5 ms·

PLA etc are just fine, they might not biodegrade quickly outside of a compost pile, but they are not making indefinitely persistent microplastics. Indeed, medic

by kleton 3y ago

PLA etc are just fine, they might not biodegrade quickly outside of a compost pile, but they are not making indefinitely persistent microplastics. Indeed, medical implants made of PLA are reabsorbed in mammals. The same cannot be said of PETE fibers accumulating in various tissues.

Kerb_ 3y ago
Just a note, PLA is industrially compostable, but it won't biodegrade quickly if at all in your backyard compost pile
- Brian_K_White 3y ago
  It will biodegrade just laying around anywhere, with not even a backyard composter, 1000x sooner than all the normal plastics. Some other things can even go faster and easier, but you can use pla without feeling guilty of anything. It doesn't do the world any good to make anyone wary of such a huge improvement.
  - alpaca128 3y ago
    1000x sooner is still a really long time, I've seen numbers like 80 years thrown around. And that's with normal PLA, not PLA+ and other popular modifications that may have very different properties. You are right that it's significantly better than ABS for example, but "less environmentally hostile" and "environmentally friendly" are not the same and imho a lot of the info out there is simply misleading in that regard.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - Kerb_ 3y ago
    It doesn't do the world any good to lie about the degree to which things help either! We can be realistic about our need to properly dispose of PLA in an industrial composter, and still accept that it's a massive improvement over other plastics
culi 3y ago
> PLA etc are just fine Define "just fine". PLA microplastics can have strongly hormonal effects. In european perch, for example, they were even found to significantly alter social behavior.[0] MPs can cause tissue damage, oxidative stress, and changes in immune-related gene expression as well as antioxidant status in fish[1] and humans may experience oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, neurotoxicity, immune system disruption, and transfer of MPs to other tissues after being exposed to them.[1][2] [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723020442 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972... [1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.827289/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.8272... [2] https://www.undp.org/kosovo/blog/microplastics-human-health-how-much-do-they-harm-us https://www.undp.org/kosovo/blog/microplastics-human-health-...

by kleton 3y ago

Kerb_ 3y ago

Just a note, PLA is industrially compostable, but it won't biodegrade quickly if at all in your backyard compost pile

Brian_K_White 3y ago
It will biodegrade just laying around anywhere, with not even a backyard composter, 1000x sooner than all the normal plastics. Some other things can even go faster and easier, but you can use pla without feeling guilty of anything. It doesn't do the world any good to make anyone wary of such a huge improvement.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  1000x sooner is still a really long time, I've seen numbers like 80 years thrown around. And that's with normal PLA, not PLA+ and other popular modifications that may have very different properties. You are right that it's significantly better than ABS for example, but "less environmentally hostile" and "environmentally friendly" are not the same and imho a lot of the info out there is simply misleading in that regard.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- Kerb_ 3y ago
  It doesn't do the world any good to lie about the degree to which things help either! We can be realistic about our need to properly dispose of PLA in an industrial composter, and still accept that it's a massive improvement over other plastics

culi 3y ago

> PLA etc are just fine Define "just fine". PLA microplastics can have strongly hormonal effects. In european perch, for example, they were even found to significantly alter social behavior.[0] MPs can cause tissue damage, oxidative stress, and changes in immune-related gene expression as well as antioxidant status in fish[1] and humans may experience oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, neurotoxicity, immune system disruption, and transfer of MPs to other tissues after being exposed to them.[1][2] [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723020442 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972... [1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.827289/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.8272... [2] https://www.undp.org/kosovo/blog/microplastics-human-health-how-much-do-they-harm-us https://www.undp.org/kosovo/blog/microplastics-human-health-...