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7,000 Microplastics Studies Show We Have One Really Big Problem(www.sciencealert.com)

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just_another_person@lemmy.world
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Cagi@lemmy.ca
97 points

Or several trillion very small problems.

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Slovene@feddit.nl
26 points

We’re all trillionaires! 🎉

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brrt@sh.itjust.works
7 points

Diamond Plastic Hands 🙌 To the moon ocean our bodies! 🚀

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steal_your_face@lemmy.ml
1 point

Found the crab 🦀

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erlend_sh@lemmy.world
74 points

Studies have identified some of the main sources of microplastics as:

  • plastic-coated fertilisers
  • plastic film used as mulch in agriculture

WTF?

  • plastics recycling.

Uuuuh…

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MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
26 points
  • plastic film used as mulch in agriculture

Wtf. Where and why?!

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SuperCub@sh.itjust.works
66 points
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It’s the black plastic bag material that people used to cover their soil and poke holes through for their crops.

I never thought it was called plastic mulch though.

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Revan343@lemmy.ca
21 points

It serves the same purpose as actual mulch, which is blocking out weeds

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tb_@lemmy.world
6 points

Or plastic greenhouses

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ikidd@lemmy.world
10 points
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MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
1 point
Deleted by creator
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kurwa@lemmy.world
7 points

Plastic was never meant to be recycled.

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Wiz@midwest.social
5 points

So, what you’re telling us is, they’ve been lying for decades?

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MataVatnik@lemmy.world
4 points

Yup passing on the responsibility from the manufacturer to the consumer

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just_another_person@lemmy.worldOP
6 points

Yep

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Constant Pain@lemmy.world
1 point

Other great source of plastics are synthetic fabrics. It releases a lot of micro particles in the water during washing and drying cycles.

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nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br
0 points
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Have you seen the process used in plastic recycling? The plastic is literally triturated into tiny bits before being heated up for the next stages.

Edit: why the downvotes? I’m just trying to give some context on why plastic recycling is a great source of microplastics

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Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.com
69 points

Maybe global warming will melt all the microplastics into one big macroplastic and that problem will be 100% solved.

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BigFig@lemmy.world
20 points

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jaybone@lemmy.world
3 points

Do our testicles all melt together?

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Jack@lemmy.ca
63 points
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Biggest sources:

  • 7.6 Mt from macro plastics breaking down
  • 1.3 Mt from paint
  • 1.0 Mt from tyres

10-40 Mt released into environment/year, and increasing.

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Delusional@lemmy.world
19 points

I’m kinda surprised that more comes from paint than tires.

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ChilledPeppers@lemmy.world
6 points

I think it depends on measure, if im not mistaken, by weight arohnd 50% of microplastics are tire dust.

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CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
6 points

Also depends on where you’re measuring. They make up a ton of the plastics in stormwater runoff for example. Sometimes up to 95% from what I found. And that stormwater often ends up in our drinking water.

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Wiz@midwest.social
2 points

Still both from automobile infrastructure. /c/fuckcars bleeding into every Lemmy…

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ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
54 points

Over 80% of microolastic production coming from macro plastic breakdown feels pretty bleak.

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dexa_scantron@lemmy.world
45 points

Plastics industry: “See?! We told you plastic decomposes and doesn’t just stay in landfills forever. Happy now?”

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ericjmorey@lemmy.world
12 points

I am not happy now.

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