this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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[–] Cagi@lemmy.ca 96 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Or several trillion very small problems.

[–] Slovene@feddit.nl 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

We're all trillionaires! πŸŽ‰

[–] brrt@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

~~Diamond~~ Plastic Hands πŸ™Œ To ~~the~~ ~~moon~~ ~~ocean~~ our bodies! πŸš€

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[–] erlend_sh@lemmy.world 73 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Studies have identified some of the main sources of microplastics as:

  • plastic-coated fertilisers
  • plastic film used as mulch in agriculture

WTF?

  • plastics recycling.

Uuuuh…

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)
  • plastic film used as mulch in agriculture

Wtf. Where and why?!

[–] SuperCub@sh.itjust.works 65 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

It's the black plastic bag material that people used to cover their soil and poke holes through for their crops.

I never thought it was called plastic mulch though.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 20 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It serves the same purpose as actual mulch, which is blocking out weeds

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[–] kurwa@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Plastic was never meant to be recycled.

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[–] 0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 68 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Maybe global warming will melt all the microplastics into one big macroplastic and that problem will be 100% solved.

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 63 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Biggest sources:

  • 7.6 Mt from macro plastics breaking down
  • 1.3 Mt from paint
  • 1.0 Mt from tyres

10-40 Mt released into environment/year, and increasing.

[–] Delusional@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I'm kinda surprised that more comes from paint than tires.

[–] ChilledPeppers@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think it depends on measure, if im not mistaken, by weight arohnd 50% of microplastics are tire dust.

[–] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Also depends on where you’re measuring. They make up a ton of the plastics in stormwater runoff for example. Sometimes up to 95% from what I found. And that stormwater often ends up in our drinking water.

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[–] ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world 54 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Over 80% of microolastic production coming from macro plastic breakdown feels pretty bleak.

[–] dexa_scantron@lemmy.world 45 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Plastics industry: "See?! We told you plastic decomposes and doesn't just stay in landfills forever. Happy now?"

[–] ericjmorey@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

I am not happy now.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 49 points 11 months ago (4 children)

A race to see what will kill the most of us first. The plastic or anthropogenic climate change.

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[–] bassomitron@lemmy.world 49 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The UN's Global Plastics Treaty is certainly a step in the right direction. I'm not sure what can actually be done about the problem, especially with how pervasive synthetic materials are throughout the world. And what is medicine supposed to do? Plastics revolutionized sanitation, particularly in the medical field. Very complicated issue to resolve.

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 39 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There are certain industries, like medical, that would probably be one of the last, if ever, to do away with plastic, simply due to the upsides. The only option we have as a species is to create a truly biodegradable, non-toxic, easily obtainable and cheap to produce alternative.

Haha who am I kidding, we are fucked, plastic manufacturers go brrrrrrrrr.

[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 7 points 11 months ago

Medical and electrical insulation. Two places where plastics are better than the alternatives.

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[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Plastic-coated fertilisers?

Rally?

WTF do we need plastic-coated fertilisers for?

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

to grow plastic infused plants, of course

[–] runeko@programming.dev 9 points 11 months ago

Now sit down and eat your plasti-corn. There are children in other countries that have to eat normal corn.

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[–] Regna@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The article was very well written. Unfortunately, 90% of the people I’d forward it to would be TLDR…

[–] brrt@sh.itjust.works 19 points 11 months ago

The 7000 papers were really well written. Unfortunately, 90% of the people I’d forward them to would be article…

[–] Egg_Egg@lemm.ee 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There are many reasons we are screwed as a species. There's pretty much nothing I can do about it, unfortunately.

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I'll go jerk off for a bit, maybe it'll be better by the time I m done

[–] Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not much is going to get better in 12 seconds.

[–] Zozano@lemy.lol 14 points 11 months ago

It's my fourth time today, it's gonna be a bit...

[–] Egg_Egg@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

Now you're speaking my language, come and shake my hand... actually, nevermind.

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[–] ericjmorey@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Rather than take a defeatist veiw from this line if thinking, it will do well for your mental health to first spend more time, energy and thoughts on things you can control. Not just things related to environmentalism, but broadly reduce energy, engagement and focus from the things you don't have significant control over and direct them to those things you do have control. It's good to get a broad picture and observe the world around you outside of your control in small doses, but it's easy to over indulge in an unfocused survey of problems in the world, especially on social media. (I include Lemmy communities in the social media category).

Furthermore, when you do engage with these problems, do so with more narrow focus and in more depth with an eye towards understanding the level of impact the problem has and what organizations or policy positions you can support to amplify your limited influence over the issues that causee the problem. In this way you can mitigate the feelings of helplessness and sense of there being many existential and imminent problems you need to contend with but cannot remedy. You can turn seemingly untouchable solutions into real possibilities without overwhelming your emotional capacity by working with others.

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[–] FatTony@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Can't we just inject ourselves with plastic eating bacteria or something?

[–] SassyRamen@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We just need to turn up the UV lights voltage and melt the plastic out. Is that something we could look into?

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

We are the plastic eating bacteria.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If we knew of bacteria that cleanly ate plastic, we probably wouldn't be riddled with micro plastics πŸ˜‰

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[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 9 points 11 months ago

I find little shards of plastic in the vegetables from the supplier at work quite often. Sometimes I plate a dish and spot a bit of blue where it shouldn't be.

[–] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

Yummm, fruity pebbles

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

And yet doctors insist I'm not getting enough fiber!

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