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The solution proposed uses the fact that oil attracts plastics in water: vegetable oil is mixed with iron oxide to create a ferroliquid, which then attracts pla
by Jun8 5y ago
The solution proposed uses the fact that oil attracts plastics in water: vegetable oil is mixed with iron oxide to create a ferroliquid, which then attracts plastics and is easy to remove using magnets.
Why does oil attract plastics, though? Because both are non polar. Here's a good r/askscience answer: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/meqh0/why_is_oilgrease_more_difficult_to_wash_from/ https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/meqh0/why_is_oi...
- chana_masala 5y agoI wonder then what the other effects of adding oil to the ocean would be. Is there a way to do it that still retains the overall positive effect of removing the plastics?
- lend000 5y agoIt's an innovative approach, albeit only a partial solution. Unfortunately, not all plastics are polar [0]. And the micro-plastic pollution I see most and feel like I ingest the most of is dust from my own clothing (primarily polyester based, which is somewhat polar). Everyone always says dust is just your skin, but I can see the color of clothes I wear frequently on dust and lint that accumulates in the house. I also wonder about how many cell membranes would get stuck in the nonpolar layer and if that would have a meaningful impact on local microbiota/algae compared to the amount of plastic absorbed in the process. [0] http://www.appstate.edu/~clementsjs/journalarticles/zeus_dielectric.pdf http://www.appstate.edu/~clementsjs/journalarticles/zeus_die...
- aqme28 5y agoI heard once from a museum worker that the dust that settles on exhibits is somewhat blue, due to the prevalence of denim jeans.
- saagarjha 5y agoI’ve seen plenty of blue dust in the cracks of my AirPods case when I put them in my jeans, so I’m not surprised.
- vages 5y agoWhen I bought my jeans from H&M, I would sometimes find blue dust on things I kept in my pocket. After switching to a brand that uses higher quality cotton (Nudie Jeans), I have never experienced this. Durable cotton has longer fibres so that they won’t break off as easily as the short fibred varieties. I guess that is the reason why.
- hoseja 5y agoI wish there were (or I knew) a good objective quality metrics for clothing/clothing brands.
- varjag 5y agoPrice correlates greatly with basic material quality, although platoes quite soon after certain threshold.
- TchoBeer 5y agoThis from personal experience, or is there a study on it?
- Swenrekcah 5y agoI wanted to respond but couldn’t find the words. Then I read in the article [0] linked in a sibling comment: “ Now, what's important to note is that the quality and the price of an item are not always related. Some types of items are easier to manufacture and get right than others, which is why it is totally possible to find certain well-made items at affordable shops. At the same time, just because an item is very pricey, that sadly does not always mean that the manufacturer used all of that extra money to up the quality of the garment.” Edit - citing the source [0]: https://anuschkarees.com/blog/2014/05/01/how-to-assess-the-quality-of-garments-a-beginners-guide-part-i/ https://anuschkarees.com/blog/2014/05/01/how-to-assess-the-q...
- varjag 5y ago
- skybrian 5y agoIt seems like for dust in the home you'd want to look at the things people might do for allergies, like maybe an air purifier and robot vacuum? (Not to mention dusting.)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pibechorro 5y agoYou are correct. The majority of micro plastic pollution to soil and water comes from synthetic clothing. Cotton, wool, linen, hemp.. we have options people!
- rini17 5y agoRight but...how did you extrapolate from indoor lint to all soil and water? What about all the other non-clothing plastic and rubber noone wants to pay for proper recycling or incineration?
- wizzwizz4 5y agoWashing clothes, I would assume.
- hinkley 5y agoWashing clothes sends microplastics to the water treatment plant. Notwithstanding leaky sewer systems (and especially combined stormwater systems), that's a centralized problem that can be solved in one spot. Drying your clothes is a point source problem. Every dryer vent is spewing microplastics into every yard and street. The lint trap only catches the largest fibers.
- hinkley 5y agoPlastics also attract nasty chemicals like aromatic hydrocarbons. To me that's the bigger danger of plastic ingestion. The chemicals intrinsically in the plasting are bad enough, plastic dipped in PCBs or dioxin is horrible. Getting it into the food chain is a disaster.