Can Microplastics be Removed from Water by Using Water Filters?

Many pollutants are found in the drinking water, including but not limited to chlorine, fluoride, lead, herbicides and pesticides. You can find blogs and articles everywhere on the web, demonstrating how to remove these pollutants from water through an elaborate process of filtration. However, there is one new and emerging pollutant that is becoming increasingly hazardous, namely, microplastics.

But from where do these minute particles of plastic come? Some of the microplastics found in nature can be linked to cosmetic products, while others arise out of direct consequences of plastic pollution.

Plastic breaks down into tiny particles when it comes in contact with natural elements. These microplastics, unfortunately, end up in water and in turn, raises the question of whether it is possible to get rid of microplastics using water filters that are used to purify water.

Water filter installation services in Perth take great care in installing a residential filtration device at your home, and you can save your family from ingesting plastic by consulting them for a better water filtration system

Plastic pollution by Statistics

Plastic is sterile, cheap, durable, lightweight and can be forced into any shape or size, all of which is very convenient. But it comes at an overwhelmingly huge price that nature has to pay.

It takes forever for plastic to break down

It is not, by any means, a hyperbole. Plastic usually takes betwee 500-1000 years to disintegrate. It means that the plastic we are using in our lifetime is posing a significant threat to our species and the price of using vinyl is to be paid by the generations to come.

Plastic and polymer have been hits in industrial as well as residential sectors since their invention in around 1907. Only in 2010, 275 million metric tons of plastic were produced in 192 coastal countries. Among this vast quantity, only a small portion ended up in recycling facilities and the rest is still there.

Some of the remaining plastic (8 to 12 million tons according to the 2010 data) ended up in oceans as well as freshwater sources, damaging the ecosystems gravely.

Some of it covers large areas of landfills. Seabirds, aquatic creatures and animals are ingesting plastic every day, and with stomachs full of plastic, they are starving to death. We have talked about the plastic we can see. But what about the invisible forms of plastic?

What are microplastics?

Microplastics are smaller, minute particles of plastic. Usually, plastic particles less tha 5 mm are called microplastics. The plastic that gets submerged in the ocean is exposed to UV radiation, which breaks them into smaller and smaller pieces.

There is an astonishing amount of microplastics that are found in our oceans and freshwater bodies, where these particles enter the food chain as aquatic organisms ingest them. Just to let you know the impact of the situation, plastic has been found in the digestive system of creatures living in the Mariana Trench.

These minute particles then travel up the food chain to be presented on our dinner plates. Therefore, not only animals but humans are believed to consume unhealthy amounts of microplastics.

Till scientists come up with hard evidence on the effects of microplastics on the human body, it is always better to check on our intake of plastic particles; however, we can. We can ban the usage of single-use plastic and drink from glass rather than from plastic water bottles. We can also find ways to filter microplastics through a filtration system.

Can Microplastics be removed from Water?

We don't know the effects of microplastics on the human body just yet, but its always better to be safe than sorry.

The silver lining is, some of the highly functional filtration systems can remove microplastics from water. Technically, all filters that have a small micron rating can remove microplastics from water.

We have mentioned before that microplastics are particles that are smaller tha 5 millimetres. So, by using a 25-micron filter, you can keep out plastic particles that are larger tha 0.025 millimetres. If your filtration system uses a 5-micron filter, you can keep out particles larger tha 0.005 mm, and so on.

Always look at the micron rating before installing a filtration system. The micron rating is directly proportionate to the plastic particles, and the smaller micron rating your filter has, the lesser chance of you to ingest plastic with drinking water.

Some residential filters provided by filtration specialists in Perth support nano-filtration, and they can filter out particles smaller tha 0.001 micrometres, which includes microplastics as well.

RO filters are ideal for filtering out microplastics, but alte atively, any filtration system capable of sub-micron filtration can keep microplastics at bay.