Support the ocean cleanup project. Some people are very sceptical about the project but it's the only project that is trying to collect plastic asap. Asap = 18 days from now. https://www.theoceancleanup.com/
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Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
281–290 of 318 posts
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#282Ugh... as if we didn't have enough environmental problems already to deal with.
It seems like a very tricky problem to solve. Plastic is such a wonderful material with so many important applications it is impossible to imagine a modern world without it.
But from what I understand not all plastic products contribute equally much to this problem, so perhaps one can make substitutes for only some key areas to make a difference.
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
How so?
In the EU it is taxed through VAT on electricity.
Is this a general VAT on electricity or is it an additional fee specifically on mining crypto?
Based on the original comment of "I hope more will push for taxes on all things we want to discourage", my position is that crypto mining should be charged an additional fee for using huge amounts of electricity and negatively impacting the environment for speculative financing activities. Anyone who's concerned about the environmental impact of single occupancy vehicles or raising cattle should be horrified with the amount of energy consumed in mining crypto.
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#284Personal anecdote; just got back from a trip to Hawaii. Many of the beaches there had significant deposits of pebble sized and smaller visible plastic particles. Presumably there’s exponentially more smaller ones that I couldn’t as easily see. Some of the beaches had plastic floating in the water. Locals said it wasn’t island dumped garbage, it was brought in from currents from the ocean. Horrific to see.
I saw this in Vietnam as well, extremely unattractive beaches covered in plastic bags and smaller plastic waste. On the boat to Quan Lan island I saw Chinese tourists throwing dirty diapers and any other waste overboard as if it was the most normal thing to do.
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#285I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but microplastics aren't only in our fish but it's also in American tap water. There is no water filter that I know of available to the consumer public that is fine enough to filter out microplastics of under 3 microns or something like that. As some commenters have mentioned, these microplastics come from laundry, and more. I'm currently working on developing disposable…
"There is no water filter that I know of available to the consumer public that is fine enough to filter out microplastics of under 3 microns or something like that."
Common, uninteresting point-of-use filters are .5 microns.[1]
Very inexpensive (the tap and the filter) and easy to add to your existing sink as a second tap.
They don't have the flow rate required for a whole house filter, but you can find high flow filters as fine as 5 microns. A whole house 5 micron chained to a .5 micron drinking tap is a pretty bulletproof filtration chain ...
[1] https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-...
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#286I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but microplastics aren't only in our fish but it's also in American tap water. There is no water filter that I know of available to the consumer public that is fine enough to filter out microplastics of under 3 microns or something like that. As some commenters have mentioned, these microplastics come from laundry, and more. I'm currently working on developing disposable…
I bought a 5-stage RO (reverse osmosis) filter on Amazon. This review of my filter [1] says the RO stage filters down to .0001 microns.
"Stage four is a high quality .0001 micron reverse osmosis membrane. This is where most of the hazardous contaminants such as arsenic, lead, and barium are removed."
Does this mean I'm safe from microplastics?
[1] http://www.yourwaterfilterguide.com/apec-roes-50-review/
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#287A small number of countries are responsible for the majority of plastic in the ocean. China is far and away the worst offender: https://infographic.statista.com/normal/chartoftheday_12211_... https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_...
I view this as a positive factor in the fight against plastic waste in the ocean. If we know where the major sources of the waste and concentrate efforts on removing 50% waste in those places, it could have a larger effect than removing 90% of waste from smaller sources such as developed nations that are already putting some effort into not polluting the environment.
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's worse, adding some inert foreign molecules to the environment, or adding some CO2, excess nitrates, and excess phosphorous, taking down a bit of native vegetation, and revolving some more soil? I really don't know the answer, but I bet everybody on the anti-plastic crusade doesn't know either. I would really like if somebody cared to do some unbiased studies on this (not the ones full of flaws reinforcing the…
>inert foreign molecules Problem is they're often not inert. The polymers may be, but the bisphenol plasticizers, UV stabilizers, dyes, brominated fire retardants, mold release agents, etc may not be, and they leach out over time.
Do they become reactive inside of living beings? Or just outside due to UV catalyzed hydrolyze?
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's worse, adding some inert foreign molecules to the environment, or adding some CO2, excess nitrates, and excess phosphorous, taking down a bit of native vegetation, and revolving some more soil? I really don't know the answer, but I bet everybody on the anti-plastic crusade doesn't know either. I would really like if somebody cared to do some unbiased studies on this (not the ones full of flaws reinforcing the…
You mean, is natural gas extraction and processing more harmful than agriculture and recycling?
Even without considering the amount of mining required by agriculture, the answer is still non-obvious.
Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
#290I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but microplastics aren't only in our fish but it's also in American tap water. There is no water filter that I know of available to the consumer public that is fine enough to filter out microplastics of under 3 microns or something like that. As some commenters have mentioned, these microplastics come from laundry, and more. I'm currently working on developing disposable…
"There is no water filter that I know of available to the consumer public that is fine enough to filter out microplastics of under 3 microns or something like that." Common, uninteresting point-of-use filters are .5 microns.[1] Very inexpensive (the tap and the filter) and easy to add to your existing sink as a second tap. They don't have the flow rate required for a whole house filter, but you can find high flow fil…
Wow, is there anything 3M doesn't make?