plastic particles

Removing microplastics from water

April 23, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Microplastics come from the breakdown of larger plastics in the environment as well as from direct use in various products such as certain cosmetics. They are found everywhere, from oceans and mountain peaks to the air and water, and alarmingly, in our bodies. They are ingested by all sorts of organisms, from tiny plankton to fish and marine mammals. Microplastics just don’t go away. They don’t biodegrade so they simply accumulate in the environment.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have recently demonstrated proof of concept for a system that actively removes microplastics from water. Such a system has the potential for helping to cleanse oceans and other bodies of water from the tiny plastic particles.

The system makes use of soft dendritic colloids, which are tiny particles that have the ability to stick to just about any surface. These sticky particles can attract microplastics and grab them, even in wet and salty conditions. The colloids are made from chitosan, a harmless and biodegradable polymer made from processed shellfish waste.

The researchers produced small pellets of the colloids that also contain small amounts of magnesium, which makes them bubble up and rise to the surface of water. The pellets are coated with a gelatin layer, which blocks the magnesium. As the gelatin gradually dissolves away, the pellets collect microplastics. Eventually, the result is a microplastic-laden scum that rises to the surface where it can be skimmed away.

The scum itself can be bioprocessed into more chitosan that can create more of these microcleaner pellets to then capture more microplastics. The researchers are investigating how the process can be scaled up to become a valuable tool in dealing with the microplastics problem.

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New Water Microcleaners Self-Disperse, Capture Microplastics and Float Up for Removal

Photo, posted January 17, 2018, courtesy of Bo Eide via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Plastic In Lakes | Earth Wise

August 28, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

We are always talking about the millions of tons of waste plastic that finds its way into the oceans and about the challenges of trying to remove it. A new multinational study has found that the concentration of plastics and microplastics in some lakes is even worse than in the so-called garbage patches in the oceans and some of these lakes are even in remote places around the world

Scientists from institutes in multiple countries collected water samples from 38 lakes and reservoirs in 23 countries across six continents. The samples were then all analyzed by the University of Milan to assess the presence of plastic particles more than a quarter millimeter in size.

The study found that two types of lakes are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination: lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized areas and large lakes with elevated deposition areas, long water-retention times, and high levels of human influence.

Lakes found to have the highest concentration of plastic included some of the main sources of drinking water for communities and were also important to local economies. These included Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, Lake Maggiore in Italy, and Lake Tahoe on the California/Nevada border. Not all the lakes studied contained large amounts of plastic. For example, Windermere, the largest lake in England, had very low concentrations of plastic in surface water.

This was the first global survey of the abundance and type of plastic pollution in lakes and reservoirs and the scale of freshwater plastic pollution is sobering indeed. There is widespread concern that plastic debris is having harmful effects on aquatic species and ecosystem function and clearly is not limited to marine ecosystems.

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Plastic pollution is higher in some lakes than oceans

Photo, posted May 27, 2019, courtesy of Jonathan Cook-Fisher via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Atmospheric Plastic Polluting The Ocean | Earth Wise

June 8, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to estimates, by 2040 there will likely be nearly 90 million tons of plastic pollution entering the environment each year. Particles of plastic have been found in virtually all parts of our planet including the land, the water, and even the air. Tiny plastic particles have been found in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and at the tops of the highest mountains.

A new study has shown that winds can carry plastic particles over great distances and in fact can bring them from their point of origin to the most remote places in a matter of days. As a result, micro- and nanoplastics can penetrate the most remote and otherwise largely untouched regions of the planet

How does plastic get into the atmosphere? Particles produced by tires and brakes in road traffic or ones in the exhaust gases from industrial processes rise into the atmosphere, where they are transported by winds. There is also evidence that a substantial number of these particles are transported by the marine environment. Microplastic from the coastal zone finds its way into the ocean through beach sand. A combination of sea spray, wind, and waves forms air bubbles in the water containing microplastic. When the bubbles burst, the particles find their way into the atmosphere.

Understanding the interactions between the atmosphere and ocean is important because the atmosphere turns out to be a major mechanism in depositing substantial amounts of plastic into a broad range of ecosystems.

The impact of plastic particles on ecosystems is not well understood. Neither is the effect of plastic particles in the air upon human health. In a recent British study, microplastic was detected in the lungs of 11 out of 13 living human beings.

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Micro- and nanoplastic from the atmosphere is polluting the ocean

Photo, posted April 25, 2016, courtesy of Bo Eide via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Humans And Microplastics | Earth Wise

April 13, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

While plastic comes in all different shapes and sizes, those that are less than five millimeters in length are called microplastics. Primary sources of microplastics include microfibers from clothing, microbeads, and plastic pellets (known as nurdles). Secondary sources of microplastics come from larger plastic debris, like bottles and bags, that degrades into smaller bits over time.

Microplastic pollution can be found everywhere on earth, from the top of the tallest mountains to the bottom of the deepest oceans. Microplastics are in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.

According to research recently published in the journal Exposure & Health, humans ingest an average of five grams of plastic particles per week. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card. The plastic particles are trafficked in via food, such as seafood and salt in particular, as well as water. In fact, those who rely on plastic bottled water for their drinking needs ingest an additional 1,700 plastic particles each week.

Microplastics have also been detected in human blood for the first time. According to new research recently published in the journal Environment International, scientists detected microplastics in nearly 80% of the people they tested.

Half of the blood samples contained PET plastic, which is commonly used for drinking bottles. One third of the blood samples contained polystyrene plastic, which is often used for food packaging. One quarter of the blood samples contained polyethylene plastic, which is used to make things like shopping bags and detergent bottles.

With plastic production predicted to double by 2040, more research is urgently needed to understand how ingesting microplastics affects human health.

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Health risk due to micro- and nanoplastics in food

Microplastics found in human blood for first time

Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood

Photo, posted November 3, 2012, courtesy of Laura via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic Pollution And The Galapagos Islands | Earth Wise

July 12, 2021 By EarthWise 1 Comment

The proliferation of plastics remains one of the world’s most challenging environmental problems. Plastic pollution can be found in some of the most remote regions of the planet, including atop the world’s tallest mountains and in the deepest depths of the ocean. Even the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, are no exception.

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Exeter, the Galapagos Conservation Trust, and the Galapagos Science Center, plastic pollution has been found in seawater, on beaches, and inside marine animals at the Galapagos Islands.

In the most polluted hotspots, more than 400 plastic particles were found per square metre of beach. The researchers found that only 2% of macroplastic pollution – plastic fragments larger than five millimeters – was identified as coming from the Galapagos islands. All seven of the marine invertebrate species examined – 52% of individuals tested – were found to contain microplastics.

Significant accumulations of plastic were also found in key habitats, including rocky lava shores and mangroves. In fact, plastics were found in all marine habitats at the island of San Cristobal, which is where Charles Darwin first landed in Galapagos.

Most of the plastic pollution in the Galapagos appears to arrive via ocean currents. According to the research team, the highest levels of plastic pollution were found on east-facing beaches, which are exposed to pollution carried across the ocean on the Humboldt Current.

The pristine images of the Galapagos, a world-famous biodiversity haven, might give the impression that the region is protected from plastic pollution. But clearly that is not the case.

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Plastic in Galapagos seawater, beaches and animals

Photo, posted April 12, 2012, courtesy of Ben Tavener via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Removing Microplastics with Magnetism

October 7, 2019 By EarthWise 2 Comments

A new method for removing microplastics from the oceans has emerged from, of all things, a science fair project. An Irish 18-year-old named Fionn Ferreira developed his project for the annual Google Science Fair and it won the grand prize of $50,000 in educational funding.

The teenager was walking on the beach in his hometown and ran across a stone with oil and plastic stuck to it and became focused on the problem of microplastics increasingly entering the environment.

His idea was to make use of ferrofluids, which are nontoxic magnetic fluids made of oil and magnetite, which is an iron-based mineral. In the presence of water, the ferrofluids attract microplastics because both have similar properties.

Ferreira added oil and magnetite to water and mixed in a solution of microplastic particles. When the microplastics latched onto the ferrofluids, he dipped a magnet into the solution several times and the magnet removed both substances, leaving clear water. After almost 1000 tests, he demonstrated the method to be 88% effective in removing a variety of microplastics from water; a result even better than his original hypothesis of an 85% removal rate.

Ferreira is planning to further his education at a prestigious chemistry institute in the Netherlands starting in the fall.

According to a recent study, Americans eat, drink and breathe between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles each year and, if they drink bottle water only instead of tap water, an additional 90,000 particles. So, a science fair project that might provide a way to get rid of most these things is definitely prize-worthy.

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This Irish teenager may have a solution for a plastic-free ocean

Photo, posted April 25, 2016, courtesy of Boe Eide via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.