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Protean_Protein t1_j69t7if wrote

Reply to comment by tdaddybxl in UV light from the sun slowly breaks down plastics on the ocean’s surfaces: researchers calculate that about two percent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year by giuliomagnifico

One exception might be those that are used on some fresh fruits and vegetables. Like, thin-film sealed plastic can make a cucumber last far longer than without it. But obviously we should also be trying to figure out how to deal with that kind of plastic waste in better ways too.

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coffeesub206 t1_j69xtfj wrote

These plastics can be made recyclable, so the issue is really how much plastic isnt recyclable and is ending up in the ocean

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Protean_Protein t1_j69zmoe wrote

In the Pacific, it’s mostly Asian (Chinese, Indian, Japanese) fishing gear.

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coffeesub206 t1_j69zsvu wrote

You were specifically talking about thin-film plastics in your comment. Not fishing gear.

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mynextthroway t1_j6dirge wrote

Plastic is technically recyclable, but practically, it's not. Food and medical plastic can not use recycled plastic ( recycled plastic is not sterile). That's a huge part of the plastic market. There are a lot of different plastics in the market. Mixing the types of plastic makes it unrecyclable. Colored plastic of the same type can not be mixed. Most of this can be solved with manual sorting, but that is labor intensive (expensive), and the end goal is not to recycle the plastic waste stream, but to cherry pick the stream as it feeds into the incinerator.

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