Microplastics!

[saysfaa]

I learned something yesterday. I used cloth diapers for my kids and read about wool soakers as diaper covers. What I missed back then is the wool needs to have enough lanolin in it. The lanolin needs to be renewed fairly often.

I didn't try wool soakers back then and I think I'm still ok with the amount of plastic in diaper covers for cloth diapers. But it is good to know; maybe if I get further on the journey away from plastic, this might be relevant for me. Or it might be helpful in other contexts.

 

[CarpCharacin]

The extent of plastic use in food packaging is really bothersome. And the majority of the plastic fragments found in brains in the 2024 study were polyethylene, which happens to be what modern water pipes are made out of. I wish it were realistically possible to avoid exposure and accumulation. I feel like I probably have significantly more exposure/accumulation than average. The state of the world, with microplastics and AI, is really upsetting. I think plastic production has increased a lot over the past 20 years, and it's expected to increase much more in the future.

 

[SkyAJK]

I saw on tv that microplastics in the ocean also found in Oysters. Microplastics is in the ocean. I saw on many cooking shows people cut out the oyster shells and eat oysters raw...they making out this yummy tasty face while I was watching thinking...oh...no microplastics.....

Why do people still eat it?

My garden is filled with microplastics. Some of my garden tools have part plastic covers and they turned into powder over time, and those plastic pots do the same.

 

[CarpCharacin]

It seems that microplastics have pervaded every environmental niche. I don't think it's likely that there's any meat (or any food, really) that's free of microplastic contamination at this point, but it probably varies and the plastic pollution in the ocean seems pretty severe.

 

[BDutch]

It seems that microplastics have pervaded every environmental niche. I don't think it's likely that there's any meat (or any food, really) that's free of microplastic contamination at this point, but it probably varies and the plastic pollution in the ocean seems pretty severe.

Yes, and unfortunately we don’t always have a choice to buy plastic free.
If everyone would try to buy plastic free, or at least recycled plastic, it would help a lot though.

 

[SkyAJK]

Yes, and unfortunately we don’t always have a choice to buy plastic free.
If everyone would try to buy plastic free, or at least recycled plastic, it would help a lot though.

It does take a lot of effort to buy plastic free in my experience.

Many food products are single packaging. Like 1kg of carrot is packed in a plastic bag for $1.70 per kg, but if buy it loosely, individually pick then it costs $2.50 per kg. It might not seem much the extra $0.80, but it does add up after apples, bananas, carrots, snow peas..etc.. these products are single packaging.

Chicken feed are all come in plastic bag and everything else also.

It is a real effort to be environmentally friendly. Like I saw on TV it says that backyard chicken eggs are most likely contaminated with lead.Some people have their garden soil tested for lead, I was going to do the same, but never get around it.

My yard is microplastics everywhere, lead is had to be too. Then came early this year in another city was found to have asbestos in the public park garden mulch. It makes me weary about buying stuff, but ....I don't know for sure if that is just a one off incident.

I do try to use less plastic, or use recycle plastic products like buy them at the Ops shops = charity shops. Although they are cheaper, but they will break down fast enough so more microplastics in my garden. Better not use plastic at all if we can...but are there many things that not cover in plastic?

 

[saysfaa]

The University of Toronto’s Rochman Lab found that using a Lint LUV-R filter in a washing machine reduces the amount of microplastic fibers released in the washing machine by about 87%. It can be added to existing washing machines as well as built into new models.

Polyester is the main source of the microplastic fibers released by washing machines. I saw numbers for how much and how much of all microplastic released into Lake Michigan and it was a lot of each. I can't find that article on microplastics in Lake Michigan right now. It said, among other things, that aquatic life in rivers and lakes also mistake microplastics for food (like the water bugs and fish eggs and amphibian eggs that they normally eat).