Stephan Peters’ print and technology consultancy Pegras has announced a breakthrough system for removing microfibre pollutants from water.

The world-first scalable solution – which uses a binding agent as part of a continuous extraction process – is being hailed as a landmark development for environmental technology.

In 2020, Peters’ Pegras Asia Pacific business was awarded a leading role in a $1.5 million project coordinated by the NSW Smart Sensing Network, to find ways of sensing and treating contaminants on HDPE plastic chips. Four research universities involved in the initiative were awarded $650,000 funding under a federal programme to address residual contaminants in packaging which currently prevent 80 per cent of used HDPE from being recycled.

The new MPR technology is capable of capturing microfibres as small as one micron, significantly outperforming traditional water treatment methods. The minuscule synthetic fibres, which can come from car tyres, textiles, plastic products and cosmetics, have become a significant environmental threat. Usually invisible to the naked eye, they have permeated oceans, rivers and even sources of drinking water, posing risks to both marine life and human health.

Peters – who is chief executive and managing director of Pegras – was previously regional sales manager for ContiTech blankets in Bangkok, and is an active member of Sydney's Penrith Museum of Printing. With then manroland Asia managing director K.S. Ng, he established the South East Asia Newspaper Group in 2009, which was later to become today’s ASEAN Newspaper Printers.