Distribution, human and ecological risks of microplastics in the African environment

The presence of microplastics in the environment is progressively increasing and becoming an environmental concern in Africa. Despite the production and use of plastics, there is dearth of information and knowledge about negative impacts of these new emerging pollutants. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation activities increase the rate of various pollutants in the environment. The main objective of this review was to summarise and discuss the current status of microplastics pollution in African environment. In addition, this review highlights the knowledge gaps that exist on microplastics pollution in African countries. To assess and discuss some information about microplastics in the environment, the published articles, reviews and other online materials were revised. Different papers were critically reviewed and provide an overview of the current, distribution, knowledge gap and abundance of microplastics in African environment. The obtained data indicated that microplastics are highly found in African environment. Few studies were carried out in aquatic environment and there is a lack of research on the presence of microplastics in the African terrestrial environment. Therefore, this review recommends to have more studies on the presence of microplastics in the African environment.