11–20 of 138 posts
Something I don’t understand: Patagonia's stated mission is to save the earth and microplastics entering the oceans is a major environmental concern. However, it is also true that many of Patagonia's clothes are made from synthetic materials such as plastic. The use of synthetic materials in clothing (and each washing) greatly contribute to the problem of microplastics in the oceans. I’m I missing something? Is the a…
Many countries, desperate to make use of the gargantuan flow of waste plastic, and desperate to avoid it going into landfill, are putting the waste plastic into roads.
This is called “recycling”.
Sounds like a great idea until you realize that cars and trucks drive on the roads and grind them into dust - dust containing microplastics.
The microplastic dust will go into air, waterways, rivers, oceans, food, plants animals and people.
All this is because the environmentalists have decided that “keeping plastics out of landfill” is more important than anything.
Plastic roads are an environmental disaster in an epic scale being created in the name of “recycling”.
The worst thing is that for some reason it’s not obvious that this is a disastrous idea, and all around the world people are breathlessly talking up plastic roads like its a solution to the plastic waste problem.
“In 2015, the Indian government made it mandatory for plastic waste to be used in constructing roads near large cities of more than 500,000 people”
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210302-could-plastic-ro...
Mandated madness. The safest place for the fire hydrant of waste plastic is in landfill, not “recycled” into microplastic dust.
Would you like a plastic road outside your house, or outside your kids school?
This problem was known long ago. In typical fashion like their climate change reporting, BBC reports on this decades too late.
(reposted comment) I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about “plastic roads”. Many countries, desperate to make use of the gargantuan flow of waste plastic, and desperate to avoid it going into landfill, are putting the waste plastic into roads. This is called “recycling”. Sounds like a great idea until you realize that cars and trucks drive on the roads and grind them into dust - dust containing microplastics. The microplas…
Something I don’t understand: Patagonia's stated mission is to save the earth and microplastics entering the oceans is a major environmental concern. However, it is also true that many of Patagonia's clothes are made from synthetic materials such as plastic. The use of synthetic materials in clothing (and each washing) greatly contribute to the problem of microplastics in the oceans. I’m I missing something? Is the a…
Polyester is one of the few success stories around recycled plastic. It’s not like the alternative is to turn your old plastic bottle into a new plastic bottle, plastic recycling is almost always downcycling the material into a lower grade product.
Like most things around conservation and the environment, it is complicated and there are loads of stakeholders - biodiversity, micro plastics, chemical accumulation, CO2 and greenhouse gases, deforestation, waste management, just to name a few.
One thing we can be sure of is the best thing is to not buying new clothes. In fact this philosophy should be applied to every consumer good. Making things is extremely bad for the environment. Patagonia have been pretty consistent around this point, for example as far back as 2001 they had their “don’t buy this jacket” ad: https://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/jovanalleshi/patagonia-sustainabil...
This is the elephant in the room that most consumer goods companies don’t want to talk about. They can make things out of bamboo or produce paper straws or have recyclable packaging, but fundamentally even environmentally friendly products have a huge environmental impact.
Ultimately Patagonia’s mission statement is at odds with the reason it or any company exists. Saving the earth isn’t profitable.
(reposted comment) I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about “plastic roads”. Many countries, desperate to make use of the gargantuan flow of waste plastic, and desperate to avoid it going into landfill, are putting the waste plastic into roads. This is called “recycling”. Sounds like a great idea until you realize that cars and trucks drive on the roads and grind them into dust - dust containing microplastics. The microplas…
They only want to sell it because it’s dirt cheap and lightweight.
Zero cares about what I’ll be breathing in for 10 years
Im getting really worried about the impact this will have on our kidneys. I had a tap water filtering on very dusty tap water and the filter was supposed to last 1 year it lasted 3 weeks. I believe it might be a good analogy to how those microplastics are destroying our kidneys
(reposted comment) I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about “plastic roads”. Many countries, desperate to make use of the gargantuan flow of waste plastic, and desperate to avoid it going into landfill, are putting the waste plastic into roads. This is called “recycling”. Sounds like a great idea until you realize that cars and trucks drive on the roads and grind them into dust - dust containing microplastics. The microplas…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=plastic+roads
Here is a better article "The plastic road to hell is paved with good intentions "
Hey go ahead and disagree, but maybe post a link to some evidence beyond 'microplastics exist'?