Plastic in the oceans is doing far more good than harm

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[–]Drewski 7 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 4 fun -  (5 children)

Ehh I'm pretty skeptical of this one. Plastics are definitely toxic, for example there are a lot of studies linking BPA & BPS to various health conditions. Here's a quick page I found on plastic toxicity: https://alansfactoryoutlet.com/7-types-of-plastics-their-toxicity-and-most-commonly-used-for/

I don't think we should ban plastics as they are obviously an important tool and critical to our modern infrastructure, but moving away from single use plastics would be a good step in reducing waste.

[–]NuclearBadger 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Or just focus on the shithole countries dumping tonnes per minute into oceans.

Oh wait it's only western countries that care.

[–]Insider 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

  1. United States (42 billion kg)
  2. India (26.3 billion kg)
  3. China (21.5 billion kg)
  4. Brazil (10.6 billion kg)
  5. Indonesia (9.1 billion kg)
  6. Russian Federation (8.4 billion kg)
  7. Germany (6.6 billion kg)
  8. United Kingdom (6.4 billion kg)
  9. Mexico (5.9 billion kg)
  10. Japan (4.8 billion kg)

No one cares bro

[–]Insider 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

https://www.atlasandboots.com/travel-blog/which-countries-produce-the-most-plastic-waste/

Some Western countries just export their plastic to other countries, which then dump the plastic in the ocean. Like..what's the point, you're just wasting more fuel transporting the plastic.

[–]NuclearBadger 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If I paid you to take my fridge to a recycling plant, and you dumped it in a country lane, that is not getting pinned on me.

But you're right though we should just burn plastics to generate electricity. At least you'd make it valuable and we wouldn't be eating it later.

[–]jamesK_3rd 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Well said

[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's one thing to critically assess the real harms from this patch of trash and decide how much of a priority this is, but to argue that 'it's actually a good thing we are littering the ocean with plastic' is just absurd and irresponsible.

Also much of this is factually dubious. Cotton is biodegradable, plastics are not, at least not on any reasonable timeline, this is a very misleading comparison, and many types of plastics are indeed harmful and not that inert such as BPA

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Lolbert mental gymnastic never fails to deliver.

cellulose which is a polymer of glucose derived from wood and are therefore plastics

Jesus Christ, did this guy go to high school?

There is a big difference between pollution and litter

AKSHUALLY

Plastic litter may appear unsightly, but like driftwood on a beach it is not toxic and does not harm life.

False.

This is what happens when you have a think-thank dedicated to promoting jewish lies, you end up saying that the plastic can might be useful for animals to hide from predators...

[–]ActuallyNot 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is bullshit, and Dr. Patrick Moore keeps saying counter-environmental and counter-scientific crap, that I presume he knows is bullshit. But he's a "consultant" to some pretty nasty industries, so I guess it's what he's paid for.

In reality, plastics are found in the gut, not just the gizzard of seabirds. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969722029242

And this is detrimental to their health. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b02098

[–]Tums_is_Smut_bkwrds 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

And to think I was worried about all of the plastics in the environment. Thank heavens for the author of this article. No more recycling of plastic for this guy. I'm throwing it all directly into the ocean, because it does so much good there.

[–]HiddenFox 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I've already started dumping my "organic" used motor oil as well! (I love helping out the ocean!) I also have a few mercury thermostats hanging around. Thinking of putting those directly into my drinking water for maximum benefits!

[–]Evola 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What about the plasticisers? They're the really nasty parts of plastic because they're put in it to make it ductile that are the xenoestrogen component.