AureliusAre you worried about microplastics?
thantikAren’t laundry and dishwasher pods basically gelatin? Which isn’t plastic, it’s made from animal collagen.
It seems that some are made of PVA. It is disputed how damaging PVA is in the water system. New York is considering a ban on it
I assume you mean the clear plastic around the pods that gets sticky when you touch it with wet hands. Relevant YouTube short with Hank Green youtube.com/shorts/mm997MpLNeA?si=ZdBiX7ZTjbpLQML… TLDW: you don’t have to worry about this kind of plastic it is water soluble and turns into water and carbon dioxide when burned I believe.
Yes I am worried about microplastics in everyday things, for example drinking water from my tap. I am also worried about using plastics for anything food related that is heated up. As such i have removed all plastic containers in our kitchen that would be used near or with heat. Any containers remaining is only for cold foods and dry storage.
Hank Green makes me feel slightly better about the laundry/dish pods. I love that guy and he’s wicked smart
I still wouldn’t use them for dishwashers. They’re overpriced and usually are worse than a standard detergent youtu.be/_rBO8neWw04
Detergent packs are kinda wishy-washy (Dishwashers Explained)
Politically IncorrectWith all the shit Corps add to food nowadays the less I give a fuck it’s microplastics tbh…
You don’t need to eat that shit though.
GiganYes. Almost half of all microplastic particles are fibers from synthetic clothing. So I avoid buying clothes that are not made with natural materials. I also avoid single use plaatics as much as I can and recycle as much as I can.
Same. I reduce usage when I can. If not, then I try to at least reuse it (such as a plastic bag). Last resort is to recycle.
Unfortunately, plastic recycling seems to largely be a scam (in that it doesn’t actually get recycled)
Yeah, very little plastic actually gets recycled but its better than none of it.
I think the issue is that people feel empowered to use plastic because they think it ultimately will be recycled.
NPR has done various reporting on this, but essentially the players in the plastic industry have long known that plastic recycling did not work but they actively promoted it (knowing that it would increase plastic usage)
The producers should also be made to collect their waste, or pay for the waste produced so it will be processed properly.
Which they would undoubtedly let the customer pay for when buying their clothes
Yes, so the prices should reflect their actual cost. More natural products would then be cheaper.
Refuse, reuse, recycle is exactly the mantra you’ve unwittingly mentioned. We should be refusing things where possible, it does need legislation to prevent the production of harmful materials in the first place though.
I keep hearing random statistics about sources of microplastics and have no idea what to believe at this point. Just yesterday I saw something saying that 78% of microplastics come from tires.
That’s why this is such an issue, that’s 128% microplastic, just between those two things!
Well tires and textiles are the two main culprits.
I found a source that supports your “almost half” number for microplastics contribution from synthetic clothing.
The source is a little lacking in that they don’t have real numbers for synthetic textile contribution to microplastics, just the overall contribution of textiles to micropolution, but they do talk about the relationships between the two.
I bet the bigger impact/microplastic culprit is the clothes themselves.
That’s a really good point. It’s unfortunate that polyester tends to be the go-to cheap option for clothes
I just hope we can swap them out for hemp ASAP… I really want to get to the point where hemp is only a few bucks more and an elimination of corn subsidies along with a virgin plastics tariff could go a long way
You can find cotton really cheaply as well! You just have to look a bit harder for it
There’s so much clothing already made that, unless you’re buying underwear or socks, you could assemble a large and diverse wardrobe of good quality plant fiber clothes entirely from 2nd hand clothing bought for as cheap or cheaper than you’d find polyester stuff. Thrift shops, Vinted, Ebay, Poshmark etc have tons of good stuff for cheaper than retail.
Da_BoomNot only that, but aside from fossil fuels, what’s the next worst culprit of greenhouse gas emissions? Fashion. Our practices in producing cheap, poorly made replaceable clothes and not making the effort into at least splashing out into clothes that last longer and maybe even repairing what we’ve got is a huge problem.
Most pairs of shoes I buy often don’t last longer than 3 months. And when I do finally get one that lasts longer I wear them till the soles fall out of them. My current pair I’ve had for at least 2-3 years.
Don’t forget to check out your local cobbler! What you really want in good shoes are good uppers (the main body of the shoe). The soles have always and forever through history been meant to be replaced after a while, since it’s something you walk on every day.
With some nice leather uppers and a good local cobbler, and you can keep a pair of shoes going for quite a while :)
I guess I need a second set of shoes so when I send my old ones off to the shoe repairer I still have something to wear.
That’s my problem now, Ive only got one good pair.
Leather was just an example I gave off the top of my head, since it’s notoriously sturdy, but good shoes by no means need to be leather! Lots of good shoes come in all sorts of materials, so if a pair is treating you well (or it’s all you have), having them resoled when the bottoms wear out could be a good option.
What the heck are you doing where shoes only last 3 months?
Are you worried about consumption of micro plastics, or contributing to the micro plastic problem?
For consumption: get a reverse osmosis system. Not eating seafood is an interesting idea, but apparently Omega 3s are so healthy they outweigh the heavy metal exposure, apply that however you want to micro plastics. Don’t use plastic dishes or cutlery, don’t microwave plastics, don’t use plastic ladles, flippers, etc.
For not contributing: If your garbage is done properly it’s in a landfill. It’s the plastic that makes it to the oceans that’s bad. It’s actually kinda fucked what we can do afaik. Anything that goes into the water is a problem, so any personal products, hygiene products, I wonder about washing synthetic clothes, there’s probably better lists out there.
Landfills are not sustainable, nor is most recycling either.
Not particularly
Just use dishwashing powder and laundry powder/liquid.
Dishwasher pods kinda suck anyway. And most dishwashers have a spot for powder during the prewash, which it’s highly recommended to use. (Look up technology connections videos on the topic)
No. Why worry about things you can’t change?
MinnesotaGoddamNot much I can realistically do about them. Consumption on my level has no measurable effect. So, no. I’m going to die of a bowel explosion in a couple decades anyways, according to the cards. If there’s plastic, so be it.
Don’t microwave your food in plastic containers. Pretty easy way to cut a chunk of microplastics from your diet.
Also evidently Ziplock is one of the only brands of plastic storage bags that don’t contain pfas.
Preflight_TomatoI think that being informed can help dilute the worry. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Most microplastics found inside humans come from synthetic clothing followed by car tires. Theres a great Veritasium video on this. Plastic cookware is also a consideration.
Food & Cookware
Don’t buy dishwasher pods, they’re worse for the environment (plastic waste) and worse for your wallet than just a regular fluid container. Both fluid container and pod container are plastic so theres not much improvement to be had there.
My friend with a Chemical Engineering degree tells me that the plastics are stable chemically, and insufficient evidence exists to deem them harmful when left alone in cool temperatures. HOWEVER, unreacted precursor chemicals and thermosets are highly reactive, and new plastics come still coated with this. New car smell? Thats unreacted precursor, and it’s very harmful. Additionally, plastic cookware also gets hot, breaking it down slowly, and potentially making it harmful.
Avoid plastics and “non-stick” coatings in cookware.
Clothing
First thought is to avoid synthetic clothing, but theres a catch… Synthetic clothing is significantly better at blocking harmful UV light from the sun. For example, polyester & Nylon UPF is about 30-50+, whereas cotton is around 5. UPF = SPF generally. For this, I prefer wool (UPF ~40) or denim (UPF 1000+ off the chart). However, thats hot, so using some tight knit polyester shirts is a must in warm climates. Many shirts from retailers like REI have this stuff. So far, the ones I own have never shed noticeably, though that may change.
Why am I talking about sun protection? Remember, the goal is your health, not fearful avoidance of one harm that subjects you to another.
For all fabrics that aren’t expected to protect from the sun, natural fibers are preferred. Included is bedding, towels, bathrobe, pajamas, casual clothing, socks, etc.
Other thoughts
For all of this, my friend says that I probably don’t need to worry, and I have never seen convincing evidence that microplastics are harmful inside the body. Yet, I operate as if it were proven, because I don’t want to risk reading that I’ve been poisoning myself ten years from now.
Call me Lenny/LeniI am as much an organatarian when it comes to things like plastics as I am a vegetarian when it comes to meat consumption. What better can the average person do?
Detergent pods?
Boy are you about to lose 81 minutes of your life that you’ll be happy to waste: m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFOQW4J4mT3E4f_Y6O7H…
I don’t even need to click the link. All Lemmy users (including myself) just share one personality.
silly goose meekahTechnology connections huh?
Great watch! Never knew I wanted to know so much about dishwashers
I really like that guy from the videos, so if you do, too, also check his video about a 50 year old toaster out! (It’s cooler than any toasters we have nowadays and I want one) www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y
I had one growing up. My sister has one now that she found in a thrift store. They are awesome.
maybe I should start checking thrift stores around me as well, hmmm… I doubt I’m going to find one of these seeing as I am in germany lol
Considering the overwhelming majority of microplastic in water comes from car tire dust probably nothing until transportation changes worldwide.
This is correct, but there are really 2 main sources, tire dust and synthetic fabrics (polyester).
The rubber tree is endangered so I wouldn’t recommend switching away from synthetic rubbers for tires, not without another replacement. But we have a lot of alternatives to polyester, we could start moving away from that material. It just takes the will to do it.
Why worry about something I can’t control. The sack of meat I call a body will only take so much abuse from the world’s oligarchs before it gives up…their bodies too.
I can rearrange me life to the most extremes, but my neighbour will still burn garbage and consume twice as much as I ever will within a week. There’s no stopping this until companies are held accountable and the rich are jailed, which we all know will never happen.
Spoken like a true person under 40
I don’t get it. Not worrying about things you can’t control is an “under 40” take? It seems like a sane human take regardless of age.
No, thinking that the missing ingredient to solve microplastics is to punish powerful people, is the under 40 part.
So being a capitalist bootlicker is a monolithic feature of the over-40 crowd?
Ok boomer.
So 2020
Just because you’ve learned some new words doesn’t necessarily mean you can string them into a cogent sentence… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ll take that as a yes, boomer.
Or should I say bootlicker?
Oh, have you got a life of regrets to come.
Enjoy!
Aaaaand… this changes the fact that you’re a bootlicker how, exactly?
The “why worry what I can’t control” is the under-40 part, but to be honest I initially considered under-30.
But by 40 you’d more likely than not have or care about children, and then you’d be worrying more about the the world you leave for them. Since they’re always copying you, you’d be more aware that every action has consequences, and that includes cynicism (especially since, by 40, you’re more likely to accept the idea that you don’t know everything).
Maybe by then it’d be in your self-interest to make the world better even by little increments instead of wearing sarcasm like a cloak of invisibility.