"...plastic and tar have combined into a new form of pollution—“plastitar,” as it’s called in a scientific paper on the novel blight. Scientists on the Spanish Canary Islands found plastic-spotted balls of hardened tar scattered across several beaches."
— Robert Wright's Nonzero Newsletter, June 17, 2022
"The "micro" prefix in the word microplastics might lead one to think that these tiny plastic particles, by definition less than 5 millimeters in length, are harmless trifles. And though microplastics are sometimes intentionally manufactured, more often these tiny slivers are created by accidents or the ravages of time, ending their life as pollution in our environment. When that happens, they are far from harmless — rather, they pose a threat to most life on Earth.
* * *
...researchers at MIT have developed a silk-based substitute for plastics for certain industrial products — specifically, industry systems that currently use plastics for microencapsulation processes. Microencapsulation is process via which tiny particles or droplets are covered with a substance that turns them into a pill-shaped object, one that protects its core from degradation through things like air or moisture exposure. While this silk-based substitute would not entirely solve the microplastics problem, it would indeed provide certain businesses with a planet-friendly alternative to microplastic-producing products."
— Matthew Rozsa, "Could silk take a bite out of humanity's microplastic problem?," Salon.com, August 1, 2022
Alarming Level of Microplastics Found in Fish — Eating It 'A Personal Choice', Jess Thomson, Newsweek, Sep 22, 2022
A growing plastic smog, now estimated to be over 170 trillion plastic particles afloat in the world’s oceans—Urgent solutions required Marcus Eriksen ,Win Cowger,Lisa M. Erdle ,Scott Coffin,Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez,Charles J. Moore,Edward J. Carpenter,Robert H. Day,Martin Thiel,Chris Wilcox. PLOS One. March 8, 2023
“Microplastics in our sea now outnumber the stars in our galaxy five-hundred-fold.”
Leah Penniman. Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations With Black Environmentalists. Amistad, 2023. Chapter: "One Blue Planet."
Here's how much plastic enters the ocean each year, New calculations astound scientists, Angus Chen, Science, 12 Feb 2015
Silent spring in the ocean Boris Worm, PNAS 112 (38) 11752-11753, September 1, 2015
Microplastics discovered in the body tissues of whales, dolphins and seals – sparking concerns for human health too. Samantha Garrard. The Conversation. August 23, 2023
Microplastics could trigger cloud formation and affect the weather, new study suggests. Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist, November 15, 2023
Microplastics were found in D.C. rivers. Researchers want to find why. Study of pollutants in Potomac, Anacostia rivers could impact clean-up efforts. Justin Wm. Moyer. Washington Post. November 27, 2023
The world dumps 2,000 truckloads of plastic into the ocean each day. Here’s where a lot of it ends up. Photographs and video by Edu Ponces/RUIDO Photo. Story by Angela Dewan, CNN. April 22, 2024
Nylon
"From clothing to carpets to seat belts, Nylon-6 is found in a variety of materials that most people use every day. But, when people are done with these materials, they end up in landfills or worse: loose in the environment, including the ocean. According to the World Wildlife Federation, up to 1 million pounds of fishing gear is abandoned in the ocean each year, with fishing nets composed of Nylon-6 making up at least 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
But a potential solution:
"The catalyst harnesses yttrium (an inexpensive Earth-abundant metal) and lanthanide ions. When the team heated Nylon-6 samples to melting temperatures and applied the catalyst without a solvent, the plastic fell apart — reverting to its original building blocks without leaving byproducts behind."
— New Catalyst Completely Breaks Down Durable Plastic Pollution in Minutes, Northwestern University, SciTechDaily, December 3, 2023
Archaeologists are now finding microplastics in ancient remains, Jack Guy, CNN, March 25, 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment