It’s crazy how much waste we produce. You only realize that after you start separating your trash for recycling.
Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
91–100 of 117 posts
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#92I don't like plastic in the air any more than anyone else does, but 1) stop wearing those stupid fucking polyester hoodies (and other artificial fibers; aka your socks, gym shirts and underpants) -that's where most of it comes from. I'm looking at you, SF hacker nerds. 2) Even assuming the entire population of the Western US breathed all that plastic waste in and it was permanently deposited in the lungs: 1000e3 kg/…
With all this talk about microplastics in the environment, I was a bit surprised to learn that water cleaning facilities use e.g. "moving bed biofilm reactors" such as "Bioportz" which are small, round, hollow plastic things in moving water. When seeing those move about and bump onto each other, my immediate thought was to wonder if any environmental microplastic comes off from those through abrasion/wear.
I wonder how much the biofilm on the surface manages to prevent erosion of the substrate.
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#93I don't like plastic in the air any more than anyone else does, but 1) stop wearing those stupid fucking polyester hoodies (and other artificial fibers; aka your socks, gym shirts and underpants) -that's where most of it comes from. I'm looking at you, SF hacker nerds. 2) Even assuming the entire population of the Western US breathed all that plastic waste in and it was permanently deposited in the lungs: 1000e3 kg/…
Recycles fabrics, like fleece made from PET, leeches ridiculously large quantities of microplastics every time you wash them. Wool, cotton, linen and hemp fibers seem like the way to go to me. Synthetics have their place and their uses, but there is such a thing as "too much of a good thing". And I'm sure people will start whinging about how much water it takes to grow cotton, but they will conveniently forget to men…
Also synthetic fibers are mostly used in "fast fashion", out side of functional fabrics.
I am a trans woman and when I switched the fashion sections I was shocked by the amount of low quality plastic shit marketed at girls/women. Pullovers made from 100% polyester jeez...
The fashion industry is one of the worst offenders in terms of environmental and climate damage. Fashion...
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#94In some just universe, oil == pure evil. It's underground for a reason and poking a million painful needles into Mother Earth to suck it out and spew it into every biome is bound to have implications on our own health. As above, so below.
Oil has horrible consequences, but your rational for it being evil by being out of "reach" isn't very enlightening. By your logic we should not tap aquifers for drinking water, but mass desalination is fine. Instead, oil is bad because. It's not renewable, it's refinement/combustion is readily linked to cancer and other deadly/health issues, extraction/transport routinely kills ecosystems/creates toxic waste sites.
> we should not tap aquifers for drinking water
We shouldn't tap aquifers.
https://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects/central-valley/images/sub...
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Praying for cotton and wool to become stylish. And I hope we get creative with natural fibers like linen, beech fiber, spider silk, et.
I thought cotton was pretty much the default fibre?
I assume you shop in the dude's section. In the dudette's market there is polyester everywhere.
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#96We can legislate to stop producing it, or drastically reduce it. We did so with CFCs to stop destroying the ozone layer. The doomsayers weren't the scientists who predicted the problems, but those who said we'd lose refrigeration etc. They were wrong. Legislation helped the ozone layer and society did fine. The same will happen if we legislate on plastic as we did on CFCs.
plastic is a slightly larger category than CFCs
Any other "solution" results in a local maximum. If I learned one thing last years of all the denying is that you cannot put the bar high enough especially when it concerns long term planning of the ecosystem of Earth. Just realize where we would be today if climate change was taken seriously in the 1960's. Let's not make that same mistake with plastic all over again.
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems you have anger towards a group of people you have defined as bad. That seems to be clouding your judgement. For example, you somehow have convinced yourself that the use of metal water bottles is bad if used by synthetic fabric hoodie wearers in SF. First, everyone wears synthetics, not just in SF. Second, less plastic is less plastic.
Thanks for the psychoanalysis, pal. How many polyester garments do you own?
A fair number of synthetic undergarments. I live in Vietnam, so breathable, wicking clothes are important. I have tried rayon, but I am not impressed. I tried wool boxer briefs, but they were comically small. After reading your post, I did order another two pair of wool shorts. We’ll see how they do.
For the record, I also use a metal water bottle.
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but oil itself is "natural". Burning it in mass quantities, is not so "natural", unless you go down the rabbit hole of calling all human activities "natural".
Plastic isn't burning it.
From:
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/hamman1/#:~:tex....
"non-feedstock energy [for plastic production is] (between 1.4 x 1018 J and 2.2 x 1018 J)". Non-feedstock means the stuff that doesn't turn into plastic, but just powers the product. From the same paper, adding both feedstock and non-feedstock together:
"between 2.5% and 4.0% of total U.S. primary energy consumption in 2008 was due to the energy for plastic."
Also, plastics are a fossil fuel, and a lot of waste plastic is burned for energy production, which results in significant fossil-fuel based CO2 emissions.
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#99What is the solution? Maybe massive taxes for manufacturing plastics for consumer uses? Just brainstorming here. It seems like the incentives need to align somehow.
Yes. Carbon tax, plastic tax. Basically we're still in the full denial phase. We need more energy, and we need clean energy. (Because ultimately every problem with plastics and pollution is solvable via spending more energy.) And some serious transformation.
* Tyres? Make them out of biodegradable organic materials. Maybe they'll need to be replaced every year, and they'll cost more, that's why the pollution tax has to make the safe/sane/eco/green version competitive. (Also more investment in infrastructure, mass transit, denser cities, more walking, etc.) Urbanization is already ongoing, but somehow instead of building efficient dense cities many countries on Earth are just building sprawling slums and/or suburbs. (Plus we need carbon-efficient concrete and a more carbon-efficient construction industry as a whole.)
* Synthetic fibers. Cotton. Sure, but you'll need non-polluting cotton farms, so closed loop energy intensive [indoor/vertical] farms.
* Plastic packaging. Meh, just use biodegradable alternative packaging. Eg. paper. (Heavier, needs more energy to transport.)
* Plastic bottles. Use aluminum cans. Again, heavier, plus needs more energy to manufacture, but endlessly recyclable.
* Plastic pigments in paint. Meh, find biodegradable alternative or stop using them.
Re: Tons of microplastic rain onto western US
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Desal plants cause localised brine concentration and screw ecology. If you built them at Salinas (salt pans) maybe that would be ok, and we'd get more flamingoes once the brine shrimp population rose. So you need strong solar and large flat expanses. North Africa? There was a serious proposal to sell solar power to Europe from north Africa. Maybe this is the triple play?
I've looked at Desalination in Southern California. One thing they're trying is to mix the saline water with waste water discharge. One assumes that's better. Other thing I found when poking about is the energy expenditure for some of LA's water sources is close to that of desalination. I think I'm firmly down on the side of I'm against desalination if it just means more water for almonds. For desalination if it mean…
Carbon tax (or a similar, more general environmental impact tax) would sort thing out in no time.
It wouldn't matter if someone uses water to raise almonds in the middle of the desert, but it should have its env. impact priced in.
Similarly, it's absolutely ridiculous that large states can't plan ahead for ~20-50 years and instead of building efficient power plants we're stuck with windmills and solar and batteries as the "green" option.