Fish-Inspired Filter That Removes over 99% of Microplastics | Hacker News Reader

Fish-Inspired Filter That Removes over 99% of Microplastics

scitechdaily.com

11 pointsGaishan7 comments

Just switch to wool and cotton. Plastic clothes make you sweat. Merino wool doesn’t even need washing all that often.

This is the way.

I have been selling my extremely high quality plastic clothing (Veillance made in Canada items and Canada Goose) and been replacing them with wool and cotton.

Ventille cotton can keep you dry without plastic. Developed in WW2 by the UK for hoses and buckets when rubber was in short supply. Wanted cotton is another option but doesn’t breathe.

Mover - a Swiss brand - have an entire range of plastic free clothes of high quality.

Tons of other options but the above are easy substitutes at the high end.

Bonus, unlike even the best plastics these age beautifully and there are no taped seams to degrade.

> A single washing machine in a household of four can release as much as 500 grams of microplastics each year, most of it generated as fabrics wear down during washing. As a result, washing machines rank among the most significant contributors of these particles.

I'm surprised it's this little (half a kilo in an entire year). I'd be curious to know where it ranks, since the language is a little sensational and not especially accurate. For example, it would be true if on a global scale, it were the 6th leading contributor, but numbers 1-5 were each 10x as much.

500g is like 3 T-shirts worth even if your clothing is 100% synthetic you aren’t loosing 3-4 shirts worth of fabric in washing a year.

It wouldn’t surprise me if a large part of that 500g are due to the use of detergent pods.

If anything that 500g is an astronomically high number even for a family of 4.

It's all quite disturbing once you look beyond the headlines. The more awareness, the better.

https://www.firstsentier-mufg-sustainability.com/insight/sou...

> Early tests show that the patent-pending filter can remove more than 99 percent of plastic fibers from washing machine wastewater.

Could someone in academia educate me on the need to patent inventions like this ? is it just part of the university funding machine ? or would the researchers be using this as a defensive measure ?

Many professors and universities keep an open eye to the possibility of turning their academic research into profitable ventures. Research grants as a vector to entrepeneurial companies are common.

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