Ditch brightly coloured plastic, anti-waste researchers tell firms
Ditch brightly coloured plastic, anti-waste researchers tell firms
Studies find red, blue and green plastic decomposes into microplastic particles faster than plainer colours
Studies find red, blue and green plastic decomposes into microplastic particles faster than plainer colours
Retailers are being urged to stop making everyday products such as drinks bottles, outdoor furniture and toys out of brightly coloured plastic after researchers found it degrades into microplastics faster than plainer colours.
Red, blue and green plastic became “very brittle and fragmented”, while black, white and silver samples were “largely unaffected” over a three-year period, according to the findings of the University of Leicester-led project.
The scale of environmental pollution caused by plastic waste means that microplastics, or tiny plastic particles, are everywhere. Indeed, they were recently found in human testicles, with scientists suggesting a possible link to declining sperm counts in men.
I might be missing the point but does it matter if it breaks down into micro plastics over 3 years or 13?
If single use plastics are destined to become micro plastics does the time scale matter?
I’d hope that the rate is slower and less will be absorbed by humans consumers if it breaks down slower.
A feelings.
Or maybe I’m missing the second half of the answer, but if that colored plastic continued to degrade more quickly, could it be better. I have no idea if there’s any way to get microplastics out of the environs that it’s everywhere, but it has to degrade eventually, right?
Probably doesn't matter with the amount of microplastics that car tires are shedding every day.
a car’s four tires collectively emit 1 trillion ultrafine particles — of less than 100 nanometers — per kilometer driven. https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
I can imagine trying to push this and Marketing going, “No thanks, that doesn’t look good.” And that’d be the end of it.
I could see them putting out some feelgood but meaningless press release about how they will look for new, greener sources of brightly colored plastic in the future.
"Compostable plastic" (that needs an industrial sized composter with heat regulation to fully degrade and isn't available everywhere)
Firms: "Ha ha, fuck you. Capitalism always lets us do whatever we want. Now we're off to swim in our Uncle Scrooge-style moneybins."
Brightly colored plastics may break down into microplastics faster but they're also drastically more visible, meaning they may get spotted and picked up before other colors.
If discarded plastic litter was being picked up enough for that to matter maybe...
They're definitely isn't enough of it being picked up, but I would be curious to see the ratio of brightly colored plastic to not brightly colored plastic in what has been picked up.
If more brightly colored plastic is being picked up then we could increase the amount of plastic that is being picked up by switching to annoying colors.
Every little bit helps, even if it's just 1% more.
It doesn't matter if they're discarded properly or not... They're still gonna end up in the environment at the end of the road anyway. Most plastic isn't recycled, even when it is collected into the system.
What I don't get when I was in school the whole thing was save the trees use astic bags. Like wtf trees are renewable and paper breaks down why was there a big push in the 80 and 90s to use plastic.