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Mussels to fight microplastics in the sea: new research could revolutionize everything

New research, described in the pages of a very famous scientific journal, has demonstrated in the laboratory how mussels, more commonly known as mussels, could play a key role in combating the microplastics that are polluting the sea.

Mussels have often been 'blamed' for the amount of plastic that their farms release into the sea, but it turns out that these organisms are excellent filter feeders and could actually play a significant role in combating not only plastic, but also other man-made waste.

At the moment we are only in the realm of research, as it would take a huge number of mussels to reclaim small amounts of water. But the study is ongoing, and perhaps a practical application will be found in the future.

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New research wants to use mussels to reclaim the sea
New research, described in the pages of a very famous scientific journal, has demonstrated in the laboratory how mussels, more commonly known as mussels, could play a key role in combating the microplastics that are polluting the sea. Mussels have often been 'blamed' for the amount of plastic that their farms release into the sea, but it turns out that these organisms are excellent filter feeders and could actually play a significant role in combating not only plastic, but also other man-made waste.
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The study
This specific research comes directly from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and published in the 'Journal of Hazardous Materials'.
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The problem of microplastics
Microplastics are now everywhere in the marine environment, and their worldwide spread is of great concern. Not only, as one would think, because of the effects on our health and that of the entire ecosystem, but also because they seem to be excellent bacteria carriers.
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What the researchers found (pt.1)
Using laboratory tests, the researchers were able to calculate precisely how 5 kg of mussels in an urban harbour would be able to collect approximately 240 (±145) microplastics in their faeces, which sink quickly and can then be removed.
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What the researchers found (pt.2)
According to models built, by using about 3 billion mussels placed near estuaries, we would be able to clean up 4 per cent of the microplastics arriving from rivers.
Di BobFog di Wikipedia in italiano, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26
An insufficient amount yet, more research needed
Obviously, these quantities are not yet sufficient to make mussels a truly useful tool against marine microplastics. Some experts reached by the journal 'Science' are of the same opinion. At the moment, the number of mussels that should be used is too enormous compared to the quantities of plastics that would be eliminated. Certainly, however, research continues, and scientists are looking for more and more ways to combat the problem of plastics in the oceans.
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