A magnetic powder that can rapidly suck out all the microplastics in water could be used by water treatment plants to better remove the contaminants.
At present, most of these plants can remove only plastic fragments that are 5 millimetres in size or larger. That means smaller pieces end up in drinking water and oceans and are ingested by people and marine animals.
Nicky Eshtiaghi and Muhammad Haris at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, …