Extracting Microplastics with Olive Oil

Addendum
– As many folks have pointed out already, the campaign's target (30m pounds of plastic) is basically a day's worth of plastic production that's going into the ocean. It's a rounding error. I agree, and cynically the campaign can be viewed as a distraction from real methods to effect change (legislation, removing single-use plastics, making companies more accountable for their packaging or plastic use, etc). I even recorded a monologue around this, but ultimately cut it in favor of the disclaimer about TOC since that felt like the greater immediate threat given how much good PR this campaign is going to generate for them. And because I didn't feel like I had the knowledge or authority to really speak to the political/economic side of the equation. Which is unfortunately where this needs to be solved imo – it's not a technical problem, but a political one….and global at that. My hope in making the video was to at least raise awareness about how insidious microplastics really are… you can't just scoop them up with a net. And perhaps that will have knock-on effects of encouraging more people to take vocal political and economic stances. Domain of Science just released a video that echos many of my thoughts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL7WvdNdk3Y

– I failed to mention oxidation of the organics, which was a gross oversight on my part. You can see that at 8:16 I added some bleach to help combat the biofilm/organics I was seeing in the first attempt. In the literature, some kind of oxidation procedure is often done to help digest organic materials and cleanup the plastics. Strong bases can be used but will degrade certain plastics, so typically a Fenton reaction (peroxide + iron) is performed instead. It can still affect plastics but tends to be more gentle. Enzymatic approaches are often done as well. These are especially nescessary if purifying from tissue extract (e.g. grinding up clams or mussels or whatever). It's almost always done as a cleaning step after a purification procedure like density separation, foam floation, oil, density centrifugation, etc.

– My friend pointed out the irony of using nylon filters, cutting up plastic syringes, etc on a video about microplastics. Guilty as charged. I tried to use only metal/glass to start but it didn't quite go to plan. Will be disposing of the waste responsibly 😅

– I glossed right over why microplastics are problematic: since they are relatively inert, is it any worse than just sand or other sediment?

Plastics are mostly inert, but not entirely and a lot of additives (colorants, plasticizers, etc) can leach out of the plastic over time (or situations like the BPA kerfluffle a few years back, where it was discovered that polycarbonate can hydrolize into BPA which is notably more toxic). Plastics tend to absorb and concentrate heavier metals and other contaminants, so it might speed up pollution concentration in the food chain. Very small particles (approaching the nano scale of things) can cross into cells easily and it's not clear how bad that is, but they certainly aren't supposed to be there 🙂 There's a fair amount of evidence for example nanoparticles of teflon are fairly toxic, and could apply to many other plastics. Fibers can be problematic for plankton, which have a hard time passing them through their digestive system due to relative size and shape. Large pieces of plastic are problematic because animals expend energy eating them but derive no nutrition, and in some cases they can linger or remain permanently stuck in stomachs which slowly starve the animal.

Basically, no one is quite sure just how bad it is. There's just so much microplastic around the world (and literally no organism evolved to ingest plastic) so it's kind of a brave new world. Just not really sure what the long term effects are, but it could be quite bad. Asbestos is quite inert too, but you definitely don't want to eat or breathe it due to the size and shape.

This is a pretty good and accessible article if you want to read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01143-3

I wouldn't call it a distraction as much as silly posturing and about as meaningful as the giant elephant's toothpaste stunts. It gets eyes on the videos. Silly because all the plastics in the oceans comes essentially from China and Indonesia river and ocean dumping. The plastics that originate from the Americas are mostly accidental from hurricanes/flooding. I seriously don't think you can collect it as fast as the Chinese dump, even with a huge fleet. While you are working on that the Chinese have just announced they are increasing coal production to meet electrical demand. How much? More than the amount burned in all of the EU every year. So, whatever comes out of Glasgow this week has been undone before they start.

could you use a ceramic filter, so that the filter itself would appear brighter than the plastics on the SEM? could you view those samples in visible light to identify plastics by their colors?

Interesting way of find diatoms. I can't see backscattered electrons with my SEM now. I need to try. Best regards.

This may sound like a silly idea, but why not use one of the best natural filters every human has – your body?

Strain the water, boil it, then drink only that for a day. Then centrifuge your pee! The claim stands that a bunch of microplastics come out that way, and they'll certainly be small and unaffected by stomach acid.

If I hadn't read the comments, I would have just skipped the #TeamSeas spiel at the end.

raise awareness lol. I dont think people have the attention span for that to do anything. Awareness gets raised, people get upset, then they move onto the next problem du jour

Logically, if plastics break down to micro plastics, then it should continue breaking down further.
And it should go much faster, because of larger surface.

I have to wonder about glass fiber filters for this technique. Maybe that would help on the SEM side.

Plastic eating microbes looks very promising.

You need to heat oils to run them through a filter paper

A centrifuge does not seperate into solids and liquids! By spinning you separate by density. So that thin white solid layer is lighter than water but heavier than the oil. So that was perhaps mostly plastic?

Perhaps fiberglass can be used for vacuum filtration filters?

thx

This isn't proof of plastics in the water. You cannot tell me it's a plastic based on morphology.

I am glad you mentioned the problems with the fundraiser. After the team trees disaster (There are other orgs that plant 10x as many trees per $ among other things) I looked at the financials of both of these organizations and came to the same conclusions you did. It still seems more like a publicity stunt for Mr beast to rehabilitate his own image after the controversy he was wrapped up in (being a spoiled dickhead). A lot of times these fundraisers also act like they donated so much while personally donating very little (if anything after tax deductions) and in reality the money is coming from their many viewers who get zero recognition (or tax write-offs).

Here's a good watch -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-YEL5e_Fj8 … Unfortunately we have the whole world of waste to take care of and microplastics just happen to be one of the main concerns. Tons of other more dangerous toxins are and have been dumped into the oceans and we are paying dearly with our health https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNV0cmKO8sM

Is it safe to say we really don't know how much of a problem microplastics are, considering it's very difficult to identify?

So wait ever organism has some plastic in them? So does that mean I have a catheter in?? I swore I took that out??

I really enjoyed this and thank you for your contribution. Well done!

Follow up with mixotroph/algae microplastics demo.

Oh good we're forming committees to oversee the formation of committees to discuss the potential for a committee on establishing a timeline for a committee tasked with investigating actions to be taken. And here I was afraid something might get done…