A race to see what will kill the most of us first. The plastic or anthropogenic climate change.
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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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.
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…
Plastic was never meant to be recycled.
- 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
Yes, but mulch has the meaning of ground up wood, so I think most people would think it was ground up plastics.
Or plastic greenhouses
Yep
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.
Maybe global warming will melt all the microplastics into one big macroplastic and that problem will be 100% solved.
Do our testicles all melt together?
Yummm, fruity pebbles
Or several trillion very small problems.
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 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.
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.
And yet doctors insist I'm not getting enough fiber!
The article was very well written. Unfortunately, 90% of the people I’d forward it to would be TLDR…
The 7000 papers were really well written. Unfortunately, 90% of the people I’d forward them to would be article…
Out of curiosotiy where would something like 3D printing be placed?
Not significantly contributing to the global problem, but you might inhale some. Don’t sand your prints for sure.
Or wear a respirator while you sand...
While a problem yes, miniscule compared to industrial waste
I think they meant personally, not global.
well, dont huff your prints or put them in your mouth or other body orifices. Pretty simple
PLA I think just breaks down into lactic acid eventually, but the ABS probably isnt so good
It only breaks down under industrial environments. It's not as "biodegradable" as claimed. I use PETG because I can recycle it with normal plastics recycling.
Thanks this makese.feel.better about pla printing
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