Well, this is awkward...
The superglue that
Insulate Britain protestors recently used to glue themselves to the M25 and multiple roads across London is apparently highly toxic to the environment.
Multiple protestors
decided to stick themselves to the tarmac on multiple occasions this past week - the hope being that it would prevent them from being arrested by police and therefore avoid their demonstrations from being disrupted.
While their wider cause of convincing government to insulate all UK homes and lower emissions is obviously massively important, many people have taken issue with their methods. Somewhat fortuitously, many on social media even questioned what kind of glue they were using:
https://twitter.com/MissKG86/status/1452610404266434561?s=20
Now,
as reported by multiple outlets, entrepreneur Rachel Watkyns has revealed that her gift-packaging firm is one of many eco-conscious companies that refuse to use superglue as it can be seriously harmful to the environment.
Watkyns, who appeared on
Dragon's Den with her
Tiny Box Company back in 2007 - says that not only do the processes behind the production of superglue pump tonnes of greenhouse gases into the air but that these types of solvents have a significant impact on anything they touch and their immediate surroundings.
She summarised the product up by saying: "It just really is not a nice chemical. You’ve only got to look at the back of any superglue and it’s got a great big bloody hazard warning on it."
Among the many by-products of creating superglue are chemicals such as cyanide and formaldehyde - both of which are widely considered to be extremely toxic substances. Watkyns also went on to explain that since superglue and similar strong solvents are classed as acrylic resin, whatever they come into contact with simply cannot be recycled.
Continuing, she asked: "What impact do protesters think that’s going to have on the environment and wildlife?". As
Adhesivers.org clarifies, rain means solvents often end up running into "drain water and then directly enter surface waters" - i.e. streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs etc.
The climate action group obviously aren't going to stop any time soon and the central concern of their protests should be something everyone - namely the government - should be more concerned about. Nevertheless, this unfortunate aspect in a long-running story just goes to show how deep environmental issues run in modern society.
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