<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/27/ditch-brightly-coloured-plastic-anti-waste-researchers-tell-firms>
"Retailers are being urged to stop making everyday products such as drinks
bottles, outdoor furniture and toys out of brightly coloured plastic after
researchers found it degrades into microplastics faster than plainer colours.
Red, blue and green plastic became “very brittle and fragmented”, while black,
white and silver samples were “largely unaffected” over a three-year period,
according to the findings of the University of Leicester-led project.
The scale of environmental pollution caused by plastic waste means that
microplastics, or tiny plastic particles, are everywhere. Indeed, they were
recently found in human testicles, with scientists suggesting a possible link
to declining sperm counts in men.
In this case, scientists from the UK and the University of Cape Town in South
Africa used complementary studies to show that plastics of the same composition
degrade at different rates depending on the colour.
The UK researchers put bottle lids of various colours on the roof of a
university building to be exposed to the sun and the elements for three years.
The South African study used plastic items found on a remote beach.
“It’s amazing that samples left to weather on a rooftop in Leicester and those
collected on a windswept beach at the southern tip of the African continent
show similar results,” said Dr Sarah Key, who led the project.
“What the experiments showed is that even in a relatively cool and cloudy
environment for only three years, huge differences can be seen in the formation
of microplastics.”
This field study, published in the journal
Environmental Pollution, is the
first such proof of this effect. It suggests that retailers and manufacturers
should give more consideration to the colour of short-lived plastics."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
