In a recently carried out study under the direction of Tongji University researchers in Shanghai, the correlation between green roofs – ie urban roofs that are dedicated to plants – and their ability to intercept and record atmospheric microplastics during the rainfalls.
In communication Earth and Environment Journal, her research showed that the inflow of water and indirect moisture when dirty rain is intercepted on green roofs and reduces its urban concentration by more than 97.5%.
In particular, the structure of green roofs enables microplastics to drop down over time instead of going away, especially under the additional influence of the precipitation. According to Azolifesciences, various vertical sections of a green roof can be kept to different dimensions to different dimensions, whereby the planting floor layer retains the most that keep the overground areas, and the roots keep little or not at all.
“These results show that green roofs play a valuable role in reducing urban microplastic pollution and can offer practical insights for the design of future strategies for rainwater and air quality,” said the team.
Nowadays, microplastics penetrate our environment and our bodies in more and more numbers when we consume more and more plastic products and unravel. They may already be familiar with the oceanic microplastic pollution, but it does not stop here – microplastics are everywhere, everywhere the plastic interruptions and navigate in microscopic fragments of oceans and landfills in our soil, water and finally food.
And due to its size, the microplasty cannot be easily filtered out of the things that we take, thereby associated with a number of health concerns from organ damage to different types of cancer.
Fortunately, innovative solutions such as targeted cleaning technologies and efforts as well as the green roofs mentioned above contain the spread of microplastics in different regions. The latest Green Roof study suggests that the removal of microplastics in urban environments may not necessarily require complex and powerful engineering services. The dedication of roofs for growing vegetation ensures a simple, aesthetically appealing and environmentally conscious upgrade.
“These results offer valuable findings and data for the development of future strategies for microplastic pollution management,” concluded the researchers.
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