MUNICH, Germany, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Exhibitors of Germany's world-leading environment fair IFAT have shown their latest technologies and solutions to the microplastics problem.
Microplastics refer to small plastic pieces less than 5 mm in diameter. They exist widely and enormously in natural and industrial waters. The toxics they themselves carry and have gradually absorbed from waters can enter the food chain, and possibly enter the human body.
Germany's Technical University of Berlin has brought to the fair a sample basket with six-layer filter screens. Some have already been installed in urban drains in some Berlin districts.
They are used to accumulate and measure the microplastics from automobiles' tire wear when it rains, which is one of the main microplastics sources into the environment. Sensors in the basket send relevant data into the digital cloud for further research.
EmiStop, a project synthesizing industrial water treatment technologies, has shown two ways to deal with microplastics. One is to decompose water into tiny gas bubbles, which can attach to microplastics to help them flow to the surface, the other is to utilize flocculation agent to gather tiny microplastics into bigger ones. Both make the microplastics collection possible.
SubMueTrack, a program launched by German Environment Agency and Technical University of Munich, focuses on developing analytical methods for microplastics from 50 nanometers to 100 micrometers, which tend to absorb toxins more easily.
The goal of the ongoing study is to serve the later regulation-making to stop the microplastics into nature.