Scientists have developed synthetic sponges capable of extracting microplastics and nanoplastics from contaminated water.
Microplastics aren’t the only contaminants that could be whisked away with sponges. A team of researchers in Vietnam recently showed how sponges made from loofah plants are also extraordinarily effective at extracting oil from water., humans have used dried natural sponges to clean up, to paint, and as vessels to consume fluids like water or honey; we’ve even used them . Whether synthetic or natural, sponges are great at ensnaring tiny particles in their many pores.
The sponges, if ever produced at an industrial scale, Wang says, could be used in wastewater treatment plants to filter microplastics out of the water or in food production facilities to decontaminate water. There are hiccups to the sponge’s potential adoption, though. One, says Adlhart, is that starch and gelatin are important to the food industry, meaning that there could be competition for the key ingredients in the future. However, similar sponges can be made with different materials. The version that uses chitosan—a sugar derived from the shells of crustaceans—to provide the sponge’s structure. Chitosan isn’t widely used commercially, says Adlhart, so it wouldn’t face the same competition.
Anett Georgi, a chemist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany who wasn’t involved in the research, says that when it comes to cleaning up microplastic pollution in the ocean, the key is to stem the flow. We should start, she says, by targeting wastewater treatment plants that don’t yet employ technologies that already exist—such as
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