Marine Microplastic Removal Tool

Remediation Strategy

Collection

Plastic Type

Microplastics

Invention Category

Sand Filters

Used?

Yes

Included in analysis?

Yes

Location Invented

United States

Year^*

2013

Description

Sand is piled on a sheet of fine mesh stretched between two long poles, and the mesh catches plastic and other foreign material while allowing the sand to fall through.

Effectiveness or Ecological Impact

Peer-reviewed Effectiveness

The removal rate is 63% (Shen et al., 2021). The removal of rubber particles in the 100–300 µm fraction from the filter inflow was between 46–97% at 6 out of 9 rains (Shen et al., 2021). The removal efficiency for tire flakes is 90.72% (Sembiring et al., 2021). The removal efficiency for 0.39 mm plastic flakes 0.39 mm is 97.7%. For 0.68 mm plastic flakes, removal efficiency is 94.3% (Sembiring et al., 2021). The cumulative microplastic removal rate is 85% (Sarkar et al., 2021).

References

Fisher, J. (2018, August 17). How To Clean Sand: Volunteers Take On Microplastics At Oregon Coast. OPB. https://www.opb.org/news/article/clean-sand-plastic-oregon-coast/

Peer-reviewed Effectiveness

Sarkar, D. J., Das Sarkar, S., Das, B. K., Praharaj, J. K., Mahajan, D. K., Purokait, B., Mohanty, T. R., Mohanty, D., Gogoi, P., Kumar V, S., Behera, B. K., Manna, R. K., & Samanta, S. (2021). Microplastics removal efficiency of drinking water treatment plant with pulse clarifier. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 413, 125347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125347; Sembiring, E., Fajar, M., & Handajani, M. (2021). Performance of rapid sand filter – single media to remove microplastics. Water Supply, 21(5), 2273–2284. https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2021.060; Shen, M., Hu, T., Huang, W., Song, B., Zeng, G., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Removal of microplastics from wastewater with aluminosilicate filter media and their surfactant-modified products: Performance, mechanism and utilization. Chemical Engineering Journal, 421, 129918. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.129918; Ward, 2015.

* Year designates the year invented; if the year invented was unavailable, the earliest year that an article about the technology was published was used.