Huangshan Scenic Area does not encourage eating instant noodles? The truth is that there is indeed a "hard reason"!

Some time ago, the news that Huangshan Scenic Area "does not recommend tourists to eat instant noodles in the scenic area" became a hot search, which aroused heated discussion. Immediately, the scenic area responded:

Image source: Internet

Of course, the scenic area does not prohibit people from eating instant noodles. The core problem is that many tourists pour the soup on both sides of the walking path after eating instant noodles. In the long run, it will cause soil salinization and lead to a decline in soil quality. In addition, the instant noodle residues poured on the roadside will attract wild animals to forage, causing semi-farming of animals.

So, does instant noodles really have a negative impact on the environment? As tourists, what should we do? Let's talk about it today~

Do instant noodles really affect the environment?

First of all, the scenic spot's statement makes sense. Although there are no special articles studying the impact of instant noodle soup on soil, the salt content in instant noodle soup is relatively high. After the water evaporates, the salt will remain in the soil. One or two bowls of instant noodle soup are not enough to cause soil changes, but if a large number of tourists pour the soup on the roadside, over the years, the soil salinity in a certain area may be too high and affect the growth of surrounding organisms.

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In addition, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, human food is not healthy for many animals, and eating human food scraps regularly may cause malnutrition in animals . Not only that, human food scraps may also cause changes in the behavior of wild animals, which may have an adverse effect on wild animals.

Studies have found that if small animals often find food in human activity areas, they may specifically go there to look for food, which may disrupt the original balance of the ecosystem and affect the ecological environment. For example, Taiwan's Shuangliu Forest Recreation Area found that as more food waste was discarded by tourists, the behavior of crab-eating mongoose in the tourist area changed. They no longer went to the original woods and streams to find food, but ran to the tourist roads where humans often appeared to find food . Although it looks cute, it is very bad for small animals and the natural ecology.

At the same time, changes in the behavior of small animals can also affect human health. Small animals that often appear on the roadside may reduce their vigilance and fear of humans. They frequently come into contact with humans, resulting in animals injuring people or people injuring animals. In addition, some wild animals may carry some pathogenic microorganisms, and too close contact may lead to the spread of natural epidemic diseases.

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Therefore, it is not important whether you eat instant noodles or not. What is important is how to deal with the instant noodle residue: never dump the residue on the roadside. If there is a public toilet, it is recommended to dump it in the public toilet. If not, dumping it in the trash can is better than dumping it directly on the roadside.

In addition to instant noodles

Don't throw away these garbage casually.

In addition to instant noodle residues, there are some other types of garbage in life that we think are "natural" and can be thrown into the natural environment, such as leftover apple cores, banana peels, and plastic bags marked as biodegradable. But in fact, they all have an impact on the natural environment.

1

Leftover fruit cores and peels

In the eyes of many people, fruit cores and peels are definitely not considered "pollutants". After all, fruits and other things come from nature, and throwing them under trees can add nutrients to the trees.

It is true that fruit peels and cores can be used as compost raw materials, but in the natural environment, these things are not as easy to degrade as we think.

Different types of fruit residues take different amounts of time to decompose. According to data from the nonprofit organization Leave no trace, it takes up to two years for peels and cores to decompose. Even in a composting environment, it takes several months to completely decompose.

The orange peels and banana peels that we casually throw into the scenic area's woods and on the roadside will not become nutrients for plants so quickly. And the scenic area will certainly not allow banana peels, orange peels and apple peels to remain on both sides of the road, and sanitation workers still need to work hard to clean up these garbage.

If it is thrown under the cliffs, sanitation workers will have to risk their lives to pick up the garbage. It is better not to "fertilize" plants in nature.

Image source: CCTV1

In addition, garbage such as fruit peels and cores, in addition to being unsightly, may also affect the behavior of wild animals, just like the food residues mentioned above.

Therefore, even if it is garbage such as fruit cores and peels, please put them in the corresponding trash cans and do not discard them on the roadside at will.

2

(Biodegradable) plastic bags

"Degradable" plastic bags give people the impression that they can be thrown directly into the ground and they will decompose on their own. In particular, "biodegradable plastics" (also known as "biodegradable plastics") make people feel that this kind of plastic is close to nature and can be thrown away in the forest at will.

But in fact this is a misunderstanding. Our country has a clear definition of degradable and biodegradable plastics.

In the "Definition, Classification, Labeling and Degradation Performance Requirements of Degradable Plastics" (GB/T 20197-2006), it is mentioned that "biodegradable plastics" (i.e. biodegradable plastics) refer to "plastics that can be degraded by microorganisms existing in nature in natural environments or composting, or anaerobic digestion, or aqueous culture medium environments."

So, don’t think that “biodegradable plastics” will degrade on their own in the woods just because they say so. Different types of plastics require different conditions for biodegradation, and many need to be decomposed in specific composting conditions and in a certain microbial colony.

In the "Biodegradable Plastics and Products Degradability and Labeling Requirements" (GB/T 41010-2021), more detailed requirements are also made for the labeling of biodegradable items. For example, the picture below is the label of a biodegradable spoon.

Source: "Degradation Performance and Labeling Requirements for Biodegradable Plastics and Products"

This means that although the spoon is biodegradable, it needs to be degraded under composting conditions or in a high-solid anaerobic digestion device, and it cannot be decomposed by just throwing it into the soil. Of course, this standard is a national recommended standard, and not all degradable plastics will have such clear markings, so it is difficult for us to determine under what conditions degradable plastics must be decomposed.

In addition, "biodegradable plastic" does not mean that it can be completely decomposed.

The degradation rate requirements in the "Definition, Classification, Marking and Degradation Performance Requirements of Degradable Plastics" and the "Degradation Performance and Labeling Requirements of Biodegradable Plastics and Products" are greater than or equal to 60% and greater than or equal to 51% respectively.

In many environments (such as soil and marine environment), the experimental decomposition period is 2 years. It is not as we imagine that it disappears after being thrown into the soil for a few days.

By the way, although some plastic bags are labeled "degradable in the marine environment", it does not mean that you are allowed to throw these plastic bags directly into the sea.

Even if these plastic bags can be degraded in the marine environment, it takes a long time to degrade, and they may cause suffocation of turtles and fish before they are completely degraded. In addition, although the standards have limits on the content of heavy metals in degradable plastics, trace amounts of heavy metals can bioaccumulate and harm the top organisms of the food chain through the biomagnification effect of the food chain, and even harm humans themselves.

Therefore, even if you know that you are carrying biodegradable plastics, you cannot throw them into the natural environment at will.

Finally, I hope everyone can be happy and respect the environment during the summer trip. Especially in natural scenic spots, we should take away all the garbage as much as possible and achieve "leaving without a trace".

References

[1] U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official website: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/wildlifedamage/dontfeedwildlife/dont-feed-wildlife

[2] Newsome TM, Van Eeden L M. The effects of food waste on wildlife and humans[J]. Sustainability, 2017, 9(7): 1269.

[3] De Medina-Salas L, Giraldi-Díaz MR, Castillo-González E, et al. Valorization of orange peel waste using precomposting and vermicomposting processes[J]. Sustainability, 2020, 12(18): 7626.

[4] https://lnt.org/skills-series-trash-timeline/

[5] “Definition, classification, labeling and degradation performance requirements of degradable plastics” (GB/T 20197-2006) [6] “Degradability performance and labeling requirements of biodegradable plastics and products” (GB/T 41010-2021)

Planning and production

Author: Science Scraps Popular Science Writer

Reviewer: Li Wenxue, Professor of School of Public Health, Shandong University

Planning Editor: Xu Lai

Editor-in-charge: Yinuo

The cover image and the images in this article are from the copyright library

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