'Fish Mouth' Filter Removes 99% of Microplastics From Laundry Waste (sciencealert.com) 68
"The ancient evolution of fish mouths could help solve a modern source of plastic pollution," writes ScienceAlert.
"Inspired by these natural filtration systems, scientists in Germany have invented a way to remove 99 percent of plastic particles from water. It's based on how some fish filter-feed to eat microscopic prey." The research team has already filed a patent in Germany, and in the future, they hope their creation will help curb a ubiquitous form of plastic pollution that many are unaware of. Every time a load of laundry is done, millions of microplastics are washed from the fibers of our clothes into local waterways. By some estimates, up to 90 percent of plastic in 'sewage sludge' comes from washing machines. This material is then often used in agriculture as soil or fertilizer, possibly exposing those who eat the resulting crops to these pollutants...
Unlike other plastic filtration systems on the market, this one reduces clogging by 85 percent.
"Inspired by these natural filtration systems, scientists in Germany have invented a way to remove 99 percent of plastic particles from water. It's based on how some fish filter-feed to eat microscopic prey." The research team has already filed a patent in Germany, and in the future, they hope their creation will help curb a ubiquitous form of plastic pollution that many are unaware of. Every time a load of laundry is done, millions of microplastics are washed from the fibers of our clothes into local waterways. By some estimates, up to 90 percent of plastic in 'sewage sludge' comes from washing machines. This material is then often used in agriculture as soil or fertilizer, possibly exposing those who eat the resulting crops to these pollutants...
Unlike other plastic filtration systems on the market, this one reduces clogging by 85 percent.
What do they do with it? (Score:1)
So they collect the plastic waste and put it in a land fill where it slowly goes to the ocean??
What we really need is a better way to recycle it.
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Re: What do they do with it? (Score:3)
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Like I said we NEED a way to recycle it. That implies we can't recycle it yet.
Here is a tip. If you want to get rich, take something we can't do now, figure out a way to do it. It's called invention. Has some Science, a lot of Engineering, and some business acumen to keep the money.
My statement implied everything you said. If I am stupid, then you are as well.
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Or they can just burn it. Or use pyrolysis.
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Or they can just burn it. Or use pyrolysis.
They're going to smear Vtama on it?
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Recycling of plastics, well at least the viability of recycling most plastics back into useful stuff, is the biggest lie of the century.
Not entirely.
[register-walled, but free]
https://www.letsrecycle.com/pr... [letsrecycle.com]
At the moment, sorted natural HDPE fetches something like £550 per tonne, whereas the harder to recycle ones (PTT), you have to pay to dispose of. The prices do reflect how recyclable and how value the recycled product is, because the default is incineration at -£110 per tonne.
Re:What do they do with it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Germany has a practically null rate of waste landfill. See current data https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/a... [europa.eu]
It can't be recycled (Score:3)
We need to be getting away from plastics and disposable culture in general but that's not on the table because it's not profitable so instead we're going to solve the problem for the wealthiest out there and everyone else gets screwed.
If you've got the money you'll have filtered water and food that's been raised on filtered water and if you don't you get plastic in your balls and your bra
Listen right wing troll we all have (Score:1)
Plastic in our brain. Your brain does not need to be rewired. You need to stop filling it with plastic. It's been found that most people have several literal spoon's worth of micro plastic in their brains. We've got microplastic and our balls and our uteruses. It's fucking everywhere. You have several spoon's worth of plastic in your brain. And if you still don't want government action on microplastics, well that's probably because you have several spoon's worth of plastic in your brain.
Again, you've got s
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After chlorinating them, for example? Yep, great idea. We should probably also just dump nuclear waste into landfills, because that is "where they came from".
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You can't recycle most plastic. You definitely can't recycle a bunch of random different types of plastic that are fully contaminated and mixed together. Plastic recycling is a myth of the petrochemical industry to maintain a profitable stream for what would otherwise be a waste product of oil refining.
(Unlike plastic recycling, glass and metal recycling makes economic sense on it's own and thus didn't need add campaigns to back it. People did it simply because they could make money doing it.)
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They can make Lego bricks out of it.
Pro Tip: only use the artificial filters (Score:2)
'Fish Mouth' Filter Removes 99% of Microplastics From Laundry Waste
I tried putting fish in the washing machine, they got really dizzy - and barfy.
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My killer whale washing machine turned out to have a different issue - while I was trying to fill it, it took my arm off.
TFA says, synthetic micro fibers (Score:4, Insightful)
Every time a load of laundry is done, millions of microplastics are washed from the fibers of our clothes into local waterways.
All my clothes are 100% cotton.
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Every time a load of laundry is done, millions of microplastics are washed from the fibers of our clothes into local waterways.
All my clothes are 100% cotton.
I prefer 100% cotton but a lot of things are like 90-95% cotton with some rayon or polyester thrown in for whatever reason.
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60-64% of global fiber production being synthetic
AId that for you. Do we have a better verb for that by now?
Re:TFA says, synthetic micro fibers (Score:4, Informative)
No love for wool? Silk? Other natural fibers like Hemp?
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No love for wool? Silk? Other natural fibers like Hemp?
Wool and silk require special detergent to clean. For example, you can't use something which has the protease enzyme because it will break down the animal fiber.
As for hemp, we already use bamboo and modal in some clothes. These also require a slightly different detergent formulation.
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Woolite isnt that special.
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Re: TFA says, synthetic micro fibers (Score:2)
With captured micro-plastics from everyday life.
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All my clothes are 100% cotton.
How about other things you (hopefully) wash? Consider you sheets and towels. Naturally, they didn't make this for you, they made it for everyone.
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Last I checked, it was a crime in Slashdot's home country to make children's sleepwear out of cotton or other flammable fabrics.
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Your swimming trunks are cotton? You play sport in cotton? You wear cotton snow protection gear? Man that all sounds incredibly unpleasant.
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Great news for septic systems (Score:3, Informative)
This is fantastic news for septic systems. The problem with this type of waste is the plastic particles clog the microscopic pores in septic field pipes, leading to back ups. Before artificial fabrics, a septic field could last fifty years. Now many people have to dig it up and replace it every five, or else just accept the need to have their septic tank pumped every five years.
Putting a trap on the laundry hose helps, but is still imperfect. After my last field replacement, I investigated a lot of filters and use the best I can get. So far my last septic field has lasted fifteen years. But a tree-root-caused breech I had to repair where part of it was dug up shows it's only operating at about 50% throughput. So any improvement is a very good thing.
A better solution might be to regulate that all fabric needs to be made of bio-degradable material. And by that I don't mean these types of materials that are marketed as degradable but which need strange and unusual conditions and expensive composting facilities to make them actually do it. We don't have a lot of these yet, but a hard deadline might make that more viable.
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or else just accept the need to have their septic tank pumped every five years
Where my parents live, that is exactly what the township requires for homes built decades ago. When their house was built there was no sewage system and trying to put one in now is highly cost porhibited. The solution was a five year pump out.
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A better solution might be to regulate that all fabric needs to be made of bio-degradable material.
Choice of materials are not just cheapness but are often based on the practical benefits of certain fibres.
Try going swimming in cotton trunks and you'll very quickly reaslise why swimwear is made from synthetics.
Or maybe you want UPF rated clothing, for which your choice is a tightly woven mix of polyester and nylon or a rather nasty cocktail of chemicals applied to cotton/wool to help UV absorption.
Maybe we should all give up living in snowy areas or rainy areas, because god knows natural fibres really su
How about portable and home filters (Score:2)
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Isinglass (Score:3)
Isinglass has been used for a very long time in brewing for filtration. It's the reason many filtered beers weren't vegetarian or vegan (e.g. Guinness).
Isinglass comes from the swim bladders of fish, typically sturgeon.
It only in fairly-recent times that artificially made filters have finally caught up -- Guinness only switched from isinglass in 2017!
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We're not killing the fish exclusively for their swim bladder though, we're eating the rest of it.
It would be like how many consider cow leather for clothing more acceptable than mink fur pelts. We're at least eating the rest of the cow, using the leather for clothing is just maximizing use.
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Mink meat is really gamey. While it is, strictly speaking, edible, I can't see it being that popular even in Russia.
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maybe it makes it into animal feed?
you can only hope; i would assume if a company can make simple additional revenue from what would otherwise be waste, they will.
I must be being dumb (Score:2)
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It is more complicated than that. It looks to work closer to a commercial desalination plant, in that the filter does have a way to flush solids out without manual cleaning or replacement.
Think like a baleen whale. Solids end up going down the throat, while filtered water is distributed out the side.
Re: I must be being dumb (Score:2)
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Baleen whales' "filters" do require manual cleaning, food accumulates on them and is scraped clean by their tongue. This kind of filter really is more of a fish thing, from anchovies to whale sharks.
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It shaped like an old school coffee filter. Ignoring the fish side of things is this really any more efficient than filters we have available previously?
No it's not shaped like an old school coffee filter. It has a very specific structure with specific angles, specific supports, specific flow patterns and a self cleaning mechanism.
Filtering efficiency varies greatly even for something as simple as the angle at which liquid hits a surface. The filter material they are using isn't special here, the entire study is all about angles and how flow contacts the filtering elements. Yes it is more efficient in these applications, that's right there in the paper.
So why file a patent? (Score:2)
The research team has already filed a patent in Germany, and in the future, they hope their creation will help curb a ubiquitous form of plastic pollution...
Only one of those things can be true. If they hope it will benefit society they would not file a patent. Clearly the motive is making buttloads of Euros.
Because someone else will if you don't. (Score:2)
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Why not both? Cut down on plastic pollution and make a bunch of euros? This research work isn't free, after all.
Besides, patenting is a way to keep control, prevent somebody else from parenting, gain name recognition, etc... free and low cost licensing is a thing.
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What if the scientists are satisfied with their wages and are mostly looking to save the environment, not get rich?
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Only one of those things can be true. If they hope it will benefit society they would not file a patent. Clearly the motive is making buttloads of Euros.
Well, let's face it - scientists are still people, and people like to be popular and looked well upon. Others don't take a positive view of someone who flat-out states "my goal is to make a buttload of money".
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Or they filed with the goal of licensing its use for free. That's one way of keeping some other party from getting to the patent office and tying the technology up.
"Prior art" just doesn't work, as many patent examiners wouldn't recognize a mousetrap if they got their dick caught in one.
Fish mouth on photos-filter please. (Score:1)
I'm more interested in a filter that removes fish mouths from photos.
I have my own well/septic tank..... (Score:2)
so... (Score:2)
So, let me see if I understand this new technology... Oh, ok, I see... they filter the water.