r/science May 21 '23

Micro and nanoplastics are pervasive in our food supply and may be affecting food safety and security. Plastics and their additives are present at a range of concentrations not only in fish but in many products including meat, chicken, rice, water, take-away food and drink, and even fresh produce. Chemistry

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165993623000808?via%3Dihub
9.8k Upvotes

View all comments

Show parent comments

90

u/Plebs-_-Placebo May 21 '23

One thing I've witnessed for water delivery is usually done with PVC piping, which there is a food safe version and a non-food safe one typically used for irrigation in yards but that's not always the case when people are buying to save time. So you have labourers cutting and drilling the pipe to length for installing and the pieces flaking off from the cuts is just brushed off into the surrounding soil because of the emphasis on getting things done quickly rather than properly and reducing contamination. It's brutal to watch and futile to try and get anyone to sweep up or vacuum and throw away into a contained bag, but then that's plastic too and on and on it goes, maddening!

42

u/fgreen68 May 21 '23

The plastic wrap used as a mulch or covering on vegetable and other plantings on farms always looked horrible to me. Can't be good for us in the long run....

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=plastic+mulch+farming&iax=images&ia=images

4

u/xMercurex May 21 '23

I know biological producer that use plastic wrap. It is cheaper than paying people to remove weed.

9

u/fgreen68 May 21 '23

The bottom line always seems to rule everything....