I’m clearing out my stash of saved black plastic forks and spoons and take-out containers (the article specifically mentioned take-out containers).
But I’m also looking at the black plastic seed starting cell trays and nursery pots with deep suspicion now.
Also thinking that I’ll take this Fall/Winter container garden review time to transplant/avoid growing edibles in larger black plastic containers and nursery pots.
Black-colored plastics used in electronics are leaching flame retardants into kitchen utensils, toys and food containers, a new study found.
CNN
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Black-colored plastic used in children’s toys, takeout containers, kitchen utensils and grocery meat and produce trays may contain alarming levels of toxic flame retardants
Plastics are everywhere. Plastics are in our clothing. How much of the dust in our daily lives are plastic particles? Concerning.
The study only looked at black plastics. Some of the chemicals are banned. Recycling problem but, meanwhile, there are lawsuits against the plastic manufacturers for hyping the potential recycling of their products while at the same time, a very large percentage of the plastics we use are not recycled because the products made from the process are of limited or no value.
Can we be rid of plastic? When I was a kid, the only plastics I was aware of were the bakelite plastic plugs on electric wires. However, the US population was about 1/2 of what it is now. Growth. Growth for greater prosperity and a better life! Consumption. Drill baby drill. A more healthy world for all of us?
Interesting. This is the first time I heard of it. I have a lot of those things, nylon cookware for the nonstick cookware ( Teflon isn't good either and I used that for years as well). I do also have a lot of black plastic utensils and trays. Mostly the old Costco caesar salad containers.
Considering that plastic is a byproduct of the oil industry. It was a waste material after making things like gasoline. I am not surprised. But they are finding so many things now that are " toxic" and some have been around for years. Add to that the increasing food recalls, not just because of salmonella or e. coli, but for being mislabeled or missing allergen warnings. While that is important to some people. it is really getting to the point where even the air and water probably contain contaminants too.
That being said, I probably won't throw out my old utensils or forks, knives, but some of the trays probably will go. I probably will have a hard time finding metal cooking utensils that is safe for a nonstick pan.
The truth is that the new compostable products are so bad. The eating utensils snap when you try to use them and the compostable plates not only don't keep the food warm, they get soft and start to fall apart in a short while. I can't even finish a soda with a straw because the paper straw falls apart before I finish the drink. The compostable products are hurting the restaurant businesses here because not only are they of poor quality, they cost more. Some of the compostable plates and some eating utensils are more durable but there is a caveat, they usually are coated with plastic to keep the plates from falling apart ( they still don't keep the food warm) The label on the package says that the plates are only compostable if the plastic coating is removed. Most places would not compost them because they don't have the facilities to do that kind of washing and it would add to their cost.
Except for aluminum soda cans. The recycling centers are piled high with plastic sent for recycling with few buyers who want them. They often end up as trash in a third world country. All thanks to the fact that we live in a disposable society where it is cheaper to buy a new one than try to fix something old ( and it isn't even that old because products now seem to be intentionally designed with a shorter life. Planned obsolescence.
My niece broke my 40 year old ceiling fan. She turned it on high and the blades delaminated. There is nothing wrong with the motor, but it is hard to find blades that will fit a 40 year old fan and and it would cost more than buying a new fan that has a life expectancy of 10 years.
People who think they are saving the planet buying an overpriced electric car, don't realize all the carbon emissions already expended on mining the components. When the batteries are expended, they are a hazardous waste and where are they going to go?
Keep in mind “black” may be blended into make other darker colors like gray. But since only black plastic was tested other colors are not necessarily safe either. If ultimately, we find out that everything is tainted, we are going to be in trouble.
Short sighted greed and profit-oriented thinking of worst kind of humans who should know better, and it’s going to create another one of those sci-fi doom scenarios, and worst case only ones to survive will be to adapt….
We can only do what we can as we find out and target black colored stuff for now.
So, after a couple of days —
MY CURRENT THINKING is to discontinue remove suspects used for food in the kitchen and definitely remove items used for long term food contact. Heavily lean on acidic and oily food use which are already known to bond and dissolve/leach chemicals from plastic.
As for the plant containers — ornamental/non edibles will be considered later; suspend use/repot edibles from long term use; am willing to allow few weeks use for seedlings that will grow into large plants before bearing fruits such as tomatoes since relative amount of contamination will likely not be significant /affecting and may very well be shed due to physical metabolic processes. But will place greater suspicion on fast growing, earlier harvest, small plants such as lettuce or radish, etc.
I’m extending concern to other black plastic gardening supplies including root pouches which are made of recycled plastic — I’ll divert my grey ones to ornamentals only.
I won’t use the black plastic for mulch any more, but I mostly use the kind made from corn so hopefully that’s OK.
I’m glad I didn’t decide to start using landscaping fabric in the paths like they do in those Japanese gardening videos.
I forgot about all the plastic used in the garden from plastic mulch, to pots, sleeves, containers and even the chairs I am using for garden stools. Most of the garden supplies from peat moss to fertilizer are packaged in plastic. Tools have plastic parts So hard to really avoid them.
Right — I’m focusing on direct ingestion and prolonged contact vs. relative potential amount of contamination and eventual pathway to human contact and toxic transfer … as a place to start.
Am also wondering about fire retardant treated BLACK plastic “electronics” — would those be TV/monitors and computers, servers, printers? Power cords and LAN cables? If computers and related electronics, what about the prevalent grey or beige colored ones?
All I know about electronic recycling and even recycling smoke alarms is that technically they need to be handled as hazardous waste. There is a tiny amount of nuclear material in fire alarms, but basically no practical way to recycle it, so pretty much they say throw it in the trash. Things that run on rechargeable batteries like computers, electric toothbrushes, and robot vacuums are supposed to go to hazardous waste disposal not the trash. I am sure many of them do. There is information on waste disposal in the product brochures, but most people probably don't save those for 8-10 years or remember the disposal instructions. This assumes they read it in the first place. This is also the same for printers and printer ink. I was going to take my ink cartridges down to office depot, Online it says they recycle but there is a note on the door that says they don't.
I suppose they can’t participate in the corporate program from Hawaii because of the shipping disadvantages.
• disposal/recycling issues with rechargeable batteries should really be more streamlined
I was thinking about the black plastic — there’s a good chance that all those ethernet cables are/were recycled to recover the copper wires as LAN migrated to optical wire and wireless?
Are they coated with fire retardants? I knew about environmental health hazards of fire retardants used for fabrics like carpeting and office dividers, and children’s clothes….
But I didn’t know about their use in electronics. I’d have to research to even guess…. All that comes to mind is server rooms with the fire suppressant. It kind of makes sense now the I think about it that power conducting cable sheathing would need heat resistance?
Black-colored plastic used for kitchen utensils and toys linked to banned toxic flame retardants
