When I was a kid, we all collected pop bottles.
And IMO Dr Pepper tasted a lot better out of a bottle.
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ENVR Recycling Doesn’t Work—and the Plastics Industry Knew It
- Thread starter Cardinal
- Start date
And IMO Dr Pepper tasted a lot better out of a bottle.
It is amazing how much of the broken plastic things can be fixed with plastic welding.
Lots of youtube videos on it. It's basically solder iron and zipties.
A hole in a bucket - fixed - bumpers - cracked and broken - fixed.
I think of all the things over the years that I threw away that could have been fixed.
Lots of youtube videos on it. It's basically solder iron and zipties.
A hole in a bucket - fixed - bumpers - cracked and broken - fixed.
I think of all the things over the years that I threw away that could have been fixed.
It probably doesn't hurt their feelings that expected shelf life is months or years shorter in plastic compared to glass! The worst is salad dressings, Miracle Whip or mayonnaise... i used to be able to keep sealed bottles or jars for 2-3 years past the expiration date, without the slightest hint of staleness or rancidity (cool basement, dark cupboard) Now, we're lucky if it doesn't turn funky *before* the expiration date!
Catsup, mustard and other condiments (non-fat, so rancidity isn't an issue) also turn dark and get funky looking, where in glass bottles, they'd keep for years.
I wonder what our blood tests would look like if testing for microplastics? I probably haven't drunk a dozen bottles of water, ever, I might drink 2-3 cans of soda a year, and 95% of our food has been homegrown for over 40 years....
Summerthyme
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gillmanNSF
Veteran Member
In my "neck of the woods" in a small apt. complex, I've watched as the garbage truck empties both regular trash and the green compost bins into the same truck; it all goes into the same chutes and gets compressed together. I no longer bother to separate compost into a separate bin. Could just be residential; don't know about restaurant waste and such. I've also noticed that people, especially young people, still don't know what is recyclable and what isn't, so I see food, oil and soap-tainted plastic containers, scraps of plastic film, pizza boxes, dryer lint, latex gloves, really anything in the blue containers, and we hear nothing back from the recycling company. It's a scam.
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
This and agreed!
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
Tuna in those plastic pouches versus a can, umm yeah no thanks.
"You will own nothing and be happy"
ShadowMan
Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Time to RETURN to GLASS. Yeah, it will cost more to ship, but everything in it tastes better and lasts longer. Glass is TOTALLY RECYCLABLE! It leaves NO TOXIC crap behind. It doesn't get into your body. If it gets into the ocean....it sinks and causes no harm to the environment. TIME TO RETURN TO GLASS!
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
Is there test, probably not, to test for microplastics in one's system?
StarryEyedLad
désespéré pour le ciel
I have personally witnessed the same thing here. (Almost-rural, farther-out suburban area.) The trash truck rolls up and dumps both the recycle bin & regular trash bin into the same truck. We have filled the recycle bin with regular trash many times and they still took it.
HEALTH - The World Has a Plastic Problem, as New Study Into ‘Plasticosis’ Disease Reveals. (Plasticosis)
Another warning about potential health problems. Texican.... --------------------------------------------------------- https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/03/15/raw-egg-nationalist-the-world-has-a-plastic-problem-as-new-study-into-plasticosis-disease-reveals/ The World Has a Plastic Problem, as...
greysage
On The Level
/https%3A%2F%2Ftf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffiler_public%2F60%2F94%2F609402b4-a935-49fc-b7c9-4af1ed459f8b%2Fgettyimages-1318896294.jpg)
Microplastics Detected in Human Blood in New Study
Researchers found plastic in the blood of 17 of 22 of study participants, or about 77 percent
www.smithsonianmag.com
Microplastics Detected in Human Blood in New Study
Researchers found plastic in the blood of 17 of 22 of study participants, or about 77 percentMargaret Osborne
Daily Correspondent
March 28, 2022
The participants could have been exposed to microplastics through air, water and food, but also through personal care products like toothpaste or lip gloss that might have been accidentally ingested, dental polymers, parts of implants or tattoo ink residues.
Microplastics, or tiny plastic particles, are ubiquitous pollutants found almost everywhere on earth. Scientists have detected microplastics near the peak of Mount Everest, in the Mariana Trench and even in baby poop. But researchers have now found a new vessel for microplastics: human blood.
In a paper published in Environment International, researchers found plastic in the blood of 17 of 22 of study participants, or about 77 percent.
“Our study is the first indication that we have polymer particles in our blood – it’s a breakthrough result,” says study author Dick Vethaak, an ecotoxicologist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, to the Guardian’s Damian Carrington. “But we have to extend the research and increase the sample sizes, the number of polymers assessed, etc.”
Researchers took blood samples from anonymous, healthy adults, and looked for plastics that were between 700 and 500,000 nanometers (nm). Seven hundred nm is around 140 times smaller than the width of a human hair, writes The Wire Science’s Aathira Perinchery.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), commonly used in disposable water bottles, was the most widely encountered plastic polymer and found in about 50 percent of the donors. The second most common, polystyrene (PS), which is used for food packaging and polystyrene foam, was found in about 36 percent, per the study.
“It is certainly reasonable to be concerned,” Vethaak says to the Guardian. “The particles are there and are transported throughout the body.”
Vethaak tells the Independent’s Harry Cockburn that as a result of his research, he’s been cutting down on his own exposure to plastics by limiting single-use plastics and covering food and drinks to avoid plastics entering that way.
The participants could have been exposed to microplastics through air, water and food, but also through personal care products, like toothpaste or lip gloss, that might have been accidentally ingested, dental polymers, parts of implants or tattoo ink residues, per the authors.
Despite the small number of donors in the study and lack of data on their exposure level, pollution expert Fay Couceiro of the University of Portsmouth, who was not involved in the study, tells the AFP that the study was "robust and will stand up to scrutiny.”
The authors write that more research is needed to determine the human health risks involved with plastic in the bloodstream.
"Where is it going in your body?” Vethaak says to the AFP. “Can it be eliminated? Excreted? Or is it retained in certain organs, accumulating maybe, or is it even able to pass the blood-brain barrier?"
Cyclonemom
Veteran Member
Our garbage trucks also dump both trash and recycling into the same compartment.
ssbn642blue
Veteran Member
The modern world existed before plastics, we just wouldn't have as much Sh!t as we do now. Remember the movie Mrs. Robinson???
The modern world did not exist before plastic. The world did, but EVERYTHING that makes it modern happened with plastic leading the way. You have to go back to pre WW2 to go back to where plastics were only a part of the world instead of most of it.
I have to admit, one advantage of not making things of plastic is leaving more petroleum available to make gas for my car and diesel for my truck to burn. This frees the carbon to be used by plants instead of locking it forever away in a landfill for all time.
I typed the above sitting on a plastic "throne" seat, across from a plastic shower curtain, with a synthetic carpet on the floor, then washed my hands with homemade bar soap sitting on a plastic soap dish next to my plastic tooth brush. Then went back to programming a plastic cased ham radio with instructions from a YouTube video on my plastic cased phone.
Yes, we could have less stuff, but, no. I think I will enjoy my stuff made from plastic. I try and avoid eating any and use a stainless steel cup but you can't win them all.
Yes, we could have less stuff, but, no. I think I will enjoy my stuff made from plastic. I try and avoid eating any and use a stainless steel cup but you can't win them all.
hiwall
Has No Life - Lives on TB
This^^
We could never drop plastics now. It would be the end of the world.
Profit of Doom
Dismember
Aren’t we running out of sand, as well?
Melodi
Disaster Cat
I believe that decades of research have shown it is possible to make plastics or materials similar to plastics that do biodegrade. What I don't know is if they biodegrade down into microplastics or if they become some harmless dirt.
We have to "enjoy" things now, up to a point. But if no effort is made to look for solutions, both alternative sources of industrial materials and clean up, nature may take care of the problem herself. If it affects human and animal fertility and creates massive animal die-offs (especially in the sea), it could only be a matter of time. Or it might not, but it does seem to be already causing some serious issues.
Yes, they can test for this stuff everywhere, even in tiny babies. So, while eating out of plastics and avoiding commercially bottled water makes sense, it isn't a complete means of personal protection either.
I am sure the same crowd with the carbon credits may try to add this to the "Green List," which is also problematic. As I said, they have twisted this stuff so many times already that it becomes hard to see something that could be dangerous when it does come marching down the path.
I end up using plastics, too, as there are not a lot of good choices. But I try to buy things in glass jars when possible, as Summertyme indicated, they last longer, especially cooking oils. As others have pointed out, the current modern world is plastic-based. This is why finding another source for plastics that isn't as dangerous may be needed rather than trying to ban it or put "carbon" taxes on it.
We have to "enjoy" things now, up to a point. But if no effort is made to look for solutions, both alternative sources of industrial materials and clean up, nature may take care of the problem herself. If it affects human and animal fertility and creates massive animal die-offs (especially in the sea), it could only be a matter of time. Or it might not, but it does seem to be already causing some serious issues.
Yes, they can test for this stuff everywhere, even in tiny babies. So, while eating out of plastics and avoiding commercially bottled water makes sense, it isn't a complete means of personal protection either.
I am sure the same crowd with the carbon credits may try to add this to the "Green List," which is also problematic. As I said, they have twisted this stuff so many times already that it becomes hard to see something that could be dangerous when it does come marching down the path.
I end up using plastics, too, as there are not a lot of good choices. But I try to buy things in glass jars when possible, as Summertyme indicated, they last longer, especially cooking oils. As others have pointed out, the current modern world is plastic-based. This is why finding another source for plastics that isn't as dangerous may be needed rather than trying to ban it or put "carbon" taxes on it.
Yup. Decades ago, when I saw people's carefully cleaned and separated "recycling" dumped into the same garbage truck as the regular garbage, I was vindicated for my pizz-poor attitude on the subject. Garbage is garbage. Just throw the danged stuff out. It all ends up in landfills. Heck - we need more golf courses and fewer swamps. 
Shadow
Swift, Silent,...Sleepy
I fixed the gas tank on my backpack weed eater after a hole in the muffler melted a hole in it. That was close!
I cut up a gallon acetone bottle and welded with it. I wish I had known how many years ago.
Shadow
paul bunyan
Frostbite Falls, Minnesota
I doubt the theory that plastics are causing infertility.... Last I checked, the worlds population was still going up.
I have tried to tell my neighbors that the recycling trash cans are a joke, i think you call it moral ( mushroom ?
)signalling. Since the recycled trash and the recycled are all sent to the land fill.
On a more serious note. You will go to prison in Thailand if you transport human sperm across the international border!
I am absolutely certain that mountain dew tastes better from a glass bottle which I used to buy back in 1969.
As always, YMMV, and this message will self destruct in 15 seconds.
I have tried to tell my neighbors that the recycling trash cans are a joke, i think you call it moral ( mushroom ?
)signalling. Since the recycled trash and the recycled are all sent to the land fill. On a more serious note. You will go to prison in Thailand if you transport human sperm across the international border!
I am absolutely certain that mountain dew tastes better from a glass bottle which I used to buy back in 1969.
As always, YMMV, and this message will self destruct in 15 seconds.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Have you done any reading about male sperm counts lately? No one is certain it is microplastics, but their associated chemicals have caused issues in the lab. There may also be a gender-bending issue in FISH. Sure, people still have children at this point, but the sperm counts of men, especially Western men, are plummeting and becoming a major cause of infertility. There are other suspects, my hunch is there is a combination of factors, but this is likely one of the issues.I doubt the theory that plastics are causing infertility.... Last I checked, the worlds population was still going up.
I have tried to tell my neighbors that the recycling trash cans are a joke, i think you call it moral ( mushroom ?
On a more serious note. You will go to prison in Thailand if you transport human sperm across the international border!
I am absolutely certain that mountain dew tastes better from a glass bottle which I used to buy back in 1969.
As always, YMMV, and this message will self destruct in 15 seconds.
Aannddd... we got home from a brief trip to town to discover a flooded pantry... one of the damned "biodegradable" jugs they put distilled water in decided to biodegrade NINETEEN MONTHS before the "use by" date! I guess I'll be transferring all the distilled water I buy into gallon glass jugs as soon as I bring them home from now on!
Summerthyme
Summerthyme
kyrsyan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I either put it in glass, the heavy plastic juice jugs, or the heavy plastic 5 gallon carboys. So far that works. I've seen the thinner plastics disintegrate. Even when stored out of the sun.
Hugs. I hope it didn't damage too much.