• Tomboymoder [she/her, pup/pup's]
    ·
    3 months ago

    What are one use plastics used for tho? And if it’s been happening since WW2 why are people only worrying about it now?

    • Hestia [comrade/them, she/her]
      ·
      3 months ago

      if it's been happening since WW2 why are people worrying about it now?

      It took a while for the negative health consequences to be fully researched, and for the plastic industry to infiltrate every aspect of our life as much as it has.

      And you can bet your ass the plastic industry does their best to suppress any research papers that would make people skeptical of their product, just like the Oil Industry hid all the negative consequences of burning through millenniums worth of oil

          • Black_Mald_Futures [any]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            It's more like plastic production is a byproduct of oil production, like, it literally came about from oil companies looking for ways to profit from their waste, the two are intrinsically linked

            • Hestia [comrade/them, she/her]
              ·
              3 months ago

              I know. Similar to how floride was originally chemical waste from Nuclear programs and now they're putting it in our drinking water.

    • peeonyou [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      straws, cutlery, packaging, wrapping.. there are a million 1 time use plastics

    • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
      ·
      3 months ago

      That's the thing, half of all plastics in existence have been made since about 2000. They've just displaced everything else that we used to use in packaging, and lots more.

      One of the biggest sources is clothing made of polyester. Fibers come off each time you wash it. Plastic wrapping might be the biggest- everything that is bought retail or wholesale in plastic wrapping is part of this.

      It doesn't get chemically broken down, but it does get scraped and ground down into really small pieces, and even the sun causes it to peel and chip and splinter on a micro level.