https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/well/microplastics-health.html
You thought the market collapsing again at this hour was bad.
This is worse.
1 Like
How do you say “paywall” in 20 characters?
“ Inside a New Mexico lab, researchers estimate there is five bottle caps worth of plastic in human brains. ”
I’m starting to think some people just have bottle caps for brains.
2 Likes
Dr Ben says about the same as a plastic spoon.
And concludes his YT “if you like science and maintaining the plasticity of your brain, follow for more”.
ralph
3 Likes
What is the alternative? Wood, paper, metal, pottery? Papermache? Plaster?
How do we do that?
1 Like
Well one possibility is “just use less plastic packaging.”
Amazon now uses crumpled paper instead of plastic bubble wrap in much of its packaging. Milk is available in cardboard boxes rather than plastic containers. Egg cartons can be cardboard or plastic, why not tax the plastic since the cardboard can easily be recycled and the plastic can’t?
A few states are taxing - or outlawing completely - plastic bags for shopping in favor of paper; that’s one step. I get a plastic “go home” container every time there’s leftover at the restaurant. The cardboard ones work just as well, they’re just a bit less glamorous.
Plastic water bottles are a sin, and I don’t believe in “sin”, so that’s saying something.
I have written before: I buy a tool at Home Depot. It’s blister packed, and shrink wrapped inside that. Then they put it in a plastic shopping bag to take home, and I put the garbage in a plastic garbage bag.
Becoming aware of all of it is the first step. McDonald’s went from foam containers to paperboard and nobody stopped eating their burgers. It’s not that hard, but perhaps some economic incentives would help, like a tax on plastic bags or whatever. Would also raise revenue to help pay for the billionaires’ tax cuts 
9 Likes
Imagine a world with no plastics. Most things in your home would change. Not enough wood to supply furniture w/o particle board. Most furniture will be metal. No foam cushions. Would we use wool or chicken feathers? Goose down? Cotton?
Most fabrics would become wool, cotton, linen. No nagahyde. Only real leather.
Your home will see dramatic change. Imagine TV or computers with wood or glass cases. Will we allow plywood made with plastic glue?
4 Likes
Imagine a world where someone didn’t take an innocent argument to ridiculous extreme.
Nobody is saying NO plastics. What is being said is “reasonable substitutes”. You know, like finding a way to lessen smoking tobacco without banning it entirely. Or getting lead out of paint without banning paint. Or more to the point, maybe mercury in thermometers because it was showing up in the food chain. (You can still get mercury, just not in every household anymore).
7 Likes
Putting a tax on new plastics and rebates on recycled plastics is one way.
They tried paper straws but that seems to have been unsatisfactory.
2 Likes
It isn’t packaging, or even plastic water bottles.
The largest source of microplastics is tire wear, the second largest is from wear on clothing. Everything else is a distant 3rd, or less
6 Likes
Ironically, the paperboard was coated with a PFAS. No better, really.
6 Likes
But I would think that the coating is much less mass of plastic than the alternative
Mike
This plastics thread is too frequently ignoring the huge differences between different plastics. Some are far more nasty to humans and other living creatures than others, while some degrade far more rapidly than others and even serve as food for some microbes.
Paper packaging that is printed and comes in contact with grease gets a coating to protect the ink from the grease. It does not have to include PFAs.
"This plastics thread is too frequently ignoring the huge differences between different plastics. "
You will usually find plastics issues posted on the Renewable Energy discussion board.
https://discussion.fool.com/t/plastics-reduction-treaty-fails-again-at-busan-meeting/110856
Yes, this thread is not strong in background but we do have people on the boards who are well informed.
The big issue is recycling, sorting things into the 7 groups, some much easier (and more profitable to recycle) than others. The PET used in pop bottles and water bottles is easiest to recycle. It also has linkages that breakdown in the environment meaning it is likely to degrade faster over time. Worst are polyethylene and polypropylene–often milk bottles. Can be made into railroad ties, deck planks, telephone poles, etc, but not worth much. Probably lasts forever in a landfill or the ocean. Can be cracked into petroleum fractions but not much value in them.
In the '60s the detergent industry learned that anything you put in the environment needs to biodegrade. Otherwise it accumulates and eventually causes problems. The plastics people design theirs to last forever. There are some biodegradable plastics but they have not found much acceptance. Gluing particles together with cornstarch has much potential to resolve issues. Remember paper mache?
1 Like
paulecker—
Thank you for providing basic primer on plastics.
We will not do much of anything about plastics until lots of people, especially children in wealthier countries, show severe issues, but by that time the load of nastiness everywhere will be much much worse.
Same for burning fossil fuels — I doubt the populaces will get it at a politically significant level until the Mediterranean is loaded with humans fleeing unsustainable heat and the great fertile wetlands of the great river deltas are lost to sea water….
Humans have simply lucked out up to now.
2 Likes
To be fair, there used to be far fewer humans.
3 Likes
UN is trying to come up with a plastics reduction treaty as shown in the link. But manufacturers are resisting production limits. Treaty will be difficult..
Got no plastic in my brain!
Tequila has dissolved the plastic.
Ahem, cough, cough.
MS
1 Like
Whipper snapper in our day we used to eat glass.