Veggies are VERY Good For You

It seems random, but apparently, new research suggests that vegetables might be helpful in removing microplastics from drinking water. Plastic is basically in everything - your bags, your clothes (if they're synthetic), containers for food and beverages, in your cars, and even in some hair and skin products. Microplastics, on the other hand, are teeny-tiny bits of plastic measured at 5 millimeters or less in length that result from the disposal and breakdown of some of the previously mentioned products.

The issue with these plastic pieces is that they sometimes show up in products meant for consumption, and the last thing any of us wants to do is drink or eat plastic. Microplastics could be an issue for a number of reasons, but there are currently no large-scale studies that show that microplastics are actually harming people despite evidence of them showing up in blood and organs. Since they don't exactly break down, we suspect it is a matter of time until microplastics are found to be a cause for heart attacks or strokes due to blockage, but again, the effects of microplastics in humans have not been extensively studied yet.

For now, specialists are suggesting that fear isn't the right message to the masses, but caution is appropriate until there are some studies released detailing the impact of microplastics if any are found, of course. The concern is just that there is something foreign that doesn't quickly break down found within the human body through consumable products.

The good news is that scientists at Tarleton State University in Texas have been working with vegetables to clean water of microplastics. More specifically they've been using okra, cactus, and ale to try to purify water and apparently using a combination of these plants they had some level of success. In fact, in spring of last year, the Tarleton research team revealed that polysaccharides within the plants were the key to their purification method and that different plant combinations have different effects. The nice thing about their discovery is that it can be plugged right into the existing water treatment process.

In case you were curious, most cities, towns, or any place with human life have some sort of water processing plant for drinking water. The process is usually two steps. In the first step, floating particles are skimmed off the surface. Then, the rest of the pollutants are revoked with flocking agents which are substances added to the water to encourage clumping in any remaining contaminants such that they can also be removed. We bet you can see where this is going. On the second step, instead of using a clumping agent, the plant materials (which are nontoxic) would be used to further filter and purify drinking water and even in the event of plant material contamination - it's just plants and not the kind that will kill you.

We're excited to follow this journey and see if the plant-based purification process will pilot in any cities or towns this year.

Don't miss our podcast at https://www.arbitragetrade.com/podcasts/