When Wired gets things so horribly wrong that they claim “microwaving delivers a triple whammy: heat, UV irradiation, and hydrolysis” - microwaves are, by definition, NOT UV - it’s hard to take the entire article seriously.
That did surprise me. (I also wasn't a huge fan of attributing agency to plastic, but that's more of a stylistic question, I don't want to nitpick.) Still, I wouldn't dismiss the article wholesale. It provides enough references to do followup research.
I’m really surprised by this finding. My assumption has always been that microwaves are pretty much inert to anything except the water molecules that they’re tuned to excite. If I just put a plastic container in the microwave with no water anywhere, will the micro particles still come out? Or is it really about what happens when hot objects are up against plastic regardless of what made them hot?