I’ve been more and more conscious about microplastics. I was not aware that the laundry and dishwasher pods are just plastic which then goes into the water system.
What can be done to prevent microplastics?
Why worry about something I can’t control. The sack of meat I call a body will only take so much abuse from the world’s oligarchs before it gives up…their bodies too.
I can rearrange me life to the most extremes, but my neighbour will still burn garbage and consume twice as much as I ever will within a week. There’s no stopping this until companies are held accountable and the rich are jailed, which we all know will never happen.
Spoken like a true person under 40
I don’t get it. Not worrying about things you can’t control is an “under 40” take? It seems like a sane human take regardless of age.
The “why worry what I can’t control” is the under-40 part, but to be honest I initially considered under-30.
But by 40 you’d more likely than not have or care about children, and then you’d be worrying more about the the world you leave for them. Since they’re always copying you, you’d be more aware that every action has consequences, and that includes cynicism (especially since, by 40, you’re more likely to accept the idea that you don’t know everything).
Maybe by then it’d be in your self-interest to make the world better even by little increments instead of wearing sarcasm like a cloak of invisibility.
Because many of us were thrust into an extremely fucked up world where caring all the time will give you anxiety and leave you feeling hopeless. It’s much more productive to focus your efforts on things you can control instead of being upset about the things you can’t. I’m very conscious of the world I leave behind. I respect nature, don’t litter, don’t own a car, limit my meat intake, and most importantly I’m not having children. All of these things will contribute to a better world, but they don’t require me to care about anything outside of my control.
This has nothing to do with age, and everything to do with trying to be okay in an increasingly more depressing world. I just want to exist and not dread everything all the time.
Okay, so let’s blame boomers for it, shall we then?
Would it have been better for you in the 60s, with the Cold War? 50s during the Red Scare? Hope you’re not a writer…
How about the 40s, with WWII? 30s & 20s, with the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl? Maybe the teens - nah, WWI. How about the poverty, plague conditions (a la Sinclair Lewis) and the diseases of the early Industrial Revolution? No? Okay - how about the agrarian 1800s, but then there’s slavery and civil war… and on, and on throughout history.
I hate to say it, but comparatively we’re in a Golden Age - and it is decaying. We celebrate billionaires like they’re rock stars and re-elect politicians who do nothing for the working man (and woman), but instead go on fake crusades that serve no-one but their self interests. Wokism, the rights of eggs, guns before people, and today no divorce if you’re pregnant - it’s like the Red Scare all over again, and anyone who doesn’t align with it is an “Enemy of the People” - except it’s the actual people that suffer.
It’s not a Generation - every generation gets dumped into the shit the previous one made - it’s the Politics. When some politicians take one half of us and then point at the other half and say “they’re why you suffer”, it’s a lie. We fight amongst ourselves so they can prosper.
Fight, by all means, but fight for better representation and make sure they stick to the promises they make. And not just representation in our politicians but also in work. Unions can and have been a force of good for the average worker - support them so your one voice can make a difference.
Fight the good fights. Don’t waste your time fighting each other for scraps, for lies, for someone’s else’s power.
I wasn’t blaming it on anyone. I was just explaining why so many young people, myself included, choose to not give any thought to things they can’t control. It’s not worth the mental energy and will make you depressed and miserable. I’m all for fighting for things that can be changed, but there’s only so much one person can do. Prioritizing what one can give effort to is a much better way to go about it than stressing out about everything wrong with the world.
Not to berate you, but your response is as if this is something new for your generation. We all go through this shit unless we’re insulated from it by daddy’s money or power.
Is it worth your mental energy to fight for change? I’d say it is - over time, it’s the only thing that has worked. Letting it slip for someone else to fix is exactly what screws us over, generation to generation.
Hang in there - we’re all in this together. As I said before, fight the good fight.
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No, thinking that the missing ingredient to solve microplastics is to punish powerful people, is the under 40 part.
So being a capitalist bootlicker is a monolithic feature of the over-40 crowd?
Ok boomer.
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Just because you’ve learned some new words doesn’t necessarily mean you can string them into a cogent sentence… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ll take that as a yes, boomer.
Or should I say bootlicker?
Oh, have you got a life of regrets to come.
Enjoy!
Ah yes climate doomerism. “The Earth is going to become uninhabitable, but there’s nothing anyone can do about it now so I’ll just keep on keeping on”. Classic!
If all the people with a brain who give a shit stress themselves out into having health issues and heart attacks, what are we left with?
Health issues and heart attacks.
I never said nothing cant be done…
True, you said “Why worry about something I can’t control”. Paired with “I never said nothing cant be done” gives me the impression that you think something can be done, just not by you.
If you don’t think you can, who do you think could?
It isn’t going to be just one person that will motivate change, it will have to be a bunch of people. You could be one of those people, but I don’t think those people will have much success if they maintain the “Why worry about something I can’t control” way of thinking.
I’m happier to live in an age of micro plastics than lead and asbestos and extreme smog.
How about PFAS?
I would highly recommend getting a UV flashlight with a 365nm wavelength. That wavelength makes leaded glass easy to identify and glow blue. I got one and lead is still very much prevalent in a large amount of drinking glasses that I shine it on.
China still doesn’t really have restrictions on lead and brass plumbing fixtures in America still had 8% lead as recent as 2014
I bet the bigger impact/microplastic culprit is the clothes themselves.
Not only that, but aside from fossil fuels, what’s the next worst culprit of greenhouse gas emissions? Fashion. Our practices in producing cheap, poorly made replaceable clothes and not making the effort into at least splashing out into clothes that last longer and maybe even repairing what we’ve got is a huge problem.
Most pairs of shoes I buy often don’t last longer than 3 months. And when I do finally get one that lasts longer I wear them till the soles fall out of them. My current pair I’ve had for at least 2-3 years.
What the heck are you doing where shoes only last 3 months?
Don’t forget to check out your local cobbler! What you really want in good shoes are good uppers (the main body of the shoe). The soles have always and forever through history been meant to be replaced after a while, since it’s something you walk on every day.
With some nice leather uppers and a good local cobbler, and you can keep a pair of shoes going for quite a while :)
I guess I need a second set of shoes so when I send my old ones off to the shoe repairer I still have something to wear.
That’s my problem now, Ive only got one good-ish pair, and they ain’t leather
Leather was just an example I gave off the top of my head, since it’s notoriously sturdy, but good shoes by no means need to be leather! Lots of good shoes come in all sorts of materials, so if a pair is treating you well (or it’s all you have), having them resoled when the bottoms wear out could be a good option.
That’s a really good point. It’s unfortunate that polyester tends to be the go-to cheap option for clothes
I just hope we can swap them out for hemp ASAP… I really want to get to the point where hemp is only a few bucks more and an elimination of corn subsidies along with a virgin plastics tariff could go a long way
There’s so much clothing already made that, with the exception of underwear or socks, you could assemble a large and diverse wardrobe of good quality plant fiber clothes entirely from 2nd hand clothing bought for as cheap or cheaper than you’d find new polyester stuff. Thrift shops, Vinted, Ebay, Poshmark etc have tons of good stuff for cheaper than retail.
Yes. I usually join several cleaning groups per year, cleaning thrash from nature. I also don’t buy cheap plastic clothing (basically stop caring about fashionable trends) and repair as much as possible. I think about packaging when buying stuff, which I btw also limit as much as possible. Our waste stream is extremely low, with 95% going into recycling and upcycling.
I live a comfortable modern life, these are minor adjustments everybody can and should be able to make.
Always keep in mind that apathy and fomo are part of capitalist consumer ideology.
I don’t want to assume your economic situation, but it seems like limiting in this way is only possible from a privileged position.
I’m absolutely not in a financially privileged position, income wise. I’d say I’m in the bottom 30th percentile. Far less than median income.
My privilege is living in an affluent western country with affordable healthcare. And only if you’re outside of the western world could I understand having to make different choices.
And by the way… Shouldn’t especially affluent people be making these choices? Why the hell would we force homeless people to only buy linen. It’s the people who make the most who have the highest impact.
At some point in your life you realize that you can’t worry about things you don’t have control about
What can be done to prevent microplastics?
You mean, apart from dismantling capitalism?
Yes, something realistic that can be actually done.
Then the answer is a definite absolutely nothing.
You don’t need to fix the entire problem to help mitigate it.
Mitigate it how, genius?
One obvious way would be to limit the amount of plastic you purchase, use, and dispose of.
So your solution is to place the burden of mitigating our ecological disasters on capitalism’s victims?
Yes. Capitalism’s victims far outnumber capitalism’s profiteers. At the same time, by spending less money in support of harmful capitalistic practices, it disincentivizes companies from selling them as much.
We can vote with our ballots and we can vote with our dollars. Between those moments, we can consume less, reuse more, and dispose of less.
So your solution is to do nothing and give in? Yet YOU are the one insulting the commenter you’re replying to? Lay off the superiority and fatalism, and maybe you will see a path to helping.
Will we solve all the world’s problems? Not even a little bit. But does that mean we shouldn’t even try? I would argue that we should absolutely do our best to mitigate any damage caused by anyone, because we all share the same earth. Of course I would also argue we should all abstain from insulting each other, so maybe my opinion doesn’t matter.
Nothing? Stop using so many plastic things.
Unless everyone changes, there’s microplastic in your drinking water. The problem is so far along that even if we stopped all plastic products sale and manufacturing today, and actively worked to clean out all of the microplastic from the globe on an unprecedented level, we would still have microplastic issues by the time you die, even if you live longer than any human has ever lived before.
This isn’t “it’s hopeless and we shouldn’t bother”, it’s more “there’s more to do than can be done in anyone’s lifetime, so try not to make it any worse”.
It’s good that you’re aware and trying, you should keep doing that. Worrying about it all the time isn’t really helpful. Just try not to unnecessarily contribute to the problem.
I’ve been avoiding plasticware for food for about a decade, I drink from glasses or glass bottles, never use disposable utensils etc, but I wasn’t paying that much attention to fabric content until I had a baby. I was more concerned with the chemical leeching directly, but then I read more about how microplastics effect the endocrine system and how infants are especially vulnerable due to their size and how they chew on everything. That spurred me to only get plant based fabrics for the kiddo, mostly from 2nd hand shops. I think the only plastic stuff he wears is his snow gear and shoes. I know I can’t protect him forever, but I’ll do what I can where I can.
this is a case where I basically decide not to worry about something so staggeringly out of my control
I do my best to minimize micro plastics but also try not to worry about things I can’t control. That cat is already out of the bag, micro plastics are inescapable. The silver lining this study show that they aren’t that dangerous and its relatively easy for the body to get rid of them over the course of a month. While obviously its hard to say about long term toxicity it seems that life is at least generally resilient to it.
If I may add one personal anecdote. My parents were born in the 60s and 70s. They chain smoked cigarettes for many decades before their health finally caught up with them. Yet somehow they resisted the numerous toxins and carcinogens and tar they exposed themselves too every moment of the day. Maybe they are just really lucky but also maybe living things that got this far in the evolutionary tree already have expetience in biologically adapting to survive. Our cells aren’t such easy pushovers to die over any and every little changes in the environment or new chemical players introducing themselves in the game of life.
Yeah it’s a bit of a buzzword, there’s no real evidence yet that it’s a problem and a few areas we’d expect to see them already - plastic factory workers and similar seem to be no less healthy than counterparts in other industries for example.
It feels bad hearing micro plastic is found on ocean floors but really it’s just going to vanish under a layer of other creatures trash like shells and bones or the dirt drifting in the currents until it finally settles. We need to look after the planet but it’s worth remembering she’s a tough old egg.
My siblings and I often marvel that we survived growing up in the 1950s and 60s. DDT, leaded petrol, lead paint, asbestos fake snow, most adults smoking like chimneys, coal fires… My brother recently got through a type of leukaemia linked to the glue he used to make model planes.
On the other hand, plastic was rare back then. Containers were metal, glass, wood, ceramic. Shopping was carried in string bags or wicker baskets. The butcher wrapped meat in paper, lined with a sheet of waxed paper if it was bleeding. When plastic arrived big style it was cool, convenient, modern. In the 70s everyone had Tupperware - argh, those parties…
This was all in New Zealand btw, something of a conservative backwater. The Australian time zone joke ran: “If it’s 7pm in Sydney, it’s 1956 in Auckland.”
I mean, every person who has died from cigarette related lung conditions might disagree that we’ve evolved past it. That’s just survivor bias.
But also, micro plastics can get past the blood brain barrier and as far as we know, there’s no way for our bodies to clean them out. Nano plastics are also getting imedded in lung tissue. We don’t know yet the repressions of this but I avoid buying plastic any time there is an alternative. Yes, it’s unavailable that we consume it, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to bring it into my house.
These days plastic products are sold at huge profit. It blows my mind to see a polyester shirt and a cotton shirt selling for the same price when the polyester probably cost a couple cents to produce.
Nothing can be done to prevent it, it’s already in every fresh water source.
How worried?
Super fucking worried, but there are also so many other things to be worried about rn that I just accept the fact that I will likely die from some form of forever chemical cancer.
Do pods not just dissolve?
Dissolving doesn’t mean it no longer exists. The particles are just too small to see.
Make a list of all the things to worry about. Where does microplastics fall on that list? Is it above or below flushing with the toilet lid open?
It bothers me that people are worried about this and pfas but not nitrogen oxides or failures-to-deliver. It shows we worry about what we are told to worry about, rather than what maybe we should worry about.
What is failure-to-deliver? A woman who stays pregnant fo the rest of her life?
Pretty much. It is when someone sells stock in a company but never delivers the stock. It’s a great way to steal a bunch of money from the economy.
That depends on how aggressively they modify hormones and how long term a view you have.
Will it end the human race?
Probably not.
Will it lead to birth defects and cancer upticks, yup.
Use the prioritization list template from “What Color Is Your Parachute.”
I’ll try it out. https://www.beverlyryle.com/prioritizing-grid
Detergent pods?
Boy are you about to lose 81 minutes of your life that you’ll be happy to waste: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFOQW4J4mT3E4f_Y6O7H4OFq2SXKpWLF2
I don’t even need to click the link. All Lemmy users (including myself) just share one personality.
Technology connections huh?
Edit: yup
Great watch! Never knew I wanted to know so much about dishwashers
I really like that guy from the videos, so if you do, too, also check his video about a 50 year old toaster out! (It’s cooler than any toasters we have nowadays and I want one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y
I had one growing up. My sister has one now that she found in a thrift store. They are awesome.
maybe I should start checking thrift stores around me as well, hmmm… I doubt I’m going to find one of these seeing as I am in germany lol
edit: actually looks like there are a bunch available on ebay. I really should check those thrift stores around me…
All I’ve ever heard about microplastics is that everyone is filled with them and that they are everywhere.
What I haven’t heard is why that is a concern. Is it going to affect my health in the long run? When? How much do I have to have consumed for it be an issue?
Even if we identify those issues, can it be removed? Will it make a difference?
For such a ‘everyone is now worried about this’ type problem, I never once heard why they’re concerned. I suppose I could look it up, but I’m surprised that all of the discussion is about the issue existing, but not why it’s an issue to begin with.
A recent study indicated they appear to contribute to strokes and heart attacks.
The reality is that we do not know what the long term effects are. But nonetheless, without knowing what the consequences are, we managed to contaminate most of the planet including our food and water supply with them. Thats what is worrying because there are many cases where we did something similar with disastrous consequences.
Exactly my take. “Plastic” is a huge word covering thousands of compounds. I’m no chemist, but all the plastics I deal with day to day are inert, which is much of the reason we use them.
I’m absolutely in favor of reducing single use plastics, but there’s so much plastic in so many things that I can’t imagine existing without it. People are rather unreasonably of the “plastic bad” mindset without considering what the alternatives could be.
Not everything can be glass or wood/wood-like substances. Metal has its own environmental concerns. What else is there?
That some of those billions of profits were invested into finding better solutions.
You could get kicked in the crotch everyday for the rest of your life and go on to live a long life. I mean, it’s just a few little electrical signals telling your brain there is a sudden pressure. But it won’t break anything.
