Microplastics: From Your Laundry to the Sea
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- čas přidán 22. 07. 2024
- Thanks to Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany for sponsoring this video! You can check out their Microplastics.Me video here: www.emdgroup.com/en/microplas...
Maybe you've heard of microplastics in our water sources. But did you know they could be coming from your laundry??
CITATIONS
1. www.sciencedirect.com/science...
2. link.springer.com/chapter/10.... pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7451... www.whoi.edu/fileserver.do?id...
3. www.sciencedirect.com/science...
4. www.sciencedirect.com/science...
5. www.scientificamerican.com/po...
6. www.sciencedirect.com/science... www.sciencedirect.com/science...
7. www.sciencedirect.com/science...
8. www.sciencedirect.com/science...
9. www.nationalgeographic.com/en...
10. link.springer.com/article/10....
11. www.sciencedirect.com/science...
12. www.discovermagazine.com/heal...
13. www.sciencedirect.com/science... www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/...
14. www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...
Plastics can be super useful. But some of the properties that make them helpful in our day to day lives, like their indestructibility, also make them a potential problem because they just never go away. Today I want to talk about microplastics: what they are, where they are, and how we can try and keep them out of the environment.
Twitter: @AlexDainis
Instagram: Alex.Dainis
Patreon: / alexdainis
Additional still images from UnSplash.
Video produced by Helicase Media LLC (my new science production company!) www.helicasemedia.com - Věda a technologie
Precise content! I am actively working on plastic and microplastic pollution... Happy to see you cover this topic too !!
I love how you've upcycled a Twister mat as your shirt! On a serious note, keep up the content - I love the vids ❤
Hahaha I love this shirt but I refer to it as my "clown shirt!"
Thanks for the unique content. It's an interesting topic, and well done. I already avoid synthetic clothes for other reasons. One big problem is that synthetic shirts tend to trap sweat and bacteria and wind up smelling, when the exact same cotton shirt treated the same way never does.
One of my greatest "discoveries" (which it seems like everyone else knew but me) of the past few years is wool for hiking/outdoor clothes. It's more expensive than synthetics, so I'm still saving up for pieces one by one, but it's so much warmer and way less stinky! My next big hiking wishlist purchase is a pair of warm wool pants and I'm so so excited for it.
your communication skills are as great as your science.
love em' both
Awesome video, Alex! Crazy to think that plastic shed from a toothbrush fiber can make its way back to our bodies...
Thanks for the video ! An environment-friendly life style is surely important, but I think the most efficient&economic&simple way is to upgrade the equipments in wastewater treatment plant, those should be much more powerful than a filter connects to wash machine.
You are the dreamiest nerd in all the land.
Yeah, nice way to explain it am very appreciative for your thinking
Very informative and well organized. Thank you so much for this!
Awesome video ! I love the fact that you showed on the screen the reference citation for the different points you made, it's often if ever done in science education videos, keep up the good work !
Very informative video. Thank you for posting it.
Love your videos!! And i love that you put up citations in ur videos. Never seen anyone done that before
That's awesome! That is exactly the science video I have been waiting and searching for.
Realization of citations is really good. Thanks to it whole video starts to looks like real science article but made in youtube format. And more I watch this video, more it looks like proper way to bring science articles here. I love it!
Thank you! This is a new way to try doing my citations--normally I just plop all of the links in the description. But people seem to appreciate it so I think I'll keep doing it!
It's a bit beyond the scope of this video, but i think it's worth mentioning why plastic fibers are generally cheaper. The price of petroleum simply doesn't reflect the impact it is having on the world, so synthetic fibers have an unfair advantage in that regard compared to natural fibers. And of course, the issues caused by petroleum extraction make growing natural fiber products more difficult, what with all the inconsistent and more extreme weather events destroying crops/hampering their growth.
Aw yiss. This is a good video! Love your editing and overall work. And also the shirt. A++
Great video Alex! I've been avoiding nylon teabags as well as I read that they leech thousands of micro-plastic particles in the boiling water. Boggles the mind that they exist when there is an established compostable alternative.
This is a great point! I never remember to check that before I buy tea, but when I open it up and it's nylon I just have to wonder... "why?" I also appreciate that individually wrapped bags of tea are convenient when I want to stash a few in my backpack for travel, but in my day to day life I wish more places would switch to not putting a tiny plastic bag around each one. Usually I'm not drinking tea fancy enough that I'm going to notice if it goes a tiny bit stale in the box ;)
Get loose tea, stuff it in a tin so it stays fresh, and use paper teabags when you want to have tea away from home. Better tea, less waste.
I moved from farmland to a suburban area and the first thing I noticed was that the dust was different. Farm dust was like finely crushed dirt (as expected) while suburban dust seemed more like tiny threads. At least I now know where it comes from!
Microplastics suck! But you know what doesn't suck? That top, it's pretty retro cool.
Great video, some good thinking points and info. Makes me want to check my wardrobe.
Thank you for this video ! And congrats about your new production company :-) I was just wondering if your laundry bag was in plastic too ! So it seems an endless battle, but things have to change, and you're absolutely right ! Cheers
i was wondering what's the number on the bottom right for and yeah they are the references
this video is like a review paper in the form of a youtube video and I really love it.
thanks mam for interesting information and sorry for the late reply
yours student
Interesting. Where my wife and I live we have a water well and a septic system.
How do micro-plastics impact, if at all, the effluent of the septic tank?
I've just checked my wardrobe, it's over 90% cotton luckily. not a conscious decision, but I think I just don't like the feeling of plastic. only some stretchy underwear and some socks are synthetic.
Next time I'll definitely pay more attention though!
How do you clean the bag?
Yay, I have the same wash bag! They're not cheap but I feel like they will last a lifetime. A friend bought me a decent quality fleece throw and I still collected lots of plastic fibres using this bag after its first wash. Hopefully that caught most of the loose bits and now it won't be shedding many fibres into the air during use.
Thank you for raising this important topic and most of all giving real solutions rather than leave us all feeling helpless!
Thanks! And yeah, I wanted to put something actionable here, but I also don't want to make people feel like they have to. This is a thing that I am doing that make me feel a bit more empowered and conscious of my choices, *but* it's tiny in the face of the larger problem! But I'm trying to do my part.
Love the video.
Thank you!
Great video! But what about tide pods, does their shell contain microplastics ?
ahhh, I just switched to an almost entirely pescatarian diet, I wanted to be healthier. I was literally eating tilapia as I watched this video, I hope the effect of increased microplastic ingestion isn't going to turn out to be a health problem in the long term. Also great video, love your content and you helped inspire me to study genetics...as soon as schools open up again that is.
Well it's all tradeoffs, and pescatarianism is great for a lot of reasons! I don't think there's a "best" way to live for anyone, and there's no possible way to live life without having some kind of impact on the environment, or without any kind of health risks. So I think it's all about making choices that are best for us, supporting causes that can have large impacts, and doing what we can where we can!
@@AlexDainisPhD Speaking in terms of a "best" way to live from a health standpoint, would it be possible to learn that information from a person's genetic code? People react differently to certain diets and habits right? Is it hypothetically possible to know through a person's genetic code what sort of diet or lifestyle would work best for their health?
I went to a recycling conference and one of the talks was about the study of these micro plastics. The big problem they were having in the Great Lakes area was if they were detecting micro plastics or not. Apparently some of what they were originally detecting as plastic was actually organic matter that was acting similar to the micro plastic they were trying to detect. Another story from them was when they were in the middle of nowhere Africa attempting to detect micro plastics at the bottom of a very deep lake. When they brought the sampler up it had a piece of blue tarp in it from the bottom. Macro plastic are also a problem even in the extremely remote areas of Africa.
It really is like Steve Mould’s joke about lignin and the subsequent creation of coal being like plastic. “Wow, this stuff is really useful OH MY GOD WHY WONT YOU GO AWAY”
kind of a shame that the recyclability of the stuff wasn't a factor in its creation from the start
What do you do with the microplastic you catch? Is there a way to neutralize it? If you throw it in the garbage, won't it find it's way into the water system regardless?
So they specify to *not* rinse it out in the sink (which makes sense!) and to instead place it in the garbage. For now I have to hope that that's at least one more step removed from the waterways.
@@AlexDainisPhD that's interesting. I suppose if it's a properly maintained landfill only a small percentage, if any, will escape. Certainly an improvement.
So how is the Postdoc? 😂 😂 🤣
Honest question - what material is used to make that laundry bag that catches micro plastics? If made of plastic polymers, that would seem like a poor bandage for the problem.
YES. Oh man, I wondered that too, which is another reason why I didn't want to specifically endorse any product because who knows if the bag itself is shedding?! The bag is made of polyamide 6.6 (google told me this was a type of nylon). It is a very tight weave, so I would imagine it would shed less than a softly woven piece of clothing, and at the end of its life it is supposedly recyclable. But I can't independently verify any of that.
Alex Dainis thank you for following up! This is often a concern when trying to solve problems: the solution could introduce its own problems. At the same time, it’s good that people are trying to find solutions, and even if we hit a few dead ends along the way, the important thing is the long term trends - hopefully the trend is towards a better future.
even more problematic is... hoping for consumers to mitigate a market-wide international problem. i don't understand why modern environmental awareness movements always end up focusing on the tiny individual, where even if ALL of us combine our efforts to do these washer things, it would still only be a miniscule solution to the microplastics problem.
we need government to regulate the heck out of these primary plastics manufacturers; or at least the secondary manufacturers in the type of plastic they choose. that's the best way to actually make a real dent on the problem. ofc, plastics producers can also R&D more biodegradable plastics, but no guarantees there.
Valuable info... References in the discription 👍
Thanks! Trying out a new method of citation in this video and I'm interested to see if people like it!
That's a nice way of doing it! How long until somebody releases a CZcams version of Zotero?
@@dimitrifayolle896 Oh I wish!! Paperpile for CZcams would be *awesome*
289,200
… is the estimated number of particles you produce each day
550
… is the estimated number of particles you take in by breathing and eating each day
this is weird. How am I producing small amounts of particles and yet taking all these!
Great video!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
Hey, just found your channel from Professor Dave, and so far I love it! Scrolling through some of your other videos, I noticed that you sometimes use click-baity titles and images. I really hope you don't continue to do that, because your videos are great so far, and making them click-baity isn't great...
Finally found the channel I was looking for, a genetic scientist making videos about genetics.
Though I have one request if you can fulfill.
You haven't addressed the elephant in the room- How do you actually become a genetic scientist?
I.e. after high school which degree you need which universities have them, what I mean by this is, that to get a job as a researcher in genetics, which places are actually on the forefront in this field of research and not just a gimmick for the sake of a degree.
The main problem is that this is a niche, so the information outside is almost nonexistent. The only practical way to know things is by getting to know people already established in this field, like you.
So, from this www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/youtube-teaching-star-begins-ph-d-at-stanford-alex-dainis-runs-a-show-called-bite/article_e39e3946-6129-54bd-9169-378335622154.html
you've done you're bsc and phd in genetics at stanford, what's your M.sc?
Any non-generic help would mean my career, so please can you at least give me a basic idea of what I'll have to go through to become one.
Tl;dr : Can you make a video explaining the procedure of how to become a genetic scientist, which places are good to go and which topic has high demand right now,etc.
And if you can't do that, can you at least make a video about your "journey to become a genetic scientist."
Humble request.
Great content, as always. Microplastics are one of the growing concerns that we need to solve as quickly as possible. Love your videos👩🏻🔬💯💯
I loved that you added practical steps to take to curb these pollutants 👍
I just (and I mean like 30 min. ago) washed the filter of the washing machine
The rise in inflammation diseases tied to plastics is an interesting angle-- contributing for sure, but I wouldn't bet on it being the whole source.
Anyway, the _Great Pacific Garbage Patch_ ought to be reported on more often (like the stock market) to encourage people to make better decisions with their plastics.
2:00 - Typo?
Yeah, a bunch of sources all have different numbers so when I wrote the script I went with a more conservative definition but then in the final edit decided to go with the more broad one, which is why I put that caveat that definitions vary.
Cute hair
Something is different about this video. Is it her hair and dress creating a 50s kinda vibe?
Anyway, breathing in microplastics is new info to me, most articles i have come across talk about our laundries.
Moving away from non plastic clothing is certainly an interesting debate. On the one hand, no microplastics, but on the other cotton is carbon expensive. Plastic clothing is also cheaper thus better for poorer nations. Perhaps a new synthetic material that is easy to break down?
Yeah, all cotton probably isn't the ideal solution either. I mentioned in a comment response earlier that I've been trying to buy a lot of second hand clothing rather than new clothing, but honestly that's really hard--if you need a specific item, it can be really tough to find the right thing in the right size. I've been doing some reading about other natural fibers that could use less water to produce, like hemp or linen, but I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone.
It’s a real problem..while am doing my research in the sea I meet a turtle suffering from something i dont know ...after few minutes (she)died...a little anatomy and we found huge micro plastic in stomach........ i hope we stop doing few things that will save lives.
0:50 Here's a harder challenge: name 10 things around you that don't have any plastic (or polymers, like glue or resin) in them. Hell, name one.
Define “thing”. Because a large majority of my kitchen utensils count. Plates. Glasses. And so on.
@@liesdamnlies3372 Good examples.
I don't think I have heard anyone mention carpet, it is already made into tiny fibers that we vacuum and throw in the trash. Additionally carpet is largely cultural and not a necessity like clothing which reduces the "put the responsibility on the consumer" effect.
This is a great point! I haven’t looked into the microplastic contribution of carpets at all, but I will!
@@AlexDainisPhD Awesome, and for what it is worth I didn't mean to poop on your video with my comment. It was good and I enjoyed it.
Some research suggests? Studies suggest? How about citations and links to studies that support your position. There should be a critical path that provides for the information you're discussing.
There are numbered citations in the video and links to sources in the description.
Washing clothes is nowhere near comparable to sanding rough plastic parts while building a scale model kit. This process always looks creepy to me.
Oof yeah! Not *quite* what you're referring to but one of the craziest things I learned while researching this is that sandblasting media is often not actually sand but plastic!
A while ago, i was watching a youtube review of Revell Saturn V kit, the one that is glued from pieces. But it turned out that quality build requires some sandpaper work to be done on rough plastic edges. The microscopic dust that came as a result really made me sad. Well... it's time to sandblast plastic with plastic i guess))
Cotton requires thousands of times more energy, and boatloads of water to make into textiles. So that’s bad for the environment.
Plastics in clothing release microplastics when we wash them, so that’s bad for the environment.
We’re screwed.
Yeah, there's no perfect solution here. Personally I'm trying to just buy fewer items of clothing overall, and buy second hand when I can... but I tried to do *only* second hand for a year and totally failed because that's really hard, so I think it's just about doing the best we can where we can.
@@AlexDainisPhD Reminding me of the "Reduce" in "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" there. I wonder what ever happened to that slogan. It's still a good one.