this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
181 points (82.4% liked)

Memes

56884 readers
1260 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Or you could just chew gum, that's always an option

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Isn't gum really bad for the environment? Like the rubber part decomposes but the plastic part just doesn't? Not saying pacifiers aren't plastic and rubber, but they're reusable at least

[–] Deconceptualist@leminal.space 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

Where did you get the idea that chewing gum is made out of rubber and plastic? 🤔

Edit: Thanks all, I had no idea!

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Everything is made from rubber and plastic now. Bread? Plastic. Meat? Rubber. Vegetables? Plastic. Milk? Rubber. Chewing gum looks like rubber, but is actually plastic.

[–] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 months ago

It is plastic, though. The exact formulas tend to be proprietary, but they use a plastic rather than a natural gum base unless explicitly stated otherwise on the packaging. Even a lot of the 'natural' brands still use a plastic base.

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 5 points 3 months ago

A podcast years ago. A cursory search confirms that modern chewing gum has a "gum base" that contains food safe plastic polymer. Old school ones are made from gum from trees, but that hasn't been economically viable for like a century.

Most of it will decompose but other parts either gets buried in a landfill or gets burned where the smoke goes into the sky and turns into stars.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Both are plastics. No difference.

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There is a difference, one is socially acceptable

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago

Sadly. Both cause damage.