3 Unexpected Effects of Plastic Pollution

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You probably already knew that plastic can be bad, but scientists have taken a closer look, and found out it can be bad in surprising ways.
Happy Earth Day! After watching this video, check out our Earth Day play list, which features episodes about our world, and how we're handling some of our biggest problems.
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Опубликовано:

18 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 777

@omnitoad2187 4 года назад

Plastic, the gift that keeps on giving.

@blacklikeme88 4 года назад

I thought that was Herpes !

@MrOrangetriad 4 года назад

@@blacklikeme88 u do get herpes from girls filled with plastic soooo

@SaengerDruide02 4 года назад

It's a pun when you speak German because Gift means poison in German

@JohnnyTyrant 4 года назад

SaengerDruide02 i gotta learn German. Sounds like fun language.

@sdfkjgh 4 года назад

@@JohnnyTyrant: It's a very cerebral, analytical language, with lots of compounding. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_(linguistics)#Formation_of_compounds

@uplink-on-yt 4 года назад

"I'm a Barbie girl In a Barbie world My brain is plastic I feel fantastic"

@Omprakash-fd2pc 4 года назад

Wdym

@Ferroes 4 года назад

om yea barbie dolls have no brains that would be financially unsustainable

@habeang304 4 года назад

Hahahaha

@Omprakash-fd2pc 4 года назад

@@Ferroes ok... I get it now

@Omprakash-fd2pc 4 года назад

@@habeang304 how did you edit your selfie ..

@thatcoolnerd955 4 года назад

This is by far the most terrifying and depressing thing I've learned in at least the past 6 months. Like holy crap I knew plastic pollution was bad but this is just absurd

@elguapo1690 4 года назад

Really? Because the last 6 months have been terrifying.

@janschilling7019 4 года назад

El Guapo Well, the virus will eventually go away, plastic won’t...

@elguapo1690 4 года назад

@@janschilling7019 You're optimistic. What makes you think it will ever go away?

@Tubbysneederful 4 года назад

ThatCoolNerd I think 5G is more terrifying, because you can avoid plastic usage...oh wait neevrmind, It’s NoN iOnIzInG and OuR sKiN rEfLeCtS like CaPtAiN aMeRiCaS sHiEld.

@rodgersb1248 4 года назад

Nathan 5G is sooo scawey.

@lemonrose1254 4 года назад

Just a PSA reduction of plastic use is the best and most viable way to have less plastic on the planet. Recycling and reusing isn’t as viable as they are more energy intensive and you still have plastic being produced/in cycle. So please use less plastic every little bit helps raise awareness.

@eugenetswong 4 года назад

Also, we should make a push for biodegradable plastic. Things might not last as long, but at least they will not damage the environment as much.

@naamadossantossilva4736 4 года назад

You're preaching to the choir.Those who need to do more aren't in the west.oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/full-report-stemming-the.pdf

@DuizhangLu 4 года назад

@@naamadossantossilva4736 Just because the West isn't the greatest plastic polluter doesn't mean we still don't have work to do. There's plenty of room for the 3 R's

@Omnifarious0 4 года назад

Maybe we could engineer bacteria to extract energy from some plastics. We don't want to do that with plastics used structurally though. 🙁

@girlsdrinkfeck 4 года назад

@@eugenetswong biodegrading requires methane release so woosh

@RiggingDoctor 4 года назад

When we sailed across the Atlantic, we were becalmed in the middle for a few days. The ocean surface went glassy calm and the entire surface was covered in a snow of microplastics. I took a water sample and it was the top two inches of water as far as the eye can see! It was sad to see.

@VariantAEC 4 года назад

Where?

@ruslanum 4 года назад

@@VariantAEC Atlantic

@Bee-nw6df 4 года назад

This is oddly poetic & very sad

@mattcalza4199 4 года назад

Sucks.

@ShaneSuen 4 года назад

☹️☹️☹️

@glenngriffon8032 4 года назад

SciShow - for your daily dose of informative terror.

@DJosiahHicks 4 года назад

This is why i take a break from sideshow now and then.. its good to be informed but not if it riddles you with dread for the future 😅

@craigrobbins2463 4 года назад

existential crisis.

@freedapeeple4049 4 года назад

One of the most durable class of materials we have and we use it for one-use throwaway items... smh

@SoulDelSol 4 года назад

You're right, ridiculous

@IIARROWS 4 года назад

That's the real problem, and it's incorrect displacement. It's not inherently bad, also "plastic" is too much of a broader term, just like saying "metal" (in both way you may think). There are thousands of type of plastic, with different properties and composition.

@lemonrose1254 4 года назад

Well things like syringes and other medical tools I think should be that way but it is one of if not the only exception. But I agree that one use items are pretty crap.

@brentdavila4383 4 года назад

@Freeda People Actually, we use plastics for just about everything. Building materials and home funishings, tools and equipment, vehicles and the roads they drive on, airplanes, your clothes, etc. etc. We also use it for "single-use" items because it is not only durable but it is LIGHT and it is not only clean but can be sterilized and maintain sterility; and it's cheap to make and it doesn't cling to or interact with or absorb most things you put in it, and if it does you can just throw it away, or use up a bunch of fresh water to wash it clean so that it can be recycled. Nobody is stopping you though from re-using all of the "single-use" plastics that you interact with, and nobody is stopping you from coming up with a better material to use for "single-use" purposes.

@KuK137 4 года назад

@@brentdavila4383 Ah, yes, usual idiotic WHY YOU DON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM instead of colossal corporations profiting billions from pollution then dumping the costs of cleanup on affected population, eh?

@Baby_boodle 4 года назад

Heck I really feel like a crucian carp lately.

@Moddedbox7639 4 года назад

Babyboodle my skills are sharp!

@SAIYANPRINCE777 4 года назад

Atleast you're losing weight while doing nothing

@cathpalug1221 4 года назад

Crucian carp On animal crossing

@John.0z 4 года назад

My thought when he said that was "how many post mortem brain dissections are being done to look for this in humans?"

@Sciencerely 4 года назад

I think that genetically-modified microorganisms and mutated proteins could be a thrilling solution to solve the plastic waste issue (to some degree at least)! Just this month, an enzyme (a protein which converts specific compounds) called LLC was mutated by scientists and became very efficient in breaking down PET (would love to make a video about that myself some day). Of course, only time will tell how efficient this approach will be for recycling but it would be amazing if we could use such technology!

@TheFuturistTom 4 года назад

Dear Life Lab Learner! I looked at your channel, and I loved your Promising COVID-19 Treatments Video! I subscribed to you, and I was wondering- would you like to do a collaboration video with me? I make futurist/sci-fi videos detailing what the world will look like if certain events/technologies were to come true.

@lemonrose1254 4 года назад

This is great but ultimately we must all as a planet use less plastic unless absolutely necessary. Reduction is the most viable solution as it is the cheapest and quickest way to have less plastic and then we can deal with the plastic existing on the planet.

@gwanael34 4 года назад

It's stupid but it might even happen naturally. I'd guess at some point some kind of bacteria would start eating on that pacific garbage patch. It would probably take way too long but it could happen. For all we know it already happens.

@midnight8341 4 года назад

Microplastic was all the hype läßt year during the iGEM 2019 competition. At least two teams tried to use single celled algae called _Clamydomonas reinhardtii_ which have a natural tendency to stick to microplastics to produce and excrete PETases to feed on the broken off monomers and one team tried to engineer magnetic bio-nanoparticles to be fluorescent and adhere to plastic particles, as a way to easily detect and quantify them.

@historicalaccuracy15 4 года назад

@@gwanael34 Unless I'm mistaken I think I heard there already was something discovered that was feeding off plastic can't remember much tho

@graemesydney38 4 года назад

Gee, as though covid wasn't depressing enough.

@rgraph 4 года назад

Videos like this make you question the point of living. And wonder - wouldn't the planet just be better off without humans...?

@exosproudmamabear558 4 года назад

@@rgraph What is any good a planet without any problems and story lines tho? I wouldn't like my life simulations completely be in harmony. Chaos is nice for nice for diversity, learning and drastic changes.

@thebrowns5337 4 года назад

It all ties in. We pollute our environment with gases and particles, taking natural resources and altering them, and we heat our planet in the process which makes it a better environment for bacteria and makes it more inhospitable for us rendering us less able to fend off infections. The one 'positive' thing (appreciate thats hard to imagine) to come from Covid lockdowns us thd reduction in air pollution - mainly from gases but also metal, rubber and asphalt dusg with less vehicles travelling around. However, this is only temporary and STILL usn't a reduction big enough to ensure a safe climate...just goes to show how messed up we are! Throw in a virus like this with droughts and famine, sadly not unimaginable these days, and it seens pretty obvious we are wiping ourselves out with the way we live. Everyone needs to do their bit, starting now (well, 20 years ago but you can't change the past).

@noiJadisCailleach 4 года назад

Are you saying that they shouldn't have released this video?

@RonanErudon1305 4 года назад

@@rgraph we are still living beings and deserving of life; we know the impact our actions have on nature and many people want change, but let's not forget who the higher ups are, since they are effectively the ones who control the production of all of this (plastics, pollution, etc) the problem isn't humans, it's individual people who are extremely greedy and don't give a damn about our planet if it means they fill their pockets, and unfortunately they are mostly the CEOs of big companies

@christopheb9221 4 года назад

I wonder how much plastic the average person has in them as well as would like to know if there are different effects from different plastics. What type of plastic were these nanoparticles and do they break down to the same things? I wonder if plastics are similar to anything our body uses and would be substituted for any processes ex like different elements were fluoride will be used instead of calcium or similar to any hormones or neurotransmitters that would act like a drug or if it interacts with any enzymes that would an inhibitor. Also I wonder if these particles interact with cells themselves like disrupt the cellular machinery

@celinak5062 4 года назад

Well, soft plastic has estrogen acting stuff in it And no one wants to do that kind of research anyway, and there'll be pr propaganda selling doubt and confusion. Like what happened with cigs and meat and oil. Blame Exxon on that method, it started with ExxonMobil's smoke and fumes committee on Exxon-Climate. There might be a documentary about it? There was with dupont and non - stick coating, and there was one on flame retardants, idk plastic particles is a newly admitted problem

@oskarandersson196 4 года назад

In general, the answer to "Can nanoparticles...?" is yes. This is due to the enormous amount of variation possible in their properties. To list a few, their properties are affected by their size, shape, bulk material, surface material, surface structure and protein coating (when in biological environments). The last one also depends strongly on its surroundings, so the properties can even be different in different tissues. On the plus side, nanoparticles are also produced by natural processes, so our bodies do have some mechanisms to deal with them.

@deshaunjackson8188 4 года назад

Any consumed micro plastics in humans would just be passed. And if it was food grade it would be completely inert.

@silviafox78 4 года назад

@@deshaunjackson8188 - I am skeptical about your claims considering what I've learned just from this video. Do you have proof?

@JMittenkit 4 года назад

Yes. But i can see "dosage" being a factor as far as effects go. But seeing as fish having plastic found in them was discovered 7+ years ago.... Humans might have quite the nano load. How many grains of sand are in an hourglass?

@goldwinger5434 4 года назад

My computer keyboard is made of plastic. Much of my car is plastic. My phone is plastic. Try buying food without plastic. To make things even more interesting, in my area they stopped taking glass for recycling. Glass is far more recyclable than plastic.

@JustTodd24 4 года назад

There's nothing wrong with using plastic, its only when you use it for disposable purposes does it turn into a bad thing.

@goldwinger5434 4 года назад

@@JustTodd24 Everything made of plastic is disposable. Car parts, phones, Tupperware. Maybe the exception would be replacement body parts but they usually wind up in the ground too.

@JustTodd24 4 года назад

@@goldwinger5434 My bad I worded it incorrectly, I meant usage cases where something is only used once or twice and then dumped (straws and wrappers for example). Really everything is disposable, that's not excluded to plastic. It all comes down to whether you can reuse it for long periods of time.

@giorgiolimblici8240 4 года назад

so we are all going to die because we ate "healty" nanoplastic filled fish. Wow that statement has deteriorated quickly!

@madkirk7431 4 года назад

I saw it before it was edited but didn't read it

@gosisjsnercosskjsnr7369 4 года назад

I guess it's time to be a vegan but wait dont plant get affected too well lets die

@celinak5062 4 года назад

@@gosisjsnercosskjsnr7369 there are vegan versions of omega 3 pills

@entyropy3262 4 года назад

@@gosisjsnercosskjsnr7369 Yes, Plants also absorb tiny plastic thru the roots and the further up in the plant u get, the lower the plastic density is. So eating Roots like Carrots or eating Onions, Garlic, or basically anything that does not grow on the tips of the plants is probably the less healthy food. But if I remember correctly, this study was only observing how micro plastic is being absorbed by plants, so there is probably a bigger problem still hiding when we take nano plastic into account. If you want to eat healthy, you need to eat plants, that are grown in a hydroponic system, which is only using osmosis water, that way the plastic density is the by far lowest possible. Make sure, the hydroponic system itself is not made out of plastic, which might also be a source of pollution. Enjoy life as human, enjoy the glorious civilisation. 😷🤮

@giorgiolimblici8240 4 года назад

@@madkirk7431 you didn't miss anything. I only corrected a small mistake

@idunno966 4 года назад

Ways I know your CC are added instead of auto-generated: in your lead up to the outro the caption said "Today is Earth Day!" You didn't say it though P.S. thanks for adding captions/being accessible :)

@BlackEagle352 4 года назад

RU-vid indicates if it is auto generated in a parentheses, where you select your captions.

@idunno966 4 года назад

@@BlackEagle352 true but if you pick the not auto-gen captions on a vid and then go watch a vid with only auto-gen available it will switch and then switch back if you watch one with non auto-gen caps. I already had it on so the only reason I noticed was the extra phrase in the captions. Also I'm easily amused so the random "Today is Earth Day!" in the caption made me giggle so I felt like pointing it out

@KitsuneNoMeiji 4 года назад

As if Covid-19 wasn't already something to worry about, now we've got to worry about plastic in our brains.

@hexerei02021 4 года назад

there is a lot more stuff that can kill you

@edi9892 4 года назад

Sometimes, I'd like to turn into a demon and do a little population control on the world's most invasive species...

@thebrowns5337 4 года назад

And lungs

@bubblingbubztheklown5902 4 года назад

Oh how about the parasites that make you like cats. Do you like cats? You might have parasites. 🤷‍♀️

@Nate-9797 4 года назад

We had plastic in our brains to worry about wayyy before the coronavirus outbreak

@HettesKvek 4 года назад

Plastic is a good example that convenience isn't always good for us in the short term or long term.

@AdamIverson 4 года назад

Seriously though, who the hell is responsible for dumping all these plastics into the ocean? We did our part by putting them in the trash can and even recycling bin. Normally, it goes to landfill, but how do they get ended up in the ocean?

@bettathanu2244 4 года назад

You asked the wrong question. You should be asking who produces all this plastic and why dont they make recycling or reuse of their product more readily available? Glass bottles and the milk man shouldn't have gone out of style

@UnfortunatelyTheHunger 4 года назад

The fishing industry. Almost half of all plastic junk in the ocean is fishing nets, and a good chunk of the rest is other fishing equipment

@lrose711 4 года назад

Wow! Really crazy stuff...I try to limit my use of plastic all the time but I had no idea that it gets worse as it breaks down...this is scary stuff! Thanks for sharing!

@tiaxanderson9725 4 года назад

3:34 "these microscopic particles can even pass through biological barriers like cell membranes" I hope not through the blood brain barrier.... Oh. Well we're doomed

@isaach.1135 4 года назад

Not to worry, we're all born with an expiration date.

@druid_zephyrus 4 года назад

I have literally been talking about this chemical reaction for a decade. thanks for a video to prove it.

@georgf9279 4 года назад

Fun fact: If you don't dump that stuff into the ocean, you don't need to clean it up later.

@sean_2106 4 года назад

No wrong because people in the past is the one u dump plastic in ocean but in feuture some concerned people clean the ocean to help mother nature

@DeadGirlsPoem 4 года назад

No need to dump it into the ocean directly. It'll break down if you dump it anywhere and rain and streams will carry it to the ocean. Isn't that convenient?

@gelfling 4 года назад

That's okay, you can just bring it to the recycling station and they can dump it into the ocean for you! So convenient!

@riley8097 4 года назад

The use of antibiotics instead of things like phages to kill bacteria seems like its also contributing to antibiotic resistance, i would love if you guys did an episode about phagotherapy

@rmb2664 4 года назад

You have given a very good argument for requiring that waste plastic be recycled or consumed such as incinerating in some way so that the waste does not accumulate. If we do not or can not recycle it then it should be banned for that particular use.

@lillmarcus 4 года назад

They found nanoparticles in the brain of a crucian carp! Their skills are sharp!

@eriknicholas7294 4 года назад

Animal Crossing during isolation? It's our only consolation.

@Gryphonzwing 4 года назад

😁

@MelissaPerez24 4 года назад

Is no one going to talk about the fact that we have been consuming plastic nanoparticles and the fact that they could go into our brain is absolutely horrifying?

@kisakisakura6663 4 года назад

I am so disgusted right now. Like the thought of what this does can do to you, probably already did, is so terrifying

@dutchik5107 4 года назад

@@kisakisakura6663 it already has. All our food contains plastic particles

@santaklaas9999 4 года назад

It is fantastic that we poison ourself as there is no tomorrow.

@cannedmusic 4 года назад

Didn't Michael, sometime last year, do a presentation on how this one fungus breaks down plastics? If yes, how hard would it be to mix spore with a mixture of soil and plastic particles/powder? And, if it is releasing methane, why isn't the methane being gathered and repurposed?

@azuki-c-s 4 года назад

Adding a bioengineered strain of bacterium/fungus to an ecosystem can have drastic effects. Its bioengineered nature also makes the public doubt if it might also contain harmful DNA. Harmful to other things than plastic. On top of that, bioengineered DNA normally has more noticeable mutations, which can cause disastrous unforeseen results. All these points lead to the conclusion that they shouldn't be released into the wild.

@julianbinder2371 4 года назад

you had to use them and than burn them completely, bc if it was everywhere it would start to destroy "new" plastic

@DamianReloaded 4 года назад

The Oil industry did this too. It really needs to go away ASAP.

@onlypranav 4 года назад

Yea plus the whole nano particle thing reminds me of the time when we were pumping tons of lead into the atmosphere and poisoning ourselves.Why is it always the oil industry? Also this might be much harder to solve

@isaach.1135 4 года назад

Sure. Planes and cars and plumbing and the internet (plastic insulates) and boats and... are great and all but oh well, who needs em?

@DamianReloaded 4 года назад

Read "Scientists make plastic from sugar and carbon dioxide". Why aren't all Tupperware, food packaging, etc being made from this material already? That article is 3 years old!

@2ndAgbala 4 года назад

I saw the title and thought this video would feature some good things about plastic. But there is no good in plastic.

@bjs301 4 года назад

That's just simplistic. There are lots of good things about plastic. If there weren't, its use would never have become widespread, and none of these negative consequences would ever have occurred.

@Gonenow2015 4 года назад

Good for killing turtles, I hear.

@jonathanorlando1294 4 года назад

There was a fish game I used to play back in the early 90's on PC and you chose what the fish ate. You could make it eat plastic too! For some reason this video reminds me of that.

@shenghan9385 Год назад

I d like to play this game and feed the fish only plastic bags. 😅

@maszlagma 4 года назад

So question? How do we deal with this? Plastic can only be recycled so many times before it gets inevitably thrown out and most of the time it ends up being used in clothing or bin bags or shopping bags where the particles are small and thin enough to break down into nano plastics even faster? So recycling into the traditional end products although prolongs their use but environmentally sounds like a horrible idea! So does anything changes their structure enough to prevent this? Does burning plastics - as much toxic gas it would produce - change their structure enough to prevent this? Can we somehow capture those toxic gasses and "neutralise" them?

@Beyond.997 4 года назад

Haha 😂 , I just submitted my college project on plastic pollution and how it is related and effects the three pillars of sustainability .

@Jmoneysmoothboy 4 года назад

The three pillars of sustainability is pure communist dogma. It has no place in formal education. The pillars of communism are Equity, Diversity, inclusivity. If you hear two out of three of these at any given time the person speaking is a communist.

@ivarbrouwer197 4 года назад

As a single individual in a urban enviroment with a full time job, I find it hard to not buys any grocery’s without plastics. Especially if you try to do grocery’s on a budget... any tips? I think that all plastics should be taken back by the supermarkets who sell them.

@Vespuchian 4 года назад

This merely confirms my assumption that cardboard will be the primary container material of the future.

@najaB76 4 года назад

I have to point out that saying that plastic generates greenhouse gasses "basically forever" is bad science. There are only a finite number of Carbon and Hydrogen atoms in a given amount of plastic so there can only be a finite amount of methane generated. You have a good point to be made, don't ruin it with hyperbole.

@jackkraken3888 4 года назад

I saw a pretty innovative way to reduce our current plastic waste I saw a clip in Africa where they used plastic bottles as a building material to be used with other building materials and what was really interesting is that they used a stick to fill the insides of the plastic bottles with discarded plastic bags!

@kewakl8891 4 года назад

All of my tupperware has the cool-whip brand name on it

@sandybarnes887 4 года назад

Mine are repurposed margarine and yogurt tubs

@sniper0073088 4 года назад

@@sandybarnes887 those are not intended for long term use, they will break down. make sure you exchange them frequently

@teambeining 4 года назад

Kew Akl 😂😂😂

@girlsdrinkfeck 4 года назад

What's a, tupperware mean

@sdfkjgh 4 года назад

@@girlsdrinkfeck: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupperware Thanks for making me feel old, jerk! I'm just joking, you're not a jerk, you were just unaware.

@CJ_McK 4 года назад

Didn't think that today I'd click thumbs up on a video that made me want to beat my head into my desk repeatedly... but here we are... well done sci-show. well done.

@skashax777x 3 года назад

thank you for the ref list, I have an essay to do on the environment and I'm currently reading up on plastic pollution

@Jatt2613 4 года назад

4:29 Come on, we've all played Animal Crossing and know what Crucian Carp are. You don't have to say "some fish called Crucian Carp" like we're going to be confused. :P

@jacksonpercy8044 4 года назад

You're assuming everyone can even _afford_ a Nintendo Switch.

@milkhbox 4 года назад

Havent ever played any animal crossing game and have zero intention to do so.

@collinhennessy3190 4 года назад

What the hell is Animal Crossing?

@jacksonpercy8044 4 года назад

@@collinhennessy3190 I think they're referring to a Zebra Crossing on the street?

@TazPessle 4 года назад

@3:29 plastic particles "smaller than a few micrometers.." Micrometers aren't the smallest of instruments... Plastic particles that size would get noticed, surely.

@massimookissed1023 4 года назад

I suppose micrometres is technically a unit of length, but I wish he'd just say microns.

@TazPessle 4 года назад

@@massimookissed1023 in the UK people say 'my-crow--meter' or micron for the length and 'my-croh-mitter' is almost always the instrument. It sounded so odd to me.

@DesertHomesteader 4 года назад

I've been trying for a decade to avoid single-use plastics but it is extremely hard to entirely stop it due to the convenience, security and familiarity of plastic packaging in grocery and retail stores. As consumers, we need to push producers for more environmental-friendly paper, cellulose and bio-film packaging. Bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store and try to buy oem/bulk-packaged items at retail. Let's save our planet!

@Jmoneysmoothboy 4 года назад

3:29 Micrometer is a funny word because it's the name of a hand tool used to measure small distances. "Micro" is the metric prefix for 1/100,000 and "meter" is about 3 feet ;). Pronouncing it "myCROMeter" refers to the hand tool whereas "MICROmeter" refers to 1/100,000 of a meter. So MICROmeter is technically correct when referring to the unit of distance but everyone says micron to avoid confusion. The host in this video pronounces the name of the hand tool

@microproductions6 4 года назад

The U.S. needs to pass a law that begins the phasing out of single use plastic and requires companies use alternatives to hydrocarbon plastic. One obvious alternative is paper, but for many foods and packaging applications the properties of plastic are just way better, not to mention people like to see through packaging on food at grocery stores. There are a lot of efforts at developing plastic made from renewable materials that are not harmful when they break down, but they need to be accelerated by requiring that companies stop using plastic made from hydrocarbon polymers altogether. There is good progress in many local governments in the U.S. where plastic bags are banned from being distributed by stores for shopping, but most of the plastic is on the products themselves.

@Ryukachoo 4 года назад

Plastic; "no, it's worse than you think" Plastic since it's invention

@svetstefanov4904 4 года назад

I find it quite unfortunate that coming out of an US grocery store, almost all of the items are wrapped in some sort of plastic. I'm always trying to minimize the effect and still end up with a recycle bin full to the top, mostly with plastics. I can only hope that it gets recycled.

@0m3GAARS3NAL 4 года назад

I thought the nanoparticle thing had been known about for like a decade now. Hopefully now people will get the picture

@bubblingbubztheklown5902 4 года назад

Since the first talks of "plastic island", right?

@Nekrumorfiini1 4 года назад

People don't care. Bread and circuses.

@AngelousSpike 4 года назад

what they didn't mention here was the fact that there are new bacteria that have evolved to eat the plastic and have shown up in several different areas of plastic. Nature will find a way to eliminate the plastic or incorporate it into a new paradigm.

@icholi88 4 года назад

If we just accepted the higher cost to produce goods we could easily go back to glass or metal, but consumerism is what is gonna kill us. Which is why everyone is hoping for a miracle cure to the problem rather than limit is use.

@Ngamotu83 4 года назад

The worst decision made in human history was to produce plastic without first inventing a way to properly recycle and reuse it.

@Veve101 4 года назад

If plastic degradation accelerates over time, is it possible in the future that there will be a "tipping point" of plastic nanoparticles, even if we stopped producing plastic today?

@MarkBlease 4 года назад

now when my wife tells me i'm being lethargic and lazy, I'm gonna tell her i must have plastic nano particles in my brain.

@gelfling 4 года назад

What can we do to research convenient alternatives for plastic? Right now, milk cartons which have cardboard also have a plastic layer. Aluminum drink cans (and some canned goods?) also can have a thin plastic membrane between the food and metal. I'm sure if the market was motivated it could find some solutions...

@motobazuka2535 4 года назад

Hey Hank, I love your work! May I ask a huge favour? With your scishow videos I think it would be great if you post the script in the video information 😁 so when I share your videos on Facebook I can easily paste quoted sections with the link as a little 'taste' of the video

@lyreparadox 4 года назад

If you click the three dots under the right side of the video there's an option to open the transcript. (On the desktop version of youtube, anyway.)

@mjbjr1944 4 года назад

@@lyreparadox Thank you for that info however when I clicked on the "Open Transcript" nothing seems to happen. Where will I find the transcript, please? (Win10 desktop running Chrome)

@lonjohnson5161 4 года назад

I used to work on biodegradable plastics R&D. It is horrifying to think that while I was trying to make plastic safer, it is possible (I have no data yet) that I was working to accelerate the problem.

@bcubed72 4 года назад

The first point is actually a GOOD thing, isn't it? If plastic is breaking down into methane, that means it isn't hanging around forever, like we feared. And the "25X worse greenhouse gas than CO2" is misleading, because (while true) methane breaks down relatively quickly when exposed to UV light like, you know, sunlight has. Whereas CO2 just...abides. For millennia, if not eons.

@stefaniebrocker8084 4 года назад

Not to mention the many endocrine disrupting effect of many chemical compounds in plastic as well.

@iainballas 4 года назад

My proposed alternative to plastic: 3D Print most things out of stone. Not only are our printers now Volcanoes, which are AWESOME, but we can throw stuff away anywhere. It's just rocks! Landfill becomes mountain! Amazon packaging will be a problem....

@timtravasos2742 4 года назад

Sounds like we need to outlaw plastic and start using hemp based containers.

@ameybirulkar7503 4 года назад

What is hemp

@samanthagreen6803 4 года назад

Best idea ever! We should always use hemp when we can!

@alexnoman1498 4 года назад

@@ameybirulkar7503 Research the Hemp plant. It's close to a magical plant: Incredibly robust, yet feather-light. It's fibers, too, are the most useful fibers in nature. Grows amazingly fast and tall and anywhere. The more you read, the angrier you get at the guy who got it banned a few decades ago. You can't plant it legally in the US, even though the male hemp plant cannot possibly be used to make drugs.

@amireliad 4 года назад

You can't really outlaw international stuff. Also it's not really effective since the economy is really dependant on it. We must develop a cheap and effective supply chain for the alternative and maybe combine it with government incentive.. sorry for the essay reply.. had me thinking :)

@Gonenow2015 4 года назад

What did people do before plastic?? Any reason we can't just go back to that? Cost, I suppose...

@thomaslarkin3307 4 года назад

Well this is terrifying.

@AnimilesYT 4 года назад

Please avoid plastics where possible, and re-use things as well. Especially with the things you use outside of your house. Talk to people about it, Inform them about the side effects, and encourage them to make the change as well. Don't tell them to change things. Instead, tell them why you changed things. If they have concerns about things, inform them how you've dealt with them. You don't have to do things perfectly. For instance, I don't live anywhere near a zero-waste grocery store, so I can't get many things without creating waste. But I can choose a brand which uses less plastic, or even less packaging in general. Adjust your expectations to what you can achieve. Not using any plastic just isn't possible in our society. But using quite a bit less plastic is most certainly possible. And the less plastic we all use, the easier it'll become to use even less plastics. It just takes years before we're able to go zero-waste.

@joeymorangarza 4 года назад

There's nothing like a good SciShow episode to whet my appetite for life and living.

@stephenkolenda 4 года назад

Thanks Asia

@stefanpariyski3709 4 года назад

Great, exactly what we needed right now, a horror story about a thing we can't give up any time soon... Thanks guys!

@shonaleegray 4 года назад

I'm still using my grandmother's Tupperware. Tupperware is a product that really lasts. It seems to be the items we purchase in plastic - such as drinks, glass jar seals, lunch wrap, beer can rings etc that gets into our oceans

@AtypicalPaul 4 года назад

Wow, very interesting. I am definitely a fan of glass. I really wish that food came in less or no plastic. For instance green leafy veggies are sold in plastic containers or pouches. What would be some good replacement material? Ideas?

@narayanavhale4514 4 года назад

Low grade Plastic is banned in india. Only unbranched high density polyethylene with thickness over 0.1 mm or over 50 micron in industries is allowed. Giving us almost multiple human lifespans to figure things out.

@mal2ksc 4 года назад

Ironic perhaps, but that Tupperware that kicked this all off is one of the lesser offenders because it's heavily constructed and designed to be reused for years. It's the single-use containers that evolved out of them that are the real hazard, producing far more waste for far less utility.

@thecrazyinsanity 4 года назад

This year is just getting more and more depressing.

@TheMightyDozen 4 года назад

"So the less plastic we use", huh? Well, what will we use instead? We still need tupperware, electronics casings, binders, PVC pipes, the list goes on. Plastics still have many uses, many of which I currently do not see feasible alternatives for. Protip: "Use less of" is not as useful of a statement as "Use instead of". This applies to anything, really. Now, don't get me wrong, I fully understand this video. Plastic pollution sucks. What i'm saying is, if we want an effective way to reduce plastic pollution, we need to find alternatives, and not just wave our hands in a panic and say "DON'T USE PLASTIC!!!", all high and mighty.

@TheMightyDozen 4 года назад

@@herrschmidt5477 Yeah, good luck convincing industry giants to switch to something heavy/expensive just because. Seems to me that the only way to do that without a viable alternative is plastic fees, which could work, but still. Not optimal

@inquaanate2393 4 года назад

The evidence for plastics contributing to antimicrobial resistance was super weak here.

@Primalxbeast 4 года назад

It was a very brief summary of the studies done on the subject. You'd have to take an in depth look at the actual studies to determine how much evidence they've found. You can't expect too many details from a 6 minute video covering multiple subjects.

@TheFxEditor 4 года назад

It’s great that we have an explanation of more reasons to not use plastic but we need solutions to ending the use of plastics. Recycling is not going to cut it. Is it too late for humanity at this point?

@brettd3206 4 года назад

Tupperware isn't the problem. Single use disposable plastic is the problem.

@TheHadesShade 4 года назад

How big quantity of methane are we talking about with the decomposing of plastic?

@dragonbreak3360 4 года назад

Millions of tons... That's not counting how much worse it is than CO2

@thebrowns5337 4 года назад

There is a lot of plastic. That island of plastic in the sea is just one example. The plastic in modern landfills in wealthy countries - not such an issue as they are sealled to prevent leaks and the gas is captured and used for power but these are the minority if dump sites.

@jayhill2193 4 года назад

probably not as much as cows fart, but still enough to add up with the other factors.

@josephburchanowski4636 4 года назад

@@dragonbreak3360 Well at least it isn't gigatons. Besides you could probably reduce the methane production and a lot of the microplastic problems, just by using incinerators; just make sure you use good scrubbers. Still releases CO2, but really that is no where near as bad as the alternative. Although it wouldn't help with plastic that gets to the environment through wear and tear, and what is already there. Also wouldn't help with all the microplastic pollution that comes from clothing.

@noiJadisCailleach 4 года назад

LMAO. Even if it's 1 milligram/ 24 hours. Multiply that in millions and millions of tons of plastic that are yet to be classified as "trash". Millions of tons of it in the oceans, land fills, toy factories etc.

@LEDewey_MD 4 года назад

Another great informative video! 👌

@eliscerebralrecyclingbin7812 Год назад

Cool thanks

@flightgamer7849 4 года назад

Highly resistant strains of bacteria in coastal areas is typically associated with the "treated" waste water dumped in our oceans over long periods of time and loaded with flushed antibiotics. Would be interested, and I am wary, of how they established the relationship of the findings to the plastic other than its mere presence in the same area.

@eljanrimsa5843 4 года назад

If I understood he video correctly, they didn't establish a relationship. They said the antibiotic-resistant bacteria were already in the ocean and because degrading plastics isn't one smooth surface anymore, it gives them huge surface areas to grow on.

@haroldhenderson2824 4 года назад

You guys are JUST NOW realizing this? Welcome to the party, Pal! Didn't have this problem with steel and aluminum cans or glass bottles.

@maelgwyn 4 года назад

Well this just ramped my anxiety about plastic pollution up to a 13.

@andrewrobertson4878 4 года назад

Interesting points although I'm not sure how useful the advice is to use less plastic is as how much plastic there is largely depends on how much oil we turn into fuels.

@dangingerich2559 4 года назад

That part about the antibiotic resistance has a couple MAJOR logical fallacies: 1. Different bacteria react to different antibiotics in different ways. For example, the bacteria that causes acne is virtually immune to ampicillin, but vulnerable to minocycline, which is why acne is treated with minocycline, while minocycline is completely useless against the Staphylococcus family of bacteria, not because of them being resistant, but because they operate differently internally and have different cell membranes that are vulnerable to different things. So, don't jump at this too soon. 2. That "study" that claimed the antibiotic resistant bacteria is all over this plastic was taking a look at 14 pieces of plastic from one small area just off from a beach. It was majorly short of being any sort of credible study, and completely misses the point of statistical significance. This is one of those bad "science" studies that happen upon (or intentionally make) some random conclusion based on a really small sample size while completely ignoring that different areas around the world are different. They totally sacrifice the scientific method in favor of getting something published.

@mrdonetx 4 года назад

I always wonder if videos like this do anything. I mean less than 1% of plastic in the ocean comes from North or South America. So we could stop using plastic right now, and pretty much nothing would change as far as plastic pollution. Now huge changes would be for our standard of living. Forget safe food handling, frozen vegetables, contact lenses, syringes that are more sterile than glass, cell phones, computers, TV's, and on and on. I some how doubt the people who need to see these actually do or would even care. It's great information and definitely great how some try to shame us into guilt of something we aren't doing.

@sanctious 4 года назад

What do you think about refuse-to-energy power plants? Their primary goal is to reduce the volume of waste in landfills. Would it be better for them to burn plastics quickly or let plastics keep emitting methane? (until we stop global single use plastic production anyway)

@fitfogey 4 года назад

I understand that it is really bad if you heat up food in a microwave in a plastic container because of a lot of what was said in this video. Microscopic portions of plastic are broken down from the heat and are actually released into your food.

@RiggingDoctor 4 года назад

Love the effect where Hank scoots in and out of the scene!

@alhodge4603 3 года назад

Nice job good presentation. As I understand things, a human consumes via water and or food stored in plastics; about a credit card size of plastics annually. How that plastics effects the human body is yet unknown. Thanks plastics industry.

@allanlank 4 года назад

The more plastic we re-use the better. We need to keep it out of the ocean and in an environment where it can be treated properly, to be used, re-used or totally annihilated.

@SuicideBunny6 4 года назад

Damn this is really disturbing to hear! Though I hope all this scientific research will actually lead to some change in company policies and governments

@aceofarrows 4 года назад

tfw you find out that not only *does* plastic *actually* kill sea creatures, but that it claws its way back up the food chain in an attempt to get revenge at us for not disposing of it properly.

@digiryde 4 года назад

This is actually old news (I do not mean this in a bad way with regards to the video). The first time I heard about these effects was from the fallout of plastic micro-beads in the cosmetic industry. Those became the same type of nano scaled material that they are talking about in this video. There are many other things as well that plastic does that is incredibly destructive. There is a simple rule of thumb with regards to introducing new materials into the world. The longer it lasts before breaking down, typically the worse it is and the more destruction it causes.

@xiaolung2314 4 года назад

Very informative, and important for many more people to know about this so we can watch what we buy and reduce both plastic production and its waste.

@hermionesydneygoldmanphynn498 4 года назад

Thank you for the edridge horror.

@wyndhamcoffman8961 4 года назад

I'm going to have to start buying only metal tools, and storing my leftovers in glass jars.

@breyjames5025 4 года назад

Since there is mention of nanoparticles of plastic maybe this would be the place to be heard out, but there's a weird disease called Morgellons disease and I think it might also be a side effect of nanoparticles of plastic, people with Morgellons disease have plastic like hairs that will come out of hair follicles and I hypothesize that maybe it's from ingesting nanoparticles aplastic and it's the body's way of getting rid of the nanoparticles

@boycefenn 4 года назад

I wonder what role the plastic actually played with regards to the antibiotic resistance. Simply providing a place for bacteria to flourish shouldn't preferentially select that trait. I wonder what evidence there was to suggest it was the plastic that was selecting that trait.

@maninthehills7134 4 года назад

Could you do an episode on methanotrophs and how we might cultivate them?

@AstridAbenaa 4 года назад

The amount of garbage I find on beaches is terrifying. If earth is our home, why aren't we cleaning up our own mess?

@Keallei 4 года назад

Happy Earth Day!

@danielsayre3385 4 года назад

Expecting everyone to change their actions to avoid widely available single plastics is just a small piece to the problem. We need to ban the production of plastic and introduce a federal policy. Fines for contamination/pollution that pay for recycling programs. Bottle deposits like the one in Michigan would help any state.

@Kumquat_Lord 4 года назад

Fun fact, over 90% of the plastic in the oceans come from 3rd world countries. Which makes me wonder why I, someone who lives in the Midwest US and someone who's environmentally conscious has to switch to paper straws?