The gist is that while Brita makes no claims to remove microplastics, some of their filters (including the faucet filter) are rated and 99.7% effective against particles sized smaller than microplastics.

https://purewaterblog.com/do-brita-filters-remove-microplastics/

I would expect Brita's major competitor(s) have similar results. I checked Brita because I have used it for years.

(Posting this because with the recent focus on microplastics, I may not have been the only one wondering about whether my filtering system is protecting me and how much.)

I expect these young people's invention has potential uses for water other than drinking water, so it is a great achievement and valid award for sure.

It might be cheaper in the long run than constantly replacing filters.

(and other brands) are certified to not be leeching their own plastics into the dispensed water.

Worth considerably more than 50K!!

and the teens get $50,000. Even though I love how teens get highlighted in these inventions, I cringe at how they're being taken advantage of....

...& whether the teens choose to sell or license those rights.

If this truly is a unique "first" it should be impossible for any company to produce prior art proving they did this before the teens, & the teens would own the intellectual property rights.

In the case of the many cited who live in the US, our more recent waves of immigration are well-represented, which really tickles me. Once again I reflected on how enriched and revitalized we are by letting people in, and not keeping them out.

So I'll read the press release instead. The article at the link makes you register and until you do that, you have this big popup blocking the story. Thanks for mentioning the press release.

Here's what I've done about microplastics since it became known as a problem. First, years ago I posted a number of articles on how certain tea bags have microplastics in them, so I urged everyone to use tea bags made with another method. If you have some with microplastics as part of their production, then just open the tea bag and boil it as loose tea. Thanks to IrisBlue for that suggestion.

For water, I filter through a Brita filter. Then I boil it, because there was an article here saying how boiling the water gets rid of around 90% or more of the microplastics. I don't think my filter gets rid of the microplastics, so until I can get the kind of filter mentioned above, I'll continue with this.

I even use the boiled water for my ice cubes, which I make instead of letting the machine make it.

Can't wait until this process/design in the OP is ready for the marketplace.

https://archive.is/OAIZO

When you run into one, try archive.ph, archive.md, archive.is (there are several)
Copy the article’s URL
Go to the archive site
Paste the URL into the text box

You’ll usually get the article you want.
Sites let Google and others access the articles to drive clicks but keep the paywalls for everyone else.
They can’t have it both ways.

This site lets you try various forms of archive.
https://www.archivebuttons.com/

Sometimes, it just involves disabling javascript or running a “readablilty” script to get past nags.
Some of these sites do just that.

I always wondered how people did that. I'm gonna' try that a little later on tonight. Thank you for writing that out; hopefully it will help more people than just me.

Sorry for not reading the link

If it scales, it can do a lot of good. I don’t know how to follow up on this.

Yet.