Table 1.

The impact of plastics on soil microorganisms.

Plastics	Level (%)	Effects on Microorganism	References
PE	1, 5, 10, 20	Decreased xylosidase and β-glucosidase activity by 16–43% and MPs increased the soil microbial biomass (+43.6%).	[163]
PVC	1, 5	Shown positive effects on acidobacteria, bacteriodietes, and hydrolase and urease enzymes while negative effects are shown on Sphingomonadaceae and the Fluorescein diacetate enzyme.	[25,174]
PE	NA	MPs provided habitat to actinobacteria, bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, gemmatimonadetes and Acidobacteria. Additionally, colonies of bacteria significantly varied in structure from those in the surrounding soil.	[157]
PE	5	In the fertilized soil, MPs significantly enhanced the bacterial and fungal community. MPs seem to indicate the selective impact on microbes and cause a serious hazard to biogeochemical cycles and microbes ecology.	[158]
PE	0.076 g kg−1	Increased Bacteriodietes, Acidobacteria, Nitrospirae, Gemmatimonadetes and diminished effect on nutrient cycling as well as positive effect on catalase urease enzymes.	[25]
PVC	0.1	Gut bacterial diversity increased and negative impact on soil macro- and micro-organisms.	[102]
PS	0.2, 0.4, 0.8	Positive and negative effects of numerous Pro Firmicutes, teobacteria, and Bacteroidetes in various MP concentrations.	[165]
PVC	NA	PVC increases Desulfobulbaceae, and Desulfobacteraceae and decreases Sedimenticolaceae and Chromatiaceae.	[164]
PE, PLA	0.1, 1 and 10	MPs change the AMF diversity and structure that depend on their concentration level and type. Enriched with Ambispora (10% of PLA and PE), Archaeosporaceae (PLA 10%), and PLA have a negative impact on plant physiology i-e fresh/dry Biomass and Chlorophyll content.	[155]