By now, we've all seen the shameful plastic trash floats in the oceans, but it's not just bags and bottles that are causing damage to animals, plant life, and eventually humans, it's the microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic, less than 5 millimeters, that are not as visible to the naked eye, but are surprisingly common in oceans.
Microplastics find their way into our oceans through the shedding of synthetic fibers that wash off clothes in the laundry and tiny plastic fragments that are produced in the environment by different processes. Microplastics make their way into our lymphatic systems causing systemic exposure and perhaps affecting human health. Microplastics can also act as sponges, gathering up harmful things in the environment that we don't want ending up in ocean lifeforms, including seafood and ultimately consumed by humans. Among the harmful things absorbed by these microplastic sponges are high concentrations of dangerous chemicals, pathogenic bacteria and even viruses. When our wastewater treatment plants were designed, over 100 years ago in some cases, plastics simply didn't exist in the variety or quantity that they do today. Most are ineffective at filtering out microplastics.
Here's where nature's perfect filtering machine comes in, UCONN Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Baikun Li and a group of colleagues are exploring how bi-valves, such as oysters, clams and zebra mussels, along with plastic-hungry bacteria, can clean the seas of microplastics. These shellfish may do the dirty work because they filter water very efficiently, capturing on their gills particles smaller than 4 micrometers in size. Their filter (gills) is self cleaning and they often filter for 12 or more hours per day.
If the 4 year study is successful, new innovative microplastic treatment technology could be developed.
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