Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Microplastics pose a significant threat to our environment, but Chinese scientists have come up with a way to tackle this challenge with a new, intriguing, biodegradable sponge.
Crafted from unexpected, naturally -sourced materials, this innovative creation offers a potential solution for filtering out these harmful particles from water and other sources.
We'll talk about what this is and what kind of solution it could offer.
After that, have classrooms become battlegrounds?
Anecdotal evidence suggests a worrying trend of increased behavioral issues among children returning to school after the pandemic disruptions.
Are we seeing the delayed effects of isolation, disrupted routines, and heightened anxieties manifesting in the classroom?
or are there other factors at play, contributing to what some teachers describe as a decline in classroom decorum and focus?
We are live from Beijing.
This is Roundtable.
I'm Steve Hatherly, and for today's show, I'm joined by Fei Fei and Lai Ming.
First on the program.
Microplastics are pervasive.
They've been discovered from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest ocean trenches, and they're even turning up in things like bottled water, human placentas, and breast milk.
These minuscule plastic bits are harmful to wildlife, disrupt the natural balance of ecosystems, and even pose a risk to human health, not to mention the fact that they're incredibly difficult to get rid of.
However, researchers here in China may have found a promising answer.
A sponge crafted from squid bones and cotton.
This sponge offers a potential solution because, unlike traditional plastic filters, it won't contribute to the microplastic problem.
If it proves effective at filtering out microplastics from water and other sources, it could become a much more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative, helping to reduce the ever -growing burden of plastic pollution.
Fei -Fei and La Ming, good afternoon to you both.
La Ming, it's quite well known, I think, well established that plastics are a huge problem for our environment.
In most cases, I think the average listeners and people in general pay more attention to news reports about how plastic products are being floated and even recycled on the oceans.
And I think in the Pacific Ocean, there's a huge pile of plastic.
The garbage patch. Yeah, the garbage patch.
So we normally pay our attention to plastic waste in larger sizes.
But now, apparently, these microplastics are things to be worried about as well.
And by microplastics, we mean plastic items smaller than 5 millimeters in size, and they're hard to detect and they're hard to recycle.
But luckily, researchers from Wuhan University used chitin from squid bones and cellulose from cotton to create a material called CT cell, whose structure is formed naturally by these two substances, so is sustainable.
And these are two organic compounds known for eliminating pollution from wastewater, and they put them together to create a biodegradable sponge.
It's very creative, the idea.
People would think of squid bones and cotton working together to create a microplastic filter.
We normally just use it to treat, what is it, a smelly feet symptom?
Well, this might be a bigger problem than some stinky toes.
So what does this new material solve, and how does it work?
Well, the researchers have tested it with irrigation water, pond water, lake water, and seawater, and the new invention apparently is very good at trapping different types of microplastics, including polystyling, polypropylene, and PET.
And it can attract and bind with these plastics coming from...
because it is able to form strong connection with them.
And it can also resist various pollutants in water and therefore allowing it to work in different situations.
And the efficiency is quite high.
In real world water samples, it can remove 98 % to 99 .9 % of microplastics as a filter.
And even better is that it can keep working at 95 % to 98 % efficiency after five uses.
So it's more sustainable.
It's not just to use it once and throw it away after that.
That makes this quite promising.
Fei -Fei, why squid bones?
I'm curious to know.
Yeah, because the idea is quite innovative because squid bones, or more accurately gladius of the squid, have a layered structure with a lot of small holes in it.
And the structure combined with the cotton fibers can create a network of tiny spaces within the sponge.
So it's sort of like a work like a traditional filter that, as water containing those microplastics passes through this network, these particles will become trapped within these spaces.
And what's more, I think, promising here is that the difference between this sponge and other traditional plastic filters is that it's biodegradability.
Because the scrape bones and all the cotton fibers, they're natural materials.
So they can be biodegraded.
And this means when the sponge is eventually disposed of, it won't contribute to the persistent microplastic pollution problem in the environment.
And instead of breaking down into more microplastics, we'll just decompose into harmless byproducts.
Right. If the filter was made of plastics, then that would break down, creating more microplastics.
So it would just be a vicious cycle at that point.
So this is good news then, but it's not the only news that came out of China last year.
Researchers at Qingdao, they developed a synthetic sponge made of starch and gelatin designed to remove microplastics from water.
Although that, when they looked at its efficacy, it varied upon water conditions.
So I guess in some water conditions, it worked quite well and maybe not so well in other conditions.
So this is maybe even another step forward.
Microplastics. You mentioned laiming, five millimeters, less than five millimeters.
So the problem here is that the size of the plastics themselves, they're not easily filtered out.
No, no. It's very hard to capture them with normal means or technologies, especially when they become so finite as to you can't even see them and you can breathe them and it can permeate in the air, you can breathe it in, and it can gather in your lungs and therefore leading to certain inflammation and even
worse, perhaps, lung cancers.
So this is much more worrying than the regular plastic which people are sometimes, in some cases, in a hurry to pick up.
Like in my community, there are people who will hover over their recycle bins whenever you bring products, waste like cardboard boxes and plastic.
They will pick it up.
They will go through your luggage, your baggage, your garbage, and then pick up the plastic and cardboard boxes because there are policies recycling and making sure people are paid for that.
We are doing what we can these days, but the problem is still so massive.
This is from CNN. There was a study from 2020 where they estimated that there are 14 million metric tons of microplastics sitting on the ocean floor.
14 million tons. I can't even fathom how much that is or how big that must be or how heavy that must be, and the problem seems to be getting worse because we're producing more plastic.
There's more pollution to come in the following years.
There shouldn't be anything to worry about if these microplastics weighing 14 million metric tons, according to the estimate, stays on the ocean floor.
But the problem is that it doesn't just stay there.
There are animals and creatures living on the bottom of the ocean, and they are part of the food chain.
And big fish eat small fish, and we eat big fish.
So there's a likelihood of the microplastic going up the food chain into human bodies.
At the opening, you mentioned about microplastic being discovered in human placenta, which is very scary.
Yeah, it's terrifying.
So where are these microplastics coming from?
Well, of course, they come from larger pieces of plastics.
For example, we have larger plastic items like the bottles, water bottles or the bags, or a lot of the packagings that we use on a daily basis.
And they will break down over time because of the sunlight, because of the weather and other physical conditions.
And then they fragment into smaller and smaller pieces and eventually becoming these particles basically in our natural system.
Degradation then, right?
Yeah, yeah. And it also can come from littering.
For example, we constantly hear about those irresponsible disposal of plastic waste.
And they actually contribute a large portion to the macroplastics in our system.
And these plastics, like those floating on our oceans, can leave the environment and break down and then eventually be part of the fish, the marine life, and probably floating in the air.
We don't know because scientists are still studying and finding out on a daily basis about new development with these microplastics.
because I get that they're not like sitting on the bed floor of the ocean.
They're moving around on this planet and they're not only within the human body system, but also in the system of many animals that we consume and also plants that we consume.
That's why this is such a hard problem to solve.
So degradation is one thing of larger plastic items like bottles or bags, the examples that you gave, but there's also the direct release of microplastics too.
Yeah, these are, for instance, microbees, which are tiny plastic bees intentionally added to personal care products like exfoliants, cleansers, and toothpaste.
I'm not sure if people know that toothpaste, they often include antiseptics, that's what's yours, to kill germs and prevent your oral system from bleeding.
But there are also a lot of abrasives because you're brushing, you suddenly need something to help with it.
To scrub away. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this is microbeads sometimes are added into a toothpaste and they can easily pass through water filtration systems and end up in the environment before we invent something with squid bone and cotton.
And there is also synthetic textiles.
Nowadays, people do pay attention to buy cotton products, But it more often is the case that people go for clothing made from synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon, and acrylic.
So they would shed tiny microfibers during washing.
And if we don't use them, we throw them away.
When they end up in the landfill, it is also a source of microplastics.
And there's so many other sources as well.
Tires. I didn't even think about this.
the tires on our cars right they wear down over time and they release uh tiny particles of plastic that can become airborne or wash into the environment uh there are road markings uh there's things like city dust marine coatings things like the paint on a boat oh is another example of how microplastics
can enter into our ecosystems fishing gear even can be guilty from time to time so there is a lot there are a lot of ways maybe even more than we realize that these can hurt us so that with that said the fact that they can hurt us it's bad for the environment is there feife is there reason to be afraid
is there reason to be very nervous yes because i think number one that is that we are we don't know much about the effects and the impacts of these microplastics in our natural system and also because the sheer volume of them in our on the planet because with nearly 400 million tons of plastic produced
on this earth every year and the production expected to more than double by the year 2050 so we are not only having a lot of them in the stockpile but also producing more and even if we stop producing plastics immediately and these existing plastic in the landfills and in our environment will continue
to aggregate into tiny particles, increasing the amount of microplastics.
So, it's easy for us to know that plastics are bad for our environments.
They are pollutants.
But why is it so difficult to quantify the harm of microplastics to ourselves, to the human body?
Look, I think one thing is that it's really, really small.
So it's very difficult to detect and then not mention to study it.
And I guess scientists around the world have used various methods to try to identify them, but they also have difficulty diffrating them from other particles.
It's quite a challenging task.
So the research on their effects on the cells, for example, is going on, but detecting their presence in tissues is very, very difficult.
And then we also have other contributing factors in the research.
For example, the materials we use in the lab.
And it's very difficult for researchers to basically tell where these particles come from.
So I guess that's one of the big challenges from the first stage.
There was another study from Arizona State University.
It was pointed out by Rolf Haldin, who is an environmental health engineer there.
And the point there was that it's still possible that the plastic particles coming from contamination during studies, they're very hard to analyze.
It's hard for researchers, even when they're conducting studies to try to figure this out.
They can't necessarily figure it out because it's difficult to definitely prove that a specific type of microplastic particle originated from a particular human tissue.
So this is a serious challenge for scientists to figure out, well, how harmful are these and how worried should we be?
Yeah, I'm normally concerned about things that stays in our body because if our bodies are built to digest or degrade or break down plastics within the system, then perhaps we see less of a problem.
But common sense tells me that if what goes in doesn't come out, then we may have a problem in the long term.
That's a good rule of thumb.
Yeah, if it goes in, it needs to come out.
And if it gets stuck in there, that can't be good.
I want to go back to the sponge now.
So is this sponge definitely the answer or the potential answer to this microplastic problem?
It can be part of the problem.
Part of the solution, you mean?
Part of the solution.
And like Fifei said earlier, it's biodegradable, and therefore we shouldn't be worrying about creating one more problem as we solve one existing problem.
So but again, the study's author didn't address whether the sponge can remove microplastics that sink to the sediment, which is the majority of the microplastics in our water.
Also, when it's done filtering and absorbing all that microplastic, what do we do with this filter that's been contaminated?
Exactly, because the filter itself, the squid bones and cotton, that is biodegradable.
but after it's done its job of collecting the microplastics, well then how you dispose, sure, the squid bones and the cotton will biodegrade, but it's also collected the microplastics.
So what happens then?
Yeah, we certainly let them biodegrade, but we shouldn't allow them to biodegrade wherever they are.
Maybe a certain system of having them collected and centralizing them and handling them collectively might be one of the solutions.
So what I'm arguing is that there's no one shoe that fits all kind of situation.
And this miraculous sponge isn't going to solve all of our problem.
In order for the plastic, microplastic issue to be dealt with, I think an industrial chain is supposed to be built.
How do we distribute these micro or magic sponges and how are they deployed and how are they recycled and what do we do with them?
And that industrial chain in itself should only be part of the solution.
There should be more.
Fei -Fei, what else can we do then to handle this microplastic pollution problem that we're dealing with?
Well, there are a lot of research is going on at the moment, but there is no clear answer now.
There's just a lot of experiments.
For the chemical abstracts service, they are hoping to filter these microplastics, basically like how the sponge normally works.
And, for example, the wastewater treatment plant and membrane bioreactor.
And, for example, they can use microplastic filter technology to capture these particles before they enter the environment.
But I guess the question stays that what do you do next with this collection?
And there are also experiments looking to transfer these microplastics into inorganic substances which can reduce their harm to our soil system.
But I guess that also brings to the question of they are still inorganic.
That means there will still be some level of harm to our natural system.
So I guess there is no clear answer at the moment.
to a developing technology and science behind it.
And the sponge is an efficient way to deal with and filter microplastics as water or other, mostly liquid, goes through a filtration system.
But it doesn't deal with several million tons of microplastic already existing on the bed of the ocean.
So there should be different solutions to go with different scenarios.
And I just looked up before we joined the show, and that is there are several ways to develop biomechanisms, bioorganisms that can break down microplastics.
For instance, the larvae of wax moth and mushroom corals and certain fungi, they can break down microplastics and scientists are working on this.
So certain corals that could be introduced perhaps to an ocean's ecosystem that could be put there with the specific function of breaking down the microplastics.
Just because human beings or human bodies couldn't digest and break down plastic doesn't mean all creatures on this planet couldn't break down plastics.
From a consumer's point of view, I guess the things that we can do would include boiling water.
I'm not sure if that's something that you do at home, but boiling hard water and then filtering it out can remove, they say, 80 % of microplastics and nanoplastics.
That's even smaller than the microplastics.
That's according to a study that was conducted here in China at a couple of different universities.
If you do that, it's recommended to let the water sit after boiling and avoid drinking the bottom residue.
Oh, I should change what I do.
I always finish the last bit.
The last drop. That's true if you use water for your dehumidifier as well.
You're going to want to clean your dehumidifier quite often to get that residue that collects.
Also, things that we always hear, you know, reducing plastic use, use stainless steel or glass water bottles, avoid plastic bags when you can at the grocery store, for example.
Properly use your plastics, choose microplastic free cosmetics, if you will.
That's on our radar now.
Toothpaste, for example.
I'm guessing a lot of people didn't even realize, and things like that, and cleansers for your face, you can find microplastics there as well.
Regulation is a part of this.
I was just about to ask, what about for governments and relevant organizations?
A quick study before the show, I found that as early as 2020, the Henan province, which is in central China, came up with a ban on the use of microplastics like these microplastic bees in personal care products.
There are countries around the world, I think, that have already made that choice to ban them as well.
Also here in China, to scientifically address the microplastic pollution problem, the country began marine litter monitoring.
And this happened a long time ago, back in 2007, but included microplastics in 2016 and then expanded the monitoring scope to the oceans and polar regions even in 2017.
But I guess what it really needs is basically collective efforts from all different countries around the world because we're not talking about one country's solution to this problem.
I remember last year in South Korea, Busan, they have these international meetings to talk about a global plastic treaty, but they eventually wasn't able to agree on this because of many issues.
For example, what stages of the production of plastics should be included in the treaty and how should we define a single -use plastic and also financing problems like that.
So the countries will, I think they will meet again this year and continue to talk about a global treaty, which I think will have a bigger significance, especially considering, you know, what individuals can do are quite limited in this.
It is just as the case with climate change.
Overal consensus is very important because, like we discussed earlier, microplastics is everywhere in our life, and so in order to address the situation, we need a whole -of -industry or whole -of -system approach to deal with it, so not just a certain filtering system or a certain bioorganism or biochemistry
solution. So we need every country to get on board.
We need every aspect of the society to get on board.
But plastic is, again, still a very useful material.
And it's a very profitable material.
As such, there's got to be plenty of lobbyists going around trying to keep their job and the industry's job.
Well, this is from Fujian .gov .cn.
And it says that there's no global standard for microplastic detection.
And I think we can agree on that, that this is not one country's problem.
It's not an individual problem.
This is something that we who inhabit this planet always have to think about and try to deal with together.
Microplastic pollution.
Put it on your radar if it hasn't been already.
