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Splurch t1_j6aqaaw wrote

Reply to comment by -Ch4s3- in UV light from the sun slowly breaks down plastics on the ocean’s surfaces: researchers calculate that about two percent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year by giuliomagnifico

> Sure but copper and lead pipes are inferior to pex in basically every way. PVC is also great for a lot of non residential cases. Steel production is laughably more CO2 intensive. > > Plastic provides cleaner, safer water with fewer leaks and lower emissions. It also isn’t worth stealing like copper pipes and doesn’t have to be joined in a process that’s highly toxic.

Those things don't make them irreplaceable, it just means the replacements, or existing solutions before plastic, cost more. Just because it's irreplaceable in some use cases doesn't mean it's irreplaceable in all of them.

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