[HN Gopher] UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cen...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of
       microplastics in water
        
       Author : Brajeshwar
       Score  : 150 points
       Date   : 2023-08-25 16:42 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.ubc.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.ubc.ca)
        
       | mrweiner wrote:
       | Anybody want to drop in and burst my bubble? This sounds very
       | promising!
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | How does it perform in the real world, where water is
         | contaminated with far more than microplastic - is this filter
         | selective for plastic or will it get gummed up by literally
         | anything?
         | 
         | Is the solution scalable? What does it cost?
        
           | EGreg wrote:
           | Hmm, well done sir
           | 
           | That bubble never had a chance!
           | 
           | There have been similar issues with this promising approach:
           | https://www.freethink.com/environment/plastic-eating-
           | bacteri...
           | 
           | Personally I often wonder why things like the seaweed for
           | cows that reduces methane emissions by 99% is not everywhere
           | by now, and we are resorting to masks to trap gases from
           | their breathing and farts.
        
           | ComputerGuru wrote:
           | I don't know how much you know about water filtration plants,
           | but in the real world everything is a series of filters, each
           | more fine-grained than the one before it. You would never use
           | this on unfiltered ocean or waste water - it would be yet-
           | another-stage in the filtration pipeline, after many of the
           | others and possibly before a few more.
        
         | im3w1l wrote:
         | Sure. This will be a possible add on to home water filtering
         | solutions for paranoid stay at home moms but will not be used
         | at a large scale. Lakes and seas will get filled with more and
         | more microplastics which will enter the foodchain from there.
        
         | baron816 wrote:
         | Even if this doesn't go anywhere (due to economics or funding
         | or red tape or whatever), the best parts of this is we know
         | people are actually working to resolve this issue and are
         | making progress.
        
         | orblivion wrote:
         | Sure, it works in vitro. Call me when it's in vivo!
        
       | Exuma wrote:
       | I was wondering this literally yesterday... are there any current
       | methods for filtering out microplastics? Currently I just have a
       | filter within my fridge for drinking water... but I take it that
       | doesnt do much
        
         | gpt5 wrote:
         | The simple carbon filter in your fridge should suffice. Sub
         | micron microplastic (nanoplastics) have not been detected yet,
         | and their sustained existence remains speculative.
         | 
         | If you are still worried, just install a reverse osmosis
         | system. It also has the benefit of filtering away sub-nanometer
         | particles that are actually proven to have negative health
         | effects (such as heavy metals and bacteria).
        
           | oever wrote:
           | When microplastics break down they get smaller and become
           | nanoplastics.
           | 
           | Nanoplastics have been detected.
           | 
           | Here is a paper that shows how to measure nanoplastics.
           | Dilute solutions with polystyrene particles from 400nm down
           | to 40nm were prepared and measured.
           | 
           | Demineralized water was put in a polystyrene cup.
           | Microplastics were removed and the remaining nanoplastics
           | were measured. A concentration of ~10^12 particles/l was
           | found.
           | 
           | https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/en/d0en0.
           | ..
        
             | gpt5 wrote:
             | They've been detected in a synthetic lab condition, but not
             | in the wild.
        
               | onion2k wrote:
               | It'd be a bit weird if they _weren 't_ in the wild
               | though, wouldn't it?
        
               | oever wrote:
               | In the paper, the nanoplastics were measured in
               | demineralized water that had been sitting in a regular
               | disposable polystyrene cup (like the ones that people
               | drink coffee from) for five minutes.
               | 
               | So the measurement reflects the nanoplastics that one
               | ingests when drinking a cup of coffee from a polystyrene
               | cup.
               | 
               | Because nanoplastics sizes are of the order of the
               | wavelength of visible light, the particles were measured
               | with fluorescence microscopy.
               | 
               | Nanoplastics were also found in high concentrations in
               | store bought plastic bottles of mineral water as well as
               | in water that had been sitting in baby bottles.
        
         | Modified3019 wrote:
         | One thing to be aware of, is some filters system have been
         | found to introduce microplastics. I think it's primarily the
         | container/piping that does this, but it's been a long while
         | since I've looked at things. It's not unreasonable to consider
         | the filter housing also as a source.
        
         | soligern wrote:
         | I have a reverse osmosis system for my well water that filters
         | out both PFAS and micro plastics.
        
         | canadianfella wrote:
         | [dead]
        
       | hosh wrote:
       | There is a researcher named John Todd whose work has been able to
       | break down DDT in a matter of weeks.
       | 
       | In this video, he gives a talk about some various projects. In
       | the first one, he uses these methods to clean up a site
       | contaminated with the top 15 pollutants (at least at the time).
       | Heavy metal were sequestered by algea; 14 of the 15 toxins were
       | below detectable levels, and the 15th was reduced by 99.999%;
       | solids were eaten by armored carp. The output is drinking
       | standard water, and it takes 10 days for the contaminated water
       | to flow through the system.
       | 
       | The key design principle is putting many species across all five
       | kingdoms, from different biomes, and they start self-organizing
       | around the pollutants. The resulting communities break down the
       | pollutant, but are all new.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/SeQotnmhO5I
       | 
       | In a different interview, he talks about microplastics -- and
       | while he has not worked on it, he believes a solution can be
       | found in incorporating all five kingdoms. So not just
       | sequestering them, but breaking them down so they can be useful
       | in the ecosystem again.
        
         | jdeibele wrote:
         | I've never heard of armored carp. Googling for it leads to info
         | on Breath of the Wild or Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
         | 
         | Finally, 35 or 45 entries down I found a reference to an
         | armored catfish. https://a-z-animals.com/animals/armored-
         | catfish/pictures/ I hadn't heard of that, either, but I wonder
         | if that's what you mean.
        
           | hosh wrote:
           | I have no idea. It was mentioned in the video I linked.
        
           | oever wrote:
           | The video referenced armored _catfish_. There are multiple
           | species known as armored catfish.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_catfish
        
         | bertil wrote:
         | I should probably watch the video, but does he mention anything
         | about dioxin? This has been the main source of pain for my
         | father and his colleagues building sea food farms.
        
           | hosh wrote:
           | He didn't talk about any specific toxin by name. It is only a
           | 24 min talk.
           | 
           | It can be tested though through this system though. The last
           | project had not been deployed at the time of this video
           | (2016), but it was a proposal for a design for marinas. Here,
           | he and his colleagues are thinking of smaller, distributed
           | system (miniaturized eco-machines deployed at each dock). He
           | has also experimented with floating systems in rivers, and
           | the Four Season resort system deployed in Hawaii works to
           | cleanup saltwater.
           | 
           | With farms -- like any farm, on land or on sea -- looking at
           | it as an ecosystem which yields something useful as a
           | byproduct (rather than a system that maximizes extraction)
           | tends to result in a system that is more resilient. That is,
           | the commercial product is a useful byproduct of restoring the
           | ecosystem. Todd's eco-machine adds additional ecosystems to
           | assist the ecosystem you are trying to restore.
        
         | orangepurple wrote:
         | That video changed my life
        
           | hosh wrote:
           | If you ever feel comfortable sharing that story, I'm
           | interested in hearing it.
           | 
           | For me, I came across John Todd's work from the podcast,
           | Permaculture for the Future. It was part of a much larger
           | toolkit and solutions we already have for healing our land
           | and our home. Since deep diving into all of that, I don't
           | feel like I am drowning in what looks like the slow
           | destruction of Earth, even as we are seeing more and more
           | extreme weather events.
        
         | esafak wrote:
         | Looks like an unsung hero:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Todd_(Canadian_biologist)
         | 
         | Are his books good? If so I'll order a copy of _Healing Earth_
         | for the library.
        
           | hosh wrote:
           | One of the books I tried reading, reads like something non-
           | scientific with a liberal sprinkling of mysticism. I
           | personally don't mind that, but it overshadows the science
           | for people coming in from that way. It's why I looked for
           | talks that sounds more structured and coming from scientific
           | principles.
           | 
           | This is a different video. If you know what it is going on,
           | it's interesting. It makes for a poor introduction to his
           | work, let alone the significance:
           | https://youtu.be/8_bxxUub9HU
           | 
           | Tldr: branding sucks, and it's a shame more people don't know
           | what he and his colleagues have been up to.
        
       | changoplatanero wrote:
       | I guess it's not possible to design a tea bag that's not made out
       | of plastic but that can also survive the boiling hot
       | temperatures?
        
         | joker_minmax wrote:
         | Just transfer your tea out of the plastic tea sachets into a
         | cotton filter. Coffee filter or they make small ones for loose
         | leaf tea.
        
         | endisneigh wrote:
         | believe it or not but it's OK to consume the tea leaves and
         | drink slightly bitter tea ;). if you accept this the solution
         | is just not to have tea bags at all. brew with the leaves and
         | drink immediately, and if you forget, enjoy your bitterer tea!
        
           | rockinghigh wrote:
           | You can also use a stainless steel infuser.
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | I eat kiwi skins too. The amount of pesticides used to grow
           | them though means it's probably not the best idea
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | wow, my mouth just reacted in a not pleasant way just from
             | reading that.
        
             | ljf wrote:
             | I LOVE kiwi with the skin on. I rub the fruit against my
             | jeans or a tea towel first, then just eat like a pear.
             | Really adds to the whole flavour (like how eating a pealed
             | apple is nice, but a whole apple can be better.
        
           | squeaky-clean wrote:
           | You can also get a re-usable metal mesh infuser.
        
         | forgotmypw17 wrote:
         | It's definitely possible, many tea bags do not contain
         | plastics, and are instead made of cotton, hemp, or other non-
         | hazardous materials.
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | Most tea bags are made of Manila Hemp (a banana plant). Many
           | have a heat-sealable thermoplastic such as PVC or
           | polypropylene on the inner tea bag surface as well, that you
           | never feel or hear about
        
             | forgotmypw17 wrote:
             | There are some survey reports on this out there that I have
             | seen. It is common for more expensive teas, and ones
             | labeled "organic" to be plant fibers only, but there are
             | exceptions. If you want to figure it out on your own, you
             | can take an empty teabag, briefly set it on fire and blow
             | it out, then smell the smoke. Personally, I usually pour
             | the contents into my cup or tea pot and throw out the
             | teabag.
             | 
             | https://www.google.com/search?q=which+tea+bags+contain+plas
             | t...
        
         | adgjlsfhk1 wrote:
         | what you want here is loose leaf tea
        
         | morsch wrote:
         | Plastic tea bags are rare in Germany, although they are getting
         | more popular. Tea bags are usually paper, apparently made from
         | this plant: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abac%C3%A1
        
           | nom wrote:
           | Oh interesting, didn't know that! Interesting fiber. I always
           | wondered why tee bags are so robust when wet. They feel so
           | different too.
           | 
           | Also TIL: Manila hemp.. Manila envelope.. jupp, they were
           | also made from that fiber up until some time ago.
        
         | ComputerGuru wrote:
         | No, that's very possible. The problem is our obsession with
         | making everything single-serve and disposable. I think this is
         | what you are looking for:
         | 
         | https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stainless+steel+tea+infuser+ball
        
           | wilg wrote:
           | It's an obsession with convenience, which doesn't have to
           | mean single-serve or disposable. Loose leaf tea is slightly
           | less convenient. It's very hard to argue with people to give
           | up convenience, but if you can figure out how to make loose-
           | leaf tea easier than bags I think people will do it.
           | 
           | Also, there are some cost and shelf life concerns:
           | https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/a-steep-dilemma-tea-
           | ba...
           | 
           | Also, apparently here's some stats about loose-leaf vs bagged
           | tea: https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1093592/preference-
           | for-te...
        
           | silisili wrote:
           | You can even get them built in to a nice little pot. I had
           | this one for a while
           | https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LZSA84J
        
         | kube-system wrote:
         | I rarely see plastic tea bags here in the US (outside of
         | Starbucks). Most use filter paper.
        
           | HyprMusic wrote:
           | It's the same in the UK but those filter paper looking ones
           | actually used to contain small amounts of plastic.
           | 
           | I believe most have transitioned away now... or, at least,
           | the only brand that matters if you're British has
           | transitioned[0]
           | 
           | [0] https://www.yorkshiretea.co.uk/brew-news/plastic-in-tea-
           | bags...
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | eric-hu wrote:
         | A Gaiwan is one traditional Chinese way of making tea, but
         | those words are literally "covered bowl". If you don't want to
         | buy one, you could makeshift your own: brew loose leaf tea in a
         | cup or bowl and pour it into your drinking cup using a small
         | plate.
        
         | permo-w wrote:
         | are tea bags even necessary? people managed drinking tea before
         | plastic was invented
        
           | mrob wrote:
           | Environmental cost of using and washing a teapot is likely
           | higher than that of using a teabag and brewing directly in
           | the cup.
        
             | permo-w wrote:
             | that seems extremely unlikely
        
               | mrob wrote:
               | I just weighed an empty teabag: 0.19g. I think it's
               | highly likely that less than a gram of mass-produced
               | paper has lower environmental cost than is needed to
               | clean a whole teapot. You need hot water, and detergent,
               | and the teapots are cleaned individually, so you have the
               | overhead of heating intermittently used pipes etc.
               | Teabags are a mature technology where production
               | efficiency is highly optimized.
        
               | permo-w wrote:
               | you need hot water or detergent, not both, and as another
               | commenter mentioned, you don't need to wash the pot
               | anyway. you're sterilising the thing every time you use
               | it
               | 
               | teabags may well be a mature optimised technology, but
               | they're releasing microplastics and that's worse than
               | using 0.000% more energy, if you even are, which I doubt,
               | when you factor in the additional weight required for
               | transporting the bags, the transport of the wood for the
               | paper, etc etc etc.
               | 
               | also, highly optimised does not mean highly optimised for
               | the environment. where in Europe and parts of the America
               | your energy supply may well be up to 40 or 50% renewables
               | these days, or higher, you can be sure it isn't in the
               | developing country your teabag was manufactured in. plus
               | fumes, plus whatever land they stripped to plant the
               | trees for the paper, if they're not cutting down old
               | growth in the first place
        
               | tehjoker wrote:
               | why do you need hot water?
        
               | mrob wrote:
               | Because it's far more effective at cleaning than cold
               | water.
        
               | morsch wrote:
               | I think it's a rounding error either way, but our pot for
               | black tea only gets rinsed (usually cold), and our pot
               | for herbal teas occasionally gets put inside the
               | dishwasher. Not sure why you think teapots need to be
               | washed individually.
               | 
               | I assume the environmental cost is dominated by other
               | factors that apply in both cases: growing the plant,
               | transporting the product, heating water to boiling
               | temperatures.
        
             | ovalite wrote:
             | Metal tea balls are also available to brew tea.
        
             | speed_spread wrote:
             | If you're washing your teapot, you're doing it wrong. A
             | light rinse is enough. Over time a patina will build up on
             | the inner walls of the pot, some say this makes the tea
             | better.
        
               | prophesi wrote:
               | I haven't reached this level yet, but I know people that
               | have yixing clay teapots that are dedicated exclusively
               | to a certain type of tea. The brew they get from their
               | aged pu'erh tea gets better over time in that teapot with
               | use.
        
           | erikcw wrote:
           | Perhaps as a profit center to the tea industry. Most tea bags
           | contain the grades of tea that can't be sold in the more
           | expensive loose leaf form. Basically leaf fragments and dust.
           | That material would otherwise be a waste product.
        
         | Etheryte wrote:
         | Tea bags used to be made of fabrics such as cotton, silk, etc,
         | it's not like we don't know how to make them without plastic.
        
           | guyzero wrote:
           | They're still frequently made out of paper.
        
         | hedora wrote:
         | On a related note, today's paper straws are apparently covered
         | in PFAS, even though paper straws existed way before plastic
         | was commonly used.
         | 
         | I assume you could just coat the straw in food grade wax, but
         | for some reason that's not commonly done.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | I can only imagine food grade wax being way more expensive
           | than PFAS type chemicals. Probably easier to apply as well.
           | Just thinking of all the "reasons" companies would state as
           | to why they justify poisoning us all.
        
             | jacquesm wrote:
             | PFAS will potentially put 3M out of business just like
             | talcum powder did to J&J.
        
               | WJW wrote:
               | J&J still exists and will continue to exist though? They
               | settled for some 9 billion, which is a lot but not enough
               | to sink a company with a ~400 billion market cap.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | 400 billion market cap companies do not usually have 400
               | billion in liquidity laying around. And after the first
               | bankruptcy there may now well be a second:
               | 
               | https://www.reuters.com/legal/jj-effort-resolve-talc-
               | lawsuit...
        
               | WJW wrote:
               | As I understand it that link describes a plan to use the
               | bankruptcy of a _subsidiary_ (NOT the main company) as a
               | way to resolve the court cases in one go. The subsidiary
               | is funded with enough money to pay the expected
               | settlements (with the parent company guaranteeing any
               | shortfalls) and bankruptcy is used here as a legal tool
               | rather than a  "we are out of money" point. Matt Levine
               | had a great section about this in his newsletter but I
               | cannot find an un-paywalled link to that atm. It's the
               | one from Jan 31 if you are subscribed.
               | 
               | According to their latest annual report
               | (https://www.investor.jnj.com/asm/2022-annual-report,
               | page 45), they had some 14.4 billion in "cash and cash
               | equivalents" at the start of this year. Their net debt
               | position was 16.1 billion on Jan 1 2023 (page 46 of the
               | same report), up from 2.1 billion the year before due to
               | an acquisition so there is likely quite some room to take
               | on additional debt. Total net earnings for 2022 were just
               | below 18 billion. Paying a 9 billion USD settlement will
               | be painful for sure, but even double that would be just a
               | single years' worth of profit. J&J is extremely likely to
               | survive this problem IMO.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | That subsidiary is just a legal trick. And this is
               | exactly what J&J want you to believe.
               | 
               | https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/10/20/the-texas-two-
               | step-a...
        
           | bertil wrote:
           | My understanding is that all the covers of fast food (fries
           | holder, hamburger wrapper, inside of paper soda cup) are also
           | covered in PFAS -- so far disposable coffee cups. Anything
           | "paper" that is in contact with food, really.
           | 
           | Except for the traditional British fish-and-chips newspaper,
           | but that one should have traditional lead-based ink for
           | flavour.
        
         | guyzero wrote:
         | Cheaper tea bags are made out of paper and they work just fine.
         | Tetley, for instance.
        
           | HyprMusic wrote:
           | Sadly they still contain plastic to seal them:
           | 
           | "We've worked hard to ensure that our tea bags are 99% bio
           | degradable. However, as a result of the manufacturing
           | process, Tetley tea bags do contain a very small amount of
           | plastic to ensure the bags remain closed for you to enjoy
           | your cup of tea."
           | 
           | https://www.tetley.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions
        
             | ptx wrote:
             | I just had a look at two of my non-Tetley teabags. They
             | appear to be stitched closed with the end of the string.
             | Why does it need plastic?
             | 
             | Edit: The quote from the FAQ mentions the bags being
             | biodegradable, and this page [1] about their "new
             | biodegradable bags" shows a photo of bags without strings.
             | So maybe it's just these stringless (and presumably cheaper
             | to manufacture?) bags that contain plastic?
             | 
             | The Twinings FAQ [2] doesn't mention plastic: "Our teabags
             | are biodegradable, plant-based teabags and will break down
             | within 6 months if placed into a local authority compost
             | caddy, though it may not compost as quickly if left in
             | garden compost (as typically these are not sufficiently
             | hot)."
             | 
             | [1] https://www.tetley.co.uk/sustainability/product-and-
             | packagin...
             | 
             | [2] https://twinings.co.uk/pages/faqs
        
         | ricardobeat wrote:
         | What? Tea bags were made of cotton and paper decades before
         | plastic came about. Plastic was likely introduced to lower
         | costs and extend shelf life.
        
       | joker_minmax wrote:
       | I feel like we keep hearing about technologies like this that are
       | going to change the world but none of them ever actually get
       | implemented... just me?
        
         | interroboink wrote:
         | Not just you. Just sensationalist headlines (:
         | 
         | See also the dramatic groundbreaking new battery technologies
         | that have keep getting reported for the last 30+ years. [1]
         | 
         | Not only is there a long lead time between proof-of-concept and
         | scalable production even in the best case, but frequently these
         | nascent technologies have serious drawbacks that aren't
         | mentioned in the article.
         | 
         | [1] "Revolutionary battery checklist":
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28025930
         | 
         | also: https://xkcd.com/882/ and https://www.smbc-
         | comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1623
        
         | petre wrote:
         | If it's just tech, it's always too expensive, it has to be
         | bacteria or alage or some other bio stuff that multiplies by
         | itself to be useful.
        
         | justrealist wrote:
         | I mean, this is like the moon landing -- private companies can
         | build the technology, but it's not going to get deployed at
         | scale unless a government sponsors it, because there's not a
         | clear path to profit.
         | 
         | And like, is congress going to spend $10B deploying this at
         | scale? That would be great, but they can't even pass a budget.
        
         | 0xcde4c3db wrote:
         | As with just about everything else, it's a whole lot easier to
         | build a proof-of-concept prototype than it is to solve the
         | problem at scale. New technologies often have either inherent
         | limitations that make it infeasible for them to scale up (e.g.
         | use of fragile or hard-to-manufacture materials, square-cube
         | issues, outsized cleaning/maintenance requirements) or would
         | simply have a staggering cost at any scale that makes a
         | practical difference.
        
         | hosh wrote:
         | There are already stuff like this that has been deployed - John
         | Todd's Eco-Machines: https://youtu.be/SeQotnmhO5I
         | 
         | These projects have not made it to the media, but they are
         | there. We're talking about EPA-funded works, and other sites
         | around the world.
         | 
         | The guy designing and deploying says it is simple enough that
         | students can construct a small scale version.
        
         | feedsmgmt wrote:
         | "business people" will pretty much only allocate resources to
         | endeavors that are financially profitable for themselves and
         | these same people quite often provide financial incentives to
         | politicians who promise to advocate for policies that result in
         | additional profitability for the business people regardless of
         | the environmental or social consequences. Those elected
         | politicians need to be replaced and the capacity for the
         | "business people" to influence elected officials with financial
         | contributions should be limited and involve mandatory
         | transparency. No more unlimited dark money pools.
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | the above solution is silly expensive.
           | 
           | Expensive doesn't mean that somebody is greedy, it means that
           | it takes a lot of effort from a lot of people - effort that
           | could probably be spent more effectively.
        
             | loa_in_ wrote:
             | Equating expensive with valuable, while very much in line
             | with rules coming from Economics 101, is very questionable
             | in real life in my experience.
        
       | welder wrote:
       | Did anyone else misread the title? "USB-C [electrical] device
       | uses wood dust to trap [...] [sic]"
       | 
       | IMO the title could do without "UBC".
        
         | post-it wrote:
         | Granted, it's a UBC promo piece.
        
       | swsdsailor wrote:
       | I wonder if we could build a huge floating "island of plants" in
       | the great pacific garbage patch?
        
         | bell-cot wrote:
         | This method is for microplastics. The garbage patch is not
         | _micro_ plastics.
        
           | __float wrote:
           | I thought most "garbage patches" in the ocean _were_ actually
           | made up mostly of microplastics.
           | 
           | I can't find a _great_ source for this now, but a quick
           | Google gave
           | https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-
           | paci... which says:
           | 
           | > Even satellite imagery doesn't show a giant patch of
           | garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
           | can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup
           | is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and
           | shoes.
        
           | sva_ wrote:
           | Probably slowly breaking down into microplastics though
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | "For many people, the idea of a 'garbage patch' conjures up
           | images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In
           | reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny
           | bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics can't
           | always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery
           | doesn't show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of
           | the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water
           | look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger
           | items, such as fishing gear and shoes.
           | 
           | "The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may
           | also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and
           | ecologists recently discovered that about 70 percent of
           | marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean"
           | (https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-
           | paci...)
        
             | sva_ wrote:
             | You should link the source if you're quoting stuff. (Posted
             | below:
             | https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-
             | paci...)
        
               | soperj wrote:
               | They probably didn't know that ChatGTP was just taking
               | stuff wholesale from nationalgeographic.
        
             | jjulius wrote:
             | This entire comment, FYI, is copy-pasted from this[0].
             | 
             | [0]https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-
             | paci...
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | soperj wrote:
       | I like how we all now know that microplastics and PFAS seriously
       | contaminate our water sources, but there's no real thought about
       | things like nanotubes doing the same thing. Wonder what consuming
       | carbon nanotubes might do to us.
        
         | userbinator wrote:
         | Probably nothing, just like microplastics.
        
         | nicup12345689 wrote:
         | Not the same but some people have experimented with C60
         | spheres. Apparently it is either very good or it increases ROS
         | reactive oxygen species depending on who you ask and how it is
         | prepared
        
         | hosh wrote:
         | Unless there is something special about carbon chains,
         | ingesting them is probably like ingesting activated carbon.
         | Ingested activated carbon is part of a treatment for poison.
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon
         | 
         | Inhaling it though, is a really bad idea.
        
           | sp332 wrote:
           | Well yeah it's a whole different shape (very pointy and can
           | penetrate or shred cell membranes), and the electrical
           | properties of graphene can be pretty weird.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | kthejoker2 wrote:
       | Can we not make it a requirement for all of these solutions to
       | provide a small infobox about how much the prototype costs, how
       | long it took to build, and some sort of scalability / feasibility
       | index?
       | 
       | Anything can work at a small enough scale with enough budget and
       | time.
        
       | userbinator wrote:
       | Is this going to be a useful method of recycling?
        
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