to see a wide spread races, depression, today, the screen we need to talk about here, the stories, shadows of german colonialism. the micro plastics are everywhere there in our drinking water on our fields and in our blood. they've even been detected in clouds. and micro classics can contain talk, since it's science long overlooked one source, car tires over half of the micro plastic in the environment comes from driving these and other highly toxic stories coming up on dw signs. so welcome to tomorrow. today here's a dish that no one would consume willingly. solid with particles from car tires,

a toxic mix of rubber and a host of other chemicals. researchers at the university of vienna were able to prove in the lab that substances from tires accumulate and let us plants via from up the tire where particle added to this, the chemicals and tires can be absorbed by plants and metabolized in plants. so they could potentially wind up on consumers plates coming each year around $100000.00 tons of tire where particles, the crew on roads in germany alone. tires are the source of most of the micro plastic and the environment. car tires are technical marvels as the only connection between the vehicle on the road. they need to have a good grip roll quietly. and last for a long time to do that, hundreds of chemicals are added to them via sewer systems. these additives legion to the environment and the us researchers were long puzzled by

a dial off of pacific salmon populations until they prove that the salmon were being poisoned by a substance created when tired we're particles get into the environment. it's name 6 p p. d quin down the rest of the austin was all we know from the us that mass depth of salmon that car solely due to tire aware particles that were washed off the streets. now there's evidence, for example, that these chemicals are just as toxic for trout and snails and all that pump system does look efficient. vx squared, say that fish populations in germany could also be effected, but these additives remain vital to tire making. but ultimately, we need these attitudes right now to take the most toxic one to 6 p p. d. quinones . this quinonez a decomposition product needed to stabilize tires, to protect them against oxidation and aging. so for now, you can't simply remove tenants still from a mental approx name. but we also can't rule out the possibility that 6 p. p

d is toxic to other creatures to including humans. it's effect 7th and extensively study that alarms to hoffman and his team. they wanted to find out if the tire additive could also wind up in the human food chain. so for 14 days, they took young, let us plants, and added chemicals from tire. we're particles to their water. for the most common, the additives and the decomposition product 6 p, p d, quint out in a 2nd test, they added physical tire where particles to the water given to the plants. the analysis and the mass spectrometer showed that in both experiments, plants integrated the material into their cellular structure, lift and stuff. and all of the 5 substances we studied were absorbed, transported into the plant and been capitalized by the plant to the metal bodies. yet further step,

these should show whether these toxins land up in let us not just in the lab, but also into real life conditions. but it's clear where there's traffic, there's tire wear, and that's unlikely to change in the near future. tire particles can wind up in the food chain through various channels, but a large number are washed into the sewers. inner city waste water is normally clean to treatment plans. the tire particles wind up and the leftover sewage slides . it's rich and phosphorus, which is why it's used to fertilize crops, and many countries, including germany, austria, canada, and the us in the fields that can come into contact with plants. in germany, there are legal restrictions on using sewage sledges, fertilizer kia field used to grow. let us can't have been treated with a slide for at least 24 months outside the big cities. much of the water from the st goes straight into rivers and lakes and treated. so

a team at berlin's technical university studied whether tire, where particles could be filtered right out of the drains themselves, down your thing, house web city, streets to collect dust entire particles. then he experimented with a variety of field tracing systems, placed under drain covers and the name of them test that are test stand and berlin under defined conditions and the addition of real st george and refuse if we dropped up to 97 percent of the particles uh, typically a great success, but not every filter is suited to every drain, since the mixture of dust leaves and other particles varies from place to place. to keep developing their field tracing system, the team wanted to find out where does the most tire, where occur? they installed filters at various measuring stations and analyzed the remaining residue. the results showed up to 7 times more tire, wear particles near bands,

and up to 3 times more at intersection. the reason taking sharp turns slowing down, starting and stopping. all put extra pressure on tires and lead to greater wear and tear traffic apps can help by providing tips for a more fluid driving style and monitoring the drivers brake too often. for example, the 30 kilometer per hour zones could also help reduce the amount of tire where particles and cities. the filters require a fair bit of maintenance. so it makes the most sense to employ them where lots of tire where particles accumulate. for why don't manufacturer simply change the materials used in their tires given their impact environmental scientists to hoffman thinks that's unrealistic at the moment itself

. but as the sun long of the there's a long way to go. i'm not very optimistic that this will happen quickly, because we don't have good alternatives for many of the substances fearless to start, realistically speaking, the development of truly more eco friendly additives will take 5 to 10 years. so what does all this mean for our supermarket? let us, despite the potential risk pawsman doesn't think people need to worry about that. does a lot and some of them are in general. the let us in the supermarket will be totally okay. well, that's not the problem kind of the point is that the complexity of chemicals and plastics must be reduced because some $10000.00 chemical additives can be found in the plastics which pollute are ours, both on land pending to see the effect of these chemicals needs to be better researched and their use limited tire particles. are a big part of the problem. though it's expected that starting in 2026 tire

manufacturers in europe at least we'll have to comply with maximum limits for tire wear particles. it's clear plastic is a big problem, but just how big is it and how small is a piece of micro plastic? exactly. and where is there more of it floating around in the oceans and seas or in fresh water. busy boom on lina examines water samples from the wells oceans. because it's still unclear, just how much plastic lines up in the marine environment. it's audible moment done with our research. we're specifically trying to analyze micro blast the false to see we're trying to find out exact figures to discover and demonstrate how big the problem is biased and what it's a fact was, might be best for you out into a fixed analysis. well, non dana was out it see himself and collected the samples. now he's examining them

in the lab. the simple, but was me, these here are samples from the mediterranean last week. you have your standard pieces of plastic like this fragments for it's from some kind of packaging. it said, but then there's also a lot of file from a cigarette packs or potato chip bags, etc. fox ticket, all chips through to tape the owns. and then there's everything that comes from industrial fishing like left over bits of fishing, lot industries, if like the mediterranean is really one of the most, if not the most polluted, sees when it comes to micro plastic exhaust. camico plastic, full monday know, travels the loan to conduct his research. he's developing techniques to measure might capacity and standardize these measurements this month, and that captures the smallest of plastic particles floating on the water surface. the prostate is swimming around in old. if the

wills oceans on the problem is only growing, it's spreading through all areas of marine life the each year around $9000000.00 tons of plastic winds up in the world's oceans. so every minute, some 15000 kilograms of plastic waste floods into the sea. that's equivalent to the weight of 10 calls per minute or. yep, few people realize that rivers, lakes and soil more polluted with up to 23 times as much plastic as in the sea. it's on it, the numbers that have been communicated and continued to be communicated are far too low. it sort of assume they're going talk slow to many times what they are now . for 2 reasons, die 1st. we on the research side of gain deeper insight into the matter. so we're seeing more often we're going to be paying more attention to micro plastic and how

much of it there really is. that alone will make the figures rise by $100.00, if not a 1000 percent compared to what we've been told and plus all the literal pollution which just keeps growing. you know, to a home on dana thoughts, the collective plastic, according to its size. he and his team of focusing on fragments less than 3 millimeters long of those little data on such small pieces. interested to us, we know that our bodies absorb last. it's also been detected in human blood, but we still don't know what is the exact effects of that are fixed. that's being investigated using a variety of research method of soccer. lane is research shows. switzerland also has a problem with plastic. michael prostate has been found in owner the lakes and in the mountains to lake geneva wilks. i may look crystal clear, but micro plastic isn't always visible to the naked 9. the again,

i'll table my still got the lake geneva, where we are now has around the same proportion of micro plastic a certain hotspots in the mediterranean. and we're finding really large amounts of plastic. that's not surprising, given that a lake is usually a closed system or at least has little in and out flow. so everything accumulates. each year late, geneva, or alone, takes in some 55 tons of plastic, mainly in the form of micro particles. it's estimated that around $580.00 tons of now accumulated in the light transported by rivers about 20 tons of micro plastic, from switzerland and to the ocean every year and contribute to pollution worldwide . so how can this problem be solved? classical name is a plastic problem, is a global problem that requires a variety of approaches. it's not just about finding one that will work. you need

different options on a variety of levels. so you can tackle the problem is a home. the the trouble is plastic doesn't decompose. it just breaks down into ever smaller pieces. but why is there so much of the stuff around? are all plastics the same? what's plastic actually made? the plastic is made of polymers change of molecules like this. usually plastic is produced using petroleum, when broken down into its individual parts and rearranged synthetic polymer change take shape. these both special characteristics. they're like you're tough and can take on almost any shape or form. the plastic is easy to make,

but hard to get rid of. synthetic polymers are hard to break apart and only break down very slowly. it can take between 501000 years for some of them to decompose the 1st, the plastic made from synthetic components was developed in 19 o 7. because it's base materials were relatively inexpensive, plastic soon became ubiquitous. it promised to make our lives easier and better. yeah, state and sites, the pulse, it's sites the eyes and sites less of your heart to the construct of the site 5 and us plus the say plastic is suited to mass production, allowing products to be made and reproduced quickly. but plastic and polymers aren't only produced from petroleum polymers can also be found in nature and used to make bio plastic, corn, sugar cane. and cellulose can be processed to produce molecular chains that

possessed similar characteristics to petroleum based plastics. while they're more easily broken down, they still take a long time to degrade. so solutions are needed for disposing of bio plastics to recycling is one such solution, but it only works if the plastic is all of the same type. get most food packaging is made up of the colorful mixture of plastics, which must 1st be separated from one another and stored it could chemistry provide the solution to that problem. the in the swiss toner c on chemist samantha anderson has developed a new process to break down mixed plastic into its basic raw materials and recycling. so what's our secret, the chemical or so i think it's the i think it's the easiest way to

take it from the polymer to the monomer. and then back to the polymer again, i think this allows us to tackle complex waste. it allows us to do material recovery. um yeah, i mean for us this is, this is the way that we're gonna, we're gonna achieve this. samantha anderson and her team found a way to turn plastic waste into plastic. that looks brand new. start by shredding the waste. it's all kind of mixed together. it's dirty, it hasn't been pre washed. anything like this. as you can see, there's different colors. there's different types of plastic in there. so really we don't have to do any kind of pre screening. that would be required for other types of technology out there. this secret chemical cocktail is her invention. at room temperature, it separates the p e t from the other plastic pieces, the reaction is very specific to the p t plastic. so if you have a mix of p t and let's say pbc, pbc won't react, and the p h u will. so we can actually separate out different solids from the p t.

and then we can actually separate the monomers from the p t. uh from themselves. she discovered the secret reagents together with our colleagues part of your values, holiday and christopher ireland. they're turning their innovation into a business, so we can't show you the whole process, especially not how the plastic waste is transformed into this mixture. we did it on a friday nights, and after about the 1st 30 minutes, we saw that it was working. and i remember running to christmas musical, my gosh, is working. and then we decided to wait the entire weekend just to make sure that everything reacted that. you know, we didn't want to stop the reaction to early and get no correct results. and it was the most uh, suspenseful weekend. i think i've had an a really long time cuz you, you knew that when you would go back, that there would be something waiting for you that you've got to explore and analyze. and def file monday, when we showed up it was more or less exactly like this. afterwards,

the mixture is filtered to obtain the pure building blocks to create new plastic. the end product is this powder. it's called purified through public assets. it's commonly a source right now from the oil industry. so what they do is they pull out crude oil, it goes through a refining process and they make this white powder. and this powder is used to make any a t t item polyester and a sort of plastic that has uh, termites with folic acid in it. uh, yeah. so we can actually make it now instead of from oil directly from our own waste. so they can extract polyester from clothing and for example, recycled the remaining car. that's possible because the plastic is removed at room temperature and not at a high temperature. their prototype stands and an incineration plant. here they have a room where they can build tests and scale up their chemical recycling system. terrell stomach acid. the basic building block for p e t is trapped by this filter,

but it is chemical recycling sustainable. it can be clean. actually the majority of the chemicals that were using for this you probably are interacted with on a regular basis already. it's either used to make, for example, brands. um, it's for example, found in tooth paste. so it can be that kind of clean, that sustainable. uh that easy to do, it's just choosing the right system, which is what we've developed. and this is what makes our technology really special, is that the chemistry is really simple. so scaling, it's really simple. they want to offer the chemical recycling process and world wide. so they found it to start out, called deep holly, and already attracted initial investors. their innovation could be part of the solution to the global plastic problem. why do, how many does not get drunk? why do presentational waves squeeze out bodies?

how much do we need to put a stop fund print to help find the offices, get smaller on dw science and outtake talk channel in labs. chemists create innovative compounds with tailor made characteristics like p size, their vital ingredients in many products. but they aren't found in nature, so we make them our selves. unfortunately some p faster also highly toxic. her and police flew elton substances or defense as an umbrella to put thousands of different chemicals. they do a great job of repelling water grease and it, which is why nearly every branch of industry uses them. this armed and noticed it. cook with artificial leather furniture, firewood titans cleaning fluids,

electronics, makeup, cars, pesticides, soils, drinking water and also use literally as well. but the 1st probably is a serious risk to health on the environment. and worst of all, they never degrade for this reason that also includes the chemicals and they have an impact on practically all of this high concentration is can lead to increase level weight and even cause cancer. kidneys are at risk to pay phones can also affects the quality of the weight of newborns can. likewise, below it home the substance is actually work in the body is unclear. according to one of the conferences they restrict your cell binary is what scientists do know is the immune response is low it and in general, flexing this can be rendered less effective. pay thoughts into the soil and was associates by a landfill discharge emissions. some industrial facilities,

commercial waste flow to or simply when we watched rain kite wastewater treatment ponds often con, so to them the e. u is thinking about binding o p funds except for essential ones like those used in medical equipment. but even if we succeed in outlawing the chemicals, one of them will remain what can be done about the huge amounts of p fast that are all ready in the environment? that's a question to which we still have no real answer. getting rid of them is like trying to take milk back out of your coffee again after adding it. but despite the difficulties, one attempt is under way at a nato airfield on germany's north sea coast is might look like a giant sand box here, but it's anything but a playground. this entire area is contaminated, says cost,

and high know from lower section is building management. all of us begin the front house bestbuy in time. we assume we'll need to wash 7 to 800000 tons of roads to get the p. pass out of it several p fast spans for per and poly. flo roll out hills substances. these include more than $10000.00 different chemicals in various forms, summer solid, others liquid or gas. all p fast or synthetic organic compounds or hydrocarbons in which many or all of the hydrogen atoms are replaced by flooring adams. that makes these compounds extremely robust and durable. in other words, dfcs are virtually impossible to break down. as a result, these forever chemicals build up in places like soil watching earth sounds like a crazy idea. the tower involved is huge and loud. in this

stuff, the soil is sprinkled with clean water, rinsing away the larger elements. the principal is straightforward, is rinse shake and keep repeating the process until the dfcs are released into the water projects lead to a band hard for its points out the ve fast, which can be seen here during the washing process to explain the firefighting phone that's soaked into the contaminated ground and the past is rinsed out and basically floats to the surface and begins foaming all over again. told me now it's brown. the pieces are later filtered out of the water and burned or disposed of properly. what's left behind is cleanse sandy. soil that can once again be used as a construction material. the clean up takes

a huge amount of effort and funding wouldn't be, is asked whether or not the method can also be used at other clean up sites. cost and highness is not always double. the soil has to be washable to clay like soil that clumps is hard to wash because much more fine. material is leftover and it can harbor contaminants. this means that for many places in germany, at least washing the ground, isn't a feasible solution. not to mention the guard tension when effort involved in cleaning up thousands of contaminated sites. the team involved says the process will take a decade. how are they all functions? the cost is extremely high. this, even if we're always a step behind the chemical industry or the chemicals tomorrow, we might be dealing with other contaminants that harm the environment. ones that are known today, it would be much easier to keep forever chemicals from contaminating the soil in the 1st place. that wraps things up this time around for tomorrow

today to science show on dw, thanks for joining us and see you again next week. the . the,

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