I mean, everyone should be terrified of microplastics. I 100% think buying and using water bottles to be trendy is the stupidest thing ever. That said, the idea of drinking out of things that won't degrade and leech plastic into the beverage is not a bad one.
Despite how people on social media make it out, when I actually looked into this I found that there is almost nothing in the way of conclusive evidence that microplastics have any detrimental health impact on humans. It's almost universally "this warrants further study" type conclusions in formal studies.
Unfortunately, most clothing has at least some plastic in it these days. Not just stuff from SHEIN and Temu, it’s the high end stuff too. Polyester is plastic, for example.
Couple things, from an outsider’s perspective:
1) it definitely looked like he was being goofy. It makes this reply seem like the aggressive one
2) Temu, SHEIN, and other fast fashion brands aren’t the only ones that use polyester and other plastics in their clothing. Just taking a brief look, a lot of luxury and even sustainable brands are still using plastic in some form or another. And thats not even to mention what things like stitching thread, labels, etc. are made of. It just seems like you’re being kind of harsh when he didn’t appear to be making any assumptions about your lifestyle; if anything, it looks like you were making assumptions about the kinds of clothing people who are at risk of microplastics would choose to wear.
You don't absorb microplastics through your skin, but plastic clothes are the main source of microplastic pollution, closely followed by tire particles. If you idiotic americans could drive a little les... ah, never mind.
I don't think using a water bottle is trendy, it's good to be hydrated and you're much more likely to drink water regularly throughout the day if you have a water bottle instead of filling up glasses all the time. And as a dude who tried a bunch of different bottles before finally getting a Stanley, I will say that the "trendiness" of this particular brand is actually well earned.
While I think we should be more restrictive about single-use plastics, and more conscientious about how we use plastics generally, I actually think the concern with microplastics is a bit overblown compared to other environmental concerns.
This is especially true with water bottles.
Admittedly I was the most up to date on this like 5-10 years ago, but IIRC there aren't actually that many clear negative health impacts from microplastics. There probably are some, but whatever they are, their effects are insignificant enough to hide in the background noise. It's not like asbestos or something.
Meanwhile, the energy requirements to make plastic are usually very low. While it's made from petrochemicals, and therefore requires us to extract fossil fuels to make, the actual energy used in making plastics is usually pretty small. The product that comes out is cheap, durable, and has a wide variety of uses.
But steel (the product that most of these fancy water bottles are made from) requires a tremendous amount of energy to turn into a water bottle.
As an environmental scientist, I'm mostly okay with plastic being used for anything you're going to use for a long time. Even stuff you eat off of. I think single-use plastics are a scourge, but your water bottle should ideally get years of use.
I'm not going to begrudge someone for buying a water bottle made of steel for any particular reason. But I definitely think re-usable plastic water bottles are better for the environment, and therefore the general health and safety of everyone in the world.
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u/Jamesyroo Jul 14 '26
My prediction is there is going to be a massive resurgence in Tupperware starting with a Stanley-style water bottle rush