Issues and Insights:
By Kerry Jackson
While most Californians sleep at night, there must be a group somewhere that stays up thinking of something else to ban. How else to explain the unrelenting march of prohibitions, from single-use plastic bags – directly approved by voters – to plastic straws, to gasoline-powered lawn equipment and eventually the sale of new automobiles that burn the same fossil fuel?
The sleepless evenings have kept the state’s war on plastics burning hot. A campaign to at least limit the volume of microplastics – beads smaller than 5 millimeters across produced by the breakdown of plastic products – that end up in the sea is catching fire. According to the Los Angeles Times:
“California aims to sharply limit the spiraling scourge of microplastics in the ocean, while urging more study of this threat to fish, marine mammals and potentially to humans, under a plan a state panel approved” on Feb. 23.
“The Ocean Protection Council voted to make California the first state to adopt a comprehensive plan to rein in the pollution.”
Sounds serious, that “threat” to marine life and humans. Are things that bad? To quote John Lennon, “just gimme some truth” about microplastics.
What happens to the microplastics that end up at sea?
“Over time microplastic particles appear to be disappearing from the ocean’s surface,” says environmental writer Ronald Bailey, basing his comments on a peer-reviewed study in a scientific journal. “Plastics are broken up over time into ever tinier pieces by the action of the waves and ultraviolet sunlight.”
Where are microplastic particles coming from?
A 2015 study in Science estimated the “flow of plastic waste from 20 populous coastal countries,” says Bailey. The U.S. is at the bottom of the list, “dumping less than 1% of the plastics that end up in the oceans annually.” more
I can’t believe legitimate plastic recycling isn’t a thing.
A government that was worth a shit would figure this out.
Since it takes a lot of energy to recycle, nuclear power would be a great match.
Nope, assholes are building windmills that kill wildlife.
My Adidas shoes supposedly contain recycled plastic.
I’m fine with that.
Clean air & water should be bipartisan and could be if one side’s only solution isn’t just banning shit.
I absolutely hate the amount of plastic bottles I throw away.
No real recycling near me.
Not to mention the enormous amount of tequila bottles I’ve pitched over the years. (About to finish one now…sigh*)
Be it mercury, plastic, trash, or chemicals our oceans need to be protected.
Period!
Here’s what you need to know about any plastic. From Delrin to Nylon to Plastic bags. They’re all made from oil.
Can’t we shove microplastics up gay peoples butts?
They seem to enjoy that sort of thing and they seem to have a surprising amount of storage space.
Sorry….that tictok bish with the weeble wobble up her butt has messed with my game tonight.
Yes, made from oil so the leftists that want to ban oil get a win-win.
That said, I don’t want additional oil in the ocean, especially chemically bonded to other molecules.
Look at all the damn masks that ended up in lakes, rivers & the ocean.
SMDH…
I here by appoint BURR as the Gay Person Butt Shover. You are a brave man sir. LOL
did you read the comments in that thread? GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! What has been seen can never be unseen. Barbies? A tool box?A FUGGIN TOOLBOX!?!?!?!?!
You know why it bugs me? Hang on for this one. I saw. In my town. An honest to Gd shure nuff’ real live hipster.
So skinny it’s gender-less? check.
Colonel Saunders chin beard? Check.
Black socks with metrosexual shoes? Check.
Dumb ass tiny hat? check
stupid meaningless random tattoos?Check
Walking his labradoodle pice of crap tiny inbred dog? Check.
This mo-fo waved at me WAVED. Hell yeah I locked up them brakes.
The idea that all this city filth is trickling way out here is got me super irritated.
I CAN’T EVEN TYPE ENGLISH ANYMORE!!!!!
¡MORIR! ¡MORIR! MADRE DE MIERDA!!!
GAAAHHHH!!!!!
Oh I see, now you want me to read shit? That’s not the way this place works. Please re evaluate your former incinary post. I demand an apology.
You can have my apology. It’s at the bottom of this bag of dicks you gotta’ eat through.
WHY DIDN’T YOU MOVE OUT HERE!?!?! THE LAST DAMN LOT ON MUH STREET ACROSS FROM MY HOUSE JUST GOT SOLD! GGGAAAAHHHH!!!
But no. Don’t read that thread. It’s just all kinds of wrong.
If you people had moved out here there wouldn’t be any hipsters, metrosexuals or jag offs who stick things up their butt.
I cannot believe I have to start all over again.
Dude I’m trying. The wifes mom, who I love, is 96. Pretty sure she’s going to out live me. Then I got a big ass shop to move at the same time. We are making progress.
It’s been a rough month so far. A hipster is no big deal but it’s indicative of the changes goin’ on here.
Maybe if I had a job I wouldn’t be so pissed off.
Plastic burns. Problem solved.
Believe me, we don’t want to live in a world without plastics.
Plastic is not recyclable, as is claimed.
“The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?” George Carlin
Shut up California. Don’t lecture us on pollution.The amount of human poop from the street poopers will KILL all marine life in your bays. FIX THAT FIRST YOU COMMIE BASTARDS ! oh BTW= BURR wishes he inserted the wibble-warbler into the pretty girls backside.
Plastic, like the “fossil” fuels from which it’s made, are organic and therefore biodegradable. Example, Lake Erie.
In my experience, by far the greatest amount of plastics flying around the environment, come from homeless encampments. Blue poly tarps, grocery bags, styrofoam food containers, pop bottles; all blowing in the wind, down storm drains, and into creeks, rivers, and ultimately, the ocean. The so-called “progressives” who pretend to care about the planet, turn a blind eye to this mess. The homeless mess was so bad, I finally got out of Oregon.
Plastic, any plastic, is degradable, some faster than others. All it takes is UV light from the sun. So if we put all waste plastic under the ozone hole (it’s still there) in the Antarctic, would it degrade faster. No because the sun doesn’t shine in the winter. When the sun reappears, the hole disappears.
Most of the plastic making it to sewage treatment plants is from residential washing machines consisting of synthetic fibers of polyester, nylon etc. It’s our clothing shedding fibers. Most of that water around the world is then routed to rivers or waterways connected to the ocean.