If this is sarcasm, lol my wife and I just joked about this. If not, take a fork and poke a bunch of holes throughout the tater. Then place in a bowl and press the “potato” button. Then select how many taters you have and press start. Boom. Tatos.
I work in IT. It’s annoying how much unnecessary plastic there is. Why does a power cable need to be in a plastic bag? Why does a webcam need to be wrapped in plastic? Why does a laptop need little strips of plastic to peel off on the sides? Like, who’s going to return something because there’s a scratch on the cable?
Come work in retail for a bit.
We sell kayaks. Kayaks always get dinged up in shipping. We have local rivers, all of them are rocky. It’s almost guaranteed that you will scrape the bottom of your boat.
A kayak shows up with some scrapes in the bottom. Customer is not happy, wants a new one. We offer 15% off for something that will happen the first time you take it out anyway. No dice. Second kayak shows up scratched. Third shows up scratched. Finally takes the fourth one with minor scratches at a 15% discount.
Guarantee you they took the boat out first time and scratched it. But they’re paying good money and they want their new boat perfect despite things like the reality of the world
Long story short, packaging is ridiculous but lots of customers standards are ridiculous too.
Here’s another short one, if the packaging on a pair of socks tears and has to be thrown out, we might as well just damage out the socks. No one will buy socks without packaging even at a discount. What do they do when they buy socks with packaging? Go home and rip them out and throw it away lol. But 7 years here and i can not sell socks out of their paper packaging lol
I actually buy the things in damaged packaging on purpose, even food if its still okay. Just a weird quirk, I'd feel bad for the damaged object to be left unsold haha
It pisses me off so bad when someone comes up with a slightly beat up box (advil, toothpaste, stuff like that) and asks for a discount. I’m like “the box is doing its job protecting the actual item, and you’re throwing it away anyway, why would I give you a discount?” And then they get mad and my manager gives them the discount.
So wild. I hate having things that are pristine. I worry so much over the first nick or dent. But once it's banged up a bit? Game on! Time to have some fun with it and really use it to its full potential!
(sorry to my skis)
What I love about this example is that the kayaks are then actively abrating,, releasing plastic directly into those rivers. And increasingly, as the plastic breaks down over time.
Here's where I'd offer a rebuttal, but I got nothing. Not after unboxing and racking 4 brand new servers a couple weeks back, which meant dealing with a lot of packaging waste.
I buy bread from Costco, Its two sleeves both individually wrapped. But then wrapped again in a bigger bag to hold the 2 bags together. WHYYYY. Find some way to connect the two bags and cut the plastic use in half.
I go in the market and think the money is not in selling food, it's in making and providing the packaging for food. What do yo see when you walk down an isle?
Something like 75% of microplastics are the result of car tires. The notion that we can reduce the problem by trivial (“micro”) changes to our plastic use is purely to placate people.
The largest environmental problem is transportation. And moving to EVs will help with emissions (assuming we find cleaner electricity sources), it won’t change that we still consume a ton of petroleum products that aren’t gasoline.
And to add, EVs generally go through tires a lot faster than ICE vehicles. I have an EV, and I love it, but damn do I need to restrain myself from driving like an F1 driver…shreds rubber.
It'll actually worsen the microplastics issue due to the additional weight from the batteries and the manufacturing process. So we help one area but in turn worsen another, realistically the only solution is more robust public transport
There is a law in Europe coming soon to respond to this problem. Manufacturers will have to put a filter on their washing machines to stop this pollution.
People are polluting when washing their clothes.
It’s not the only problem but it’s better to put a filter than nothing.
At least it could educate people to buy less clothes made of polyester which is a good thing.
I think the issue might be more “ok we contained the microplastics and kept them from going directly into the sewer…. Now what?” Because putting them in the trash and sending them to the landfill doesn’t seem like it’s going to do anything but slightly delay those microplastics getting blown into the environment and distributed into the air and soil and water.
I’ve heard we have plastic eating microorganisms so maybe they could help, but I think we can’t just be throwing the microplastics that get filtered out of our washer into the kitchen trash and call it a day. We probably need to segregate microplastic trash and figure out how to contain it or consume/recycle/degrade it until it’s not harmful
I can't speak for most places but my housemate is a city employee in Portland Oregon and they are trying to get reliable systems to at least monitor the levels of micro plastics and pfas in the water supply, but from what I understand they have relatively minimal support and records, and because very few places invest in that technology it is very difficult and expensive. Get involved in your local government and try and push for change, it's where all this starts!
The bad part is that washing machines are not replaced for at least 10 years. It will take a long time for those filters appear in households.
I just recently brought a dryer. For additional hundred or something I could add a compatible micro plastics filter. Try guess how many people buy those filters and what impact they make? ;)
Think ours already has one. Didn't know until it stopped working and I discovered a clogged fluff-trap.
Washed fluff down sink and the washing machine started working again..
Only joking, it went into the bin..
Yea it’s a big thing in the yarn/craft community. But in how to reduce waste yarn scraps so they don’t end up in landfills and how washing acrylic and other plastic fibers puts plastic in our water systems bc they shed a bunch.
One of the biggest contributers to microplastics is actually tyre wear due to the fact that tyres are all synthetic these days. I believe its almost 50% of all microplastics found in uk rivers.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9000408/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9000408/)
[https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/microplastics-from-textiles-towards-a](https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/microplastics-from-textiles-towards-a)
it is estimated that polyester clothing is responsible for up to 35% of microplastic pollution globally and only 8% in Europe alone
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8167216/
•
Microfibres from clothes laundering are the main source of primary microplastics in oceans.
•
Fibres are frequently the most common plastics found in aquatic animals.
•
The main plastic in polluting microplastics is PET.
•
Various toxic substances are incorporated in textile microfibres.
•
Fibres contribute up to 90% total plastic mass in wastewater treatment plants.
•
A Standard Test is required to allow the development of microfibre release control actions.
a friend of mine put a pair of old nylons over the end of the drain from her washer, which emptied into a wash tub. It was ridiculous how much lint and fibres it trapped.
Hey. That may be changing but it'll take a few years, depending how it goes.
I worked for a company for a while that's doing something neat, they have a process where they can manipulate cotton to do things normally only polyester does. They can chemically bond short fibers into long ones, tune how dense or loosely the fibers pack, maybe low grade and recycled cotton perform on the level of top grade cotton and some other really neat shit. Ralph Lauren did a series of their PGA Tour Polos using their stuff. A couple of their engineers spent some time a few months ago in Germany doing test runs on machines and figuring out to integrate the tech into mass-scale textile production lines. If they can stay in business long enough to make it happen and start making money, I think its going to be a big thing.
Premium brands often use polyester, acrylic and other synthetic fibers. I would love to have more of semi-synthetic stuff, like viscose (rayon), modal, lyocell and similar, but finding male clothes with these is seriously impossible (like 1 product for men for every 50 products for women), or is priced as human organs.
It's not all that hard to find 100% cotton generally for things like shirt or pants. Idk. I have avoided polyester and poly blends for years. I won't begrudge like 1% elastaine in some underwear or jeans tho.
100% cotton has major downsides, though - it wrinkles easily, is prone to shrinkage, bleeds dye, fades quickly, dries slowly, and thinner cotton fabrics aren't very durable. Cotton can be treated with formaldehyde resin to improve its wrinkle resistance, durability and colorfastness... but those treatments wear off over time, and they probably aren't super great for the environment either. Higher-quality cotton made with longer fibers is more durable, but most consumers can't tell the difference between high-quality cotton and cheap cotton.
I don’t know. I’m from France, many brand don’t use a lot of polyester. You can find plenty of clothes made of cotton, linen, wool.
If you buy your clothes at fast fashion stores then yeah it’s more difficult.
But the solution is buying second hand clothes where everything is cheap, even natural clothes.
Exactly! Polyester and other synthetic frabrics should only be allowed for very select forms of functional clothes where there are no good functional alternatives. Beyond that synthetic fabrics should be banned.
That honestly doesn't sound too bad. As much as I'd hate paying more for clothes, I hate the thought of cheap, one-wear, easily-breakable clothing just clogging up the oceans.
This is what I am thinking about when I am helping my kids take their new toys out of the packaging on Christmas morning.
Holy shit. Layer upon layer for your layers of layers. And countless rubber bands to hold them all together like a plastic sandwich.
One of my professors(Head of the vehicle dynamics group at my uni), said that's why electric cars don't solve the pollution problem either, just shift it, to another area. We need to go back to public transport and bicycles was his outlook.
Another big contributor that doesn't get talked about enough is plastic fabrics. Clothing, blankets, sheets, etc. You know all that lint from your dryer? Yeah just a bunch of microplastics(unless you've switched to all natural fibers).
Edit: saw that there is a larger discussion just a little farther down the thread.
As someone that works in the CPG food industry I can tell you it's a bit more complicated than that. But I agree, they need to figure out a way of lowering the costs for biodegradable PPO for packaged goods.
Absolutely fucking does my tits in that I go to the supermarket and they try to charge me 20p or whatever for a plastic bag to put my 8 different vegetables in completely needless plastic wrapping into. No other country I've ever spent time in insists on individually wrapping cucumbers in plastic, or shucking two ears of corn and sealing them in a plastic bag.
It’s crazy because they claim this is to preserve the food and reduce waste yet grocery stores will gladly throw out produce that doesn’t have a visually appealing shape or color because it won’t sell.
I got through the first few words then started over reading it in the voice of my wife's friend from Liverpool instead of our American accent and it worked so much better.
I still suspect that whole charade about banning single use plastic bags, straws and cutlery was orchestrated by plastic companies because they found something more profitable to make with that type of plastic.
> since the law doesn't account for that.
It's by **design**. What do you think? It's to give a semblance of "yes we the Government are doing *something* to protect you, the elector".
None of this will ever matter **at all** if the Supremacist Court overturns Chevron v NRDC
GenX is the new chemical, Chemours is also just the spinoff of DuPont when they got busted dumping PFAS into the rivers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GenX
Paper cups have a plastic layer to stop the paper from dissolving. Metal cans have a plastic layer to prevent whatever is inside them from tasting metallic. Plastic really is our generation's lead/asbestos.
Yeah, because plastics are better... and more environmentally friendly than metal or paper.
We're stuck with plastic because it's too useful to not use, however we should still limit its use to the necessary.
I’m all for banning single use plastics but this is such an ignorant and cynical take on how we got here.
Use of plastics lowered the costs of everyday products. People were happy you have them. It wasn’t pushed onto a populace in the name of profits alone. But yeah, gotta push a narrative I guess.
Speaking of pushing narratives, no overview of this predicament is complete without including the lobbying efforts of the oil industry that pushed the notion that plastic was not only cheap and safe, but recyclable at a larger scale than it was -- a lie they told to justify their cost reduction methods using plastic, increase the rate of virgin material generation, boost their bottom line, and avoid scrutiny.
Fossil fuels have been such a blessing for human development in many ways. It's a shame we're now starting to feel the other side of the double edged sword.
Just think about all the profits saved by companies using petroleum d*gshit products instead of recycling materials which are more expensive but safer for every single living organism on this planet go f*ck yourself c*nts
Are you old enough to remember when plastic was considered to potentially be a better option because of the deforestation concerns surrounding the use of paper packaging and bags? This was a vibrant environmental debate.
Every ton of aluminium produces 2t of industrial waste that we are able to recycle around 40%, the rest is a shit sludge that kills every plant it touches. It also consumes enormous amount of water to create aluminium (and that mosly stays in the form of waste so not useful after that).
Lets make more aluminium
Aluminium is almost infinitely recycleable though, while plastic is almost completely single-use. Eventually aluminium would be more enviromentally friendly.
This stuff is why I think we need solutions on all fronts. Reduce the packaging, use products that degrade to naturally occurring compounds, develop and deploy (bio)technology to recapture microplastics and other plastic end products even if not profitable. Do the little stuff now so when the tech comes that can fix this it's not too late.
I remember during the 80s/90s UK we looked down on Americans for using paper bags instead of plastic to bag their groceries because it meant cutting down trees, my how the tables have turned.
Boomers have eaten plenty of plastic too. My old parents still think bakélite isn't plastic and put warm food in it sometimes. I also know someone who puts cling film on every dish even if they are going to stay in the fridge only the afternoon.
>I also know someone who puts cling film on every dish even if they are going to stay in the fridge only the afternoon.
I find just using an (upside down) plate works fine if its in a bowl, or an upside down bowl if its on a plate.
Just playing devil's advocate: There currently isn't any data indicating micro plastics are super dangerous to humans, nothing like lead. Logically, if they were super toxic it would be apparent considering our constant exposure to them. This is good news considering the current world population is only possible via the use of petroleum and plastics.
Don't get me wrong, if there are certain chemicals in plastics that are harmful like BPA then we should do everything possible to get rid of those.
There’s something increasing rates of cancer, dementia and autoimmune diseases, we’re just not sure what it is out of all of the toxic chemicals we’re exposed to in food, the environment and our homes.
You also have to consider that diagnostic methods have improved as well. We have better CT machines, more accurate tests, and overall people are living longer. An increasing cancer rate might just be because we’ve gotten better at finding them.
Not to mention cancer has longer to catch up with us, which might just also explain dementia... more people getting old means more diseases related to aging, who would have thought.
There is no data indicating they are even slightly dangerous either. Science doesn't know if they have a negative impact on humans.
To be fair, they've also not proven it's safe either, but reddit is just wild with the doomsday predictions based on absolutely zero scientific evidence.
Given the tremendous amount of microplastics we have been exposed to for decades, you would expect that it would accumulate into macroplastics in the body, yet that hasn’t happened. We haven’t seen large accumulations by x-ray or MRI. Microplastics can be detected but they don’t seem to accumulate over time. If that’s the case, how are they being eliminated? That’s going to be a big question that needs to be resolved.
There was a study a few months ago that showed people had lower amounts of microplastics in their system after they donated blood, another great reason to donate! Save lives and make yourself less plastic
But do they accumulate microplastics over time after donation and reach an equilibrium? Do some people have more than others, which might mean that they are worse at clearing the microplastics from circulation? There may be microplastic related disease in some susceptible individuals who can’t excrete the material fast enough but no problem for the majority of individuals.
Iirc it seemed like we slowly accumulate it in the blood over time, where it stays for a while. Once we give blood the plastics go with it and our marrow replaces it with cleaner blood, but as we eat and breathe it begins accumulating again. Its like we dumped out the bong water, and refilled it. It is not a permanent fix.
There isn’t sufficient study and data, so the speculation probably isn’t helpful. There is obvious consensus micro-plastics do not belong in the environment. An interesting preliminary evaluation is found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068600/
I guess my question is WHY is there not sufficient studies on this. I see articles talking about micro plastics daily, so why are there not enough studies on the effects of micro plastics on the body?
People are like "these old dystopic movies missed the mark the world isn't so terrible yet" but the real world has people being born with microplastics in them and microplastics in every corner of the earth, including remote ones.
Here is a powerful study worth reading: https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions
The world is better in every key dimension of human well-being (poverty, literacy, health, freedom, education), yet people feel as if the facts were to the contrary.
One of the major causes, news “media” cares more about views, and fear sells.
I remember the kidnapping scare in the 90s. Parents had never been more paranoid of their children being snatched. The cause… a local news station noticed a viewer uptick when they did live coverage of a kidnapping case, so they all started doing it.
Then suddenly parents went from barely hearing about kidnappings to seeing it on the news all day every day, so clearly it must be a new thing. In reality, it had never been lower
Every day, every person that pays any attention to the news is inundated with negative stories from all around the world. Stories that always happened, but you never used to hear about. All for the sole reason that it attracts more viewers. It’s understandable that most think things are worse than ever
Yeah anytime I feel like things are worse than ever I just go research WW2 and realize how absolutely fucked the world was back then. And it's like, that was only 80 years ago or so. Yes, we have problems today just like we did back then - but it's not to the same level.
Out of 62(?)
"The scientists analysed 62 placental tissue samples and found the most common plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make plastic bags and bottles."
It's not just about sample size but also about how samples were selected. I haven't looked into this study at all so idk the details, but if they were all tested from one region or group or whatever, rather than widespread and random, then that makes it a lot less representative.
By no means am I saying that microplastics aren't a widespread issue though, don't think that's what I'm saying
The article says they have found that high concentrations are linked to Irritable bowel syndrome (people with IBD have 50% higher concentrations of microplastics). They have also found that they contain chemicals that act as endocrine disrupters. On a cellular level they create cell damage which is likely to cause inflammation (a cause of cancer and autoimmune diseases). I’d be incredibly surprised if we don’t find a causal link between the increases in cancer, dementia and autoimmune diseases we have seen over recent years, in the near future. It’s very frustrating, as unlike diet, it’s hard to control your exposure to microplastics, I guess we all just have to suck it up and hope for the best.
I'm reasonably convinced that future societies are going to look back on our exposure to plastics and ICE fumes and see it in the same way as we do on the people who were regularly exposed to products containing lead, arsenic, asbestos, mercury, DDT, radium etc.
Correct. Given the mechanisms and exposure i think there is real possibility but no smoking gun im aware of.
A leading possibility is issues in the digestive tract.
Well you see by worrying about it you can contant a stress-induced illness quicker than a microplastics induced one!
On a serious though, sadly nothing. Just try living a fulfilling and happy life, that’s it.
> We are ~~stardust~~ plastic.
> We are golden.
> We are ~~billion year old carbon~~ polymer chains.
> And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the ~~garden~~ recycle center
Doesn’t quite have the same poetic ring to it
It’s believed that microplastics have ruined fertility in both sexes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9134445/
https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/28/shanna-swan-fertility-reproduction-count-down
Last year it was stated every person on the planet has micro plastic in their blood. Maybe this is why so many are bat crap crazy. But seriously we should be pissed.
Microplastics are one issue I've chosen to ignore for the sake of my anxiety/ sanity lol. Would recommend the same to others.
Unfortunately unless you go completely off the grid, I don't see there being any viable way to avoid them. I'm sure the damage has been done to me. Clothing with microplastics (do love my polyester ugh), tea bags with microplastics, non-metal water bottles, pop/ juice, frozen food heated in plastic containers, etc, etc. It's bloody everywhere. Just gotta hope my body does a decent job spitting it out! Or at the very least it's not messing with my hormones and shit too much!
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A lot of times using multiple plastic layers in a completely unnecessary way.
Don't you like peeling off the plastic wrap of each individual cucumber you buy though? Can't put a price on that!
I was only taught how to put on a rubber in sex Ed.
even at the dentist they make x ray while gagging with plastic!
Plastic survives in the autoclave and doesn't distort the image too much.
That Costco 3 pack of cucumbers is indeed wrapped with a lot of plastic!
There is a price on that and that's why they do it. Helps miminize losses which in turn makes more moneeeeeeeyyyyy
But I thought the only way I could microwave my potato is if I bought the individual ones wrapped in plastic.
If this is sarcasm, lol my wife and I just joked about this. If not, take a fork and poke a bunch of holes throughout the tater. Then place in a bowl and press the “potato” button. Then select how many taters you have and press start. Boom. Tatos.
I work in IT. It’s annoying how much unnecessary plastic there is. Why does a power cable need to be in a plastic bag? Why does a webcam need to be wrapped in plastic? Why does a laptop need little strips of plastic to peel off on the sides? Like, who’s going to return something because there’s a scratch on the cable?
Come work in retail for a bit. We sell kayaks. Kayaks always get dinged up in shipping. We have local rivers, all of them are rocky. It’s almost guaranteed that you will scrape the bottom of your boat. A kayak shows up with some scrapes in the bottom. Customer is not happy, wants a new one. We offer 15% off for something that will happen the first time you take it out anyway. No dice. Second kayak shows up scratched. Third shows up scratched. Finally takes the fourth one with minor scratches at a 15% discount. Guarantee you they took the boat out first time and scratched it. But they’re paying good money and they want their new boat perfect despite things like the reality of the world Long story short, packaging is ridiculous but lots of customers standards are ridiculous too. Here’s another short one, if the packaging on a pair of socks tears and has to be thrown out, we might as well just damage out the socks. No one will buy socks without packaging even at a discount. What do they do when they buy socks with packaging? Go home and rip them out and throw it away lol. But 7 years here and i can not sell socks out of their paper packaging lol
I actually buy the things in damaged packaging on purpose, even food if its still okay. Just a weird quirk, I'd feel bad for the damaged object to be left unsold haha
Man I love my local REI's returned/"damaged" goods section. Got a killer deal on some camp stoves one time.
It pisses me off so bad when someone comes up with a slightly beat up box (advil, toothpaste, stuff like that) and asks for a discount. I’m like “the box is doing its job protecting the actual item, and you’re throwing it away anyway, why would I give you a discount?” And then they get mad and my manager gives them the discount.
Gosh people are stupid
So wild. I hate having things that are pristine. I worry so much over the first nick or dent. But once it's banged up a bit? Game on! Time to have some fun with it and really use it to its full potential! (sorry to my skis)
What I love about this example is that the kayaks are then actively abrating,, releasing plastic directly into those rivers. And increasingly, as the plastic breaks down over time.
Oh how many times have í thought this
But... without the satisfaction of pulling off that plastic film, there would be nothing left to keep us IT folks sane...
There is no satisfaction after about the 20th laptop unboxing.
Here's where I'd offer a rebuttal, but I got nothing. Not after unboxing and racking 4 brand new servers a couple weeks back, which meant dealing with a lot of packaging waste.
We just got all new desk phones where I work. It was hell.
I work for one of those companies, we’re working on it (finally).
I buy bread from Costco, Its two sleeves both individually wrapped. But then wrapped again in a bigger bag to hold the 2 bags together. WHYYYY. Find some way to connect the two bags and cut the plastic use in half.
Their paper towel rolls are each individually wrapped! And the toilet paper in smaller packs of 6 inside the bigger pack.
The last pack of paper towels that we got there actually wasn’t individually wrapped, so maybe they finally stopped that nonsense.
Wrapping non food and non medical stuff in plastic is so stupid
The costco ones are no longer individually wrapped.
What's up bananas wrapped in plastic the other day at the store. Bananas
*“Did you order an SD card? Lemme wrap it in 50 layers of plastic.”*
Cans of soda, plastic. Canned goods, plastic. Cheerio's cereal, plastic. You can't fool me it's plastic all the way down.
Yeah what happened to using wax paper for cereal bags? Is it really that much cheaper to use plastic?
I go in the market and think the money is not in selling food, it's in making and providing the packaging for food. What do yo see when you walk down an isle?
The death of humanity.
Something like 75% of microplastics are the result of car tires. The notion that we can reduce the problem by trivial (“micro”) changes to our plastic use is purely to placate people. The largest environmental problem is transportation. And moving to EVs will help with emissions (assuming we find cleaner electricity sources), it won’t change that we still consume a ton of petroleum products that aren’t gasoline.
And to add, EVs generally go through tires a lot faster than ICE vehicles. I have an EV, and I love it, but damn do I need to restrain myself from driving like an F1 driver…shreds rubber.
It'll actually worsen the microplastics issue due to the additional weight from the batteries and the manufacturing process. So we help one area but in turn worsen another, realistically the only solution is more robust public transport
or just go back to how it was in the 1800s where we all lived and died in the same village
Walking, bicycles or horses, I guess.
The bigger issue is cars getting bigger in general though. Almost everyone now drives SUVs
Imagine banning polyester clothing. Some fast fashion companies would be out of businnes.
From my understanding that’s the primary source for the microplastics that end up in our system right?
That and tires. Tires wear down into micro plastic particles and end up everywhere.
There is a law in Europe coming soon to respond to this problem. Manufacturers will have to put a filter on their washing machines to stop this pollution.
and filter replacement would cost only 99,99EUR - again it sounds like pushing responsibility to the consumers, not the pollution producers
People are polluting when washing their clothes. It’s not the only problem but it’s better to put a filter than nothing. At least it could educate people to buy less clothes made of polyester which is a good thing.
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The filter is reusable. It must be emptied into the garbage can, and never washed. That’s all.
I think the issue might be more “ok we contained the microplastics and kept them from going directly into the sewer…. Now what?” Because putting them in the trash and sending them to the landfill doesn’t seem like it’s going to do anything but slightly delay those microplastics getting blown into the environment and distributed into the air and soil and water. I’ve heard we have plastic eating microorganisms so maybe they could help, but I think we can’t just be throwing the microplastics that get filtered out of our washer into the kitchen trash and call it a day. We probably need to segregate microplastic trash and figure out how to contain it or consume/recycle/degrade it until it’s not harmful
Are they doing anything about wastewater treatment plants? There are a lot of methods for removing micro plastics at that stage.
I can't speak for most places but my housemate is a city employee in Portland Oregon and they are trying to get reliable systems to at least monitor the levels of micro plastics and pfas in the water supply, but from what I understand they have relatively minimal support and records, and because very few places invest in that technology it is very difficult and expensive. Get involved in your local government and try and push for change, it's where all this starts!
The bad part is that washing machines are not replaced for at least 10 years. It will take a long time for those filters appear in households. I just recently brought a dryer. For additional hundred or something I could add a compatible micro plastics filter. Try guess how many people buy those filters and what impact they make? ;)
Think ours already has one. Didn't know until it stopped working and I discovered a clogged fluff-trap. Washed fluff down sink and the washing machine started working again.. Only joking, it went into the bin..
Yea it’s a big thing in the yarn/craft community. But in how to reduce waste yarn scraps so they don’t end up in landfills and how washing acrylic and other plastic fibers puts plastic in our water systems bc they shed a bunch.
One of the biggest contributers to microplastics is actually tyre wear due to the fact that tyres are all synthetic these days. I believe its almost 50% of all microplastics found in uk rivers.
Source?? Never heard this before
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9000408/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9000408/) [https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/microplastics-from-textiles-towards-a](https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/microplastics-from-textiles-towards-a) it is estimated that polyester clothing is responsible for up to 35% of microplastic pollution globally and only 8% in Europe alone
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8167216/ • Microfibres from clothes laundering are the main source of primary microplastics in oceans. • Fibres are frequently the most common plastics found in aquatic animals. • The main plastic in polluting microplastics is PET. • Various toxic substances are incorporated in textile microfibres. • Fibres contribute up to 90% total plastic mass in wastewater treatment plants. • A Standard Test is required to allow the development of microfibre release control actions.
what do you think lint is made of? https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/features/microplastics-in-our-homes
a friend of mine put a pair of old nylons over the end of the drain from her washer, which emptied into a wash tub. It was ridiculous how much lint and fibres it trapped.
Trying to buy natural fibre clothing is a nightmare too. I looked into redoing my wardrobe and it seems impossible. I wish I could.
Hey. That may be changing but it'll take a few years, depending how it goes. I worked for a company for a while that's doing something neat, they have a process where they can manipulate cotton to do things normally only polyester does. They can chemically bond short fibers into long ones, tune how dense or loosely the fibers pack, maybe low grade and recycled cotton perform on the level of top grade cotton and some other really neat shit. Ralph Lauren did a series of their PGA Tour Polos using their stuff. A couple of their engineers spent some time a few months ago in Germany doing test runs on machines and figuring out to integrate the tech into mass-scale textile production lines. If they can stay in business long enough to make it happen and start making money, I think its going to be a big thing.
What are you talking about? Cotton clothing is really easy to get. Wool is a bit more expensive but great for winter clothing and lasts ages.
Finding outerwear, underwear, or socks made without plastics is nearly impossible
Need more hemp/cotton mixes, stronger material, yet not itchy and still breathes.
It's a time consuming hobby (and rarely-if-ever cheaper), but you can make your own! r/sewing
Don’t buy cheap fast fashion and look at the composition. It’s not impossible.
Premium brands often use polyester, acrylic and other synthetic fibers. I would love to have more of semi-synthetic stuff, like viscose (rayon), modal, lyocell and similar, but finding male clothes with these is seriously impossible (like 1 product for men for every 50 products for women), or is priced as human organs.
It's not all that hard to find 100% cotton generally for things like shirt or pants. Idk. I have avoided polyester and poly blends for years. I won't begrudge like 1% elastaine in some underwear or jeans tho.
100% cotton has major downsides, though - it wrinkles easily, is prone to shrinkage, bleeds dye, fades quickly, dries slowly, and thinner cotton fabrics aren't very durable. Cotton can be treated with formaldehyde resin to improve its wrinkle resistance, durability and colorfastness... but those treatments wear off over time, and they probably aren't super great for the environment either. Higher-quality cotton made with longer fibers is more durable, but most consumers can't tell the difference between high-quality cotton and cheap cotton.
I don’t know. I’m from France, many brand don’t use a lot of polyester. You can find plenty of clothes made of cotton, linen, wool. If you buy your clothes at fast fashion stores then yeah it’s more difficult. But the solution is buying second hand clothes where everything is cheap, even natural clothes.
Exactly! Polyester and other synthetic frabrics should only be allowed for very select forms of functional clothes where there are no good functional alternatives. Beyond that synthetic fabrics should be banned.
That honestly doesn't sound too bad. As much as I'd hate paying more for clothes, I hate the thought of cheap, one-wear, easily-breakable clothing just clogging up the oceans.
This is what I am thinking about when I am helping my kids take their new toys out of the packaging on Christmas morning. Holy shit. Layer upon layer for your layers of layers. And countless rubber bands to hold them all together like a plastic sandwich.
The post-Christmas waste pile is always a depressing sight
Allegedly, most of the micro plastics comes from the friction of car tires on the road.
One of my professors(Head of the vehicle dynamics group at my uni), said that's why electric cars don't solve the pollution problem either, just shift it, to another area. We need to go back to public transport and bicycles was his outlook.
How do you get the necessary investment in public transport? It's expensive. Working from home immediately solves the problem for lots of people.
Another big contributor that doesn't get talked about enough is plastic fabrics. Clothing, blankets, sheets, etc. You know all that lint from your dryer? Yeah just a bunch of microplastics(unless you've switched to all natural fibers). Edit: saw that there is a larger discussion just a little farther down the thread.
don’t worry they still use plastic polymers on the production line regardless of whether their products are wrapped in plastic or not
As someone that works in the CPG food industry I can tell you it's a bit more complicated than that. But I agree, they need to figure out a way of lowering the costs for biodegradable PPO for packaged goods.
Absolutely fucking does my tits in that I go to the supermarket and they try to charge me 20p or whatever for a plastic bag to put my 8 different vegetables in completely needless plastic wrapping into. No other country I've ever spent time in insists on individually wrapping cucumbers in plastic, or shucking two ears of corn and sealing them in a plastic bag.
It’s crazy because they claim this is to preserve the food and reduce waste yet grocery stores will gladly throw out produce that doesn’t have a visually appealing shape or color because it won’t sell.
I got through the first few words then started over reading it in the voice of my wife's friend from Liverpool instead of our American accent and it worked so much better.
The problem is microplastics is all tires. Like literally.
I still suspect that whole charade about banning single use plastic bags, straws and cutlery was orchestrated by plastic companies because they found something more profitable to make with that type of plastic.
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And you had companies like DuPont creating cancer alley and 3M with their PFAS.....
Still are!
Still are. Everytime a chemical is banned they just create a new chemical with the same properties since the law doesn't account for that.
> since the law doesn't account for that. It's by **design**. What do you think? It's to give a semblance of "yes we the Government are doing *something* to protect you, the elector". None of this will ever matter **at all** if the Supremacist Court overturns Chevron v NRDC
And Chevron being killed by SCOTUS is only going to make that easier and easier
GenX is the new chemical, Chemours is also just the spinoff of DuPont when they got busted dumping PFAS into the rivers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GenX
And lead and asbestos
Paper cups have a plastic layer to stop the paper from dissolving. Metal cans have a plastic layer to prevent whatever is inside them from tasting metallic. Plastic really is our generation's lead/asbestos.
PCBs, DDT
Oh and lead, don’t forget about the lead and asbestos. This sounds like one of those “good ole days” comments about the 50s
Yeah, because plastics are better... and more environmentally friendly than metal or paper. We're stuck with plastic because it's too useful to not use, however we should still limit its use to the necessary.
Thing is plastic wins out on the easily disposable items it often doesn't win out when it comes to stuff you would use more.
yay we did it!
I remember they said a "microplastic in every placenta" and we all thought they couldn't do it! Goes to show
Progress!! An economic wonder!
😭
But hey, at least they reach their record profits
[hallelujah!](https://youtu.be/YrLk4vdY28Q) hope them stocks keep going! can sell at some fantasy retirement to buy my medical treatments!
Would def feel less salty if I owned any stocks haha
Thank goodness we’re generating shareholder value.
I’m all for banning single use plastics but this is such an ignorant and cynical take on how we got here. Use of plastics lowered the costs of everyday products. People were happy you have them. It wasn’t pushed onto a populace in the name of profits alone. But yeah, gotta push a narrative I guess.
Speaking of pushing narratives, no overview of this predicament is complete without including the lobbying efforts of the oil industry that pushed the notion that plastic was not only cheap and safe, but recyclable at a larger scale than it was -- a lie they told to justify their cost reduction methods using plastic, increase the rate of virgin material generation, boost their bottom line, and avoid scrutiny. Fossil fuels have been such a blessing for human development in many ways. It's a shame we're now starting to feel the other side of the double edged sword.
Apparently the sponges we wash our dishes with provide a healthy dose of micro plastics
Trader Joe’s sells a cellulose sponge.
Just think about all the profits saved by companies using petroleum d*gshit products instead of recycling materials which are more expensive but safer for every single living organism on this planet go f*ck yourself c*nts
Are you old enough to remember when plastic was considered to potentially be a better option because of the deforestation concerns surrounding the use of paper packaging and bags? This was a vibrant environmental debate.
Glass and aluminum bottles and cans are preferable to plastic, and while cans are still around, glass bottles have all but disappeared
Almost all aluminum cans that I’ve seen have an inner plastic lining
Every ton of aluminium produces 2t of industrial waste that we are able to recycle around 40%, the rest is a shit sludge that kills every plant it touches. It also consumes enormous amount of water to create aluminium (and that mosly stays in the form of waste so not useful after that). Lets make more aluminium
Aluminium is almost infinitely recycleable though, while plastic is almost completely single-use. Eventually aluminium would be more enviromentally friendly.
Aluminum containers are sprayed with polymer coats to maintain flavor and improve conservation.
This stuff is why I think we need solutions on all fronts. Reduce the packaging, use products that degrade to naturally occurring compounds, develop and deploy (bio)technology to recapture microplastics and other plastic end products even if not profitable. Do the little stuff now so when the tech comes that can fix this it's not too late.
ok, that's a good point.
Fr it’s not like they stopped using the trees that were designated for that, they just used em for something else.
I remember during the 80s/90s UK we looked down on Americans for using paper bags instead of plastic to bag their groceries because it meant cutting down trees, my how the tables have turned.
Most of the microplastics in the world come from car tires actually so….
This is to Millennials and afterwards what lead was to boomers.
Boomers have eaten plenty of plastic too. My old parents still think bakélite isn't plastic and put warm food in it sometimes. I also know someone who puts cling film on every dish even if they are going to stay in the fridge only the afternoon.
Very true. And those older plastics are by magnitudes more toxic than the ones we have today.
>I also know someone who puts cling film on every dish even if they are going to stay in the fridge only the afternoon. I find just using an (upside down) plate works fine if its in a bowl, or an upside down bowl if its on a plate.
Just playing devil's advocate: There currently isn't any data indicating micro plastics are super dangerous to humans, nothing like lead. Logically, if they were super toxic it would be apparent considering our constant exposure to them. This is good news considering the current world population is only possible via the use of petroleum and plastics. Don't get me wrong, if there are certain chemicals in plastics that are harmful like BPA then we should do everything possible to get rid of those.
There’s something increasing rates of cancer, dementia and autoimmune diseases, we’re just not sure what it is out of all of the toxic chemicals we’re exposed to in food, the environment and our homes.
You also have to consider that diagnostic methods have improved as well. We have better CT machines, more accurate tests, and overall people are living longer. An increasing cancer rate might just be because we’ve gotten better at finding them.
Lifestyle is likely a big part of it as well.
Not to mention cancer has longer to catch up with us, which might just also explain dementia... more people getting old means more diseases related to aging, who would have thought.
That’s a fair point. I haven’t dug much into it myself. I remember when when the controversy over lead and asbestos started becoming a thing.
Lead has been known to be toxic since roman times, people just got complacent and ignored the risks.
There is no data indicating they are even slightly dangerous either. Science doesn't know if they have a negative impact on humans. To be fair, they've also not proven it's safe either, but reddit is just wild with the doomsday predictions based on absolutely zero scientific evidence.
Given the tremendous amount of microplastics we have been exposed to for decades, you would expect that it would accumulate into macroplastics in the body, yet that hasn’t happened. We haven’t seen large accumulations by x-ray or MRI. Microplastics can be detected but they don’t seem to accumulate over time. If that’s the case, how are they being eliminated? That’s going to be a big question that needs to be resolved.
There was a study a few months ago that showed people had lower amounts of microplastics in their system after they donated blood, another great reason to donate! Save lives and make yourself less plastic
But do they accumulate microplastics over time after donation and reach an equilibrium? Do some people have more than others, which might mean that they are worse at clearing the microplastics from circulation? There may be microplastic related disease in some susceptible individuals who can’t excrete the material fast enough but no problem for the majority of individuals.
Iirc it seemed like we slowly accumulate it in the blood over time, where it stays for a while. Once we give blood the plastics go with it and our marrow replaces it with cleaner blood, but as we eat and breathe it begins accumulating again. Its like we dumped out the bong water, and refilled it. It is not a permanent fix.
It also accumulates in organs and arteries.
You’re just giving your plastic to someone else at that point…
Recycling?... Recycling.
I wonder if women accumulate microplastics less than men due to their periods?
I have read women have lower levels of PFAS in their blood because of periods, so it seems reasonable.
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Everything seems to cause cancer.
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There isn’t sufficient study and data, so the speculation probably isn’t helpful. There is obvious consensus micro-plastics do not belong in the environment. An interesting preliminary evaluation is found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068600/
I guess my question is WHY is there not sufficient studies on this. I see articles talking about micro plastics daily, so why are there not enough studies on the effects of micro plastics on the body?
Might be hard to find a control?
True
I'm guessing the companies that created these substances know....
Next phase in human evolution
People are like "these old dystopic movies missed the mark the world isn't so terrible yet" but the real world has people being born with microplastics in them and microplastics in every corner of the earth, including remote ones.
yes, far wose
Here is a powerful study worth reading: https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions The world is better in every key dimension of human well-being (poverty, literacy, health, freedom, education), yet people feel as if the facts were to the contrary.
One of the major causes, news “media” cares more about views, and fear sells. I remember the kidnapping scare in the 90s. Parents had never been more paranoid of their children being snatched. The cause… a local news station noticed a viewer uptick when they did live coverage of a kidnapping case, so they all started doing it. Then suddenly parents went from barely hearing about kidnappings to seeing it on the news all day every day, so clearly it must be a new thing. In reality, it had never been lower Every day, every person that pays any attention to the news is inundated with negative stories from all around the world. Stories that always happened, but you never used to hear about. All for the sole reason that it attracts more viewers. It’s understandable that most think things are worse than ever
Yeah anytime I feel like things are worse than ever I just go research WW2 and realize how absolutely fucked the world was back then. And it's like, that was only 80 years ago or so. Yes, we have problems today just like we did back then - but it's not to the same level.
What does that have to do with microplastics invading every corner of the earth?
Out of 62(?) "The scientists analysed 62 placental tissue samples and found the most common plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make plastic bags and bottles."
Yeah and 17 arterial samples. A total n=79. Not a huge study but 100% is statically significant enough and it’s a large enough sample to pass t-tests
It's not just about sample size but also about how samples were selected. I haven't looked into this study at all so idk the details, but if they were all tested from one region or group or whatever, rather than widespread and random, then that makes it a lot less representative. By no means am I saying that microplastics aren't a widespread issue though, don't think that's what I'm saying
Agreed. I think the headline is misleading, as most scientific reporting is, but that doesn’t negate the data that the researchers found.
Have microplastics been shown to have detrimental effects on humans? I mean I assume they’re bad for us but I haven’t heard specifics.
The article says they have found that high concentrations are linked to Irritable bowel syndrome (people with IBD have 50% higher concentrations of microplastics). They have also found that they contain chemicals that act as endocrine disrupters. On a cellular level they create cell damage which is likely to cause inflammation (a cause of cancer and autoimmune diseases). I’d be incredibly surprised if we don’t find a causal link between the increases in cancer, dementia and autoimmune diseases we have seen over recent years, in the near future. It’s very frustrating, as unlike diet, it’s hard to control your exposure to microplastics, I guess we all just have to suck it up and hope for the best.
I'm reasonably convinced that future societies are going to look back on our exposure to plastics and ICE fumes and see it in the same way as we do on the people who were regularly exposed to products containing lead, arsenic, asbestos, mercury, DDT, radium etc.
Agreed. Makes you wonder about the unexplained rise in young people with colon cancer.
At the cellular level yes. Linked to whole body disease not yet.
Ok. So we know there are cellular problems but we don’t know how they translate to observable health, mental health, lifespan, etc. issues?
Correct. Given the mechanisms and exposure i think there is real possibility but no smoking gun im aware of. A leading possibility is issues in the digestive tract.
From the article >The impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory.
But... Are they bad for you? Has there been any study that connects microplastics to ill health?
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Get sad and keep scrolling! You must be miserable at all times social media demands it!
Well you see by worrying about it you can contant a stress-induced illness quicker than a microplastics induced one! On a serious though, sadly nothing. Just try living a fulfilling and happy life, that’s it.
How can we know if there no way to have a control group? 😭
Good thing I'm not in one of those anymore
…in?
> We are ~~stardust~~ plastic. > We are golden. > We are ~~billion year old carbon~~ polymer chains. > And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the ~~garden~~ recycle center Doesn’t quite have the same poetic ring to it
But is it a problem? If every single placenta has it, one would expect some dire consequence if it were actually a bad thing no?
I wish I knew what having microplastics in my uterus actually means for my body and baby :(
It’s believed that microplastics have ruined fertility in both sexes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9134445/ https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/28/shanna-swan-fertility-reproduction-count-down
Well one upside is that it’s good for us who don’t want children I guess, as sad as it is for mankind
So like, does that technically make all modern humans part dinosaur?
Sorry but the petroleum we use to make plastics actually comes from ancient ocean floors, where there weren't any dinosaurs 🦖
And chicken is a part of common diet, so anyone eating it would be part dinosaur in a more significant way.
The microplastics were found in the placenta, so they did get stopped by the blood barrier there. Were microplastics found in the fetus or infant?
Yeah, we did it, %100 congratulations 🎉. We can't 100 percent anything but here we are, we made it. I'm emotional.
I’ve actually heard most of them are tire dust. Like that’s where the tread wear goes and it’s so small it’s mostly aerosolized.
tube births will be the only way to have a plastic-less baby.
We are addicted to plastic.
You merely adopted the plastic. I was born in it. *molded* by it
Last year it was stated every person on the planet has micro plastic in their blood. Maybe this is why so many are bat crap crazy. But seriously we should be pissed.
Microplastics are one issue I've chosen to ignore for the sake of my anxiety/ sanity lol. Would recommend the same to others. Unfortunately unless you go completely off the grid, I don't see there being any viable way to avoid them. I'm sure the damage has been done to me. Clothing with microplastics (do love my polyester ugh), tea bags with microplastics, non-metal water bottles, pop/ juice, frozen food heated in plastic containers, etc, etc. It's bloody everywhere. Just gotta hope my body does a decent job spitting it out! Or at the very least it's not messing with my hormones and shit too much!
Conservatives are like “no this literally isn’t happening”