REVIEW ARTICLE Environmental prevalence, fate, impacts, and mitigation of microplastics—a critical review on present understanding and future research scope Sakshi Patil 1,2 & Amit Bafana 3 & Pravin K. Naoghare 4 & Kannan Krishnamurthi 1 & Saravanadevi Sivanesan 1 Received: 13 August 2020 /Accepted: 16 November 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Microplastics are considered to be ubiquitous and widespread emerging contaminants. They are persistent in the nature and pose considerable harm to the environment. Their omnipresence is documented in almost all aquatic habitats, several atmospheric and terrestrial environments, and also in human consumables. The objective of this review is to provide an overview of the environ- mental prevalence of the microplastics in all environmental compartments, and their possible adverse impacts. It also presents review of the studies conducted in India and the epitome of potential mitigation measures. The need and direction of future research are highlighted. The review will help in determining the exposure levels, environmental consequences, and risk estimations, and will guide the researchers and policymakers. Keywords Microplastics . India . Environmental prevalence . Fate . Harmful effects . Mitigation measures Introduction “Plastikos,” the Greek word for plastics, means suitable for molding into various forms (Hammer et al. 2012). Due to this property, plastics have limitless applications throughout the world and are vastly used across different sectors like packag- ing (39.9%), building and construction (19.7%), automotive (10%), electronics (6.2%), household, sports and leisure (4.2%), agriculture (3.3%), and others (16.7%) (Plastic Europe 2018). The global plastic production grew from 348 million in 2017 to 359 million t in 2018 (Plastics Europe 2019). The origin, properties, and applications of plastics are summarized in Fig. 1. Plastic products are difficult to degrade, persistent, transboundary pollutants (UNEP 2016). Due to their wide- spread use, plastic waste is omnipresent and is considered to be an indispensable geological indicator of the Anthropocene era (Zalasiewicz et al. 2016). Of all the anthropogenic waste, plastic waste contributes to about 54% by mass (Hoellein et al. 2014). Over 5 trillion plastic particles weighing 268,940 t are estimated to be floating in the world’s oceans (Eriksen et al. 2014). The physical properties and environmental conditions influence the transport and distribution of plastic debris to the marine (Lusher et al. 2017), terrestrial (Horton et al. 2017), and aerial environment (Prata 2018). Plastic can be a sustain- able choice if recycled and appropriately managed. Some frac- tions of plastics have been adequately managed through recycling, while a significant portion ends up in the environ- ment (Van Cauwenberghe et al. 2015). Geyer et al. (2017) estimated that 8300 million metric tons (Mt) of global virgin plastic produced 6300 million Mt of waste, of which 9% was recycled, 12% incinerated, and 79% accumulated in the land- fills or the natural environment. This gap is due to the various inadequacies in plastic waste management, viz., insufficient human resources, financial assistance, minimal waste Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues * Saravanadevi Sivanesan ss_devi@neeri.res.in 1 Health and Toxicity Cell (HTC), CSIR-NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) Campus, Nagpur 440020, India 2 AcSIR (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research), CSIR-NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) Campus, Nagpur 440020, India 3 Director’s Research Cell (DRC), CSIR-NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) Campus, Nagpur 440020, India 4 Environmental Impact and Sustainability Division (EISD), CSIR-NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) Campus, Nagpur 440020, India Environmental Science and Pollution Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11700-4