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[-] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 173 points 3 weeks ago

I remember when I found out that shit was plastic. I always assumed they were organic material of some kind, like the body scrubs with the crushed up walnut shell in it (which probably has fucking microplastic in it, too). So disgusting.

This is why we need to change how shit works. It shouldn't go: company does some shit > fall out > government steps in. It should go: company has an idea > must get permission first from environmental agencies

[-] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 82 points 3 weeks ago

Nah corporations really don't give a shit at all, like all chewing gum is literally just plastic too and sheds tons of microplastics into your mouth as you chew it.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/rethink-chewing-gum-habit-essentially-plastic/

Plastic is an organic material though, so your assumption was correct.

[-] moody@lemmings.world 31 points 3 weeks ago

The difference is in the definition or organic. When the average person thinks organic, they mean something that is or used to be alive. When a scientist think organic, they're talking about carbon compounds.

[-] Wrufieotnak@feddit.org 23 points 3 weeks ago

Plastic are made from fossil fuels which are from primordial plants. So still organic according to your definition. Just a few hundred million years since it was alive.

[-] T156@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

Interesting. Always thought chewing gum was more like when you made "plastic" out of the caesin in milk.

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 15 points 3 weeks ago

You can buy chewing gum made from natural materials but it's not the norm. Most chewing gum is made from mineral oil.

[-] fristislurper@feddit.nl 4 points 3 weeks ago

Also, chemically they are identical. Plastic made of a plant is still a plastic.

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 6 points 3 weeks ago

Nah it's just rubbery dried chicle sap, no chemical refining like with oil

This is what it looks like

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

I can almost taste the six seconds the flavor added to that will last!

Five minutes of microplastics or a blink of flavor? Answer might just be no gum :(

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah no idea why this is so hard to achieve but it's a very noticeable difference.

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[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 weeks ago

i assumed it was just glass or similar, maybe the same material as those moisture-absorbing silica packets

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 6 points 3 weeks ago

There are probably some with sand and other hard minerals, I think Dove had some soaps with aluminum oxide in it?

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 3 weeks ago

i've definitely seen things like that, i think mostly "artisanal" soaps with like ground coconut shell or something, but the thing is that it tends to look like shit.

[-] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

I would much rather use that bar of soap than the mysterious liquid gels full of dyes and other junk. If natural tones are somehow gross and icky but a blood red goo that faintly smells of petro chemicals is fine then maybe we really are doomed as a species.

You go back a century or so, that bar of soap would likely have been considered a luxury product.

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[-] ekky@sopuli.xyz 96 points 3 weeks ago

Plastic gotta be this age's lead/quicksilver.

[-] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 68 points 3 weeks ago

It is. Along with PFAS.

[-] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 80 points 3 weeks ago

Don’t like thinking about how much of that probably made it to my brain, organs, and muscles :)

[-] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 82 points 3 weeks ago

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03453-1

This study released last year based on samples from cadavers suggests there’s enough in your brain to make a plastic spoon

[-] logicbomb@lemmy.world 36 points 3 weeks ago

Maybe they can recycle me into a plastic spoon then.

[-] Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 weeks ago

Turn my micro plastics into one of the old mc donalds coke spoons when I die and have everyone at my funeral use it to take a bump of my ashes.

[-] BlueKey@fedia.io 8 points 3 weeks ago

There are ways to turn human remains into a juwel. Now human plastic spoons would be something new to put on ones shelf.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 3 weeks ago

"this is not what we meant by brain plasticity"

[-] f314@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago

Damn.. yeah those samples suggest ~6–8mg of plastic per gram of sample tissue in the brains from 2024 😟 That would be like 10 grams in an entire adult brain if the distribution is even.

“Thankfully” it looks like the brain has the highest concentration of all studied organs 🙃

[-] myster0n@feddit.nl 12 points 3 weeks ago

Sometimes I feel like my brain is a plastic spoon already

[-] expatriado@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

people passing close to a crematorium:

someone is burning plastic

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[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 weeks ago

You don't like glitter in your brain?

[-] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 41 points 3 weeks ago

It's not what microplasitcs are! Does anyone knows what micro is at this point?

[-] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 33 points 3 weeks ago

Microbeads are manufactured solid plastic particles of less than one millimeter in their largest dimension.[1] They are most frequently made of polyethylene but can be of other petrochemical plastics such as polypropylene and polystyrene. They are used in exfoliating personal care products, toothpastes, and in biomedical and health-science research.[2]

-Wikipedia

[-] hakobo@lemmy.world 30 points 3 weeks ago

To add to this, the definition of microplastic is less than 5mm. So yes, 1mm microbeads are microplastics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics

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[-] LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

Millibeads

[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 weeks ago

Centibeads🐛

[-] Vorticity@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

If these aren't microplastics, what are?

"Micro" just means "small" in this case and doesn't mean "microscopic" or have anything to do with "micrometer".

The definition of "microplastic" according to NOAA: "Microplastics are small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long".

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[-] Heikki2@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

1x10^-6 m.

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[-] Mustakrakish@lemmy.world 41 points 3 weeks ago

Wtf is this meme border?

[-] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

bordering on insanity

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago

It's that bullshit when they take a vertically oriented picture/video, stretch it and blur it to a 4:3 ratio, and center the content over it.

Imo a waste of bandwidth and computer power for people who can't cope with the idea of vertical content on a horizontal screen, on a platform primarily accessed by phones anyway.

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 29 points 3 weeks ago

Oh I'd somehow forgotten this era

That shit was in everything non solid for like 2 years

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[-] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 21 points 3 weeks ago

Used to?

[-] dwindling7373@feddit.it 15 points 3 weeks ago

That's not micro though?

[-] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

No, but these beads pretty much go straight into the local waterways where they can very quickly break down into micro plastics. All so a human didn't have to use a tool like a brush or a loofa to scrub themselves. Convenience at any cost.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago

The brushes and loofas also contribute to micro plastic pollution.

[-] RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago

But they become micro as part of abrasion with your teeth.

[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 6 points 3 weeks ago

Up to 5mm is still considered microplastics.

[-] dwindling7373@feddit.it 6 points 3 weeks ago

Seriously? That's a lot of mm...

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[-] Hirom@beehaw.org 13 points 3 weeks ago

Please, do name and shame.

[-] cacti@ani.social 11 points 3 weeks ago

This stuff still exists in my country, and the expensive toothpaste my mother bought is one of them 🙂

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 weeks ago

You know that old saying: If it's stupid but it works it's not stupid? This is the proof that it is incorrect.

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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
782 points (100.0% liked)

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