cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/5265624
I made this about a year ago and it’s one of my favorite creations. Even though I made a mistake in measuring the bottom and had to cut out some slots. One day I’ll print it again, but it used a ton of filament and took forever last time.
Is there more/less a risk of using micro plastics with food stuff than traditional plastic?
I would really love to use a 3D printer for all of these home organization tasks but am worried of increasing consumption of micro plastics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid Is the most commonly used printing material. I would rather eat that than just about any other “food safe” traditional plastic in my kitchen.
There are other concerns about the actual food safeness of printed objects because of their physical structure being a harbor for bacteria and such, but ingestion isn’t one of them.
Finally someone not screaming “micro plastics! Bacteria!”. Yes it’s an issue for some things. Like I wouldn’t be eating with 3d printed utensils or storing food in 3d printed containers, but I just can’t imagine my silverware is collecting enough microplastics from sitting there that will do more damage than all the other microplastics already in me from everything else.
It seems to me like missing the forest for the trees as well.
A stationary chunk of solid plastic will probably give off negligible micro plastics, but unless everyone is wearing 100% natural fabrics there’s going to be tons of tiny synthetic fibers floating around in the air from clothing…
Definitely. I feel like people get so focused on one thing and then ignore all the other issues that are harming them as well. Like people will be worried about microplastics, but keep using a 20 year old teflon pan that’s scraped to hell every day. Or people that love to tell you that artificial sweeteners are killing you, but then go out binge drinking every week. Eh, pick your battles. It’s definitely risk/reward in a lot of ways. I know I’m getting a lot more microplastics from other things, and things out of my control, and the negligible amount I might get from this organizer is ok with me because it makes me happy.
Im used to everyone screaming but there can be lead in the brass nozzle. So use a hardened nozzle.
Kind of annoying to say I was “screaming microplastics” when I simply asked if there was more or less of a risk compared to non-addative manufacturing of plastics. You also seem to have resigned to not being worried about microplastics since it is already a problem.
You and another poster brought up “but there are microplastics everywhere!” Yes, and we are learning about them and their problems. I’ve heard about potential issues about synthetic fabrics. I think it is pretty reasonable to ask about the safety, especially when the science on the effects of microplastics is finally entering the forefront.
As the other commenter said, “not everything is about you”. I didn’t say YOU were saying that. It was a general comment about there always being people wanting to yell about microplastics and bacteria every time someone posts a 3d print anywhere near food related areas. I was just happy to see someone comment something I felt was more reasonable than the constant scolding you see in 3D printing communities usually. This is also why I didn’t reply to you directly. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask about safety and the other commenter already answered your question so I didn’t.
I also didn’t say I wasn’t worried about microplastics since it’s already a problem, but I DID say that I wasn’t worried about ingesting them from this print.
I see. Surely you can see how it can be interpreted as I did.
Honestly, not really. If you take into account the context that I wasn’t responding to your comment, but to the other person, and also knowing you weren’t doing what I was talking about, it seems pretty obvious to me that I wasn’t talking about you. You were asking a simple question, and you received an answer. I was praising another person’s comment. So I dunno, you’re entitled to your interpretation, of course, but I obviously wasn’t the only one that knew my comment wasn’t about you.
Questions safety of microplastics
Answers question on safety
Finally someone not questioning the safety!
not everything is about you, friend
It was in response to me asking about microplastics so it kinda was.
But it wasn’t though.
“PLA Filament” isn’t pure PLA, it can contain lots of additives that aren’t food safe.