DailyDirt: Plastic Is Everywhere, Run For Your Lives

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Feb 19th 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Plastic is a relatively new material in our environment, but many kinds of plastic don't decompose -- so it sticks around for a long, long time. But it's so useful -- and who wants to drag around metal or glass bottles? (Ahem, even if you did, many glass/metal bottles are lined with plastic anyway.) We could do a better job of recycling plastic and making sure plastic doesn't end up in the ocean, but we'll probably never get rid of plastic unless we run out of oil.

Making plastic without chemicals that have estrogenic activity can be done, but some chemical companies are still fighting to make their competitor's products look bad. The dose makes the poison, and what you don't realize is that iocane powder is present in all plastic water bottles. [url]
An estimated 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic waste entered the ocean in 2010. This estimate is also probably a bit low because it only counts the plastic that is buoyant in seawater. [url]
The FDA says BPA from polycarbonate plastic in beverage containers and food packaging is safe. Go ahead and avoid plastic if you want to, but there are probably worse things in your food. [url]

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Filed Under: bpa, chemistry, estrogenic activity, plastic, polycarbonate, waste

9 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Feb 2015 @ 6:09pm

Maybe lightweight ceramics will be better for everything...
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Feb 2015 @ 7:33pm

Rocks have been around for a very long time too...But they don't float nor choke wild life to death which means that the biodegradability of plastics is not the true issue but the way we process the waste.

However, what I think is the true issue is the fact that China has stopped accepting recyclables from the US due to over-abundance. So the question is, is it better to recycle or not at this point in time? One goes to the landfill (trash) and gets buried while the other gets dumped in the sea (recyclables)...
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- Ninja (profile), 20 Feb 2015 @ 1:37am
  
  Re:
  If the plastic structure did not liberate toxics or hormonally active substances I'd say just mill them and use as additions to concrete or to level the terrain. You can also burn them and generate electricity which can be an awesome source of energy if done right (you know, air pollution controls).
  
  Recycling is awesome and stuff but if you can only use a certain percentage of old plastic in new plastic then it's not a solution.
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 19 Feb 2015 @ 7:59pm

This Was In “New Scientist” Recently
What happens to plastic after it’s buried in the ground for a long time?

Why, it turns into carbon and hydrocarbons, of course. Or, in other words, think “anthracite coal” or “graphite”, and “oil”. Or, in other, other words, stuff similar to the original raw materials we made it from.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Feb 2015 @ 8:32pm

Estrogen...
is good for you.
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- orbitalinsertion (profile), 20 Feb 2015 @ 12:01am
  
  Re: Estrogen...
  It is? For whom? How much? When in their lives? Note also we are talking about chemical mimicry of estrogen properties, which is another suite of issues. Strontium makes for healthy bones, and phencyclidine is a perfectly good neurotransmitter, right?
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  - Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 20 Feb 2015 @ 5:17am
    
    Re: Strontium makes for healthy bones
    Doctors have been prescribing it as a bone treatment, yes.
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  - John Fenderson (profile), 20 Feb 2015 @ 10:07am
    
    Re: Re: Estrogen...
    Without estrogen, none of us would exist!
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  - JoeCool (profile), 20 Feb 2015 @ 10:43am
    
    Re: Re: Estrogen...
    My entire life I've been hearing from feminists that more estrogen and less testosterone would make the world into paradise. Can we use these studies on plastics in arguments with them? :)
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