Micro plastic Pollution in Coastal Water and Beach Sediments at Adyar and Cooum River Estuaries in Chennai Coast

Plastics having number of applications all over the world and its great usage lead to rapid increase in plastic production and disposal. Around 400 million tons of plastics produced per year worldwide, out of this only 18% of plastics recycled that has led to its poor disposal practice because discharged plastics overcome in the environment for several 100 years either in their original or fragmented form. The fragmentation of particles are caused by several factors like wind currents, wave currents, abrasions etc., leading to various sizes which are classified as macro- (≥25mm), meso-(<25mm–5mm) micro- (<5mm–1μm) and further Nano-plastics (