this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
517 points (98.3% liked)

science

15021 readers
820 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
laverabe
m3t00
Joleee
[email protected]
517
7,000 Microplastics Studies Show We Have One Really Big Problem (www.sciencealert.com)
submitted 3 months ago by just_another_person to c/science
96 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] erlend_sh 73 points 3 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…

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (2 children)
  • plastic film used as mulch in agriculture

Wtf. Where and why?!

[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but mulch has the meaning of ground up wood, so I think most people would think it was ground up plastics.

[–] capital_sniff 0 points 3 months ago

If it was ground up plastic it would probably just get carried off by the wind.

[–] tb_ 5 points 3 months ago

Or plastic greenhouses

[–] ikidd 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)
[–] kurwa 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Plastic was never meant to be recycled.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So, what you're telling us is, they've been lying for decades?

[–] MataVatnik 3 points 3 months ago

Yup passing on the responsibility from the manufacturer to the consumer

[–] ConstantPain 1 points 3 months ago

Other great source of plastics are synthetic fabrics. It releases a lot of micro particles in the water during washing and drying cycles.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Have you seen the process used in plastic recycling? The plastic is literally triturated into tiny bits before being heated up for the next stages.

Edit: why the downvotes? I'm just trying to give some context on why plastic recycling is a great source of microplastics