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Plastics are poisoning us

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Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#161

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

tmikaeld wrote: post #2

Yes? At this point, it's hopeless - plastics are expanding like never before, Shell expanding several new enormous factories right in the US. No politician is interested in stopping it either, since the lobbying industry for plastics is also going strong. The only legislation passed in modern time is against single-use plastics, which is just a tiny drop in the ocean (!!) of plastic. And also, the clothes industry is…

> In the end, it's up to consumers.

...to vote for politicians who will regulate this shit.

Pushing the responsibility to consumers is just BigCorp's messaging to externalize the responsibility.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#162

Post by simiones »

bmitc wrote: post #4

There are plastic rocks forming. Those aren't rocks with plastic melted on top of them. They are literally plastic rocks formed via the same processes alongside normal rocks. We could ban plastics tomorrow, and it wouldn't be enough. We've screwed over the entire Earth.

One day we'll start having microorganisms that can break down plastics efficiently. It took a few million years for wood, so I'm not holding my breath until it happens, but it will almost certainly happen. So the worse that can happen to the Earth itself is it'll have a layer of plastic residue just like it had a layer of wood residue (coal) until we started digging it up.

Of course, as George Carlin used to say, the planet is fine: it's us that are fucked. We'll see how bad the effects of plastics on the long term really are, but if anyone suffers, it'll be us, not the planet or life on it in the long term.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#163

Post by _dain_ »

c00lio wrote: post #106
myshpa wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points. Minimalists saving the planet should add one more: 10. Eat plants. Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding... If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares (and free an area as big as Africa for wildlife/reforesting) https://ourworldindata…

11. No pets. Your pet is more harmful to the environment than your car. 12. Less or no children. All of the above, combined.

The whole point of saving the environment was to leave a better world for our children and grandchildren. Someone has to show up after us.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#164

Post by _dain_ »

aziaziazi wrote: post #113
c00lio wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

11. No pets. Your pet is more harmful to the environment than your car. 12. Less or no children. All of the above, combined.

Thanks for the courage to express 12. Absolute anthropocentrism can’t continue indefinitely and we already see boomerang effects.

Anti-natalists are the enemy of mankind.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#165

Post by hospitalJail »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #147
hospitalJail wrote: post #133

The word 'Plastic' needs to die. Instead we should be more specific on the type of plastic. Teflon, PLA, ABS, resins, foams, etc... are all plastics, but they are so unrelated outside their long chains, its terrible to stereotype them all into one category. You aren't going to get cancer from PLA or Teflon, but rather the manufacturing process. You can eat these plastics as far as I know and you'd be fine. Eat someth…

How do you know PLA is safe? I'm sure you would have thought lead was safe at the time

Thank you for bringing this up, I may be incorrect.

I looked at the formula and that Oxygen double bond attached to a carbon with another oxygen bond... yikes!

I have no idea why this is stable. It appears stable, but you wonder about things like UV light, exposure to some cation, etc...

Well, seems like I have reading to do. (Chem engineer here, I feel like its my responsibility, similar to how programmers read open source code)

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#166

Post by fgededigo »

aziaziazi wrote: post #61
realshadow wrote: post #11

I became a minimist to save the planet as much as i could. Its easier than any one could think you know. Here is what i have been doing for a decade and would receommend 1. Reusing plastic bags (i love cotton bags but not ideal). Fold and keep one or two in your pocket before you leave home 2. Support and use light software so you dont need to upgrade your gadgets (12y laptop i use) 3. Prepare and eat home cooked mea…

4. Walking. A bit less minimalistic: ride your (non e-) bike, scooter, skateboard, kayak, sled, basically anything non motorized. Use best tire quality so you don’t change then often. A bite more minimalistic: prefer walking barefoot anytime you can. Shoes are tire that wear out. King of related: still looking for shoe/soles that last. My grand mother used to wear wood clogs, not sure where to find some that fits me.

I want to make a case for the e-bikes: they are less strenuous than the traditional bikes but require a good degree of cardiovascular exercise. This is a good incentive for older people

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#168

Post by gerbilly »

trgn wrote: post #114
rkagerer wrote: post #37

The study found that, to have a lower environmental impact than a plastic bag, a paper bag would have to be used forty-three times and a cotton tote would have to be used an astonishing seventy-one hundred times. “How many of those bags will last that long?” Franklin-Wallis asks. Walker-Franklin and Jambeck also note that exchanging plastic for other materials may involve “tradeoffs,” including “energy and water use…

A plastic bag is literal trash. The problem with these sort of equivocations is that they conveniently side-step the categorical argument. One something like; do not surround yourself with trash. realshadow has rule 7, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36503179 , "quality over quantity". That is a value argument, not an efficiency argument. Only arguing from efficiency is essentially internalizing the logic of the…

> Only arguing from efficiency is essentially internalizing the logic of the machine.

Exactly this, I wish I could upvote you a thousand times.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#169

Post by jansan »

Retric wrote: post #143
hospitalJail wrote: post #133

The word 'Plastic' needs to die. Instead we should be more specific on the type of plastic. Teflon, PLA, ABS, resins, foams, etc... are all plastics, but they are so unrelated outside their long chains, its terrible to stereotype them all into one category. You aren't going to get cancer from PLA or Teflon, but rather the manufacturing process. You can eat these plastics as far as I know and you'd be fine. Eat someth…

Teflon Aka Polytetrafluoroethylene cookware represents a health hazard. The stuff contains a great deal of Florine and breaks down at 300C, but that’s not purely binary instead it becomes increasingly unstable as your approach the temperature. Further no manufacturing process is perfect, I wouldn’t therefore assume eating significant quantities would be safe. That said, it’s generally used as a coating rather than a…

Is "Florine" the same as "Flourine", and isn't that what they give children so they get healtheir teeth? I am a bit confused here to be honest.

Edit: Sorry, stupid question, was thinking of Fluoride.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#170

Post by iso1631 »

jansan wrote: post #169
Retric wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teflon Aka Polytetrafluoroethylene cookware represents a health hazard. The stuff contains a great deal of Florine and breaks down at 300C, but that’s not purely binary instead it becomes increasingly unstable as your approach the temperature. Further no manufacturing process is perfect, I wouldn’t therefore assume eating significant quantities would be safe. That said, it’s generally used as a coating rather than a…

Is "Florine" the same as "Flourine", and isn't that what they give children so they get healtheir teeth? I am a bit confused here to be honest. Edit: Sorry, stupid question, was thinking of Fluoride.

You're thinking of fluoride
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