I am busy and don’t have time to research all of the ways corporations have poisoned us.

What are some good rules on how to avoid microplastics?

Eat local foods? Avoid processed foods? Walk/bike? Use dry soaps? Don’t use any take away containers? Avoid walking near busy roads? Use cotton/wool for all clothing?

  • Boomkop3
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    -211 months ago

    You can’t buy and optionally clean a bag of dirt?

    • Apathy Tree
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      1211 months ago

      Considering it’s also in the water, probably not, no.

        • Apathy Tree
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          411 months ago

          There’s next to none in all water, when measured by volume.

          But things concentrate, so the 0.00005% adds up over time.

          • Boomkop3
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            111 months ago

            A quick google finds me an article going into the measurements taken with the tap water here: it’s so little it’s in the range of a measuring error for none at all.

            I’d have to pour 350 cups of water to find even one particle, if I’m unlucky

        • @[email protected]
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          11 months ago

          This is a “parts per million billion” sort of thing.

          Think of it like PFAS or some other harmful chemical (which, you know, it basically is): the layperson would be categorically unable to get a meaningful measurement from a glass of water, but it can still fuck you (and everyone else) up real bad in the long run.

          • Boomkop3
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            11 months ago

            The only particles found were really small: 50 microns

            going with that, 350 glasses, 250ml per glass, 1e+12 cubic microns per cm3

            So 1 particle in 3502501e+12/50 cubic microns of water

            according to my calculator that would be about 5.7×10^-10ppm

            aka, next to none

            yes I did the math using the simple example the doc gave me :0

    • @[email protected]
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      311 months ago

      The plastic particles are small enough to enter the cells of your body. No filter can let dirt through and block micro plastics.

      • Boomkop3
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        111 months ago

        Maybe stop thinking in absolutes and see if blocking 99% makes a difference? You gotta be smarter than to think in black and white

        • @[email protected]
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          311 months ago

          I don’t think you understand how small the particles are. You can’t filter micro plastics out of soil because the micro plastics are the same size as the soil particles. Take a bucket of sand and dye half red. How are you going to filter it?

          There are methods to destroy micro plastics like raising the temp. But that will kill the bacteria in the soil making it sterile.

          • Boomkop3
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            111 months ago

            They’re there in varying sizes. We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for ‘good enough’. And if the place you live is so polluted that you can’t even grab some dirt out of your yard without poisoning your plants… I think you have to get out of there

            • @[email protected]
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              11 months ago

              I don’t think you understand the physics of the problem. Have you played connect 4, the game with the checkers that you drop down a slot?

              Imagine the black checkers are dirt particles and the red checkers are microplastic. The game set with the slots is the filter the particles drop through. Play a game and then open the slider at the bottom to dump the checkers. Do the red checkers stay in the game set while only the black fall out? Of course not, because they are the same size.

              There is no possibile way to filter the plastic because it is the same size as the dirt in all its different sizes. There are large and small dirt particles. There are large and small micro plastics. If you remove 1% of the microplastic you remove 1% of the dirt, so the remaining dirt is just as contaminated. You didn’t filter it, you only removed an equal amount of dirt and plastic.

              https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121003095

        • @[email protected]
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          311 months ago

          Why don’t you tell me how you think you’re gonna clean literally microscopic plastic fragments out of said dirt?

          • Boomkop3
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            011 months ago

            I think I’ll call around to find some that have dirt with little plastic. I said optional for a reason

            • @[email protected]
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              11 months ago

              Let me put it another way:

              Microplastics are so small that they are found in rainwater - as in, they’re found in water collected from precipitation in a pristine vessel. They’re literally everywhere, in every part of our ecosystem and food chain at this point. There is unfortunately no escaping them.

              • Boomkop3
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                011 months ago

                welp, sucks to be you I guess. It’s monitored and minimal out here :p

                  • Boomkop3
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                    011 months ago

                    I understand that it’s measured here, and those measurements are not as bad as you seem to want them to be. Not everywhere on the planet is equally polluted

    • metaStatic
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      211 months ago

      Can’t wait for the Water World future, these bags of dirt are gonna be worth a fortune.