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Scientists have compiled a list of over 16,000 chemicals present in plastic products and found that more than 4,000 of these were hazardous to human health and the environment.
The research review, known as the PlastChem report, was released on Thursday and comes ahead of the next round of negotiations for a UN treaty on global plastic pollution.
Researchers, who spent a year combing through research reports, sorted chemicals used in plastics based on their environmental and health effects – information the team hopes will inform governmental regulations and international negotiations to curb plastic use.
The review found that there are more plastic chemicals than previously known, and 4,200 (26 per cent) of these compounds, including those used as raw ingredients, stabilisers and colourants, are of concern due to their "persistent, bioaccumulative, mobile and/or toxic" nature.
[...] More than 400 of the chemicals identified in the report are in every major commonly used plastic product such as food packaging, and all the tested plastics leached hazardous chemicals into the environment, researchers noted.
[...] While about 1,000 plastic chemicals are regulated by global treaties such as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, thousands more are not.
[...] "The PlastChem report is a wake-up call to policymakers and industry. We need more transparency and better management of chemicals of concern in plastic," Hans Peter Arp, a co-author of the report from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), said.
"The future of innovation in plastic should focus on safety, sustainability, and necessity, rather than just functionality," Dr Arp said.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 22 2024, @10:40PM (2 children)
>A 15–20 year old tree can produce around 700 paper bags.
So, go sit beside that solar power collector that requires regular rainfall to grow. Get comfy, it will be 9 days before that tree grows enough to produce one paper bag for you.
The problem is resource availability. How much of our available tree-growing land are we going to devote to grocery bags? Especially when that paper can be used for more important things:
>According to WorldAtlas and The Independent, an average-sized single pine tree can make around 1,500 rolls of toilet paper
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday March 24 2024, @02:03PM (1 child)
Hemp is a FAR better source of paper than trees, and in fact had a hand in the outlawing of cannabis, which the federal bureaucrat Harry Anslinger, head of the narcotics bureau, wanted outlawed to get more money from congress he could divert into fighting heroin.
Hearst helped in Anslinger's evil plan by publishing anti "marijuana" propaganda in his newspapers. He had bought a forest and a paper mill, and its competition was the better quality, far cheaper paper made from hemp.
It is a disgrace that the richest nation in the world has hunger and homelessness.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 24 2024, @03:12PM
No argument against hemp for paper.
Find me a grocery store on the planet who asks: paper, plastic, or cannibags?
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]