Today’s filtration technologies do a wonderful job of producing potable water, but the spread of plastic waste throughout the environment means there are new threats to contend with. A new study has investigated the performance of different techniques when it comes to removing nanoplastics from water, and shown that biologically active systems known as slow sand filters can remove the tiny particles with 99.9 percent efficacy.
As the even smaller sibling of already troubling microplastics, nanoparticles have come into focus as a big problem as scientists deepen our understanding of plastic pollution. Where microplastics that measure less than 5 mm (0.2 in) are notoriously difficult to track and threaten the livelihood of organisms such as marine life, it is becoming clear that nanoplastics might pose their own unique set of problems.
Dispatches From The Front 