[rsync]

I am, in a different life, a consumer of compost and I have started looking very carefully at the compost products for sale in the bay area.

On the urban consumer side of things I see compost collection bins which cannot possibly be decontaminated of all manner of plastic pieces which will, inevitably, be ground up into the compost product.

On the rural side of things I see miles of plastic baling twine and weedeater string - and other plastic meshes and grid - used throughout pastures year after year and then collected back up again with loads of hay and manure which also end up in the compost stream.

These truckloads of soil/compost/fill have to be significantly contaminated and the rural end users are pouring them right back on their fields.

[modeless]

It's funny how the same people that dump whatever trash they feel like into the compost bins because it's convenient turn around and say "Wow, free compost! Let me spread that all over my garden!" Like, didn't I just see you yesterday putting a compostable takeout container into the bin with ketchup packets still inside? You think the municipal composting fairy just magics that stuff away?

[blondie9x]

Microplastics impact endocrine hormones and potentially are carcinogenic.

Lifespan growth has stagnated although technology has improved. Quality of life has declined as number of temperate days with good air quality declines with climate change.

[jrmg]

I’m usually less worried about microplastics than many (human lifespan is at the longest it’s ever been, and people are healthy at older ages than ever - things can’t be that bad overall), but weed eater string is a pet peeve of mine. We’re just spewing nylon microplastics everywhere, and I can’t understand how it’s not at all controversial!

[rsync]

I've spent some time thinking about this and it's a difficult problem for two reasons:

First, while we use metal blades on our ranch it's not easy - you need to educate workers on the extra safety issues involved with the blade and you need to be very careful about fire safety due to sparking. There are only a few months where we use the trimmers at all due to fire risk.[1]

Second, operators of trimmers don't like the performance of the blades and how they cut. With a bit of practice it is fine and as an employer I can dictate the tools I choose ... but convincing homeowners or small property owners to switch to blades is going to be hard. Further, there are some techniques (like trimming up to landscaping features or house siding without destroying them) that are impossible with the blade.

But yes ... if you see a row of workers mowing a big field with string ... somebody isn't putting two and two together and it's a shame to see pristine fields being plasticized.

[1] I have looked into a short metal cable made of non-sparking metal as a replacement for the blade ... not an easy thing to put together ...

[tomcam]

Hang on. You're the rsync guy and you're also running a ranch? DAYUM. I'm gobsmacked. Do you have an RSync Ranch blog somewhere?

[teruakohatu]

What is your reason for using them over plastic? Just pollution or do you have a lot of woody shrubs?

Google confirms they are available here in New Zealand but I have only ever seen them in American YouTube videos.

Over here, you can’t just dictate tools. Health & Safety regulations and agencies use highly punitive measures to ensure employers do everything possible to avoid employee injury.

Even if you hurt yourself at home you are required to disclose who your employer is if you are claiming universal accident insurance.

I am sure they keep an eye on if employees of a particular organisation are having the same type of accident “at home”.

I think this is probably why they are uncommon.

[rsync]

Yes - The choice is dictated solely by the pollution.

I Can’t comment on the laws in New Zealand, but I live in California, which is, relatively, Progressive with worker protections.

The dangers associated with the Trimmer blades are a subset of the dangers associated with the chainsaws we (safely) use.

[rendaw]

Plastics were really only introduced ~1950 and usage/production has been increasing since, which means that we'll only know the lifetime effects of current exposure levels 80 some years from now. Human lifespan statistics are currently based on people born before 1950.

[userbinator]

Mid 1800s is when synthetic plastics started appearing.

[kylebenzle]

In Columbus we have, "The Compost Exchange" and as a small farmer I get their compost delivered.

It is now so full of plastic contamination it's just not worth it anymore. Its disgusting what I find in there, countless grocery bags, Keurig cups, people don't care and I don't save enough money to be worth picking out plastic.

[asdff]

Because they tell you to do this like this. Food container? green waste. Dogpoop bag? green waste. Its less about giving you good compost and more about getting the local landfill to emit a little bit less methane by not having as much organic matter rotting in there.

[solardev]

I know that some wastewater treatment plants will sell biosolid sludge (the filtered and partially treated solid output of the treatment process). Do you know what, if anything, that does to the plastics?

I think it's mostly mechanical settling and then sitting in piles on the ground. Not sure if that UV exposure from the sun is enough to meaningfully degrade the plastic into something else.