Studies find red, blue and green plastic decomposes into microplastic particles faster than plainer colours
Retailers are being urged to stop making everyday products such as drinks bottles, outdoor furniture and toys out of brightly coloured plastic after researchers found it degrades into microplastics faster than plainer colours.
Red, blue and green plastic became “very brittle and fragmented”, while black, white and silver samples were “largely unaffected” over a three-year period, according to the findings of the University of Leicester-led project.
The scale of environmental pollution caused by plastic waste means that microplastics, or tiny plastic particles, are everywhere. Indeed, they were recently found in human testicles, with scientists suggesting a possible link to declining sperm counts in men.
I might be missing the point but does it matter if it breaks down into micro plastics over 3 years or 13?
If single use plastics are destined to become micro plastics does the time scale matter?
I think it’s bad to have more micro plastics rather than less, at any given point in time
You’re still going to have the same amount in the long run, though. All this is doing is delaying the inevitable.
By that logic, we may as well burn all of our trash, because eventually it will be pollution so why not get it over with now?
Burning and breaking down are two different things.
Microplastics will last for thousands of years, so unless the less colorful plastics take thousands of years to break down to the point of bright ones, the difference is irrelevant.
It’s just so silly though. You’re dismissing the uncountable number of people absorbing unknowable amounts of micro plastics over the next few decades as unimportant.
Not only do we want to reduce exposure in the near term, we may find a way to effectively remove micro plastics from the environment in the future, so no, it’s not settled that releasing as many micro plastics as possible is fine as long as it would happen eventually anyhow
How about we reduce all plastics. It’s not going to happen in my lifetime but it would be something.
Sure, but the impact would be less bad if you have the same amount spread over a longer time.
It’s the same impact. It’s the same amount of microplastic it just takes longer. If I give you the choice of 100 beans today or 1 bean each day for 100 days it’s still 100 beans. The total impact is identical it just takes longer.
I can imagine trying to push this and Marketing going, “No thanks, that doesn’t look good.” And that’d be the end of it.
I could see them putting out some feelgood but meaningless press release about how they will look for new, greener sources of brightly colored plastic in the future.
Firms: “Ha ha, fuck you. Capitalism always lets us do whatever we want. Now we’re off to swim in our Uncle Scrooge-style moneybins.”
Actually communist/totalitarian countries tend to pollute more, because the people don’t have a say. It’s not about capitalism, it’s about regulation.
Wait, communist countries have less regulations than capitalist ones?
Regarding polluting and cleaning up afterwards and using toxic compounds in products yes in general they have.
On what scale? It seems like the current climate change issues were triggered and amplified before communism was practiced by any state, but while capitalism was actively being used by colonialists throughout the 1800s. Do we count those 100+ years without regulations? If the punishments are minimal, not a single violation of any environmental regulation on a large scale has been appropriately pushed in the leading capitalist state, the US, ever, do those regulations really mean anything to those that are truly the greatest impacts to environment?
Brightly colored plastics may break down into microplastics faster but they’re also drastically more visible, meaning they may get spotted and picked up before other colors.
If discarded plastic litter was being picked up enough for that to matter maybe…
- Pay people a penny per pound for collecting plastic waste
- Pass this fee along to plastic producers
Good luck getting that to happen.
You’re getting almost as jaded as I am. Welcome to the club! We have punch but it’s bitter like our hearts
It doesn’t matter if they’re discarded properly or not… They’re still gonna end up in the environment at the end of the road anyway. Most plastic isn’t recycled, even when it is collected into the system.
What I don’t get when I was in school the whole thing was save the trees use astic bags. Like wtf trees are renewable and paper breaks down why was there a big push in the 80 and 90s to use plastic.
Probably doesn’t matter with the amount of microplastics that car tires are shedding every day.
a car’s four tires collectively emit 1 trillion ultrafine particles — of less than 100 nanometers — per kilometer driven. https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
