Scientists developed iron oxide nanoparticles with water-resistant coatings. They showed that microplastics in water bind to the particles, which can then be removed with a magnet.

The paper is here.

Is there anything magnets can't do?

And then cleaning up the nano particles with radioactive snakes and then breeding gorillas that eat radioactive snakes, and then, this is the beauty part, winter simply kills the gorillas.

The following submission statement was provided by /u/filosoful:

Scientists developed iron oxide nanoparticles with water-resistant coatings. They showed that microplastics in water bind to the particles, which can then be removed with a magnet.

The paper is here.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/yke9cq/removing_plastic_pollution_from_water_using/iusrl1q/

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This isn’t being reported anywhere but all of us are consuming about a credit card’s worth of plastic a week. We are allowing corporations to poison the entire human race for convenient packaging for their shitty brands.

Anything to avoid fixing the actual problem

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Hmmm...Removing plastic pollution from water using nanoparticles... and then the nanoparticles evolve to eat all the fish in the sea...and then they're still reproducing, and hungry, and decide to move on to land animals....! Oh, what a good sci-fi story this would make!

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I don't know whyyyyyy... she swallowed that flyyy. Perhaps we'll die

Sounds a bit too "futuristic"

We had a discussion ( in my Biophysicist group of 3 ) about specialized bacteria bred to consume plastic with non-toxic metabolic residues, and in just 15 minutes we isolated dozen or so serious issues with the theory.

I will give you just one.

What may happen if lab-bred bacteria follow the trend of consumption-based mutations and became create variants targeting not only waste but also more "energy-dense matter", and now we created species that can consume everything.

I know, right. No one ever talks about the real problem: cytotoxic wasps.

What do you mean with energy dense? I mean there are lots of energy dense polymers which bacterias can consume? This already exists?

By more energy dense I meant organic matter ( is it dead or not) with pretty clear indication.

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I thought the mechanical bees took care of the cytotoxic wasps no?

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To fight the microplastics we must become the microplastics.

How about we stop using plastic for everything? Avoid pollution to begin with? Why clean it up if more is plastic is just gonna get poured into the ocean? This technology doesn’t address the root of the problem, it just throws money at the symptoms

I can just smell the profits… oh wait thats a bloody nose from the pollution never mind

It’s called the gray goo hypothesis.

Thanks for the tip. I'm buying stocks in blood coagulants and platelet transfusions! I'll be rich!

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i call it horizon zero dawn: evangelion

meh, we probably deserve it

Not really futuristic, surprising to say from a physicist to think literally manipulating living organisms to do a specific task is easier than making an inorganic small thing from minerals and then taking them out with a magnet.

Seems pretty simple to me. People have these weird conceptions about anything with a "nano" in front of it, particularly anything "nanoparticle".

Nanoparticle is literally just very very small, well, particle. This is quite literally just a very small iron oxide particle with a charged coating. What's futuristic about thar? There are iron molecules and oxygen molecules all around us. What's futuristic about using a giant magnet? If people cared about microplastics back in the day, we could have done this like 30 years ago.

They can’t make your dad love you

Nanoparticles that 'accumulate' or stick to specific substances aren't the same as nanomachines ( I was referring to ), they are still nanoparticles but much more complex in design, and less volatile when it comes to degradation from different chemicals and other environmental factors.

A credit card worth? Got something to back that up with? Cause that sounds like an urban myth.

Pretty sure this was what happened in the cat game “Stray”, apart from it occurring in water.

That's suggesting to just leave the already existing microplastic in our environment...

These already exist and trillions of them are trying to eat you all the time.

I used the nanoparticles to destroy the nanoparticles

Make it stop ✋😭💀

With you, may the microplastics be young one.

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