Cotton-and-squid-bone sponge can soak up 99.9% of microplastics, scientists say

Plastic waste rests on rocks as storm water runoff flows from Ballona Creek into the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles county, California, last year. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

A sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests.

Just as importantly, the filter’s production appears to be scalable, the University of Wuhan study authors said in the paper, which was peer-reviewed and published in the journal Science Advances. That would address a problem that has stymied the use of previous microplastic filtration systems that were successful in controlled settings, but could not be scaled up.