Or several trillion very small problems.
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
515 points (98.1% liked)
science
21821 readers
135 users here now
A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.
rule #1: be kind
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
We're all trillionaires! π
~~Diamond~~ Plastic Hands π To ~~the~~ ~~moon~~ ~~ocean~~ our bodies! π
load more comments
(1 replies)
Studies have identified some of the main sources of microplastics as:
- plastic-coated fertilisers
- plastic film used as mulch in agriculture
WTF?
- plastics recycling.
Uuuuhβ¦
- plastic film used as mulch in agriculture
Wtf. Where and why?!
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.
It serves the same purpose as actual mulch, which is blocking out weeds
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Like, everywhere?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=plastic+film+used+as+mulch+in+agriculture
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Maybe global warming will melt all the microplastics into one big macroplastic and that problem will be 100% solved.
load more comments
(1 replies)
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.
I'm kinda surprised that more comes from paint than tires.
I think it depends on measure, if im not mistaken, by weight arohnd 50% of microplastics are tire dust.
Also depends on where youβre 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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Over 80% of microolastic production coming from macro plastic breakdown feels pretty bleak.
Plastics industry: "See?! We told you plastic decomposes and doesn't just stay in landfills forever. Happy now?"
I am not happy now.
A race to see what will kill the most of us first. The plastic or anthropogenic climate change.
load more comments
(4 replies)
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.
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.
Medical and electrical insulation. Two places where plastics are better than the alternatives.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Plastic-coated fertilisers?
Rally?
WTF do we need plastic-coated fertilisers for?
to grow plastic infused plants, of course
Now sit down and eat your plasti-corn. There are children in other countries that have to eat normal corn.
load more comments
(1 replies)
The article was very well written. Unfortunately, 90% of the people Iβd forward it to would be TLDRβ¦
The 7000 papers were really well written. Unfortunately, 90% of the people Iβd forward them to would be articleβ¦
There are many reasons we are screwed as a species. There's pretty much nothing I can do about it, unfortunately.
I'll go jerk off for a bit, maybe it'll be better by the time I m done
Not much is going to get better in 12 seconds.
It's my fourth time today, it's gonna be a bit...
Now you're speaking my language, come and shake my hand... actually, nevermind.
load more comments
(2 replies)
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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Can't we just inject ourselves with plastic eating bacteria or something?
We just need to turn up the UV lights voltage and melt the plastic out. Is that something we could look into?
We are the plastic eating bacteria.
If we knew of bacteria that cleanly ate plastic, we probably wouldn't be riddled with micro plastics π
load more comments
(2 replies)
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.
Yummm, fruity pebbles
And yet doctors insist I'm not getting enough fiber!
view more: next βΊ