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Just curious -- what is the main problem with these (as opposed to say sand and other natural objects of similar size) -- do they float in water instead of sett
by xixi77 11y ago
Just curious -- what is the main problem with these (as opposed to say sand and other natural objects of similar size) -- do they float in water instead of settling down, or look like food, or something else?
- sageabilly 11y agoThey're super small and don't get caught up in wastewater treatment filters so then they enter into local watersheds. There, they get ingested by the critters at the bottom of the foodchain and enter into the foodchain that way.
- smsm42 11y agoSo what is the difference with, say, very fine sand/dust? Density? E.g. do the same critters ingest fine sand - and if so, why plastic is more harmful? Also, if these microbeads are chemically inert, what is the harm from them entering the foodchain - as opposed, again, to e.g. dust?
- DanBC 11y agoSand and dust tends to settle, where as these microbeads form a "soup". The beads absorb some chemicals, and so they're not inert by the time they're eaten.
- Houshalter 11y agoDo they decay in UV light? I know most plastic will tend to break down over time if left outside.
- nulltype 11y agoIt sounds like they can cause issues for marine life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_particle_water_pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_particle_water_polluti... such as just physically choking them or leaching chemicals. It may be a good idea to not run the experiment of "what happens when we coat marine life with a lot of plastic beads" because it could be really expensive to clean up if we find out it's bad later on.
- randyrand 11y agoI'd argue that animals will adapt
- smsm42 11y agoWait, it was said those are super-small - so small, filters can't filter them out. So how can it then be that animals are choking on them? Are they congealing somehow? The article you quoted shows some pretty large beads. I see how they could harm a small creature, but for beads this large it should be pretty easy to filter them out. Are those the same beads or different beads?
- xsmasher 11y agoAnimals come in all sizes, and the big ones depend on the little ones. And so, ad infinitum.
- smsm42 11y agoThis is true, but what I am trying to understand is why sand and dust does not hurt these animals but microbead particles of the same size do.
- rleigh 11y agoTwo factors. 1) Density. Sand and dust settle out. Plastic has a lower or similar density to water, so will collect at the surface or float in the water column. 2) Structure and surface properties. Plastic is hydrophobic and usually not completely solid--it is more of a sponge at the microscopic level. This means it can adsorb and absorb oils, which in turn can absorb biologically active chemicals from the water, effectively concentrating them. This basically means that small organisms at the lower end of the food chain can end up ingesting these, including all the nasty stuff, and these cause problems up the food chain, either by killing or reducing the turnover of the lower organisms, starving the higher organisms of nutrition, and also by concentrating the toxins up the food chain.
- wanderingstan 11y agoFrom Wikipedia: > Nurdles that escape from the plastic production process into waterways or oceans have become a significant source of ocean and beach plastic pollution. Marine life is severely threatened by these small pieces of plastic: the creatures that make up the base of the marine food chain, such as krill, are prematurely dying by choking on nurdles.[7] Nurdles have frequently been found in the digestive tracts of various marine creatures, causing physiological damage by leaching plasticizers such as phthalates. Nurdles can carry two types of micropollutants in the marine environment: native plastic additives and hydrophobic pollutants absorbed from seawater. For example, concentrations of PCBs and DDE on nurdles collected from Japanese coastal waters were found to be up to 1 million times higher than the levels detected in surrounding seawater.[8] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_particle_water_pollution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_particle_water_pollu...