Too many plastic cups, chip bags, cigarette butts and take-out containers seen littering California’s beaches don’t stay on the sand. An estimated 17.6 billion pounds of plastic make their way into the world’s oceans annually, the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the ocean every minute — and 80 percent of that comes directly from littering on land.
Scientists throughout the California State University, including Misty Paig-Tran from Cal State Fullerton, are working on how plastics are affecting the health of the state’s beaches and oceans.
Paig-Tran has been exploring how large filter feeders, such as manta rays and whale sharks, filter particles efficiently and how such knowledge can be used to build bio-inspired filters for potential use in industry.
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