7 ms·

Also most microplastics in the environment are from rubber tires grinding away on road surfaces so the food packaging stuff is a little forest for the trees imo

• AnimalMuppet 2y ago
  I don't lick the road, though. In terms of it's ability to get into my body, food packaging has a much better pathway than tires.
  • kragen 2y ago
    food packaging doesn't produce microplastics, and you inhale tire dust
    • AnimalMuppet 2y ago
      Doesn't it? Got any evidence for that claim?
      • kragen 2y ago
        no, it doesn't. no, i don't have any evidence it doesn't. if you go looking for evidence that it does, though, you won't find any evidence for that, either
        • Tade0 2y ago
          Of course it does - plastics used in packaging scratch easily. That's enough to produce microplastics. Additionally polypropylene degrades under sunlight, becoming brittle. The process takes several months.
          • kragen 2y ago
            oh, sure, they can produce microplastics after you take the food out. but you aren't going to get plastic dust in your lettuce the most common plastics used in packaging are pet, polypropylene, and polyethylene, which have exceptional elongation at break. when you scratch them, you don't produce microplastics; you produce a burr on the surface
            • Tade0 2y ago
              You're gonna get it in your yoghurt and food packed in tupperware though, as metal utensils can and will scrape some of the plastic off. Anyway, they're already present in tap water, so your lettuce is also already infused with microplastics.
              • kragen 2y ago
                that's a good point about the tap water, and you're probably right about polystyrene yogurt cups and tupperware, though i still think you won't find any evidence of it unless you do the experiment yourself