all criteria, reiterating the urgent need for enhanced quality assurance for future soil microplastics studies. Adoption of proper quality assurance and contamination control measures will guarantee high data quality and establish confidence in the study’s findings, which allow for reproducibility and comparability as well as acceptability to be utilized in risk assessments.

Web: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teac.2022.e00159

Date of Input: 30/01/2023 | Updated: 30/01/2023 | m_fakhrulddin