MICROPLASTICS

Hello - I can't stop thinking about MICROPLASTICS after the thing about a disposable spoon's worth of MICROPLASTICS exists in contemporary human brains. NY MAG: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/what-are-microplastics-harmful-to-humans-how-to-avoid.html Have never started a Question before but it would be: What do you all think about MICROPLASTICS and do you go out of your way to avoid? I live in Brooklyn and all the coffee places on my way to the subway have black plastic lids! It freaks me out! MICROPLASTICS. Please, any discussion, thank you.

(Also, if this topic is already being discussed in another thread, thank you in advance for pointing me in the right direction. I searched google before posting but maybe didn't use the proper search terms. Thanks!)

This is one of the things i am most concerned about. There's no avoiding microplastics. They are everywhere and will probably exist for the next 1000 years. Even if you avoid obvious plastics you are still buying plastic, in clothing and paint and "rubber" tires.

They're related, but I'm much more concerned about the PFAS which have received in French the glamorous moniker of "eternal pollutants" and the smallest of them, Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA), is called the "ultimate pollutant". They are everywhere: in the ocean, soil, tap water, in the blood of newborn babies. We know they are toxic. We don't know if they have levels of safety (concentrations in the soil are mostly above 100ng/liter). They're mostly not monitored at the national level. The cost to remove them is astronomical: the first estimate being 100B per year for Europe. There is now an EU regulation in place, but it excludes cooking ustensils (teflon), and the use in the industry is so widespread and fundamental (gore-tex, plastic wrapping, pesticides, paint, guitar strings).

The industry has known about them since the early 60s, that they end up in the blood since the 70s, notably the US company 3M. The general public has learned about them two years ago.
If you want to burn them, you need 1050-1100 C°, which is a temperature above conventional garbage incinerators.
If you want to remove them from tap water, you need a process called low-pressure inverted osmosis (?), which is extremely energy-costly and then you still have to destroy the concentrated TFA.
Paris is putting in place a system to filtrate the TFA and the question is will the polluters pay.

good thread, bookmarked

i’m so mad about this shit

I agree that microplastics are a pestilential curse on ours and future generations, but the “spoonful in a human brain” study is methodologically questionable and also contains duplicated images (the latter not material to its conclusions, but still sloppy). https://www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/spoonful-of-plastics-in-your-brain-paper-has-duplicated-images/

This issue, while serious, is just another instance in a massive pile of similar issues where the solution is impossible without a massive repudiation of the high-consumption, resource-hungry, profit-driven, blithely destructive social and economic structures that are baked into our lives at the deepest level. And by deepest level, I mean our nature as animals and products of evolution.

Every time I think hard about how to turn us aside from this road to destruction, I see how walled-in and canalized that path has become. It's not just capitalism, it's how we are built and how, in turn, our desires and fears are reflected in everything we build. And how our brains create and maintain habits to be one of the strongest forces in how we act, and once they are established, how hard they are to alter.

It sucks, but once you see all this, you realize that cutting off any one of the hydra's heads isn't enough.

^ I don't mean to say we should not try to change society, but the first place to focus is our own behavior. That alone is a mammoth task, but even beginning that struggle shows others how to begin.

plastic is the enemy

Convenience is the enemy.

fair, I have a special grudge against plastic tho

@Aimless: Completely agree that this runs deep and share the frustration of politics systematically allying with private sector interests over citizens, most of whom voting with their wallet anyway, easily manipulated, and short-sighted.

Habits have been turned in the past though, especially when it concerns health. Microplastics / PFAS tick a lot of boxes that are high concern (cancer in the young, endocrine disruptors, food and water contamination) and they fall in line with current policy arsenal. The existing restrictions (Stockholm convention / POPs) are a starting point and there are multiple proposals to extend it. At least, right now states still look like they want to act fast. I'd tend to say that hopeful or not, the concern is too pressing not to follow.

plastics companies promoted recycling as a way to avoid bans, despite knowing that it wouldn't be a solution: https://climateintegrity.org/projects/plastics-fraud

I have to admit as a gum chewer I’m probably 8% polymer by now.

Did the allcaps fool anyone else into thinking this was an ILM post about obscure new wave?

plastics companies promoted recycling

oh there's a long sordid history of this greenwashing bullshit... we used to return bottles (as they still do in Mexico) to be sanitized and reused, but Coca-Cola & others decided that was a big hassle so let's just make new plastic bottles (aluminum is actually pretty good for recycling) and fill up the world.

Coca-Cola plastic waste in oceans expected to reach 602m kilograms a year by 2030
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/27/coca-cola-plastic-waste-in-oceans-expected-to-reach-602m-kilograms-a-year-by-2030

I live down the street from a high school with an AM/PM minimart across the street, and let me just say that these kids did not receive the Woodsy the Owl & Cryin' Indian indoctrination that gen xers did... I'm constantly picking up plastic trash on my lunchtime walks, despite there being trash cans everwhere

I realize it's a sisyphean folly but what else can you, I'm becoming that grumpy old man

lol I love it. Keep on keepin on my friend

Feel you, my new fixation is cigarette butts, what's wrong with 3 generations of people.

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe reports significant levels of TFA in (white and red) wine with an average 122 µg (micrograms) per liter for recent wines (2021-24), much more than what is found in drinkable water (0-37 µg/l), juices (34 µg/l), or beer (6 µg/l). Samples of the more than fifty wines analysed in the study were issued from ten European countries. Pesticides using PFAS are the likely culprits, as organic wines had distinctly lower rates (40 µg/l).

Safety levels in France and Germany have been provisionally fixed at 60 µg/l, but other countries (Netherlands) have gone for recommended limits as low as 2.2 µg/l.

well, here's a cheerful article.. just heard the study's author on the radio, he's pretty hardcore anti-Tupperware

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/29/health/phthalates-heart-disease-wellness

I watched a very depressing video on the Indonesian plastic burning Tofu processing factories. Fucking absolutely grim and dystopic. Horrible grimy toxic little infernally hot workhouses with broken asbestos roofs, billowing out black smoke that is severely harmful to both the unfortunate workers breathing it in all day and nearby residents. Like even just from food standards how can it be ok to use toxic plastic burning stoves for food production, ffs.

We haven’t had plastic food containers for years, only glass, but that’s one of the easy one. Takeaway is all polypropylene now, when they decided what should be the standard for recycling purposes then that was what came out - not compostable fibre bases or metal.

Sadly the returnable takeaway containers business round here never got much uptake, and the one grilled sticks and salad place that was using them closed down - I have two stainless steel returnable takeaway containers in memoriam.

we have lots of tupperware what should we be buying instead?

switched to glass tupperware recently

the guy on the radio said glass and stainless steel are better for food storage (but some of the glass ones have plastic lids, yeah?)... he also said to ditch the non-stick pans

I guess large mason jars could be good for some things

yep we store almost all our grains/beans/granola/dried stuff in large glass jars

i found it impossible to find lids for glass containers that are not plastic, but at least what the food touches isn't plastic, which is why i at least invested. curious if i missed something

talking non-dry foods

I remember hearing years ago that it wasn't safe to use non-stick pans if you have a pet bird, like a parakeet.. but it's okay if you don't?? wtf

for tupperware style "leftover" containers, yeah I think you gotta go with plastic there

xp

Mason jars, weck jars , ikea have a good range with glass bottoms and bamboo lids. If you have a south Asian food or home wares store stainless steel tiffin boxes are great too.

Bowl with a plate over the top is probably the easiest and most used round our way.

For leftovers that is

non-single-use plastics has never been a huge gripe of mine. for lids it seems reasonable. if only the rest cld be at least minimized. xp

thx Ed! yeah i do the plate lid thing sometimes as well

I was in sweden the last couple summers and plastic takeout is just not a thing, anywhere.. it's all paper-based. Same with utensils, they're all made of wood

we ditched our plastic Tupperware for glass containers with plastic lids a few months ago; they work fine in the fridge and freeze well too

I still have deep reservations about silicone. Everything I know as an engineer tells me it’s a plastic but it seems to get a free pass as the one acceptable plastic because we’d be sunk as a civilization without one. It still seems to create microplastics but also seems to get this acceptable label.

I still have a poly/plastic cutting board, assuming that's how I get most of my microplastics

haha I 100% use our Fiestaware plates as lids

I meal-prep as much as possible and literally sometimes bring four separate containers for my work breakfast/snacks/lunch with hot and cold items, sauces, etc, and I CANNOT CARRY A BACKPACK FULL OF GLASS. If I had a car and I dropped my bag in there, MAYBE but I walk like two miles a day. :(

Stainless steel obv won't work for microwaving.

okay, I guess it's time to get rid of my red swedish cutting board :-(

It's been looking pretty ragged lately, and my cousin destroyed it further going after a baguette with a serrated knife

https://www.foodandwine.com/are-plastic-cutting-boards-safe-8624857

bamboo lids

fyi cheap bamboo (and maybe expensive bamboo too?) is basically bamboo bits compressed and glued together, same as plywood. a lot of the glues are basically plastic. that applies for a lot of other finished wood as well, they're finished with polyurethane. we're a long way aways from old school wood that was waxed or oiled for maintenance.

Stainless steel obv won't work for microwaving.

did you know, it's okay to put metal in a microwave?

quiet Tyler

as long it doesn't have thin edges or pointed bits e.g. a fork or crumpled foil

lads something will kill each of us

debatable, nothing has so far

challenge accepted

i have time right now, how many of yall would buy handmade glue-free wood cutting boards?

me

okay, gonna make one for the fam, see how it turns out.

for years i’ve been told never cut meat on a wooden chopping board, so, uh.. what is the solution here

it's fine. keep a separate board for meat and wash it well after use

seems fair - i’m in

lads something will kill each of us

according to my rigorous statistical analysis, the older we are, the easier it gets.

in conclusion, the only way to be healthy is to be rich

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/well/microplastics-health-risks.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.DlAK.LZWzWsatHsYs&smid=url-share

One of the most effective steps might simply be not drinking from plastic water bottles, especially if they’ve been sitting out in the sun, Dr. Woodruff said.

yet

It’s not entirely clear, either, that avoiding plastic water bottles or cutting boards will meaningfully reduce your lifetime exposure when plastic waste has accumulated in our soil, air and water.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

saw an ad on ig for a device that 'detects microplastics'. seems like snake oil!

it lights up whenever it’s turned on

^ lol

i never go anywhere without my peril-sensitive sunglasses

This Veritasium video on PFAS is pretty good. (I am aware that the channel had unscientific sponsored videos in the past.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2eSujzrUY

Drinks in glass bottles contain more microplastics than their counterparts in plastic ones, French sanitary agency study finds. This counter-intuitive result is due to the paints in the caps that end up in the drink during the production process. Levels founds were around 100 particles per liter.

Another article earlier this week pointed out that PFAS are present in greater concentrations in food than in water (which this time is intuitive since it comes from pesticides). Based on 3000 food samples collected in four EU countries (FRA, GER, NETH, DEN), 70% of fish was contaminated with one of the four PFAS currently surveyed / regulated, 40% of eggs, 25% of milks, and 14% of meats. Offal and seafood also on the higher end. NGOs point out that maximum authorized values vary greatly from product to product, and would result in anyone (adult or child) consuming them even in small quantities exceeding weekly recommendations from the European Food Safety Authority. Examples include one egg / 100g of fish / 500g of meat at problematic values (each and individually) already exceeding recommended weekly amounts.

This problem is not unique to PFAS. Recent articles raised similar concerns for heavy metals such as mercury (fish) or cadmium (cereals, bread, pasta, potatoes).

TFA levels are not currently tracked or regulated. A study from PAN Europe and Global 2000 on 48 cereal products in Austria found values between 13 µg/micrograms (for organic rye bread) and 420 µg per kg (for non-organic biscuits). Those values are 100-1000 times greater than values found in water, and three times greater than the ones found in the only comparable study made in the EU 8 years ago.

This sounds very promising: https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/07/an-unexpected-green-roof-benefit-purging-urban-rainfall-of-practically-all-microplastics/

TIL they make a microwave-safe steel lunch box https://bentgo.com/products/bentgo-microsteel-lunch-box