this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
536 points (97.3% liked)

memes

10680 readers
2861 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Stoneykins@mander.xyz 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That is for bottled sold water, not from water bottles that you refill.

I'm sure using plastic anywhere in any form contributes to microplastics absorbed into ones body, but there is probably a difference? It's just important to be specific what a study says and not accidentally make assumptions.

Also though, I'm gunna keep using my refillable plastic bottle. Trying to manage intake of microplastics based on how much plastic I interact with seems tedious to the point of being impossible. Plastics are the kind of thing that need regulated. And while I might spare myself some microplastics hypothetically, it's not like the water bottle won't break down into microplastics in the dump if I replaced it with a metal bottle.

[–] JustMy2c@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes, the difference is it will take more time to check those so probably in ten years you'll see the same news but about thick plastics...

[–] Stoneykins@mander.xyz 6 points 11 months ago

This is a guess but I would assume the bottling process in water bottling plants, and the manufacture of the disposable water bottles, contributes to the amount of microplastics more than passive decay of plastic. Really my main points/beliefs are:

  1. We should be careful making claims based on scientific studies to make sure they are accurate to the study, especially when it comes to claims about how a solution for a problem may be reached. A slight misunderstandings can cause good motivations to make things worse (like people collectively throwing away all their reusable water bottles and buying NEW water bottles made with metal, effectively turning millions of usable waterbottles into trash and creating demand for more polluting industry).

  2. Plastic pollution, microplastics, and everything related, is an overproduction industry problem, not an individual responsibility problem. While a concern for ones own health is individual, it's also almost impossible to meaningfully avoid microplastics with the current situation. The responsibility doesn't rest on the shoulder of consumers to collectively make good choices, but on governments to regulate and for owners of industry to be held accountable for the damage they have caused.