People be receiving fewer glittery Christmas cards this year as harmful microplastics have been banned across the European Union.

The European Commission has outlawed the sale of plastics smaller than five millimetres and that are intentionally added to products but do not dissolve or break down naturally.

  • Pyr_Pressure
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    But glitters are also one of the most pointless and useless forms of small plastics.

    At least cheap shoes benefit people who need shoes and can’t afford to buy expensive ones. Nobody needs glitter for literally anything.

    • qyron@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      I fully agree with you but allow me to insert a personal experience here.

      For years, I bought cheap sneakers. There was no store offering name brands and I wasn’t motivated to do a 100km round trip to go buy footwear. So I would go through a pair of shoes every two months, if I was lucky.

      At €20 a pair, assuming I would wear out 6 pairs in a year, that is €120.

      When a name brand shoe store finally arrived here, a pair of sneakers of decent quality start at €55, €40 if on sale.

      I bought a pair of shoes there one year back; only slight wear signs are starting to show. I’ve been saving €10 a month to eventually replace the sneakers. At this point, I have enough money saved to buy two pairs.

      It hurts but getting a better quality pair of shoes can save both money and some garbage.