20 JANUARY 2021 A new technique using diamonds and titanium has the potential to help remove plastic microfibres before they enter the environment, by decomposing them into naturally occurring molecules.
It's a secret the fashion industry would prefer to keep under wraps – most of our synthetic clothes are made of plastic, and they're contributing to a big problem, shedding microplastic fibres into our waste water. "The release of microplastics into the marine environment is recognised as an important problem related to water pollution. It has been shown that in aquatic environments, these microplastics adsorb toxic substances and can be ingested by aquatic organisms," researchers from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Canada explain in a new paper.