Research comparing Adirondack mountain lakes in New York suggests foot traffic is significant source of pollution
Hiking shoes and outdoor gear are likely a significant source of microplastic pollution in the wilderness, new research that checked for the pernicious material in several Adirondack mountain lakes in upstate New York suggests.
Researchers measured microplastic levels in two lakes that are the among highest sources of water for the Hudson River – one that sees heavy foot traffic from hikers, and another lake that is far away from a path and rarely touched by human activity.
The samples from the lake that sees heavier foot traffic showed levels that were about 23 times higher.
21 Comments
SGGeorwell@lemmy.world · 69 pts · 327d
It falls to the earth in rain and snow. That’s probably a more insurmountable threat than backpacks.
Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca · 27 pts · 327d
I was gonna say... isn't this just in the air and rain now?
reddig33@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 327d
Yes. And most of it comes from tire dust. Not hiking equipment. Some tire companies are working on reformulating to try to solve this.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauriewinkless/2024/12/18/tires-shed-millions-of-tonnes-of-microplastics-into-the-environment/
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/07/heres-how-michelin-plans-to-make-its-tires-more-renewable/
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · 12 pts · 327d
Yeah its more of the same "carbon footprint" (pun intended) rhetoric pushed by the biggest polluters of the planet.
"Look Look the plebs are the evil ones, not us the poor innocent billionaire corpos"
Meanwhile every day the rain probably drops a billion times more than all hiking boots combined.
reddig33@lemmy.world · 51 pts · 327d
Microplastics are also in the rain. So I’m not sure we should be worried about hiking gear at this point.
Single use plastics for non-medical uses should be taxed out of existence.
https://www.sciencealert.com/plastic-rain-is-a-now-a-thing-and-weve-underestimated-just-how-heavy-it-is
ijon_the_human@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 326d
Was your purpose to spread disillusionment?
Because that probably was the consequence.
reddig33@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 326d
Don’t be disillusioned. Most of the microplastics in the air is thought to come from tire dust. It’s a problem a lot of tire companies are already working on. And because EVs mostly use regenerative braking, they’ll make an impact there as well.
https://ev.com/news/study-reveals-evs-produce-less-brake-and-tire-pollution-with-fewer-non-exhaust-emissions
TheBat@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 327d
tidderuuf@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 327d
PNW hikers: "Was that not an option already?"
toiletobserver@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 327d
I was on a hike years ago very early in the morning, only one other car at the trail head. On the way up, spotted the only other dude hiking naked except for shoes and a backpack.
I'm not bothered by the naked as much as the idea of getting mosquito bites on my balls. Fuck that noise.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 327d
If you keep moving the mosquitoes won't catch you, unless you're somewhere insane like Siberia. Dude like that probably has his balls covered in OFF!.
Also, funny trick I keep trying, and it works. Hold your breath and walk quickly. They no longer have a lock on your CO2 and will drop back. My lungs are jacked from smoking in my youth, can't go too far.
idiomaddict@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 327d
Naked I could do, but hiking without shoes sounds terrible
Coopr8@kbin.earth · 3 pts · 327d
Leather moccasons it is then.
MonkeyTown@midwest.social · 3 pts · 327d
y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 13 pts · 327d
Macro plastics are also brought into the wilderness on hiking shoes and gear.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 327d
This study only proves that human activity sheds microplastics. How are they making the claim that the source of the plastics is from hiking gear? It could be food wrappers, microplastic in our excrement, really any other human activity.
otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 326d
They've gotta have some way to make it about shaming the individual...
You know, to take the heat off all the corporations spewing metric fucktonnes of plastic into the air, water, and various substrates across the fucking planet every goddamned day... Right? 🤌🏼
dick_fineman@discuss.online · 0 pts · 326d
So what you're saying is "kill all humans"? I can get behind that message.
suff@piefed.social · 9 pts · 327d
Goretex is Teflon! Teflon never degrades, causes cancer!
teft@piefed.social · 8 pts · 327d
Makes sense. Lots of rain gear and tents use teflon in their waterproof coatings. That shit sheds worse than a malamute in spring.
Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 326d
Plastic garbage was found in the Marianas Trench. Foot traffic brings more in, but it was gonna show up there, regardless.
WolfLink@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 326d
I’ve found party balloons up in the mountains
Unrelated@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 322d
Commenters here should really read the article before making their posts. Many of the critiques I read here are covered in the article.