Scientists May Win The Microplastics Battle With This New Sponge Made Of Squid Bones And Cotton

There are almost no places on Earth that haven’t been affected by the presence of microplastics. From the peak of Mount Everest to human placentas and breast milk, microplastics are present everywhere. The ocean floor has approximately 14 million metric tonnes of microplastics accumulated on it. Microplastics have become an internationally recognized problem, with scientists calling it one of the key environmental challenges of this generation.

Microplastics can disrupt ecosystems and are a hazard to human health, which begs the question: How can we mitigate the microplastic problem? The usual methods lag because of high expenses and difficulty to make, hindering their scalability. Now, scientists in China have come up with an answer: A biodegradable sponge made entirely from squid bones and cotton. The research team from Wuhan University used the chitin extracted from squid bones and the cellulose extracted from cotton to produce this new variety of sponges. Chitin and cellulose are two organic compounds famous for driving out pollutants from wastewater.

The scientists tested the sponge in four different water samples from irrigation, pond, lake, and seawater. According to a study published in Science Advances, the sponge successfully removed up to 99.9% of microplastics. The sponges could absorb microplastics by physically intercepting them and utilizing electromagnetic attraction. The low cost and vast presence of both squid bones and cotton mean that the sponge can be used extensively in the extraction of microplastics.

The biodegradable sponge faces two hurdles. Firstly, it still needs to be determined if the sponge can absorb microplastics that sink into the sediments. Secondly, the action of the sponge doesn’t end with absorbing microplastics, a method of proper disposal of the microplastics is also required.

Even if we start an immediate effort to reduce plastic consumption, around 710 tons of plastic will still pollute the environment by 2040—the eye-popping figures further stress why the plastic problem requires an immediate solution. The synthetic sponge derived from squid bones and cotton can be one of our best weapons.