REVIEW article

Front. Soil Sci.

Sec. Soil Pollution & Remediation

Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoil.2025.1614075

This article is part of the Research TopicAddressing Microplastic Contamination: Sustainable Solutions for Resilient Food SystemsView all articles

Microplastics in soil: A comprehensive review of analytical techniques

Provisionally accepted
Sedat GundogduSedat Gundogdu1*Muhittin Onur AKçaMuhittin Onur AKça2Mehmet GürsoyMehmet Gürsoy3Murat YılmazMurat Yılmaz4Xiaoyu ZhangXiaoyu Zhang5,6Andrés Rodríguez-SeijoAndrés Rodríguez-Seijo7Aisha BibiAisha Bibi8Maria Luisa Di GioiaMaria Luisa Di Gioia9Milica VelimirovicMilica Velimirovic5
  • 1Çukurova University, Adana, Türkiye
  • 2Ankara University, Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye
  • 3Konya Technical University, Konya, Türkiye
  • 4Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Osmaniye, Türkiye
  • 5Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Antwerp, Belgium
  • 6University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
  • 7University of Vigo, Vigo, Galicia, Spain
  • 8Aston University, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
  • 9University of Calabria, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy

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Microplastics (MPs) pollution has increasingly been recognized as a critical environmental issue impacting terrestrial ecosystems, particularly soil matrices. This review comprehensively evaluates existing identification techniques for MPs in soil, highlighting the complexities associated with soil matrices, such as heterogeneity, organic matter content, and diverse particle sizes. Current methods, including sieving, filtration, density separation, chemical digestion, and spectroscopic analysis (e.g., FTIR, Raman spectroscopy), are critically assessed for efficiency, reliability, and applicability. Our analysis identifies significant methodological inconsistencies across studies, emphasizing the urgent need for standardized analytical protocols to enable reliable comparative assessments. Recommendations include the implementation of stringent quality assurance/quality control measures to mitigate cross-contamination and enhance data quality. Given the projected increase in global plastic production and consequent MPs pollution, it is imperative to develop standardized, scalable, and cost-effective methodologies for monitoring MPs in soil environments.

Keywords: Microscopy, Nature-based solvents, Pyrolysis, microplastic detection, soil extraction

Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 18 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Gundogdu, AKça, Gürsoy, Yılmaz, Zhang, Rodríguez-Seijo, Bibi, Di Gioia and Velimirovic. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Sedat Gundogdu, Çukurova University, Adana, Türkiye

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material