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If there's one thing plastic doesn't do it's "deteriorate quickly". Anyone who works with plastic knows this. I've seen plastic bags stick around in trees for

If there's one thing plastic doesn't do it's "deteriorate quickly". Anyone who works with plastic knows this. I've seen plastic bags stick around in trees for decades despite being exposed to wind, rain, and UV light for for twelve hours a day in the summer. There's a reason cities try and ban those things. A paper bag turns to mush within hours if it's wet. It's basically gone within weeks. Plastic beads. In stuff that goes down the drain. Brilliant.

ZenoArrow 10y ago
From a user point of view, I doubt most people thought about it before the reports of ecological damage started rolling in. I know I didn't, I'd occasionally used products with microbeads in the past, it never crossed my mind to think about the damage those beads could cause, and even if it did I'd have assumed that it would've been easy enough to filter them out at a water treatment plant (I'm still not sure why this is a problem to be honest). Now that I know about the ecological damage they cause I won't be using them again, but I suspect plenty of people are still unaware of their impact. Hopefully they can continue to be banned. On a similar note, there are plenty of hazardous chemicals used in personal hygiene products, which is something that requires greater public awareness. There are some examples here (and even though the article suggests the EU has higher standards, hazardous chemicals can be found in products sold in the EU too): http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/20/soap-shampoo-toxic-chemicals.aspx http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/2...
riffraff 10y ago
Microscopic plastic presumably does not work like plastic bags? TFA actually states that most microscopic plastic is not from microbeads but from larger things which have deteriorated.
- astrodust 10y ago
  A lot of "biodegradable" plastic is actually plastic that just breaks down into tiny bits. It only appears to degrade, it doesn't actually go away. This is probably another massive problem lurking in the deep.
dawnerd 10y ago
Good point about cities trying to ban them. When California passed the ban I thought it was great until I saw they simply replaced the lighter bags with bags that are way more plastic. Since you can't surbside recycle them they're still going to end up in the dump and everywhere else and just take even longer to decompose. Should have gone paper or none at all...

ZenoArrow 10y ago

From a user point of view, I doubt most people thought about it before the reports of ecological damage started rolling in. I know I didn't, I'd occasionally used products with microbeads in the past, it never crossed my mind to think about the damage those beads could cause, and even if it did I'd have assumed that it would've been easy enough to filter them out at a water treatment plant (I'm still not sure why this is a problem to be honest). Now that I know about the ecological damage they cause I won't be using them again, but I suspect plenty of people are still unaware of their impact. Hopefully they can continue to be banned. On a similar note, there are plenty of hazardous chemicals used in personal hygiene products, which is something that requires greater public awareness. There are some examples here (and even though the article suggests the EU has higher standards, hazardous chemicals can be found in products sold in the EU too): http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/20/soap-shampoo-toxic-chemicals.aspx http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/2...

riffraff 10y ago

Microscopic plastic presumably does not work like plastic bags? TFA actually states that most microscopic plastic is not from microbeads but from larger things which have deteriorated.

astrodust 10y ago
A lot of "biodegradable" plastic is actually plastic that just breaks down into tiny bits. It only appears to degrade, it doesn't actually go away. This is probably another massive problem lurking in the deep.

dawnerd 10y ago

Good point about cities trying to ban them. When California passed the ban I thought it was great until I saw they simply replaced the lighter bags with bags that are way more plastic. Since you can't surbside recycle them they're still going to end up in the dump and everywhere else and just take even longer to decompose. Should have gone paper or none at all...