Sabine
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Upcoming on Nov 6
🕑 Added 2021-11-03 11:52:10 +0000 UTCIt's often hard to find reliable yet brief information about matters relevant to science policy and environmental protection. For this reason, one of the things I hope to achieve with my YouTube channel is to make it easier for you get a super-quick overview on what scientists say on certain topics -- with references where you can check the numbers for yourself. On the coming weekend I'll talk about plastic: Why worry about plastic pollution? How much do we know about the health effects from microplastics? Are bioplastics are any good? I'll also tell you how you can make steel from plastic. Yes, steel. The video is somewhat longer than my usual ones but it's packed with information!
Comments
The thicker 'green' supermarket bags are better for garbage disposal than the 'bad' thinner ones and are very handy to use I've found, so my usage of shopping bags hasn't exactly slowed down that much.
If we reuse a single-use bag 8x, doesn't that translate into an 8-fold decrease in the demand for manufacturing of single-use bags?
Jonathan Sturm
You’re the boss :-)
Oh yes the plastic bag controversy... For now I'll stay clear of this. But sooner or later I'll have to look into this.
Jonathan Sturm
According to Choice, Australia’s consumer advocacy organisation, “A green bag has to be used more than 23 times before it becomes a better option than single-use bags.” According to a paper I recall reading the last time I flew to New Zealand ~10 years ago, they are used on average no more than 8 times before they become unfit for purpose.
D Brown
Unsure if you will cover this, but I had thought there was a correlation between the increase in plastics in the ocean and the beached mammal phenomena. However, a quick search revealed beaching has been occurring for hundreds of years. Still, given the increased rate at which plastics are finding their way into the ocean, plastic pollution is just one more man made problem that needs to be addressed.
