A team of MIT researchers is taking on microplastics with an encouraging novel biodegradable material that can not only replace the tiny plastic beads added to cleaners and beauty products but also provide a safe vehicle for enriching foods with nutrients.
Their findings were published in Nature Chemical Engineering.
"One way to mitigate the microplastics problem is to figure out how to clean up existing pollution," said senior researcher Ana Jaklenec in a news release. "But it's equally important to look ahead and focus on creating materials that won't generate microplastics in the first place."
That's the direction the team went with a particle solution that it says is biodegradable and breaks down into sugars and amino acids. While it had previously developed a material that could be fortified with nutrients such as vitamin A in 2019, the polymer was nondegradable. Thus, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation tasked the team with creating a more planet-friendly solution.
The team created and tested five candidate materials, identifying one that seemed to have the best composition for microplastic applications, including the ability to dissolve when exposed to the stomach and other acidic environments. The winning polymer was able to encapsulate nutrients such as zinc and vitamin C. As an interesting case study, the team inserted the particle into bouillon cubes and found that the vitamins remained after two hours of being boiled.
"Bouillon is a staple ingredient in sub-Saharan Africa, and offers a significant opportunity to improve the nutritional status of many billions of people in those regions," Jaklenec said in the news release. The team covered its bases by testing food safety using cultured human intestinal cells that showed no damage at the doses that would pertain to food fortification.
On the beauty side, the team combined soap with the particles to test the effectiveness in removing makeup and eyeliner. The formula worked better than soap alone and even fared better than conventional polyethylene microbeads. As an added bonus, the material did a superior job of picking up potentially toxic metals.
While there is much more to be unearthed about microplastics, the early returns of research are concerning. The pesky small plastics are linked to many health conditions, and they leak into food, soil, and water in alarming quantities. The MIT team joins a global effort to rein in plastic production and deal with what's already out there.
As for what's next, the MIT team is going to continue testing its material for beauty applications, including conducting human trials. A grant from Estée Lauder will help. The team is also navigating the regulatory hurdles for fortifying food, including compiling safety data and planning a clinical trial of foods using the material.
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Cost 💰 We're in the early days of combating microplastics, but Jaklenec noted that "as a society we're beginning to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem."
"This work offers a step forward in addressing it," Jaklenec said.
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