Comment on Microplastics will be the "boomers all have lead poisoning" of millennials

Kurious84@eviltoast.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• Lemminary@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What kind of generational hazard would you like to have growing up, kids? :D

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• MalReynolds@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What did plastic replace? Good chance we can go back, if we can convince some people the line doesn’t need to go up. Good joke, everybody laughs…

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• LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Hopefully renewable, compostable/biodegradable plastics.

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• Cocodapuf@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Do you mean what ubiquitous fixing will be next?

  Or do you mean how can we get by without plastic?

  If it’s the second one, the answer is easy, fucking aluminum. We’ve had the answer forever and it still works great. Glass too, good for many applications.

  Now the actual problem isn’t beverage containers though, it’s clothing and tires. Most clothing is plastic these days and tiny plastic fibers break up into micro plastics and take to the air or end up in the sea. Car tires are basically just plastic these days, not rubber (which is arguably better for the environment than leveling rainforest for rubber tree plantations, sigh…), the tires rub off on the road like a pencil eraser on sandpaper. This also ends up in the air and sea.

  So anyway replacing plastic beverage containers is a great step, a no brainer. But it also doesn’t address the real problem at all. I hope that tires and clothes can start to be made with biodegradable green plastics, but if that doesn’t turn out to be feasible, we’ll be in some serious trouble. And once we have some real, feasible, affordable replacements, then we need to actually outlaw the use of plastic tires, in every country on the planet… I can’t even imagine how to make that happen. How did we do it with lead? Has every country outlawed lead in gas?

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  • pleasestopasking@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Even though leaded gasoline and leaded paint have been outlawed for decades in the US, it’s still a big problem in poor communities. Lots of old houses still have lead paint. Lead abatement is expensive and many people may not even know it’s something you need to do.

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  • fading_person@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Isn’t aluminum neurotoxic?

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    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Just don’t grind it up into a powder and snort it and you should be fine.

      Come to think of it, I would actually suggest the same for glass and plastic.

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