Plastic is everywhere. Inside Climate News reports that the production of plastic “has increased exponentially, from about 2 million tons a year in 1950 to 450 million tons a year today, with no limit in sight.” Research has demonstrated that we all “inhale and consume hundreds of thousands of microplastics per year” and scientists have found microplastics in placentas, breast milk, stool, blood, lungs and even in our brains.
In some good news, scientists have discovered a way to remove microplastics from the water. Researchers at RMIT University, building on their work from 2022, have developed an adsorbent material that when added to water, binds to contaminants such as micro and nano plastics which can then be removed by a magnet.
This evolution of the material binds to particles much smaller than before. Now particles as small as 30 nanometers can be removed. Success rates have shown that 95% of particles are removed within 60 minutes. Other materials, including mercury, dyes and copper, were also removed during the lab test.
This advancement helps to address the current inability to remove nanoplastics at scale in water treatment.
From the Daily Difference by The Carbon Almanac. Subscribe HERE
