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Plastics eventually break up into micro-plastics that enter the food chain or leach other chemicals and they stick around without chemically changing much. Meta
by surfpel 6y ago
Plastics eventually break up into micro-plastics that enter the food chain or leach other chemicals and they stick around without chemically changing much. Metals don’t do that, they’ll either oxidize and eventually become nutrients for something, or stay as a hunk of metal.
- culturestate 6y agoIf this kind of decompositional pollution is a significant concern, why aren’t we worried about the millions of miles of PVC pipe we lay in the ground? Wouldn’t that be the same mechanism?
- londons_explore 6y agoLots of people are worried about that... But PVC pipe has so many advantages over copper/cast iron/lead pipe that they are overlooked.
- toss1 6y agoProbably out of general ignorance and active campaigns from the manufacturers. Just like no one was concerned about, then were confused about, and then finally started to have very late well-founded concern about cigarettes, and then oil. Plastics are just at the beginning of that curve.