Two grads built a filter that pulls microplastics from water

A filtration device built by two Princeton graduates is now pulling microplastics out of wastewater in Atlantic City, in what the startup behind it calls the first system of its kind deployed at scale. PolyGone Technologies, founded by Nathanial Banks and Yidian Liu, designed an implant that mimics hydrophobic plants, which shed water on contact while attracting plastic particles. The collected material then goes to a recycling facility. The Atlantic County Utilities Authority brought the company on for a two-year pilot serving the city of 40,000. No federal rule requires utilities to remove microplastics, but the authority is moving anyway. "We're discharging to the ocean. So, if we're not removing the plastic that's in our wastewater, we're putting it back into the environment," said Matt DeNafo, the authority's president. Lab tests showed the prototype removing 98% of particles. Banks and Liu are architecture students. Liu said the best part was designing the thing.