Scientists at Princeton University discovered that egg whites can filter out up to 98% of microplastics and salt from water.
Professor Craig Arnold had the eureka moment while eating lunch.
"I was sitting there eating my sandwich and I thought, this is exactly the kind of structure that we need."
He was referring to the bread in his sandwich and the way it would let liquid pass through while filtering other materials.
This led Professor Arnold and the team to test many materials, starting with a mixture of bread and carbon.
Eventually, they found that the proteins in egg whites did filter out microplastics from water!
To do this, they need to be freeze dried and heated to 900 degrees Celsius.
Of course, using egg whites is not a long-term, sustainable solution.
The reason this breakthrough is so important is that it could lead scientists to develop a synthetic replica of the egg white proteins that could be used to filter out microplastics from water and the human body.
This is a big #WinForThePlanet 🙌🏼