University of Houston students Emma Nicholas and Sarah Grace Kimberly of BeadBlocker won the challenge proposed using innovative technoly to solve the problem of microplastic waste. Credit: University of Houston.
Thanks to a new university challenge, researchers have a multitude of new ideas and proposals to consider in the fight against plastics pollution. Plastics pollution has been a problem for decades; but it has been given more attention in recent years as scientists continue to uncover additional negative attributes.
We’ve always known how damaging plastic waste is for the environment—some of us will never forget images of dying sea turtles with plastic soda can rings wrapped around their necks. But these “big” items are not the only concern. About 6 years ago, researchers began seeing microplastics in the guts of fish and other marine life. Microplastics are less than 5 mm in length, and come from a variety of sources, including larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces.
While microplastics have been a known topic since 2004, research really took off after the 2017 find in marine fish. Scientists were then finding the small, invisible particles nearly everywhere—and clearly they were capable of airborne travel. Last year, scientists found microplastics in two impactful places they hadn’t been seen previously: deep inside the lungs of surgical patients and in the blood of anonymous donors.
The question of harm is still unanswered, but microplastics have been linked to a variety of maladies, including gut inflammation, high blood pressure, metabolic disorder, immune response, neurotoxicity and more.
This all comes down to the amount of plastic in our society. According to the World Economic Forum, the United States only recycled about 6% of the 40 million tons of plastic waste it generated in 2021. Around the world, about 400 million tons of plastic waste is produced each year.
In addition to humans’ blood and lungs, it ends up in landfills, natural habitats and of course the oceans. Part of the solution, according to many experts, lies in establishing a sustainable circular plastics economy.
With that in mind, University of Houston’s Energy Transition Institute (ETI) challenged students to address this critical issue by creating a real-world circular economy. Over 60 students participated in the first “Circular Plastics Challenge.”
The field of competitors was pared down to six finalist teams, whose final pitches ranged from renewable packaging and replacing plastic products with more sustainable material to using drones to limit excess packaging, transportation emissions and more.
BeadBlocker, a team championed by juniors Sarah Grace Kimberly and Emma Nicholas won the challenge with their concept of a liquid-based membrane filter inserted into household drains to combat microplastics found in many personal care products, such as makeup and hygiene items.
The membrane would function as a magnet of sorts, attracting and capturing microplastics from wastewater in showers and sinks. The filter, according to the students, not only shines a light on one of the world’s more unheralded yet damaging waste source, but it effectively stops pollution at the source and could significantly curtail the 5.4 million metric tons of microplastics that enter water annually.
Other finalist ideas included:
- ShipSafe—a renewable packaging company dedicated to aiding companies in transitioning to cleaner supply chains.
- Reverse Logistics— a cost-efficient approach to recycling packaging through consumer-driven reverse logistics, involving the return of packaging to distribution centers for repurposing and recycling.
- Bottle Caps— an innovative idea that involves replacing plastic bottle and container caps with caps made from PLA/PHB filaments, which are plant-based and biodegradable.
- Smart Waste Disposal—an artificial intelligence-based waste disposal solution that facilitates effective waste separation in public settings, ensuring recyclable materials are kept apart from non-recyclable waste.
- Last Mile Delivery— leveraging drone technology in the "last mile delivery" of commercial packages to reduce excess packaging and emissions.
“If you look at the wide variety of proposals and approaches, you can see the complexity of the problem and all the different things that society must consider to find solutions,” ETI Founding Executive Director Joe Powell said. “I think circularity in plastics and chemicals is as difficult to address as the net-zero issue within the energy sector, if not more. We have a unique opportunity here to tackle both, and it’s really great to see our students thinking ahead.”