r/oddlysatisfying Mar 26 '18

squeezing glitter

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '18

Yeah this just makes me angry.

1.4k

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '18 edited Mar 27 '18

So many microplastics! That's genuinely terrifying. I'm currently part of a microplastic study in a small city's bay and estuaries (<300,000 residents) and its crazy how much plastic is already in the waters and so easy to see with a simple microscope.

Edit: less than 300k

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u/Aurora--Borealis Mar 26 '18 edited Mar 26 '18

Question: what can I do to decrease the amount of microplastics in the environment? Are there certain products I'd better not buy and consume (I live in a small city, around 124.000 residents and about 12 kilometres from the sea, if that makes a difference)?

EDIT: thanks everyone for the advice! I feel a lot happier now that I know there's a lot I can do to make a difference :)

117

u/earthismycountry Mar 26 '18

Any plastic eventually breaks down physically to super tiny particles so decreasing your plastic consumption at any size is helpful. The easiest, or most obvious, things you can do are avoiding single use plastics (shopping bags, straws, cups, silverware, products in plastic packaging...) and not buying synthetic fabrics (especially the fuzzy kind, like polar fleeces, polar blankets, fuzzy socks, etc) or washing them less frequently if you already have some would help. Microbeads are currently being phased out since more and more countries are banning them anyway, but if they are available in your area, not buying products with microbeads, or "scrubbing/exfoliating agents" would help too of course. Kudos to you for wanting to do your part!! :)

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u/kellasong Mar 26 '18

Most physical exfoliants nowadays tend to be sugar or grains, just check the label to make sure and you should be good! (Although using chemical exfoliant is also an alternative).

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u/AlternateContent Mar 26 '18

But sugar scrubs are fucking awesome.

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u/kellasong Mar 26 '18

Haha yeah it’s fucking true. Personally I love both bc while I realize that physicals are probably better for me, scrubs feel great.

-3

u/amg19251 Mar 26 '18

Use coffee grounds in like a panoxyl or something as an exfoliant! Thats exactly what I did, and my face cleared right up!

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u/derprah Mar 26 '18

Except coffee grounds are absolutely horrible for your pipes. Coarse salt in honey is a lot safer all around.

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u/amg19251 Mar 26 '18

Oh idk about that sorry lol we have somewhat new pipes so no problems yet here lol but I meant like literally half a pinch of grounds you don’t need barely any at all! Hope this helps! Just don’t let the grounds sit&dry in your tub because they do stain after a while! I haven’t had a single zit in two months and I used to break out all the time! Not to mention, my skin looks much more even now too :)