963
Sea Urchins (i.ibb.co)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Where's the image gone?

[-] [email protected] 42 points 1 week ago

Do the prints slowly release microplastics into the water that kill the urchins?

[-] [email protected] 75 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If they used PLA(made of cornstarch) which is common for fdm 3d printing then theres no threat of microplastics from what ive read. it is biodegradable, but very slowly.

[-] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago

Makes sense. People that are serious about fish tanks don't mess around

[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago

Especially saltwater, that shits expensive

[-] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago

I doubt it's 100% cornsarch. I work in the plastics industry and there's all sorts of travesties going on. We also have a line of cornstarch-made products, but they're all scams when it comes to "recycling" and "being biodegradable".

There's definitely plastic in it.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

Polylactic acid is made via condensation of lactic acid, which can be made entirely from corn. It's still plastic, but just made from renewable sources. It's pretty recyclable and can be industrially composted, but in normal conditions it lasts as long as any other plastic.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

but in normal conditions it lasts as long as any other plastic.

I am by no means an expert on the subject, but isn't this basically the entire problem with plastic in the first place?

It's nice that this stuff is renewable and recyclable, but if it isn't properly recycled, it sounds like we're going to have the same problem we already have with existing plastics.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah no, it's only marginally better. All my information comes from 3d printing, which is even worse since there's no way to recycle it since no recycling symbol. More accessible industrial composting would help though

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

there's no way to recycle it since no recycling symbol

I wonder if you could get away with 3D printing the recycling symbol on whatever you're printing. As long as the symbol/number match the materials I don't see why it would be a problem.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

PLA doesn't last long. It starts to fall apart after a few months of exposure to sunlight in otherwise completely sterile environment. It is also easily compostable in hot industrial composters. It is also digestible by mammals, thus its micro particles are not an issue.

[-] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago

I don't know what you are doing in the plastics industry, but it seems that you don't understand what words "biodegradable" and "plastic" mean.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

PLA is biodegradable. Just only under industrial conposter conditions so yeah still a problem.

But a plastic is just a chain of polymers, it makes it difficult but not impossible to biodegradability depending on chemical and structure. Almost all plastics don't but some do

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

From what I've read PLA is only biodegradable under very specific conditions. I looked into it and you have to send it to a recycling center designed for PLA and its expensive to do so. I would assume microplastics would still be present too. Even though it can be sourced from plant matter its still plastic.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

PLA is digestible, it doesn't pose a microplastic threat. If it gets into you, it'll become a part of your poop.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

About the same level of concern that feeding your dog dry food is. If not even smaller.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

But how can I push an agenda if it doesn't?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

ah yes the horrible agenda of "hey can we maybe not add even more microplastics to our environment?"

[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

Of course, for that is the way of things

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Probably a lot less than what's in the ocean!

[-] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago

There's something terrifying about a sea urchin wearing a hat slowly approaching you.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

At any point in time there is an urchin getting closer to you

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

But it's distance to you is not monotonic so it's alllll goooood.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Scale it up and it's a Dark Souls boss

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Covetous demon inspiration finally revealed

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

YEEEEE AWWWWW

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago
[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

In Stardew Valley, you can put hats on sea urchins if you put them in an aquarium.

this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2024
963 points (99.5% liked)

aww

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