Scientists have discovered a marine organism that’s not just invulnerable to microplastics, it may have a way to eliminate them—literally.
. The lab work suggests the mussels could do an even better job with higher concentrations of microplastics in the water, removing about a quarter of a million particles per hour.
But how to dispose of this waste? Lindeque hopes to investigate whether microplastic-laced mussel feces could be converted into a useful biofilm. That way, she says, “not only is it removed from the marine environment, but we could use it for something beneficial as well.” Susanne Brander, an ecotoxicologist at Oregon State University, agrees that the solution is clever, but probably not practical as a stand-alone fix. “This is going to reduce [microplastics] slightly if it were applied on a large scale, but it certainly is not going to completely eliminate the problem.”
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