PFAS, Plastic Mulch Film, and Heavy Metal: Environmental Fate, Biological Toxicity and Innovative Remediation Technologies

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Emerging Contaminants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 13 February 2026 | Viewed by 1045

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Marine Sciences, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Interests: PFAS; PPCP; microplastics; environmental fate; adsorption; degradation; risk assessment; ecotoxicology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Interests: microplastics; emerging contaminants; biodegradation; remediation technologies; heavy metal

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

PFAS, plastic mulch film, and heavy metal pose escalating threats to global ecosystems due to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and endocrine-disrupting effects. Recent studies have revealed their ubiquitous presence from terrestrial soils to marine environments. They have also been shown to accumulate in wildlife and human tissues, leading to adverse health effects. To address the environmental contamination issues associated with these pollutants, it is essential to understand their environmental behavior and fate and promote pollution control technologies for them with the aim of reducing the risks that they pose to ecosystems. This Special Issue will serve as a platform on which researchers, scientists, and practitioners can share the latest findings, innovative ideas, and practical solutions related to the environmental fate and biological effects of these emerging pollutants, alongside innovative microbial remediation technologies with which to address them.

General domains of interest include

  1. Transport transformation and environmental fate of PFAS and mulch film, and heavy metal.
  2. Assessments of ecological risk and biological toxicity;
  3. Innovative remediation technologies.

Specifically, we invite contributions on the following:

  • Sources, pathways, and distribution of PFAS, plastic mulch film, and heavy metal in various environmental matrices (e.g., water, soil, sediment, multimedia environments);
  • Transformation, persistence, and mechanisms of PFAS and plastic mulch film, and heavy metal under different environmental conditions, including the roles of abiotic and biotic processes;
  • Degradation mechanisms of plastic mulch film into microplastics/nanoplastics and their interactions with co-pollutants (e.g., PFAS);
  • Laboratory- and field-based studies on biological toxicity across species (microorganisms, plants, animals, humans);
  • Multi-species impacts in real-world ecosystems (soil, freshwater, marine systems);
  • Development and optimization of novel biological remediation techniques for the effective removal, degradation, or immobilization of PFAS, plastic mulch film, and heavy metal in contaminated environments.
  • Innovative remediation technologies of heavy metal.

Dr. Chang-Gui Pan
Dr. Zhi Guo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • PFAS
  • plastic mulch film
  • fate
  • transformation
  • environmental effects
  • remediation technologies
  • heavy metal

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

17 pages, 826 KB  
Review
Fungal Degradation of Microplastics—An Environmental Need
by Rachel R. West, Mason T. MacDonald and Chijioke U. Emenike
Toxics 2026, 14(1), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics14010070 - 12 Jan 2026
Viewed by 716
Abstract
Plastic waste is a global issue due to the popularity of the product. Over time, plastic degrades into smaller particles known as microplastics and becomes harder to deal with as it easily disperses and can be missed by physical catches. Conventional degradation involves [...] Read more.
Plastic waste is a global issue due to the popularity of the product. Over time, plastic degrades into smaller particles known as microplastics and becomes harder to deal with as it easily disperses and can be missed by physical catches. Conventional degradation involves environmental forces like ultraviolet (UV) light, water, temperature, and physical abrasion. However, there is increasing interest in microbial plastic degradation, which could positively impact the transformation of (micro)plastics in various environmental matrices. Most of the available research has focused on bacterial degradation, but there is mounting evidence on the impact of fungal degradation. This review discusses conventional and bacterial degradation, then discusses the advantages of fungal involvement in the degradation of microplastics. Biodegradation enhanced by fungal enzymes is a valuable tool that could greatly improve the removal of these microplastic pollutants from the environment. Due to some biochemical complexities, fungi are naturally omnipresent in marine and terrestrial environments under all sorts of climates. Fungi could thrive by themselves or in association with other microorganisms, which could also be applied in non-biotic plastic degradation processes as an alternative to other forms of plastic management in the environment. Full article
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