What's the link between
old-school music records and state-of-the-art
research on microplastics? Most old records are
made from polyvinyl chloride which in slang
people call 'vinyl'. When I lower the
stylus onto the record there's evidently friction there,
which creates tiny particles. And those tiny particles
can turn into a big problem. Our resident DJ is
Christian Laforsch. His daytime job:
professor of ecology. I did a lot of DJing
while I was at college and beforehand. Starting with vinyl, then
CDs and finally digital. I spent 20 years
DJing in a Munich club. But now, he's
playing a different tune hoping to rid the
world of microplastics. Bayreuth famous for its Richard Wagner
opera-house and annual festival. But while the town looks
immaculately clean on the surface, there's a less visible
problem lurking on the streets that Christian Laforsch
has his sights on. Wherever he and his colleague
go, they find the immediate culprit: plastic waste. One day, back
when I started looking at the issue of
plastic pollution, I decided to count the
number of plastic fragments between my home
and the supermarket. And over those two or
three hundred meters, I spotted 52 fragments of plastic
with the naked eye while walking. And if I'd bent down like this,
I would've found a lot more. They're simply everywhere. You can see how abrasion is
creating more and more microplastic. All the white bits A mass of tiny particles,
decomposing into microplastic. So does this pose
a danger to us? Right now, we believe
it's the small fragments that present the greater danger. With smaller particles,
there's a bigger risk that instead of just
staying in the digestive tract and being excreted, they could pass
into body tissue. And that could lead to
inflammatory reactions. Visible plastic waste is unsightly,
but relatively easy to dispose of. Once it reaches the
microscopic scale, however, it contaminates
rivers, soil and the air all vital for our survival. And this is precisely the issue
the two men are investigating: what effect do microplastics have
on the environment and on us? It's a problem affecting
the entire planet. Microplastics have now
even been found in snow on the Svalbard archipelago
in the Arctic Circle. A disturbing discovery. Can sewage treatment
plants at least filter out microplastics from our water? Professor Christian Laforsch
from the University of Bayreuth is on a field trip behind the municipal
sewage works, where the filtered wastewater
is discharged into the local river. His team have devised
their own manta-trawl a net for picking up
the plastic particles. OK, time to launch Manta! With little data
available until recently, it's a pioneering field
of research that requires innovation on the
part of the scientists. Like other research
groups new to the issue, we thought it would be
pretty straightforward: just a matter of going out, taking samples and
performing an experiment. But these particles
behave differently. They're a completely new class of
substance, and incredibly complex. People talk about
"microplastic" in the environment. But it comes in a range of
different shapes and sizes different compositions
and different basic plastics. It's a really complex subject. A challenge for the
young research assistant but also for a renowned
professor who's not shy of pitching in on the
physical side of research too. These particles are
incredibly hard to capture, because you need
different analytical methods, different forms of experiments and completely different
sampling scenarios. It's a lot more difficult to detect
them, and to do risk assessments. It's really exciting! The first step in each survey
is a distinctly low-tech affair collecting and rinsing
samples by hand. But actually
finding the minute particles can be
easier said than done. Pour it all in
and there you go. With a few particles
you can see with your own eyes
that they're plastic. Look that little blue one here. And we'll see what all
the white stuff is in the lab. But there's quite
a lot in there. Germans tend to think of
their country as a clean one. But take a closer
look, and you'll find this and that's just one
part of the problem. The researchers believe
that microplastics enter rivers via an untold array of routes. They want to know what impact
they have once they get there. To assist their investigation
of conditions on the bottom of the riverbed, they've brought
along a special pump another instrument they
developed themselves. Now carefully
place it on top. The pump presses
the water from down below through special
aluminum filters. Their perforations are a
fraction of a millimeter wide, enabling the researchers
to fish out particles that are invisible
to the human eye. They're hoping to
gain new insights almost like on a
mission to Mars. Back in the university lab, it's
a question of rinse and repeat. The aim is reduce the
filtrate so that it only contains the microscopically
small plastic articles. The sample is now put
under the microscope. Doctoral student Julia
Möller uses a pipette to distribute the substance in
small portions onto specimen slides. Now that they're visible, she
can weed out the plastic particles by hand, one at a time An extremely laborious task But it's the only option she
has for a precise examination of the isolated fibers. You can tell from the
peaks that it's polyethylene. Global research
into microplastics is still a fairly
new field, but one where the Bayreuth
University team is leading the way. It boasts scientists from
all manner of disciplines. Among them is Seema
Agarwal, a professor of chemistry. Hello there Seema. Hi Christian. How are you? Good, how are you? Agarwal is interested
in the global perspective. She's familiar with the problem of
plastic waste from her native India which has given her
an added incentive. It's not solely
about pure research. We also want to
develop new solutions. Seema Agarwal has
been looking at where the plastic pollution
chain begins, and hopes to find
alternative materials to prevent microplastics
being created in the first place. She regularly consults colleagues
from various scientific disciplines. This is very interesting
to work with other people, because sometimes
the same material, the same problem, you
see from different angles. And it really make then ‘Spass’” But there's no "Spass"
or fun for the professor when it comes to the root
of this growing global issue: our garbage and
what we do with it. Yes, 'Plastikmüll' is
a very long problem and the problem is when the don’t
manage our plastic waste properly. It is like cleaning your
own yard and throwing this plastic waste
into neighbour’s yard. So I don’t see the
problem myself, but the problem
is still there. And this was happening and
this is a very long problem, because the plastic waste
was not disposed properly. It was thrown somewhere
or sent to some other country and they were not disposing it
properly. So this is the problem. Is it possible to combat plastic
waste with chemical formulas? Seema Agarwal says: Yes! They enable the
development of new substances with
superior properties a challenge she sees
as a responsibility for all her fellow-chemists. It is the chemistry that
makes plastic that's why the chemistry
should solve it also. And chemistry can solve it also. This PET for example, we use
in water bottles in large amounts. And this is a big problem. If it goes by chance and
leaks in our environment. It stays in our
environment for a long time. So chemistry can provide a
nice new material like PET, but if by chance it leaks
into our environment, it will not stay
there for a long time. But how dangerous are
microplastics for the environment and for us? Professor Laforsch's
search for answers also features
algae and daphnia, commonly known as "water fleas". There are the algae which the daphnia feed off. You can see the haze of algae and the first daphnia to
notice it are the lucky ones, because they're able to
swim into this big cloud of food and get their fill. But why water fleas? I've been working with water
fleas for quite some time. They're one of the model
organisms in ecology, especially in aquatic ecology, because they're the link
between unicellular algae and higher trophic levels. So a lot of fish like
feeding on water fleas, making them a stock component
of the ocean's nutritional network. The second factor
behind using water fleas is that these
are all females. Daphnia reproduce
partheno-genetically or asexually. This provides us with genetically
identical individuals for experiments, which means you can
rule out genetic variability. It's a fantastic model
organism, because you can work with naturally produced clones. That work involves a series of
constantly repeated experiments using a variety of instruments. The researchers are still at a
very early stage of their mission, but they' convinced that they'll be
able to find answers and solutions and also that we all
have to change our habits. Our treatment of the environment
needs to be a lot more sustainable. It's up to us and the next
generation to ensure that we're able to maintain our
modern lifestyle. Of course we too want
to have comfortable lives, but we need to take a more
sustainable and mindful approach to all the resources available. The professor and diving
enthusiast asks whether at some point in the near future, what we see in an aquarium
will seem like a dream world, with nature destroyed by toxic
substances dreamt up by humankind. Seema Agarwal shows her students
how to analyze the level of toxins contained in plastics a vital step in assessing the
dangers posed by microplastics. This machine can
smell pollutants, especially the additives
in synthetic materials a primary focus in the work
of the chemist and her team. If we talk about
toxicity of micro plastic, it is not only the
plastic material. The pristine plastic materials
in general are not toxic, because they are long molecules. It is the additive
we put in the plastic for increasing thermal stability,
UV stability, giving colour to it or plasticizer to it,
they might be toxic. Professor Christian
Laforsch and his team are on the road
to the next hotspot. After taking those
water samples, they now head out
to a patch of farmland again on the look-out
for microplastics. Taking samples here is
far more straightforward than time-consuming lab tests and working outdoors makes for a
refreshing change of environment. Julia Möller is doing her doctoral
thesis on microplastics in soil. What impact do
microplastics have on soil? Where do they come from,
and where do they end up? Do they eventually
just disintegrate? And are they really
dangerous for us? First: we can't even say how much
plastic is actually out there which is why we're
doing this research. And we're not the
only 'consumers' here. Look at all the soil
organisms living in our fields that are mostly beneficial. We need to know how much
of this plastic is in the soil and what damage it does
to those tiny creatures. The field samples are sent straight
to the lab at Bayreuth University. Julia Möller then transfers
them to a sieve system in order to sort out
the larger particles a procedure that's not as
simple as it might sound. The sieves are placed
in a vibrator device, which shakes up the
contents over a period of several hours in order
to ensure a strict separation of the composite elements. It's only the tiniest particles that
the researcher is interested in. Over in the adjacent lab, Seema Ararwal and her
fellow-chemists are developing a new biodegradable
synthetic material. Assuming they're successful, the aim is for it to one day be
tested in a composting facility. The facilities in this region
only compost for 2 or 3 months. So it should be possible
to completely decompose a biodegradable polymer
in precisely that time-frame. The team are constantly
working on new methodologies, in the process constantly
discovering new insights. They want the data they collect
with their cutting-edge instruments to help them devise a kind of
plastic that does not break down into miniscule pieces and
cause harm to living organisms. First of all we can see that
our material is bio-degradable. Second: we can also comment how much it
has bio-degraded in how much time. This is very
important to comment. So when the new material
comes to the market, this data is very important. After water and soil, now
it's time to look at the air. For this, the team deploys
a special measuring mast. It was likewise built by hand at
the university's dedicated workshop to cater to the precise
requirements of the scientists. We all know about
the exhaust fumes and particulate matter
in the air that we breathe but what about those
invisible microplastics? Could they pose
a similar danger? In order to imitate
human air-intake, the mast has
a horizonal capture-basket
attached at head-height. Ecologist and "plastic-in-air"
specialist Jakob Oster also frequently wonders
whether he's constantly breathing in the tiny particles. Maybe it's a subconscious thing. Maybe! But it does make you more
aware of the things around you which is a bit scary. The mast is left in place
for a number of hours. As the air streams
through the basket's nets, the team suspect
it will leave behind some of those microscopically
small plastic particles. The smaller the particles are, the bigger the subsequent
challenge in the lab. The various scientists have
already spent several years refining and improving their methods and sometimes discarding them. But their combined efforts
have proved productive. Our knowledge of microplastics
has improved significantly compared to just a decade ago thanks also to the
researchers in Bayreuth and their extensive
deployment of new technology. Jakob Oster uses a
scanning electron microscope to render the
invisible plastic visible. The machine helps to
both count the particles and determine their
constituent elements. The collaborative
research effort brings together a range of
institutes at different locations all working on the same subject. This is research for the
future that is also relevant today. The results are now available
from the samples taken out in the field and
from wastewater. It can take days if not
weeks to process the material for the researchers to finally
access the actual microplastic content and produce a detailed analysis. The summary shows pretty clearly
that we have both larger fragments but above all smaller ones. What was the average
size in the sample? Around 50 microns. That’s 50 thousandths
of a millimeter. But it's the particles'
content, not size, that the researchers
are primarily interested in. That's polyethylene. P-E as you can see here very
nicely in the reverse image, and the chemical characterization
has clearly identified it as PE. And polyethylene or "PE"
has an extremely long life making it a particularly ominous
adversary for the researchers and is a significant
source of microplastics. But there are signs
of progress elsewhere: these candies from China are
wrapped in a piece of rice paper that is itself edible. This was eatable
package material and you can eat it. But the idea will
never be that we start throwing this packaging
outside in the environment. This would be a
very bad message. Never, we are not developing
something so that everybody starts throwing it
in the environment. No. We are developing something
which can be recycled, that can be managed in a
waste management procedure like normal plastic. But if plastic by chance, intentionally or unintentionally
gets leaked into the environment, it does not persist like other
polymers in the environment there. So how do our bodies react
when we take in microplastics? Here, the researchers are
discussing images of animal cells. Today, we know that our
digestive tracts contain microplastics but what happens then? Some of these
images show how the plastics are
absorbed by the cells. In this case: in a mouse. We've shown that the
cells absorb the particles and that the intake is higher if
there was already microplastic in the environment. But the big question is whether
there's this effect with humans too. We also know even if not the reasons why that the so-called gut
microbiome changes depending on the types
of plastic in the colon. The gut microbiome is
really important for taking up particular nutrients, but is also essential
for our immune system, of course. We do now know
that the plastic affects the composition of our
colon's microorganisms for whatever reason. And that can have a
negative impact on them, because it means a disturbance
of the natural gut microbiota. The team from Bayreuth
hope to get answers at the University of Erlangen, a leading center
of medical research. Here too there are specialists working in the microplastics
collaborative project. They're likewise looking into
what effect plastic particles have in human body cells. What might the long-term
consequences be for our health? And how high is the risk
of them causing cancer? The researchers from
Bayreuth present their images of the mouse cells to professor
of anatomy Friedrich Paulsen and ask whether these findings
can be applied to humans. You have to look at the potential
influence on tumor development, and whether it promotes
chronic diseases degenerative changes
such as rheumatic conditions or degenerative
diseases affecting, say, the cartilage and the
musculoskeletal system. And some companies are also on
board the general research mission. Rehau is a major international
supplier of polymer-based products, and is also based in Erlangen. Chemist Seema Agarwal
is eager to join forces with industry in order to
identify and develop solutions. solutions that from stage
one of the manufacturing chain mean looking at how
to prevent microplastics actually being created. Rehau's head of
sustainability Andreas Jenne explains the composition
of a new garden hose. To the pleasant surprise
of Seema Agarwal, he confirms that: yes, the material
can be recycled. But there's a lot
of work to be done. Tire-wear is a major source
of microplastic emissions a problem that
Rehau is also tackling. It's working on a filter
that could be installed in road drainage systems in
order to collect the particles resulting from that abrasion. Here, industry and researchers
have the common goal of ensuring that our environment
is a healthy one. This what I see
from my colleagues, my contacts all
over the world is, everybody has the same opinion. We have to do something
with our resources so that our future
generations have sufficient. I think that is one of the
definitions of sustainability. We should not
waste our resources, we should enjoy the present
without sacrificing the future. Christian Laforsch is also
back on the road to look at another exciting
new development. He's come to Röthenbach,
also near Bayreuth, to meet inventor
Sebastian Peukert. His new construction would be
deployed where the professor sees the most obvious need: a sewage treatment plant. The machine is specifically
designed to filter out microplastics from
the wastewater. The local mayor
has also come along the person who would
ultimately buy the pilot facility. But first, Sebastian Peukert
gives the low-down on his ingeniously
simple-sounding invention. The idea genuinely occurred
to me in the middle of the night! I woke up at 3 a.m. after having
read an article by Christian Laforsch. I thought: hell, why not give it a try? So the next day I made a
sketch of how it might work. And the way we built it is
practically identical to that sketch. His idea was for a special
kind of "hydrocyclone" machine. During the cleaning process, it subjects the water to
massive centrifugal forces that push the plastic
particles to the inside, where they can be separated off. Initial testing at the treatment plant
has producing promising results, with the majority of the microplastics
being removed from the wastewater. The mayor of Röthenbach
sees it as an investment in the future of his community. Microplastics are not visible,
but people are aware of them. There's been totally positive
feedback in newspaper reports about the pilot facility. It's a great thing that's
good for the environment. It only adds a couple of euros
more a year to the wastewater bill and that's something
everyone can afford. So this treatment
plant, at least, should soon have
no more microplastics after cleaning
its wastewater. I love it, because our objective
was always about finding solutions, not just highlighting
all the bad things. It's the same principle with
our special research project: instead of focusing on pure
research, we also look for answers. But when it comes to answers,
what's the personal feeling of the new filter's inventor? What does realizing a vision
feel like? It can feel like tilting-at-windmills,
or that you're a pioneer. We're not going to get the plastic
problem under control overnight. Plastic in our environment
is going to remain an issue for centuries or millennia. What matters now
is finding a way of minimizing the sources
of contamination. And that's a task that
enjoys total commitment from the researchers
at Bayreuth University. They face a long road ahead with no end of further experiments
in their quest for solutions. And always in the mix: the DJ-turned professor on a mission to make
the world a groovier place by making microplastics history.
