this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 96 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Or several trillion very small problems.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (2 children)

We're all trillionaires! πŸŽ‰

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

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

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[–] 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 (2 children)

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

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[–] ikidd 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] kurwa 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Plastic was never meant to be recycled.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] Brunbrun6766 19 points 3 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 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 19 points 3 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] ChilledPeppers 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] CleoTheWizard 6 points 3 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 54 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] dexa_scantron 45 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] ericjmorey 12 points 3 months ago

I am not happy now.

[–] RememberTheApollo_ 49 points 3 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 49 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

a truly biodegradable, non-toxic, easily obtainable and cheap to produce alternative

Fungi.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

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

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[–] masquenox 29 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Plastic-coated fertilisers?

Rally?

WTF do we need plastic-coated fertilisers for?

[–] glitchdx 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

to grow plastic infused plants, of course

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 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 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 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 22 points 3 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not much is going to get better in 12 seconds.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

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

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[–] ericjmorey 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 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 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] SassyRamen 24 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 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 16 points 3 months ago

We are the plastic eating bacteria.

[–] just_another_person 5 points 3 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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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

So what does it do? Cancer?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

In regards to humans, progress is being made. In coming years, expect greater clarity about effects on our bodies such as:

  • inflammation
  • oxidative stress (an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants that damages cells)
  • immune responses
  • genotoxicity – damage to the genetic information in a cell that causes mutations, which can lead to cancer.

TL;DR yes, cancer. It also fucks with wildlife (blocking intestines, giving off poison)

[–] wabafee 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Good chance it probably is, possibly increase chance for asthma, chance for heart attack, another is it probably makes us infertile probably a good thing depending how you think of it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is this stuff you know or are you guessing?

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[–] Smoogs 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It’s making men infertile. theres even a shortage of viable sperm today around the world

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

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

[–] FilthyShrooms 8 points 3 months ago

Yummm, fruity pebbles

[–] chrischryse 5 points 3 months ago (8 children)

Out of curiosotiy where would something like 3D printing be placed?

[–] Brunbrun6766 16 points 3 months ago (2 children)

While a problem yes, miniscule compared to industrial waste

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