Is Your Fleece Jacket Polluting The Oceans?
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- New research shines the spotlight on a new plastic pollution menace -- microfibers.
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By 2050, the World Economic Forum predicts that the amount of plastic in the oceans will outweigh ALL the fish. When you hear “plastic” pollution, you might picture six-pack rings wrapped around seagulls or beaches littered with plastic bottles. But now, researchers are discovering a new menace -- microfibers. They’re tiny strands of synthetic fibers.
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Microfibers are a type of plastic pollution known as microplastics. Microplastics are teeny tiny bits of plastic that are smaller than 5 mm -- which is about the size of a grain of rice. They typically come from larger pieces of plastic that have been broken down over time, or from plastic microbeads found in exfoliating face washes.
Most microfiber pollution comes from the synthetic clothing that many of us LOVE to wear -- think fleece jackets and yoga pants. But this comfort and fashion has a cost. Each time synthetic fabrics are washed, those tiny microfibers shed. Washing a typical polyester fleece can release thousands of microfibers that can travel from the washing machine to the local water treatment plant, where they can slip by filters and enter rivers, lakes, and oceans. And from there, fish and other marine life are eating the microfibers, which may leach harmful toxins.
Microfiber research is pretty new. It didn’t really start until 2011. But since then, researchers have been finding microfibers EVERYWHERE. They’ve been found in tap water in dozens of countries, including the U.S. A German study found microfibers in all 24 beer brands they tested. Researchers in Paris even discovered microfibers falling from the air, meaning we could be BREATHING them in on a daily basis.
What are microplastics?
Small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long which can be harmful to our ocean and aquatic life.
What is plastic made of?
Plastics are made from oil. Oil is a carbon-rich raw material, and plastics are large carbon-containing compounds. They're large molecules called polymers, which are composed of repeating units of shorter carbon-containing compounds called monomers.
SOURCES:
Microfibers are migrating into field and food
www.npr.org/se...
The biggest environmental problem you’ve never heard of
www.theguardia...
Plastic will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050
www3.weforum.or...
Microfibers found in 25% of fish examined in California
www.nature.com...
Microbeads banned in the United States
www.congress.g...
German beer contaminated with microfibers
admin.indiaenvi...
Tap water in multiple countries contains microfibers
orbmedia.org/s...
Microfibers in the air in Paris
www.publish.csi...
Water treatment plants filter out 95 to 99 percent of microplastics
pubs.rsc.org/-/...
Patagonia: An update on microfiber pollution
www.patagonia....
The shirt of the future will be made by methane-eating bacteria
www.fastcompan...
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Hi everyone! Our newest video is all about the newest plastic menace: microfibers. These are the tiny plastic threads that are used to make our beloved fleeces and yoga pants. They are causing serious problems in our oceans, leaching toxins into marine life and back into humans who eat marine life. But there are things we can do to minimize microfiber pollution. Please watch and let us know what you think!
Raising awareness and minimising harm is the first step for the #zerowaste journey
#Namaste
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Above The Noise This sounds exactly like a modern day equivalent to the lead problem of the last century.
He's also wearing a plastic bike helmet.
True. But this video is focused on the unique problem of plastic microfibers, which typically make their way into the ocean via us humans washing our favorite fleeces and synthetic fabrics found everywhere these days.
But, the helmet might be recycled and used as fabric...
bike helmets are not typically being laundered.... so....
3:29 microfibre fallingfrom the air? What is the cause? Chem Trails?
The big picture concerns the "product lifecycle", and the parts of it that generate harmful waste.
We only have 4 real choices when it comes to limiting the negative side-effects of products and their waste:
1. Don't make the product. That which is never made can't create waste of any kind!
2. Make it responsibly. Production processes (including product ingredients and packaging) that generate no harmful waste must be encouraged.
3. Minimize harmful waste as part of normal use. This concerns not only consumables, but also wear.
4. Responsible disposal at the end of life: This has three major paths:
a) Recycle (all or some). So long as the recycling process itself generates minimal harmful waste. Includes "up-cycling".
b) Breakdown (all or some) via biological or industrial processes. Again, with minimal harmful waste.
For waste that enters the environment, natural biological breakdown is the ONLY possibility.
c) Permanent sequestering of what can't be recycled or broken down. Either the waste is safe and non-reactive, or it is isolated from the environment FOR ETERNITY!
The above is why I don't (yet) drive an EV: Making and disposing of large batteries is still **extremely** hard on the environment. EVs don't (yet) make sense even if you only look at lifetime carbon footprint (ignoring the rest of the mess): The battery production process alone lets a thrifty gasoline vehicle have a smaller carbon footprint over 100,000 miles of use. That said, I intend to buy the first EV that solves the battery lifecycle problems (especially when renewable energy sources are taken into account).
Don't even get me started on the horrors of tire lifecycle issues. Real problems that still have no real solutions. Use rail systems? Work from home?
We need to choose between the kinds of waste/pollution we generate when we can't get all the way to zero.
For example, use low-self-discharge NiMH batteries instead of disposable alkaline batteries. Not only do NiMH batteries have a much better lifecycle (but still imperfect), but they also don't leak: Every day, leaking alkaline batteries turn perfectly good products into waste. Alkaline batteries really are terrible.
You make very good points. Thanks for sharing!
why so long?
Is dry cleaning of polyester made clothes could be less damaging? And instead of instilling all those filters maybe we should get clothes that are made of natural fabrics?
Buy clothes with natural fibers: cotton and wool for example.
Antonio V. Esteve still has its own problems
We could go commando and it will soon be obvious that we're not all created equal.
Most of the fleece is made from plastic waste... the plastic bottles would eventually also turn to plastic micro-pieces. Maybe not so horrible after all. But sure, we dont have to make so much new plastic in the first place.
Yes. Many companies do use recycled plastic to make their synthetic clothing. But Microfibers -- due to their size and weight -- are much harder to filter out than traditional microplastics. And they can more easily make their way into food and water that humans consume.
Destroy the plastic industry. We lived before it, we can live without it. This calls for more than regulation actually although realistically that wouldn't be allowed. Great video.
Great video, great channel! Keep up the good work, y'all!
Thank you!
Well this blows. All my furniture is made of microfiber... Time to buy a shit ton of plants.
Watching this for school. Great video!
"Laundry ball that catches all those nasty microfibers"
Hi grate video
I lied
I may start wearing a filtered breathing mask. Reminds me of lead in gasoline.
er.. polymer does not occur in nature? silk, wool, DNA, cellulose...
Hey there. We're not saying that polymers don't occur in nature. That would mean that pretty much nothing exists! We're saying that the process that creates plastic creates polymers that don't occur in nature. Does that make sense?
I understand what you are trying to deliver, it's just when you're trying to provide information to others but the content contain misleading materials, it may discredit you original amazing video. Also, oil, cellulose, sugar, protein, and many others, they are all naturally occurring polymers...
But what if the clothes are being made out of recycled plastic?
Yes, which is good because someday when laundry machines can find a way to filter it, microfiber can be recycled back into thread, and the cycle goes forth.
Fuck i was gonna turn the plastic into clothes as a solution and its just another problem. We need a new method of water treatment and washing machine filters also clothes manufacturing to reduce this problem as much as possible
I want to learn more! Can we set up a phone call? Please let me know! Thank you for the wisdom!!
Henry Ford produced plastic from soybeans in the 20s
Everyone should be eating as much red meat and raw dairy as possible
Vegetables, nuts and fruits are also good. Fish are bad since they are caught by nets made out of plastic and big companies never bother to fish those nets
my teacher assinged this to me and this was 2 years ago
Super video.
ok
I love this video
what if the wasing machine fitered out ur clothes:)
RECYCLE THAT PLASTIC YASSS
WE HAVE TO BE EDUMACATIONAL
YAS QUEEN
SAVE THE TURTLES SKSKSKSKSKSK
@@purplekitty9580 YASSSSSSS
Is there proof this stuff is actually harmful? And in what ways? Maybe I need to stop swallowing my gum...
Great question. Studies show that microfibers are showing up more and more in the food that we eat. Studies have also shown that microfibers -- and other microplastics -- can absorb and leach harmful toxins. Finding if there is a direct link between this plastic pollution and health in humans is the next step. This kind of research is tough because it requires large, longitudinal studies that follow large groups of people for long periods of time. Microfiber research is less than a decade old, so this research is really just beginning.
Above The Noise, If microfibers haven't been proven to cause illness yet, it would be very rash and foolish to make laws against them. Have we actually seen an increase in infection with the increase if plastics in our food and water? I dont think it's wise to raise awareness of somthing you're not even sure exists.
Andrew George yeah! It grows and into you!
@@andrewgeorge2666 yes, it obviously does exist. But you're right, regulation can be a bit over the line. I believe recycling microfiber ourselves would be wiser!
@@AboveTheNoise Blue whales have become canaries, what a mixed up world!
I’ll vote for regulations & I will install filters on my washer and dry.
Let us know how the filter works out for you!
matthewweaverworks, before you vote for regulations, maybe you should donate to research on the topic so we actually know if and how microplastics are harming us.
Above The Noise 👍🏽✌🏽
Andrew George Clearly accumulation of plastic in the body would not be good. Further, whatever science finds I’ll gladly accept.
matthewweaverworks maybe wait until science prices your theory to vote though, some things appear worse then they are, like the fact that there's dihydromonoxide in literally all the food we eat.
Bactria's shit > Dinosaurs shit
Great information, where do I get a pair of leftist glasses ? I want to look proper communist
Oof
I watched this in class, WORSE 6 minutes of my LIFE
first
Congrats! Let us know what you think of the video.