Mussels as Microplastic Filtration

Much of the garbage thrown into the sea ends up reduced to tiny plastic particles. It collects in fish and in seabirds’ guts, causing sickness and death. The Plymouth Marine Laboratory found that mussels’ natural feeding system is great at filtering out microplastics. Recent experiments have shown that a collection of just 300 mussels can filter out 250,000 microplastics per hour without any harm to themselves. They’ve placed baskets of mussels in polluted waterways and harvested plastic-rich waste. The goal is to implement mussels strategically as a nature-based filtration system to eradicate, or at least diminish, microplastics within oceans and waterways.

Author: Emily Adams

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