At the beginning of the year, I made it a point to try to eliminate unnecessary plastics from my life. I fully understand I won’t save the world by doing this, but it feels right to try, you know?...
Exemplary
At the beginning of the year, I made it a point to try to eliminate unnecessary plastics from my life. I fully understand I won’t save the world by doing this, but it feels right to try, you know?
What was eye-opening was just how omnipresent plastic is, and how much of it we go through. I’ve done a lot to cut down and still churn through a surprising amount from food alone. Also, deliberately looking for plastic has helped me see how much surplus plastic there is. Prior to my cutting back I had bought a bulk pack of plastic sponges, each of which were individually wrapped in plastic, inside of a larger plastic casing. Plastic protecting plastic protecting plastic. It’s plastic all the way down.
Once you start looking for plastic you see it everywhere. I fully understand why. It’s cheap, convenient, and durable. It can do and be pretty much anything. It enables many of the modern comforts we take for granted, at prices we can afford. I’ve started looking into better, more environmentally friendly and sustainable fabrics, and it’s astounding what things cost when they’re made with plants and not petroleum byproducts (and by people making a living wage instead of slave labor).
I wish we had a solid exit strategy for plastics, but I fear there’s just nothing comparable — no easy replacement for the everything that they do and at the very little it costs them to do it.
The short version - plastic doesn't break down. Ever. It just breaks up again and again until it's invisibly small micro-plastic particles. Now it's literally raining and snowing plastic......
The short version - plastic doesn't break down. Ever. It just breaks up again and again until it's invisibly small micro-plastic particles. Now it's literally raining and snowing plastic... everywhere, even the arctic.
That means it is in all food supplies. Because of that, anything that eats lots of other plants and animals is going to have higher concentrations of these plastics as they come in the food and water then get stuck in the body. Predators will get the worst of it since the effect intensifies the higher up the food chain you go as the plastic concentrates in those organisms (including us). I expect we'll be seeing an entire class of 'plastic toxicity' diseases in animals and humans over the coming years.
This is going to continue until nature evolves organisms that can actually eat and process the stuff and they become widespread enough to clean up the mess. There's a lot of energy in those plastics, if a biological organism can learn to harness it.
Though, one reason a plastic might be chosen over another material is that it doesn’t break down (when in use). If bacteria started eating it then something else might be used. For 3D printing,...
Though, one reason a plastic might be chosen over another material is that it doesn’t break down (when in use). If bacteria started eating it then something else might be used.
For 3D printing, most people start out using PLA which is technically biodegradable but it also breaks down in sunlight and high temperatures.
I think it took nature about 60 million years to learn how to break down cellulose... That time period is basically where all the coal is from, before fungi and bacteria were able to chew stuff up...
I think it took nature about 60 million years to learn how to break down cellulose... That time period is basically where all the coal is from, before fungi and bacteria were able to chew stuff up but after trees started sprouting up :)
Very pessimistic take. Organisms can evolve extremely quickly given the right circumstances, and the current state of plastic pollution is likely one of those "right circumstances". Here's some...
Very pessimistic take. Organisms can evolve extremely quickly given the right circumstances, and the current state of plastic pollution is likely one of those "right circumstances".
The bacteria in the pacific garbage patch already have an entire ecosystem of their own that eats plastic. They don't waste much time, and the oceans have (conservatively) trillions of bacterium...
The bacteria in the pacific garbage patch already have an entire ecosystem of their own that eats plastic. They don't waste much time, and the oceans have (conservatively) trillions of bacterium that are still unknown to science.
I couldn't find much info on how severe these health effects will be. I know many kinds of plastic have toxic additives, but given the current lack of evidence maybe they have already leached out,...
I couldn't find much info on how severe these health effects will be.
I know many kinds of plastic have toxic additives, but given the current lack of evidence maybe they have already leached out, or just aren't present in great enough concentrations yet?
Well, let's just call it one more selling point for lab-grown meats and indoor farming. At least in those environments it should be possible to keep the contamination minimized.
Well, let's just call it one more selling point for lab-grown meats and indoor farming. At least in those environments it should be possible to keep the contamination minimized.
At the beginning of the year, I made it a point to try to eliminate unnecessary plastics from my life. I fully understand I won’t save the world by doing this, but it feels right to try, you know?
What was eye-opening was just how omnipresent plastic is, and how much of it we go through. I’ve done a lot to cut down and still churn through a surprising amount from food alone. Also, deliberately looking for plastic has helped me see how much surplus plastic there is. Prior to my cutting back I had bought a bulk pack of plastic sponges, each of which were individually wrapped in plastic, inside of a larger plastic casing. Plastic protecting plastic protecting plastic. It’s plastic all the way down.
The biggest discovery for me though was clothing and fabrics. Polyester? A huge source of microplastics. I had no idea.
Once you start looking for plastic you see it everywhere. I fully understand why. It’s cheap, convenient, and durable. It can do and be pretty much anything. It enables many of the modern comforts we take for granted, at prices we can afford. I’ve started looking into better, more environmentally friendly and sustainable fabrics, and it’s astounding what things cost when they’re made with plants and not petroleum byproducts (and by people making a living wage instead of slave labor).
I wish we had a solid exit strategy for plastics, but I fear there’s just nothing comparable — no easy replacement for the everything that they do and at the very little it costs them to do it.
I'm not going to pretend like I really understand what's going on here, but this seems bad.
The short version - plastic doesn't break down. Ever. It just breaks up again and again until it's invisibly small micro-plastic particles. Now it's literally raining and snowing plastic... everywhere, even the arctic.
That means it is in all food supplies. Because of that, anything that eats lots of other plants and animals is going to have higher concentrations of these plastics as they come in the food and water then get stuck in the body. Predators will get the worst of it since the effect intensifies the higher up the food chain you go as the plastic concentrates in those organisms (including us). I expect we'll be seeing an entire class of 'plastic toxicity' diseases in animals and humans over the coming years.
This is going to continue until nature evolves organisms that can actually eat and process the stuff and they become widespread enough to clean up the mess. There's a lot of energy in those plastics, if a biological organism can learn to harness it.
Though, one reason a plastic might be chosen over another material is that it doesn’t break down (when in use). If bacteria started eating it then something else might be used.
For 3D printing, most people start out using PLA which is technically biodegradable but it also breaks down in sunlight and high temperatures.
I think it took nature about 60 million years to learn how to break down cellulose... That time period is basically where all the coal is from, before fungi and bacteria were able to chew stuff up but after trees started sprouting up :)
Very pessimistic take. Organisms can evolve extremely quickly given the right circumstances, and the current state of plastic pollution is likely one of those "right circumstances".
Here's some news from March of this year on plastivore waxworms (you may have heard of it as it made a few headlines at the time… though most of the news was worried about something else at the time): https://www.brandonu.ca/news/2020/03/04/plastivores-remarkable-waxworms-devour-plastic-waste-in-bu-study/
The bacteria in the pacific garbage patch already have an entire ecosystem of their own that eats plastic. They don't waste much time, and the oceans have (conservatively) trillions of bacterium that are still unknown to science.
I couldn't find much info on how severe these health effects will be.
I know many kinds of plastic have toxic additives, but given the current lack of evidence maybe they have already leached out, or just aren't present in great enough concentrations yet?
Well, let's just call it one more selling point for lab-grown meats and indoor farming. At least in those environments it should be possible to keep the contamination minimized.