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To help combat the growing rate of microplastic pollution, a team of researchers developed a synthetic sponge that can soak up microplastic particles from liquid. The sponge, composed mainly of starch and gelatin, does this by trapping the tiny particles within its pores. Guoqing Wang, one of the researchers, says that the formula for the sponge can be adjusted to best suit the size of particle the sponge is intended to trap, making it versatile in its potential applications. Chemist Christian Adlhart, however, claims that this sponge would be difficult to mass-produce.