1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:13,839 --> 00:00:15,624 [announcer] Here it is, the most amazing 4 00:00:15,667 --> 00:00:17,408 food wrap ever developed. 5 00:00:17,452 --> 00:00:19,671 -Saran-Wrap. -That's right. 6 00:00:19,715 --> 00:00:21,630 There's nothing like Saran-Wrap. 7 00:00:21,673 --> 00:00:23,197 It's a crystal clear plastic 8 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:25,851 that lets you see everything you wrap. 9 00:00:25,895 --> 00:00:29,333 Now look at this, Saran Wrap clings like magic. 10 00:00:29,377 --> 00:00:30,900 Just press it into place 11 00:00:30,943 --> 00:00:33,859 over any bowl or dish and it stays. 12 00:00:33,903 --> 00:00:37,602 You have a smooth, tight cover that keeps flavor locked in. 13 00:00:37,646 --> 00:00:39,213 The problem of plastic pollution 14 00:00:39,256 --> 00:00:40,997 in the seas is well known. 15 00:00:41,041 --> 00:00:42,999 But new research suggests 16 00:00:43,043 --> 00:00:45,393 there could be many more tiny particles 17 00:00:45,436 --> 00:00:47,656 of the waste floating just beneath the surface. 18 00:00:47,699 --> 00:00:49,614 [Helen] So most of the plastic is more dense 19 00:00:49,658 --> 00:00:52,095 than sea water, so it eventually sinks down. 20 00:00:52,139 --> 00:00:54,837 [man] Plastic that's produced is used just once 21 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:56,404 before being dumped again. 22 00:00:56,447 --> 00:00:58,319 Plastic gets into the marine environment, 23 00:00:58,362 --> 00:01:00,625 it breaks down into tiny little pieces, 24 00:01:00,669 --> 00:01:03,193 and anything that eats in the ocean 25 00:01:03,237 --> 00:01:05,587 will inadvertently eat plastic. 26 00:01:05,630 --> 00:01:07,850 [anchor] In 2015, a marine biologist's video 27 00:01:07,893 --> 00:01:10,896 went viral, documenting the painful process 28 00:01:10,940 --> 00:01:15,031 as she removed a plastic straw stuck in a sea turtle's nose. 29 00:01:15,075 --> 00:01:18,078 [Helen] [indistinct] Oh, man. 30 00:01:18,121 --> 00:01:19,470 This is becoming more and more common. 31 00:01:19,514 --> 00:01:21,124 It's-- it's not a one off anymore. 32 00:01:21,168 --> 00:01:22,865 It's not just ending up in the ocean, 33 00:01:22,908 --> 00:01:24,736 it's also ending up in the environment everywhere. 34 00:01:24,780 --> 00:01:26,347 And recent studies have shown 35 00:01:26,390 --> 00:01:29,567 that microplastic particles are even in the air 36 00:01:29,611 --> 00:01:32,134 we breathe and the food we eat. 37 00:01:32,179 --> 00:01:34,789 [Helen] They found now microplastics on mountains 38 00:01:34,833 --> 00:01:36,835 because they get distributed by the wind. 39 00:01:36,878 --> 00:01:38,402 So, yeah, I don't think 40 00:01:38,446 --> 00:01:40,274 there's any place on Earth where there's no plastic. 41 00:01:40,317 --> 00:01:42,406 [atmospheric music playing] 42 00:01:50,936 --> 00:01:53,548 If you put your ear to a plastic bottle, 43 00:01:53,591 --> 00:01:55,071 you can actually hear 44 00:01:55,115 --> 00:01:57,247 what ocean it's gonna end up in. [cackles] 45 00:01:58,422 --> 00:02:00,772 Too soon? I understand. 46 00:02:00,816 --> 00:02:02,470 Well, unfortunately, what I'm about to share 47 00:02:02,513 --> 00:02:04,341 with you is no joking matter. 48 00:02:04,907 --> 00:02:09,389 Plastics, single-use plastics, particularly microplastics, 49 00:02:09,433 --> 00:02:13,263 are here, there, they're everywhere. 50 00:02:14,046 --> 00:02:16,223 And it seems likely that the production 51 00:02:16,266 --> 00:02:18,181 of fossil fuel plastics 52 00:02:18,225 --> 00:02:20,096 isn't going to stop anytime soon. 53 00:02:20,923 --> 00:02:23,491 So amidst all the negative talk, 54 00:02:23,534 --> 00:02:24,840 it's no wonder things are looking 55 00:02:24,883 --> 00:02:26,320 a little grim for planet Earth. 56 00:02:27,321 --> 00:02:31,194 But the world is starting to wake up and recognize 57 00:02:31,238 --> 00:02:33,675 the dangers threatening Earth's health. 58 00:02:34,110 --> 00:02:35,155 That's a good thing. 59 00:02:36,460 --> 00:02:39,071 However, is it too late to reverse the damage? 60 00:02:39,942 --> 00:02:43,293 More importantly, is there a better way going forward? 61 00:02:43,337 --> 00:02:48,429 ♪ 62 00:03:19,982 --> 00:03:21,984 Hey, Kylie, how was school today? 63 00:03:22,027 --> 00:03:23,377 -Good. -Can I have a hug? 64 00:03:24,247 --> 00:03:25,944 [Janice] Casey, did you have a good day at school? 65 00:03:25,988 --> 00:03:27,946 My name is Janice Overbeck. 66 00:03:27,990 --> 00:03:30,253 I'm married to a German husband 67 00:03:30,297 --> 00:03:32,560 and we've been married for 14 years. 68 00:03:32,603 --> 00:03:34,475 We have four children, 69 00:03:34,518 --> 00:03:37,478 all girls, and we own a real estate company 70 00:03:37,521 --> 00:03:39,219 here in the town that I grew up in. 71 00:03:39,654 --> 00:03:41,960 All right, girls, so it's Earth Day today 72 00:03:42,004 --> 00:03:44,093 and we are going to do 73 00:03:44,136 --> 00:03:47,009 a plastic sculpture competition. 74 00:03:47,662 --> 00:03:49,664 [girl] How much plastic is there? 75 00:03:49,707 --> 00:03:52,579 [Janice] A lot. So, it's a lot of single-use plastic. 76 00:03:52,623 --> 00:03:53,929 [girl] Is it washed? 77 00:03:54,756 --> 00:03:56,801 Yes, of course it's washed. [chuckles] 78 00:03:56,845 --> 00:03:58,454 I have a concern. 79 00:03:58,499 --> 00:04:01,545 I was minding my own business, raising my children, 80 00:04:01,589 --> 00:04:04,200 when I came across a video. 81 00:04:04,244 --> 00:04:06,594 It was about a minute and a half long, 82 00:04:06,637 --> 00:04:09,988 and it was absolutely 83 00:04:10,032 --> 00:04:11,990 unbelievable to see 84 00:04:12,034 --> 00:04:14,819 what was floating around in the ocean. 85 00:04:14,863 --> 00:04:16,298 I'm looking at what's happening, 86 00:04:16,343 --> 00:04:18,301 through the headlines and through the news 87 00:04:18,345 --> 00:04:20,738 and through everything around me, 88 00:04:20,781 --> 00:04:23,437 that the world is in crisis, 89 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,744 from climate change to the plastic crisis. 90 00:04:26,788 --> 00:04:28,920 And it really concerns me. 91 00:04:30,487 --> 00:04:33,185 [Rob] The United Nations Environment Program defines 92 00:04:33,229 --> 00:04:36,928 our planet as being in a triple planetary crisis. 93 00:04:36,972 --> 00:04:39,148 That includes air pollution, which kills around 94 00:04:39,191 --> 00:04:41,759 seven million people every year, 95 00:04:41,803 --> 00:04:43,761 biodiversity loss, as more than 96 00:04:43,805 --> 00:04:46,895 one million species face extinction, 97 00:04:46,938 --> 00:04:48,418 and climate change. 98 00:04:48,462 --> 00:04:49,985 And guess what? 99 00:04:50,028 --> 00:04:51,943 Plastics contribute to all three of those. 100 00:04:51,987 --> 00:04:54,424 And they're at the heart of this debate. 101 00:04:55,207 --> 00:04:58,646 There are more parts per million 102 00:04:58,689 --> 00:05:00,517 of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere 103 00:05:00,561 --> 00:05:02,693 than the Cretaceous period or something. 104 00:05:02,737 --> 00:05:03,912 So, dinosaur time. 105 00:05:03,955 --> 00:05:06,001 Starting at about 1850, 106 00:05:06,044 --> 00:05:07,611 the amount of carbon dioxide 107 00:05:07,655 --> 00:05:09,613 in the atmosphere began to climb. 108 00:05:09,657 --> 00:05:13,313 Today, it stands at 419 parts per million. 109 00:05:13,965 --> 00:05:18,100 419 is way more carbon dioxide than we've had 110 00:05:18,143 --> 00:05:20,058 for thousands of years. 111 00:05:20,102 --> 00:05:22,670 And the number continues to rise. 112 00:05:23,323 --> 00:05:25,586 The current way the world produces plastic 113 00:05:25,629 --> 00:05:28,240 consumes much more energy than is sustainable. 114 00:05:28,284 --> 00:05:30,330 And the situation is getting worse. 115 00:05:30,895 --> 00:05:32,375 Petroleum goes into polymers 116 00:05:32,419 --> 00:05:35,117 because petroleum is carbon that you need 117 00:05:35,159 --> 00:05:36,945 because polymers are routinely made of 118 00:05:36,988 --> 00:05:38,686 carbon, there's very few that are not. 119 00:05:39,121 --> 00:05:42,037 You had to have an easy source to make your carbon 120 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:44,779 and oil coming out of the ground was the easiest. 121 00:05:44,822 --> 00:05:47,564 And when you have an easy liquid form of carbon 122 00:05:47,608 --> 00:05:51,046 to utilize you can turn those into plastics. 123 00:05:51,089 --> 00:05:52,961 ["Plastic Man" by Red Meadow] 124 00:05:53,004 --> 00:05:55,442 ♪ Plastic man will save the day now ♪ 125 00:05:57,487 --> 00:06:00,577 ♪ Fractured to the core 126 00:06:00,621 --> 00:06:03,363 ♪ Burned by bloody war 127 00:06:04,929 --> 00:06:08,890 ♪ There must be something we can do now ♪ 128 00:06:10,892 --> 00:06:13,242 ♪ To bring down this charade... ♪ 129 00:06:13,285 --> 00:06:15,636 That's the popularity of petroleum plastics. 130 00:06:15,679 --> 00:06:17,725 It is this super material 131 00:06:17,768 --> 00:06:20,641 that is great on a commercial scale, 132 00:06:20,684 --> 00:06:24,384 it's extremely inexpensive, it's very easy to create. 133 00:06:24,427 --> 00:06:26,908 The problem is that it's designed to last forever. 134 00:06:26,951 --> 00:06:29,084 And that is the problem that we are facing, 135 00:06:29,127 --> 00:06:30,825 is all of this material 136 00:06:30,868 --> 00:06:32,435 is just continuously building up 137 00:06:32,479 --> 00:06:33,871 and becoming an even bigger problem 138 00:06:33,915 --> 00:06:35,264 for the environment. 139 00:06:35,307 --> 00:06:37,571 [Clay] Nowadays, people are looking for 140 00:06:37,614 --> 00:06:39,355 alternatives to petroleum 141 00:06:39,399 --> 00:06:42,053 because petroleum is getting harder to come by. 142 00:06:42,097 --> 00:06:44,055 You know, you have to go and start fracking. 143 00:06:44,099 --> 00:06:45,448 And then there's implications 144 00:06:45,492 --> 00:06:48,669 around that mechanism of extracting oil 145 00:06:48,712 --> 00:06:51,062 as well as all the oil that you bring out 146 00:06:51,106 --> 00:06:52,933 of the ground is going to be probably turned into 147 00:06:52,977 --> 00:06:55,153 carbon dioxide by the end of its life 148 00:06:55,197 --> 00:06:56,807 whether it's burned or processed 149 00:06:56,851 --> 00:06:59,114 or digested somehow. 150 00:06:59,157 --> 00:07:00,898 The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 151 00:07:00,942 --> 00:07:02,944 the more blanketing of the Earth you have. 152 00:07:02,987 --> 00:07:04,728 The more sunlight that gets trapped on the Earth, 153 00:07:04,772 --> 00:07:06,295 the higher the temperature gets. 154 00:07:06,338 --> 00:07:08,079 If you do this in a different way 155 00:07:08,123 --> 00:07:10,299 so, for instance, in the case of bioplastic, 156 00:07:10,342 --> 00:07:12,083 you can make it from corn, you can make it 157 00:07:12,127 --> 00:07:14,608 from sugar cane, you can make it from sugar. 158 00:07:14,651 --> 00:07:16,000 And that sugar came from a plant, 159 00:07:16,044 --> 00:07:17,654 and that plant used photosynthesis 160 00:07:17,698 --> 00:07:20,091 to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. 161 00:07:20,135 --> 00:07:22,572 And the difference between a petroleum based plastic 162 00:07:22,616 --> 00:07:25,096 and a bioplastic is that 163 00:07:25,140 --> 00:07:28,839 the carbon came out of the air for the bio-based plastic, 164 00:07:28,883 --> 00:07:30,580 and the carbon came out of the Earth 165 00:07:30,624 --> 00:07:33,409 for the petroleum-based plastic. 166 00:07:33,453 --> 00:07:34,845 If you're doing it from the air 167 00:07:34,889 --> 00:07:37,021 to the air, it's a circular process. 168 00:07:37,065 --> 00:07:40,155 [Cole] Bioplastics are a bio, 169 00:07:40,198 --> 00:07:43,680 or plant-based, derived plastic. 170 00:07:43,724 --> 00:07:46,814 The beauty of bioplastics is it can actually replace 171 00:07:46,857 --> 00:07:48,511 a lot of the petroleum plastics 172 00:07:48,555 --> 00:07:51,645 that we have now, and there is a proper 173 00:07:51,688 --> 00:07:55,039 end of life for that material which is the compost pile. 174 00:07:55,082 --> 00:07:57,346 Whereas petroleum plastics, the end of life is 175 00:07:57,389 --> 00:08:01,132 the recycling stream which we know isn't working. 176 00:08:01,176 --> 00:08:04,396 It's actually being incinerated or landfilled. 177 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:07,312 Bioplastics is a word that is used 178 00:08:07,356 --> 00:08:10,011 to describe two different terms. 179 00:08:10,054 --> 00:08:11,665 I call it a term described 180 00:08:11,708 --> 00:08:14,755 for beginning of life and a term for end of life. 181 00:08:15,364 --> 00:08:17,845 [Rob] Let's break this down into simple terms. 182 00:08:17,888 --> 00:08:19,847 Most plastics today are made 183 00:08:19,890 --> 00:08:21,326 out of fossil fuels, 184 00:08:21,370 --> 00:08:24,373 coal, natural gas or petroleum oil. 185 00:08:25,287 --> 00:08:27,158 These are identified by the labels 186 00:08:27,202 --> 00:08:31,032 PE, PP or PET. 187 00:08:31,075 --> 00:08:33,164 They are considered non-biodegradable. 188 00:08:33,207 --> 00:08:36,211 But plastics can also be bio-based, 189 00:08:36,254 --> 00:08:38,212 meaning, they can be manufactured 190 00:08:38,256 --> 00:08:40,389 from a plant source such as corn, 191 00:08:40,432 --> 00:08:44,087 hemp, olive oil, sugarcane, among others. 192 00:08:44,131 --> 00:08:45,481 And they can either be 193 00:08:45,525 --> 00:08:48,702 non-biodegradable or biodegradable. 194 00:08:48,745 --> 00:08:52,096 What we are most interested in are bioplastics 195 00:08:52,140 --> 00:08:55,143 which are bio-based and biodegradable. 196 00:08:55,186 --> 00:08:57,319 Common bioplastics in this quadrant 197 00:08:57,362 --> 00:08:58,973 are identified with the labels 198 00:08:59,016 --> 00:09:02,890 PLA, PHA and PBS. 199 00:09:02,933 --> 00:09:04,631 These are some of the bioplastics 200 00:09:04,674 --> 00:09:06,720 which may lead us to the solution 201 00:09:06,763 --> 00:09:08,243 to the plastic crisis. 202 00:09:08,286 --> 00:09:14,162 ♪ 203 00:09:14,205 --> 00:09:16,817 PHA stands for polyhydroxy canoids. 204 00:09:16,860 --> 00:09:19,994 PLA is the most commercialized 205 00:09:20,037 --> 00:09:22,997 bioplastic out there currently and that's polylactic acid. 206 00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:25,477 PHA is actually certified home compostable, 207 00:09:25,521 --> 00:09:26,957 industrially compostable. 208 00:09:27,001 --> 00:09:28,959 It's much more compostable than the others. 209 00:09:29,003 --> 00:09:31,701 PLA is not certified marine degradable, 210 00:09:31,745 --> 00:09:33,181 meaning, if it falls in the ocean, 211 00:09:33,224 --> 00:09:34,530 it lasts a significant amount of time, 212 00:09:34,574 --> 00:09:35,966 it doesn't break down naturally. 213 00:09:36,010 --> 00:09:38,316 PHA is certified marine degradable. 214 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:39,796 It's actually been studied 215 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:41,189 as a fish food additive for aquaculture. 216 00:09:41,232 --> 00:09:42,712 I mean, even just to prove a point, 217 00:09:42,756 --> 00:09:44,279 Dane and I have eaten some... [both chuckle] 218 00:09:44,322 --> 00:09:45,802 ...like any good founders. 219 00:09:45,846 --> 00:09:47,325 Uh, but it's entirely nontoxic. 220 00:09:47,369 --> 00:09:49,197 It's basically just a microbe fat molecule. 221 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:52,243 Most of those materials under the PHA umbrella, 222 00:09:52,287 --> 00:09:54,202 there's thousands of variations, 223 00:09:54,245 --> 00:09:57,422 but anything under that PHA umbrella is 224 00:09:57,466 --> 00:10:00,469 a true sustainable, 225 00:10:00,512 --> 00:10:02,427 ecofriendly bioplastic. 226 00:10:02,471 --> 00:10:04,212 And it can be done with coffee grounds, 227 00:10:04,255 --> 00:10:08,085 sugarcane, corn, hemp, anything in between. 228 00:10:08,129 --> 00:10:10,871 Instead of buying sugar or growing food crops, 229 00:10:10,914 --> 00:10:12,829 we decided we would use food waste. 230 00:10:12,873 --> 00:10:15,266 ♪ 231 00:10:20,315 --> 00:10:21,751 We're living in San Diego 232 00:10:21,795 --> 00:10:23,840 and we're body surfing every single day 233 00:10:23,884 --> 00:10:25,581 and getting hit in the face with plastic pollution 234 00:10:25,625 --> 00:10:27,931 that we decided to actually start to apply some of 235 00:10:27,975 --> 00:10:29,672 these principles and see what we could do with it. 236 00:10:29,716 --> 00:10:31,456 So, we decided to put our engineering degrees 237 00:10:31,500 --> 00:10:33,415 to work to try and solve 238 00:10:33,458 --> 00:10:35,547 one of these great issues, which led us to this solution 239 00:10:35,591 --> 00:10:36,723 and then this company. 240 00:10:38,246 --> 00:10:40,509 [Rob] Full Cycle Bioplastics has partnered 241 00:10:40,552 --> 00:10:43,251 with one of the world's largest tech companies, 242 00:10:43,294 --> 00:10:47,342 in Silicon Valley, California, to produce PHA, 243 00:10:47,385 --> 00:10:50,258 and since has proven PHA to be a low-cost, 244 00:10:50,301 --> 00:10:53,609 low-carbon alternative to fossil fuel plastics. 245 00:10:54,741 --> 00:10:57,700 This is Full Cycle Bioplastics 246 00:10:57,744 --> 00:11:02,183 where we actually take in food waste from the cafes. 247 00:11:02,226 --> 00:11:03,837 They have a lot of cafes 248 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:05,490 throughout the peninsula here in the Bay Area. 249 00:11:05,534 --> 00:11:06,970 We sort of did an inventory 250 00:11:07,014 --> 00:11:10,104 of all of the ways PHA had failed. 251 00:11:10,147 --> 00:11:13,150 PHA had gone through a whole industrial life 252 00:11:13,194 --> 00:11:14,717 when sugar was cheap. 253 00:11:14,761 --> 00:11:17,241 [Jeff] PHA was first discovered back in 1925 254 00:11:17,285 --> 00:11:18,982 in a biological wastewater treatment plant. 255 00:11:19,026 --> 00:11:21,028 In the 1980s, 256 00:11:21,071 --> 00:11:23,595 people started to actually commercialize it, 257 00:11:23,639 --> 00:11:25,293 so they were using sugar as a feed stock. 258 00:11:25,336 --> 00:11:27,034 Now, the price of sugar went up in the '90s, 259 00:11:27,077 --> 00:11:28,426 which basically killed 260 00:11:28,470 --> 00:11:29,863 the generation one producers of PHA. 261 00:11:29,906 --> 00:11:31,865 So, PHA became off the market. 262 00:11:31,908 --> 00:11:34,911 It was prohibitively expensive and it was way more expensive 263 00:11:34,955 --> 00:11:36,173 than what it was trying to replace, 264 00:11:36,217 --> 00:11:37,740 which is petroleum plastics. 265 00:11:37,784 --> 00:11:40,743 So, we looked at ways of sort of using 266 00:11:40,787 --> 00:11:42,745 one problem to solve another. 267 00:11:42,789 --> 00:11:46,749 Most PHA, PHP bioplastics, on average, 268 00:11:46,793 --> 00:11:48,490 depending on the thickness of the wall 269 00:11:48,533 --> 00:11:50,753 of the physical product that is produced, 270 00:11:50,797 --> 00:11:53,800 will break down in six months or less in composting 271 00:11:53,843 --> 00:11:56,280 in your backyard or commercial settings. 272 00:11:56,324 --> 00:11:58,761 If it were to land on the side of the road 273 00:11:58,805 --> 00:12:02,199 or the ocean, you're looking at probably 12 to 18 months, 274 00:12:02,243 --> 00:12:04,288 depending on the thickness of the material. 275 00:12:04,332 --> 00:12:06,551 That's the beauty of the material is 276 00:12:06,595 --> 00:12:09,380 without a long-term outside influence, 277 00:12:09,424 --> 00:12:11,731 microbes, solar degradation, 278 00:12:11,774 --> 00:12:14,298 um, the heat from the compost, 279 00:12:14,342 --> 00:12:16,605 salt water, using it as a toothbrush 280 00:12:16,648 --> 00:12:18,781 and getting it wet, using it for a few minutes 281 00:12:18,825 --> 00:12:21,088 and it dries off and then you use it again, 282 00:12:21,131 --> 00:12:23,699 won't have any effect on the plastic itself. 283 00:12:23,743 --> 00:12:25,875 [Janice] And is it harder depending on the mix of food? 284 00:12:25,919 --> 00:12:28,312 Like if you have a bunch of burgers compared to apples, 285 00:12:28,356 --> 00:12:29,836 is that going to-- you got to change 286 00:12:29,879 --> 00:12:31,272 your formula a little bit? 287 00:12:31,315 --> 00:12:32,795 Yeah, absolutely. 288 00:12:32,839 --> 00:12:34,188 So, not all food waste is created equally. 289 00:12:34,231 --> 00:12:35,798 And the best way I can describe it is 290 00:12:35,842 --> 00:12:38,105 anything that's going to make me really fat 291 00:12:38,148 --> 00:12:39,497 is going to make my bacteria really fat, 292 00:12:39,540 --> 00:12:40,672 which is really what PHA is, 293 00:12:40,716 --> 00:12:42,326 PHA is a bacteria fat molecule. 294 00:12:42,370 --> 00:12:44,459 It's an energy storage molecule, effectively. 295 00:12:44,502 --> 00:12:48,289 So, if what-- your feedstock is 99% water, 296 00:12:48,332 --> 00:12:50,247 you're not going to make much PHA out of that. 297 00:12:50,290 --> 00:12:51,335 It's just mostly water. 298 00:12:51,379 --> 00:12:53,381 But if it's pure bread waste, 299 00:12:53,424 --> 00:12:55,644 for example, yeah, it's got tons of carbon in it. 300 00:12:55,687 --> 00:12:56,819 It's really useful. 301 00:12:56,863 --> 00:12:58,865 This is our onsite lab. 302 00:12:58,908 --> 00:13:00,344 [Janice] So what is this? 303 00:13:00,388 --> 00:13:01,476 This is just PHA that's been extracted 304 00:13:01,519 --> 00:13:03,608 and melted down into this. 305 00:13:03,652 --> 00:13:05,654 So showing it could be like a film. 306 00:13:05,697 --> 00:13:07,090 Yeah, exactly. 307 00:13:08,309 --> 00:13:09,440 Wow. 308 00:13:21,539 --> 00:13:23,759 -[Janice] It's pretty cool. -Yeah. 309 00:13:23,803 --> 00:13:26,283 This is a-- 310 00:13:26,327 --> 00:13:28,633 a-- a case for glasses, right? 311 00:13:28,677 --> 00:13:31,680 And if you can make something injection moulded 312 00:13:31,723 --> 00:13:34,509 like this big with how many-- 313 00:13:34,552 --> 00:13:36,728 is this maybe two millimeters thickness, 314 00:13:36,772 --> 00:13:39,383 and you can, on the other end of the spectrum, 315 00:13:39,427 --> 00:13:41,385 you can make a whole chair 316 00:13:41,429 --> 00:13:43,735 out of one shot, then anything in between 317 00:13:43,779 --> 00:13:45,694 will likely also be possible, right? 318 00:13:45,737 --> 00:13:49,002 This is an example of a PHA fork. 319 00:13:49,045 --> 00:13:52,266 And after you're done with it, it can home-compost 320 00:13:52,309 --> 00:13:56,052 within a month, and it can be benign, 321 00:13:56,096 --> 00:13:58,315 once we're finished with the development of it, 322 00:13:58,359 --> 00:14:00,100 in a marine environment. 323 00:14:00,143 --> 00:14:03,364 There needs to be a change in perception of the consumer 324 00:14:03,407 --> 00:14:06,106 to say, "I don't need a fork to eat my salad 325 00:14:06,149 --> 00:14:08,282 that's going to last 500 years." 326 00:14:08,325 --> 00:14:10,545 Just have to be very careful when we say 327 00:14:10,588 --> 00:14:13,940 bioplastics, we need to have better clarity 328 00:14:13,983 --> 00:14:17,987 on what bioplastics are we referring to. 329 00:14:18,031 --> 00:14:20,903 This might sound a little bit contradictory, 330 00:14:20,947 --> 00:14:22,644 but something can be biodegradable 331 00:14:22,687 --> 00:14:24,167 and at the same time toxic. 332 00:14:24,211 --> 00:14:26,343 And this is, of course, not what we want. 333 00:14:26,387 --> 00:14:31,827 ♪ 334 00:14:39,661 --> 00:14:43,665 We're doing a study on oxo-degradable plastics. 335 00:14:43,708 --> 00:14:45,754 Or, "degradable," let's say. [chuckles] 336 00:14:45,797 --> 00:14:47,669 Oxo-biodegradable plastics, 337 00:14:47,712 --> 00:14:49,410 probably the worst idea 338 00:14:49,453 --> 00:14:51,673 that has ever come out from plastics. 339 00:14:51,716 --> 00:14:54,589 It is traditional virgin polypropylene primarily 340 00:14:54,632 --> 00:14:58,332 or any other type of one through six petroleum plastic 341 00:14:58,375 --> 00:15:00,725 where they add special additives to it to allow it 342 00:15:00,769 --> 00:15:03,511 to break down faster into micro plastics, 343 00:15:03,554 --> 00:15:05,643 but only in specific landfill conditions. 344 00:15:05,687 --> 00:15:07,950 And this type of plastic has actually been banned 345 00:15:07,994 --> 00:15:09,430 by the European Union. 346 00:15:09,473 --> 00:15:11,258 As scientists we were very confused about 347 00:15:11,301 --> 00:15:13,390 what we are buying, um, but, yeah-- 348 00:15:13,434 --> 00:15:15,784 It's really bad when the scientists are confused. 349 00:15:15,827 --> 00:15:17,612 [Lisa] So, a colleague of mine worked on extracts 350 00:15:17,655 --> 00:15:19,831 of plastics they extracted 351 00:15:19,875 --> 00:15:21,311 with solvents, all the chemicals 352 00:15:21,355 --> 00:15:24,097 from both bioplastics 353 00:15:24,140 --> 00:15:26,273 and also from conventional ones, 354 00:15:26,316 --> 00:15:29,232 and then tested them on small plates 355 00:15:29,276 --> 00:15:32,192 of cell organisms to see whether they are toxic. 356 00:15:32,235 --> 00:15:35,499 One of the major finding was that from a toxicological 357 00:15:35,543 --> 00:15:38,850 perspective bio-based and biodegradable materials 358 00:15:38,894 --> 00:15:41,418 are not better than conventional plastics. 359 00:15:42,419 --> 00:15:45,335 67% contained chemicals 360 00:15:45,379 --> 00:15:46,989 that are toxic in vitro. 361 00:15:47,033 --> 00:15:50,036 And another finding was that they contained 362 00:15:50,079 --> 00:15:53,387 a really enlarged number and wide variety of chemicals. 363 00:15:53,430 --> 00:15:56,042 One single product can contain several hundred 364 00:15:56,085 --> 00:15:57,782 or thousands of chemicals. 365 00:15:57,826 --> 00:16:00,394 [Cole] That is the problem for the average consumer. 366 00:16:00,437 --> 00:16:02,265 There is so much misinformation or green washing 367 00:16:02,309 --> 00:16:04,354 that is out there it's hard for them 368 00:16:04,398 --> 00:16:06,182 to actually understand, 369 00:16:06,226 --> 00:16:07,488 "What do I do with this product? 370 00:16:07,531 --> 00:16:09,098 Is it eco-friendly or sustainable 371 00:16:09,142 --> 00:16:10,578 as they say it is?" 372 00:16:10,621 --> 00:16:12,884 The problem with those bio-composites 373 00:16:12,928 --> 00:16:15,409 is they can say, "Oh yeah, we're using, 374 00:16:15,452 --> 00:16:17,715 um, hemp for our plastic." 375 00:16:17,759 --> 00:16:21,197 And it's actually maybe 10% hemp or 20% hemp, 376 00:16:21,241 --> 00:16:24,026 or corn, or sugarcane, for example. 377 00:16:24,070 --> 00:16:26,420 The consumer is not going to know that, 378 00:16:26,463 --> 00:16:27,725 they're not going to do the research 379 00:16:27,769 --> 00:16:29,379 either, unfortunately. 380 00:16:29,423 --> 00:16:31,164 [Ramani] You cannot make general claims 381 00:16:31,207 --> 00:16:32,730 on biodegradability 382 00:16:32,774 --> 00:16:35,516 because unfortunately life is not so simple. 383 00:16:35,559 --> 00:16:40,608 ♪ 384 00:16:56,711 --> 00:16:59,105 When did you start studying microplastics? 385 00:16:59,148 --> 00:17:01,846 I started lecturing on microplastics 386 00:17:01,890 --> 00:17:04,240 and they didn't-- weren't called microplastics then 387 00:17:04,284 --> 00:17:06,068 in about 1992. 388 00:17:06,112 --> 00:17:08,592 So I've been exposed to plastic issues 389 00:17:08,636 --> 00:17:09,984 for a really long time. 390 00:17:10,029 --> 00:17:11,421 [Janice] That's a really long time. 391 00:17:11,464 --> 00:17:13,380 That's when phthalates were a big deal. 392 00:17:13,423 --> 00:17:16,599 They're still the most common contaminant in the water. 393 00:17:17,513 --> 00:17:19,342 They're plasticizers, 394 00:17:19,386 --> 00:17:21,083 they're probably known as plasticizers. 395 00:17:21,127 --> 00:17:23,477 Yeah, they give different plastics 396 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:25,653 different properties, flexibility, 397 00:17:25,695 --> 00:17:28,830 rigidity, um, color, stability. 398 00:17:29,787 --> 00:17:31,572 Just different chemicals for different things. 399 00:17:31,615 --> 00:17:33,182 But they tend to be very toxic. 400 00:17:33,226 --> 00:17:34,618 [Janice] You're able to pull out and see 401 00:17:34,662 --> 00:17:35,793 if there's microplastics in these? 402 00:17:35,837 --> 00:17:36,925 Yes. 403 00:17:40,711 --> 00:17:41,886 [Janice] If they're there. 404 00:17:47,327 --> 00:17:48,632 [Janice] Right, okay, and are you-- 405 00:17:48,676 --> 00:17:51,070 [Greg speaking] 406 00:17:51,113 --> 00:17:52,245 [Janice speaking] 407 00:17:53,550 --> 00:17:56,379 Usually, you want to blend these materials 408 00:17:56,423 --> 00:17:57,946 with other types of materials 409 00:17:57,989 --> 00:17:59,991 in order to improve its material properties, 410 00:18:00,035 --> 00:18:02,472 the stiffness, the tensile strength, and so on. 411 00:18:02,516 --> 00:18:05,214 That way it can be used for industrial applications 412 00:18:05,258 --> 00:18:07,390 such as plastic utensils, 413 00:18:07,434 --> 00:18:09,305 and even medical devices. 414 00:18:09,958 --> 00:18:12,700 [Rob] Almost 90% of polymer plasticizers, 415 00:18:12,743 --> 00:18:15,964 commonly called phthalates, are used in plastic. 416 00:18:16,007 --> 00:18:19,054 Phthalates have been found in most plastic containers, 417 00:18:19,098 --> 00:18:21,361 water bottles, and many medications. 418 00:18:21,404 --> 00:18:24,712 Substantial concerns have been expressed over their safety 419 00:18:24,755 --> 00:18:26,409 and now have been classified 420 00:18:26,453 --> 00:18:29,195 as potential endocrine disruptors. 421 00:18:30,805 --> 00:18:32,589 BPA is obviously a big one. 422 00:18:32,633 --> 00:18:34,504 It's not removed 423 00:18:34,548 --> 00:18:36,550 from all types of plastic either. 424 00:18:36,593 --> 00:18:37,899 It is mainly removed 425 00:18:37,942 --> 00:18:39,335 from number one and number two. 426 00:18:39,379 --> 00:18:42,164 The FDA has only banned 427 00:18:42,208 --> 00:18:43,948 BPA in baby bottles. 428 00:18:43,992 --> 00:18:45,515 It can be used anywhere else. 429 00:18:45,559 --> 00:18:47,604 There's something like 40 different variants 430 00:18:47,648 --> 00:18:50,520 of BPA that are being used 431 00:18:50,564 --> 00:18:53,480 in products that are labeled BPA free. 432 00:18:54,568 --> 00:18:57,875 But they're still toxic because they share 433 00:18:57,919 --> 00:19:00,182 the toxicity characteristics 434 00:19:00,226 --> 00:19:02,097 with bisphenol A. 435 00:19:02,141 --> 00:19:03,925 [Rob] Endocrine disrupting chemicals 436 00:19:03,968 --> 00:19:05,796 are found in many plastics. 437 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:08,190 One example of these are phthalates. 438 00:19:09,191 --> 00:19:11,324 They have the ability to enter the bloodstream 439 00:19:11,367 --> 00:19:14,327 and disrupt the sexual development in infants, 440 00:19:14,370 --> 00:19:16,633 and impairment of fertility in adults. 441 00:19:17,721 --> 00:19:19,810 Phthalates cause these and other effects 442 00:19:19,854 --> 00:19:22,770 by suppressing the activity of male hormones 443 00:19:22,813 --> 00:19:24,946 during the development of the fetus. 444 00:19:25,468 --> 00:19:27,905 Research has linked exposure to phthalates, 445 00:19:27,949 --> 00:19:31,039 to diabetes, breast cancer, obesity, 446 00:19:31,082 --> 00:19:33,084 including child neurodevelopment, 447 00:19:33,128 --> 00:19:35,130 among other disorders and cancers. 448 00:19:36,914 --> 00:19:39,439 What's happening isn't that you have the wrong gene... 449 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,485 it's that the gene is misbehaving, 450 00:19:43,269 --> 00:19:45,662 -which could be from-- -Endocrine disruption. 451 00:19:45,706 --> 00:19:50,711 ♪ 452 00:19:54,062 --> 00:19:57,239 [Janice] Ever since I saw your Ted Talk, 453 00:19:57,283 --> 00:19:59,546 I-- I'm like, "I don't want the receipt." 454 00:19:59,589 --> 00:20:02,157 Something as banal 455 00:20:02,201 --> 00:20:05,465 as thermal paper receipts, which we handle every day 456 00:20:05,508 --> 00:20:08,163 when we grab the receipt 457 00:20:08,207 --> 00:20:10,861 at the gas station or at the ATM, 458 00:20:10,905 --> 00:20:14,256 those are coated in dust with BPA. 459 00:20:14,300 --> 00:20:17,303 And every time you handle one, it's transferred to your skin 460 00:20:17,346 --> 00:20:19,914 and it penetrates and gets into your bloodstream. 461 00:20:19,957 --> 00:20:22,743 I was thinking, "Gosh, I-- I'm really concerned about 462 00:20:22,786 --> 00:20:25,180 having four daughters with the proliferation 463 00:20:25,224 --> 00:20:27,269 of these chemicals in our bodies 464 00:20:27,313 --> 00:20:30,838 and how it's actually growing more so in their life than me, 465 00:20:30,881 --> 00:20:32,970 who was born in the '80s, um--" 466 00:20:33,014 --> 00:20:34,755 It is-- it is growing worse. 467 00:20:34,798 --> 00:20:37,410 [Rob] Professor Pete Myers was part of a team 468 00:20:37,453 --> 00:20:41,152 that studied the chemical commonly used in plastics, BPA. 469 00:20:41,196 --> 00:20:43,372 Thanks to Dr. Myers and his team, 470 00:20:43,416 --> 00:20:45,896 BPA free plastics are labeled. 471 00:20:45,940 --> 00:20:48,769 One of the chemicals that came out of the 1980s 472 00:20:48,812 --> 00:20:51,815 to replace BPA was called BPS, 473 00:20:51,859 --> 00:20:53,513 even though almost nothing 474 00:20:53,556 --> 00:20:56,342 was known about the replacement's toxicity. 475 00:20:56,385 --> 00:20:58,605 I'm curious. I'm drinking out of a metal water bottle. 476 00:20:58,648 --> 00:21:00,520 Are there any toxins or chemicals 477 00:21:00,563 --> 00:21:02,304 in there that I should be concerned about? 478 00:21:02,348 --> 00:21:06,221 Well, it's hard to say because this is made in China. 479 00:21:06,265 --> 00:21:08,876 Um, they have different rules. 480 00:21:08,919 --> 00:21:11,487 It also says it's BPA free, but we know 481 00:21:11,531 --> 00:21:15,665 that things that are labeled BPA free, in fact-- 482 00:21:15,709 --> 00:21:17,188 probably are BPA free 483 00:21:17,232 --> 00:21:18,886 but they have another bisphenol, 484 00:21:18,929 --> 00:21:22,629 BPS, BPF, BP whatever. 485 00:21:22,672 --> 00:21:25,066 And we found that it was just as bad as BPA. 486 00:21:25,109 --> 00:21:28,765 After testing BPS, Dr. Meyer's team found 487 00:21:28,809 --> 00:21:32,073 BPS to be just as bad as BPA. 488 00:21:32,116 --> 00:21:34,467 However, it has never been further tested 489 00:21:34,510 --> 00:21:38,079 by the FDA or other approving regulators. 490 00:21:38,122 --> 00:21:40,777 Many products, including aluminum water bottles, 491 00:21:40,821 --> 00:21:43,867 have a plastic coating which lines the inside. 492 00:21:43,911 --> 00:21:46,217 Because aluminum reacts to acidity, 493 00:21:46,261 --> 00:21:48,394 they must have a plastic liner. 494 00:21:48,437 --> 00:21:51,440 This liner may contain toxic chemicals. 495 00:21:51,484 --> 00:21:54,922 Stainless steel containers are a much better option. 496 00:21:54,965 --> 00:21:58,012 So why has the world not... 497 00:21:58,926 --> 00:22:01,320 embraced and spread the knowledge enough 498 00:22:01,363 --> 00:22:03,017 that we've gotten rid of BPS? 499 00:22:03,060 --> 00:22:05,062 I don't know, because we've been shouting 500 00:22:05,106 --> 00:22:06,194 about this for a long time. 501 00:22:06,237 --> 00:22:07,500 There's a whole field in the-- 502 00:22:08,979 --> 00:22:11,591 in the area I work in called regrettable substitutes. 503 00:22:11,634 --> 00:22:14,289 It chemically does what the chemical engineer needs it 504 00:22:14,333 --> 00:22:16,900 to do, but there's nothing known 505 00:22:16,944 --> 00:22:19,947 about the toxicity, and it's assumed it's safe. 506 00:22:19,990 --> 00:22:22,079 [announcer] Petrochemicals in modern meds 507 00:22:22,123 --> 00:22:23,864 have transformed our lives. 508 00:22:23,907 --> 00:22:27,215 We enjoy a standard of health never dreamed of. 509 00:22:27,258 --> 00:22:29,565 Most of our preventive and curative drugs have 510 00:22:29,609 --> 00:22:31,306 petrochemical ingredients. 511 00:22:31,350 --> 00:22:34,265 But what we know now, firmly based on 512 00:22:34,309 --> 00:22:37,486 animal experiments, is that type two diabetes 513 00:22:37,530 --> 00:22:38,966 and obesity can be caused 514 00:22:39,009 --> 00:22:40,533 by endocrine disrupting compounds. 515 00:22:41,011 --> 00:22:43,710 It's-- it may sound unlikely, 516 00:22:43,753 --> 00:22:46,539 but I can show you photographs 517 00:22:46,582 --> 00:22:48,715 of a morbidly obese mouse... 518 00:22:49,759 --> 00:22:52,458 compared to the control mouse, 519 00:22:52,501 --> 00:22:54,416 in which the only difference 520 00:22:54,460 --> 00:22:57,767 is that that morbidly obese mouse was exposed 521 00:22:57,811 --> 00:23:00,074 to a part per billion, a really small amount, 522 00:23:00,117 --> 00:23:02,511 of an endocrine disrupting compound 523 00:23:02,555 --> 00:23:04,252 just after it was born. 524 00:23:04,295 --> 00:23:07,037 And it grew up to be morbidly obese, 525 00:23:07,081 --> 00:23:09,300 even though it ate the same amount 526 00:23:09,344 --> 00:23:11,955 and it moved the same amount as the control mouse. 527 00:23:11,999 --> 00:23:13,827 [Cole] There are other chemicals, 528 00:23:13,870 --> 00:23:15,263 and we're starting to find more 529 00:23:15,306 --> 00:23:17,961 and more of them, just like DET, 530 00:23:18,005 --> 00:23:19,398 we thought it was a good thing 531 00:23:19,441 --> 00:23:21,400 at one point in time, and it's not. 532 00:23:21,443 --> 00:23:22,792 When people talk about, 533 00:23:22,836 --> 00:23:25,621 um, toxic chemicals and plastics, 534 00:23:25,665 --> 00:23:27,580 um, first of all, they'll tell you that... 535 00:23:27,623 --> 00:23:29,451 [sighs] 536 00:23:29,495 --> 00:23:31,671 ...polymers, the major component 537 00:23:31,714 --> 00:23:36,415 of plastics, they are too large to fit into the... 538 00:23:37,372 --> 00:23:41,463 the proteins and the enzymes and the mechanics of your body, 539 00:23:41,507 --> 00:23:44,161 and they'll generally just pass through your body. 540 00:23:44,205 --> 00:23:46,903 However, the additives are... 541 00:23:48,470 --> 00:23:50,167 more capable of getting into 542 00:23:50,211 --> 00:23:52,648 the molecular machinery of your body. 543 00:23:52,692 --> 00:23:57,610 ♪ 544 00:23:57,653 --> 00:23:59,786 So, in addition to the monomer 545 00:23:59,829 --> 00:24:02,310 and the additives, there are what are called 546 00:24:02,353 --> 00:24:05,052 non-intentionally added substances, 547 00:24:05,095 --> 00:24:08,316 NIAS, what are those? 548 00:24:09,186 --> 00:24:13,060 When you make plastic you have a chemical source 549 00:24:13,103 --> 00:24:16,716 never pure, particularly in cheaper plastics, 550 00:24:16,759 --> 00:24:20,328 and the impurities interact with the monomer, 551 00:24:20,371 --> 00:24:21,721 they interact with the additives 552 00:24:21,764 --> 00:24:23,418 to make chemicals no one knows about. 553 00:24:23,462 --> 00:24:26,247 We don't even know of all the NIAS... 554 00:24:27,291 --> 00:24:29,424 substances that are in plastics. 555 00:24:29,468 --> 00:24:31,252 And that's-- 556 00:24:31,295 --> 00:24:33,210 they are really challenging for their risk assessment 557 00:24:33,254 --> 00:24:35,604 or it makes it impossible. 558 00:24:35,648 --> 00:24:37,737 Like, you can't just take one chemical 559 00:24:37,780 --> 00:24:40,217 and analyze the risks, on one hand, 560 00:24:40,261 --> 00:24:43,003 because it's just too many chemicals, 561 00:24:43,046 --> 00:24:44,787 and on the other hand, you have a lot of 562 00:24:44,831 --> 00:24:46,920 different chemicals you don't know. 563 00:24:46,963 --> 00:24:49,749 So, there you've got NIAS 564 00:24:49,792 --> 00:24:51,359 as the third layer. 565 00:24:51,794 --> 00:24:54,623 Then, particularly in the marine environment, 566 00:24:54,667 --> 00:24:57,365 those pieces of plastics are rolling around 567 00:24:57,408 --> 00:25:00,586 on the surface and it turns out there's a thin layer of lipids 568 00:25:00,629 --> 00:25:03,197 over most of the surface of the oceans. 569 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:05,199 So, there's all these different mixtures 570 00:25:05,242 --> 00:25:08,898 of chemicals that wind up in the plastics 571 00:25:08,942 --> 00:25:11,727 that people are trying to recycle. 572 00:25:11,771 --> 00:25:15,862 [Cole] Reclaimed ocean plastics is a great marketing idea. 573 00:25:15,905 --> 00:25:19,518 Uh, the downside to reclaimed ocean plastic is 574 00:25:19,561 --> 00:25:22,825 it is very labor-intensive 575 00:25:22,869 --> 00:25:24,740 and chemically intensive to take 576 00:25:24,784 --> 00:25:28,657 that already degraded plastic out of the ocean 577 00:25:28,701 --> 00:25:31,791 and turning it into a usable product. 578 00:25:31,834 --> 00:25:33,880 And they'll take maybe a good plastic 579 00:25:33,923 --> 00:25:35,577 and they'll take another plastic 580 00:25:35,621 --> 00:25:37,057 and they'll combine the two, and when you combine 581 00:25:37,100 --> 00:25:39,973 a good plastic and a toxic plastic, 582 00:25:40,016 --> 00:25:41,757 the result is a toxic plastic. 583 00:25:41,801 --> 00:25:43,585 In Dante's Inferno, 584 00:25:43,629 --> 00:25:46,153 the eighth and the ninth layers 585 00:25:46,196 --> 00:25:47,546 are Fraud and Treachery. 586 00:25:48,329 --> 00:25:51,637 And there's fraud and treachery in abundance 587 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,596 in the regulation and use of plastics. 588 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,773 They've looked at honey, they've looked at soda, 589 00:25:57,817 --> 00:26:00,384 they've looked at water, they've looked at beer. 590 00:26:00,428 --> 00:26:04,388 It doesn't matter what we're wrapping in plastic 591 00:26:04,432 --> 00:26:06,565 if you're packaging it in plastic, 592 00:26:06,608 --> 00:26:10,264 all of these studies have shown that it has plastic in it. 593 00:26:10,307 --> 00:26:15,356 ♪ 594 00:26:23,538 --> 00:26:27,063 Our lab was the first lab to do a global bottled water 595 00:26:27,107 --> 00:26:31,633 assessment looking at plastic that could be leached 596 00:26:31,677 --> 00:26:34,505 or make its way into bottled water. 597 00:26:34,549 --> 00:26:38,379 93% were shown to have micro plastic 598 00:26:38,422 --> 00:26:41,643 contamination, 100% of the brands. 599 00:26:41,687 --> 00:26:44,559 And in fact, we had one bottle of Nestle Pure Life 600 00:26:44,603 --> 00:26:47,518 where we found over 10,000 pieces 601 00:26:47,562 --> 00:26:50,478 of plastic in that one bottle. 602 00:26:50,957 --> 00:26:53,829 It's the act of opening the bottle 603 00:26:53,873 --> 00:26:56,789 when you have plastic rubbing on plastic. 604 00:26:56,832 --> 00:26:58,660 So when you open that bottle, 605 00:26:58,704 --> 00:27:01,968 just that action could be contributing 606 00:27:02,011 --> 00:27:03,447 a lot of the micro plastic 607 00:27:03,491 --> 00:27:05,754 into the bottle of water itself. 608 00:27:05,798 --> 00:27:07,451 You shouldn't have a water bottle sitting 609 00:27:07,495 --> 00:27:10,716 in your car on a hot summer day on your dash 610 00:27:10,759 --> 00:27:14,197 because it'll actually inject those chemicals 611 00:27:14,241 --> 00:27:15,808 into the water itself. 612 00:27:15,851 --> 00:27:18,288 And the same thing happens as it degrades. 613 00:27:18,332 --> 00:27:20,769 I mean, it is a petrochemical, so it actually-- 614 00:27:20,813 --> 00:27:22,292 not only does it fragment, 615 00:27:22,336 --> 00:27:24,686 it can leach chemicals into its environment 616 00:27:24,730 --> 00:27:26,383 as it breaks down. 617 00:27:26,427 --> 00:27:29,691 The water-- CamelBak that he uses to drink out of, 618 00:27:29,735 --> 00:27:31,737 because you got to stay hydrated, 619 00:27:31,780 --> 00:27:34,217 that's the most toxic of all the plastics. 620 00:27:34,261 --> 00:27:37,133 -[Janice gasping] Really? -[Greg] You can taste those. 621 00:27:37,177 --> 00:27:39,483 -[Janice] Yeah, that's right. -If you can taste it, 622 00:27:39,527 --> 00:27:41,268 you know it's biologically active. 623 00:27:41,311 --> 00:27:43,400 [Janice] That is so interesting because you're right. 624 00:27:43,444 --> 00:27:45,185 That's not just one compound you're tasting, 625 00:27:45,228 --> 00:27:46,839 it's a whole bunch. 626 00:27:46,882 --> 00:27:49,842 So I should throw my CamelBak in the trash can? 627 00:27:49,885 --> 00:27:51,626 -[Tom] I still use mine. -[scientists laughing] 628 00:27:51,670 --> 00:27:53,236 But-- so, I mean, really, the safest thing to drink 629 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,021 -out of is glass, I guess. -[Dan] Yeah. 630 00:28:07,947 --> 00:28:10,210 [Janice speaking] 631 00:28:23,919 --> 00:28:29,011 ♪ 632 00:28:42,938 --> 00:28:45,811 In the PHA resins that we make, 633 00:28:45,854 --> 00:28:50,206 we don't use any phthalates, we don't use additives 634 00:28:50,250 --> 00:28:53,557 that come from non-renewable sources. 635 00:28:53,601 --> 00:28:59,215 ♪ 636 00:29:11,924 --> 00:29:15,797 My wife and I started a biopolymer company 637 00:29:15,841 --> 00:29:18,147 called Danimer Scientific. 638 00:29:18,191 --> 00:29:20,149 We started that at our kitchen table, 639 00:29:20,193 --> 00:29:22,325 you know, working nights with a computer, 640 00:29:22,369 --> 00:29:24,675 trying to figure out how to make that all come about. 641 00:29:24,719 --> 00:29:29,985 Initially, we were working with PLAs because at the time, 642 00:29:30,029 --> 00:29:33,336 PLA was the only biopolymer that was available 643 00:29:33,380 --> 00:29:36,731 in anything really close to commercial quantities. 644 00:29:36,775 --> 00:29:38,864 So, in the early days of Danimer, we partnered 645 00:29:38,907 --> 00:29:42,911 with Green Mountain Coffee and International Paper 646 00:29:42,955 --> 00:29:44,304 to produce the world's 647 00:29:44,347 --> 00:29:47,263 first compostable coffee cup. 648 00:29:47,307 --> 00:29:49,918 In that journey of trying to take 649 00:29:49,962 --> 00:29:52,965 a biopolymer that wasn't well-suited 650 00:29:53,008 --> 00:29:55,141 for a broad array of applications, 651 00:29:55,184 --> 00:29:58,579 we, you know, began to learn about PHA. 652 00:29:58,622 --> 00:30:01,451 And we learned that PHA was 653 00:30:01,495 --> 00:30:04,019 just an incredible material. 654 00:30:04,063 --> 00:30:06,413 If you only had one biopolymer, 655 00:30:06,456 --> 00:30:08,850 PHA would be a really good one to have. 656 00:30:08,894 --> 00:30:11,157 The nice peach milkshake looking stuff, 657 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,550 that's the PHA being made in there. 658 00:30:13,594 --> 00:30:16,510 So, that's what it looks like inside the big vessel. 659 00:30:16,553 --> 00:30:19,774 If you think of this as the miniature version, 660 00:30:19,818 --> 00:30:21,863 this is what's happening out there 661 00:30:21,907 --> 00:30:25,214 in the production facility, just at larger scale. 662 00:30:25,258 --> 00:30:27,521 We use plant-based oils 663 00:30:27,564 --> 00:30:29,697 as our feedstock for PHAs. 664 00:30:29,740 --> 00:30:33,614 Olive oils and canola oils and corn oils, 665 00:30:33,657 --> 00:30:36,878 and all the wonderful things we do with plant-based oils. 666 00:30:36,922 --> 00:30:40,229 And those polymers then go into food service 667 00:30:40,273 --> 00:30:43,929 and food packaging and consumer packaging 668 00:30:43,972 --> 00:30:45,756 and personal care items. 669 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,282 Ultimately, what we want to do is 670 00:30:49,325 --> 00:30:52,502 really bypass the plant-based oil 671 00:30:52,546 --> 00:30:56,115 and just use the CO2 directly from the atmosphere. 672 00:30:56,158 --> 00:30:58,639 We have a laboratory technology now, 673 00:30:58,682 --> 00:31:01,163 and over the next seven to ten years, 674 00:31:01,207 --> 00:31:03,600 we're going to be working to convert 675 00:31:03,644 --> 00:31:05,559 that laboratory technology 676 00:31:05,602 --> 00:31:09,258 into a full-scale commercial technology. 677 00:31:09,302 --> 00:31:12,218 And then we'll be able to be even more sustainable 678 00:31:12,261 --> 00:31:14,524 because we won't have to transport 679 00:31:14,568 --> 00:31:17,136 that waste cooking oil from wherever 680 00:31:17,179 --> 00:31:19,442 it happens to be to our facility. 681 00:31:19,486 --> 00:31:23,533 We'll just be able to turn on a big fan and bring the air 682 00:31:23,577 --> 00:31:25,971 into our facility and use the CO2 directly. 683 00:31:26,014 --> 00:31:28,060 -[fan whirring] -Hey, guys. 684 00:31:30,410 --> 00:31:33,065 Hey, Cartez. How are you doing? 685 00:31:34,022 --> 00:31:35,284 I'm all right. 686 00:31:35,328 --> 00:31:37,721 [machinery whirring] 687 00:31:41,247 --> 00:31:44,946 [Daniel] These machines take the different powders, 688 00:31:44,990 --> 00:31:47,949 and then they're melted and combined and made 689 00:31:47,993 --> 00:31:50,386 into these pellets that we send to the customer. 690 00:31:51,083 --> 00:31:52,823 I'll show you how fast we're running. 691 00:31:52,867 --> 00:31:55,348 We haven't even had time to paint our wall over there. 692 00:31:55,391 --> 00:31:57,611 You know? [laughing] 693 00:31:57,654 --> 00:32:00,570 There are many new materials 694 00:32:00,614 --> 00:32:02,007 that are being developed 695 00:32:02,050 --> 00:32:04,966 that are 100% bio-based. 696 00:32:05,010 --> 00:32:07,012 They're completely nontoxic. 697 00:32:07,055 --> 00:32:08,709 They're natural materials, 698 00:32:08,752 --> 00:32:11,103 and you don't have to rely on 699 00:32:11,146 --> 00:32:12,974 those older technologies. 700 00:32:13,018 --> 00:32:15,368 So, in all of our materials, 701 00:32:15,411 --> 00:32:18,153 we avoid, matter of fact, we don't let 702 00:32:18,197 --> 00:32:21,330 any of those types of materials even come into our facility, 703 00:32:21,374 --> 00:32:23,985 and it's just not necessary to use those. 704 00:32:24,029 --> 00:32:27,380 If you wanted to make a paper cup, the-- 705 00:32:27,423 --> 00:32:30,035 you know, the paper board has to be 706 00:32:30,078 --> 00:32:32,907 coated with a polymer lining 707 00:32:32,951 --> 00:32:35,170 to make it waterproof or grease proof. 708 00:32:35,649 --> 00:32:38,304 Um, and so in this particular case, 709 00:32:38,347 --> 00:32:40,784 we supply a little bit different form. 710 00:32:40,828 --> 00:32:44,614 It looks like, you know, just almost like house paint. 711 00:32:44,658 --> 00:32:48,531 This is a fiber that was made from our PHAs, 712 00:32:48,575 --> 00:32:50,577 and it's like a cotton, 713 00:32:50,620 --> 00:32:52,274 -it's like a soft cotton. -[Janice] Oh, my gosh! 714 00:32:52,318 --> 00:32:54,015 [Daniel] And that will be used 715 00:32:54,059 --> 00:32:56,496 in both textile applications 716 00:32:56,539 --> 00:32:59,020 and also non-woven applications. 717 00:32:59,064 --> 00:33:01,980 So, an example of a non-woven application 718 00:33:02,023 --> 00:33:04,330 would be like a face mask, 719 00:33:04,373 --> 00:33:06,810 or a baby wipe or a baby diaper. 720 00:33:07,463 --> 00:33:10,162 There are a number of other biopolymers out there. 721 00:33:10,205 --> 00:33:14,035 One that's very exciting is PEF. 722 00:33:14,079 --> 00:33:16,255 PEF is a great material 723 00:33:16,298 --> 00:33:18,257 for beverage bottles. 724 00:33:18,300 --> 00:33:21,738 ♪ They got the fracking and the cracking ♪ 725 00:33:21,782 --> 00:33:24,306 ♪ In your hands 726 00:33:24,350 --> 00:33:26,830 ♪ They got the whole world 727 00:33:26,874 --> 00:33:31,531 ♪ In their hands 728 00:33:31,574 --> 00:33:33,750 [Rob] The news isn't anything new. 729 00:33:33,794 --> 00:33:35,361 The constant campaigns by Greenpeace 730 00:33:35,404 --> 00:33:38,538 about the beverage corporation, Coca-Cola. 731 00:33:38,581 --> 00:33:40,844 As the numbers continue to show, 732 00:33:40,888 --> 00:33:42,368 the company's plastic bottles 733 00:33:42,411 --> 00:33:45,066 are one of the top polluters in our oceans. 734 00:33:45,110 --> 00:33:46,502 Hi, everybody. 735 00:33:46,763 --> 00:33:48,200 This is David Pinsky with Greenpeace out here 736 00:33:48,243 --> 00:33:49,810 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 737 00:33:49,853 --> 00:33:52,421 We need to see companies like Coca-Cola 738 00:33:52,465 --> 00:33:56,034 taking responsibility for this plastics crisis. 739 00:33:56,077 --> 00:33:57,948 One of the first meetings we had 740 00:33:57,992 --> 00:33:59,428 with the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, 741 00:33:59,472 --> 00:34:01,996 the CEO of Coke saw this bottle 742 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:03,867 and said, "Look, this is great. 743 00:34:03,911 --> 00:34:06,131 This is fully plant based. This is what we're looking for. 744 00:34:06,174 --> 00:34:08,350 So, let's make sure we get it on the market 745 00:34:08,393 --> 00:34:10,091 in two, three years' time." 746 00:34:10,135 --> 00:34:13,094 Now, the timelines for bringing a new plastic material 747 00:34:13,138 --> 00:34:14,748 to the market, they are much longer. 748 00:34:14,791 --> 00:34:17,751 You know, this takes typically ten years, 749 00:34:17,793 --> 00:34:19,492 if you're-- if you're doing it really well. 750 00:34:19,534 --> 00:34:23,103 Coke invested in Avantium to actually give us the capital 751 00:34:23,148 --> 00:34:26,934 to develop this new technology and to build our plant. 752 00:34:26,976 --> 00:34:31,112 [all applauding] 753 00:34:31,156 --> 00:34:36,335 ♪ 754 00:34:41,427 --> 00:34:43,081 [Rob] Avantium was originally created 755 00:34:43,123 --> 00:34:46,954 in February 2000 as a spinoff from Shell Oil. 756 00:34:46,996 --> 00:34:50,130 As one of the early-formed biotech companies emerging 757 00:34:50,175 --> 00:34:52,306 in the world, scientists from Avantium 758 00:34:52,351 --> 00:34:53,830 discovered a new form 759 00:34:53,873 --> 00:34:56,877 of bio-friendly polymer, PEF. 760 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:58,879 We are planning to build 761 00:34:58,922 --> 00:35:01,011 a 5,000 ton plant 762 00:35:01,055 --> 00:35:03,144 in the north of the Netherlands, 763 00:35:03,188 --> 00:35:06,408 which will be the first plant in the world to produce this. 764 00:35:06,452 --> 00:35:09,368 And that will enable PEF, which is this material, 765 00:35:09,411 --> 00:35:10,543 to come to the market. 766 00:35:10,586 --> 00:35:12,110 So, this is a PEF bottle. 767 00:35:12,153 --> 00:35:15,113 It-- it completely looks like PET. 768 00:35:15,591 --> 00:35:18,333 Uh, it's PEF, and it has 769 00:35:18,377 --> 00:35:19,943 much better properties. 770 00:35:19,987 --> 00:35:22,163 We've been looking at all kinds of partners 771 00:35:22,207 --> 00:35:24,165 in the plastic supply chain to make it. 772 00:35:24,209 --> 00:35:25,862 They include the Coca-Cola Company. 773 00:35:25,906 --> 00:35:28,038 They include Danone from France. 774 00:35:28,082 --> 00:35:31,694 But also Carlsberg in Denmark, from the beer side. 775 00:35:31,738 --> 00:35:33,653 If you have carbonated soft drink or beer, 776 00:35:33,696 --> 00:35:35,045 you don't want the CO2 777 00:35:35,089 --> 00:35:36,525 to migrate out through the bottle. 778 00:35:36,569 --> 00:35:38,745 And-- and they're also-- 779 00:35:38,788 --> 00:35:40,573 the PEF is-- is much better. 780 00:35:40,616 --> 00:35:42,662 [Tom A] It has all the performance characteristics 781 00:35:42,705 --> 00:35:45,230 that make it very suitable for packaging. 782 00:35:45,273 --> 00:35:48,842 It's also going to be used for making fibers for apparel. 783 00:35:48,885 --> 00:35:50,409 So, we use plant-based sugars 784 00:35:50,452 --> 00:35:52,541 in the waste part of the forestry industry. 785 00:35:52,585 --> 00:35:54,326 It's all the branches, all the things 786 00:35:54,369 --> 00:35:57,372 that cannot be used for making wood products. 787 00:35:57,416 --> 00:35:59,418 But if it ends up in nature, 788 00:35:59,461 --> 00:36:02,464 it's going to degrade 100 times faster 789 00:36:02,508 --> 00:36:04,249 than products like PET. 790 00:36:04,292 --> 00:36:05,772 This is a paper bottle. 791 00:36:05,815 --> 00:36:07,165 What is interesting about a paper bottle 792 00:36:07,208 --> 00:36:09,036 is that if you have ten times better 793 00:36:09,079 --> 00:36:11,517 barrier for oxygen, in principle, 794 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,128 we can make the plastic bottle ten times thinner. 795 00:36:14,172 --> 00:36:17,000 So, if we can compete with a multilayer bottle 796 00:36:17,044 --> 00:36:20,569 with a nylon barrier on price, and we can, 797 00:36:20,613 --> 00:36:23,311 and now we have a material that in many aspects 798 00:36:23,355 --> 00:36:26,967 is much better, so we can also compete on performance. 799 00:36:27,010 --> 00:36:29,143 So, if you look at the need for change 800 00:36:29,187 --> 00:36:31,580 to materials like you see over here, 801 00:36:31,624 --> 00:36:34,583 it's climate change and it is concerns 802 00:36:34,627 --> 00:36:36,194 over plastic waste that is really, 803 00:36:36,237 --> 00:36:38,848 you know, clogging our natural systems. 804 00:36:39,284 --> 00:36:41,982 All the drivers are pointing in this direction, 805 00:36:42,025 --> 00:36:45,464 in renewable plastics that have lower carbon footprints 806 00:36:45,507 --> 00:36:47,727 and that are not as bad for the environment 807 00:36:47,770 --> 00:36:49,381 if they end up in nature, 808 00:36:49,642 --> 00:36:51,731 but that degrade by themselves and that are recyclable. 809 00:36:51,774 --> 00:36:54,299 So, it is going there. 810 00:36:54,342 --> 00:36:56,257 The question is, how fast? 811 00:36:56,301 --> 00:37:01,741 ♪ 812 00:37:05,701 --> 00:37:11,316 ♪ There's a place in the world where I want to be ♪ 813 00:37:11,359 --> 00:37:16,277 ♪ I imagine it's [indistinct lyrics] ♪ 814 00:37:18,932 --> 00:37:22,327 [indistinct lyrics] 815 00:37:22,370 --> 00:37:24,285 So what you see behind us now 816 00:37:24,329 --> 00:37:27,288 in the containers and still on the ship as well, 817 00:37:27,332 --> 00:37:30,204 is the 29,000 kilos of trash 818 00:37:30,248 --> 00:37:32,162 that has been collected during the test phase. 819 00:37:32,206 --> 00:37:34,817 It's really hard to imagine that 820 00:37:34,861 --> 00:37:37,951 all that stuff just used to float out there. 821 00:37:37,994 --> 00:37:40,083 This stuff is so persistent and that's, 822 00:37:40,127 --> 00:37:41,737 of course, precisely the reason 823 00:37:41,781 --> 00:37:43,783 why we have to go and clean it up. 824 00:38:08,808 --> 00:38:12,028 [trash rattling] 825 00:38:12,072 --> 00:38:14,509 [Rob] Plastic fishing nets are one of the biggest problems 826 00:38:14,553 --> 00:38:16,946 with plastic pollution in our oceans. 827 00:38:16,990 --> 00:38:20,907 It's estimated 640,000 tons of fishing gear 828 00:38:20,950 --> 00:38:23,039 gets lost every year. 829 00:38:23,083 --> 00:38:25,999 Called ghost fishing, this problem entangles 830 00:38:26,042 --> 00:38:27,566 and kills hundreds of thousands 831 00:38:27,609 --> 00:38:30,046 of marine animals unintentionally. 832 00:38:30,090 --> 00:38:32,353 Some companies are currently testing 833 00:38:32,397 --> 00:38:34,355 nets made from microalgae. 834 00:38:34,399 --> 00:38:36,488 Other organizations are working on developing 835 00:38:36,531 --> 00:38:40,187 biodegradable materials that will someday be able 836 00:38:40,230 --> 00:38:42,537 to replace traditional plastic nets. 837 00:38:42,581 --> 00:38:45,671 [ocean waves crashing] 838 00:38:59,206 --> 00:39:05,038 ♪ 839 00:39:14,221 --> 00:39:17,790 We built eight satellites that are in orbit now. 840 00:39:17,833 --> 00:39:19,139 Originally, they were designed 841 00:39:19,182 --> 00:39:21,576 to measure the wind and hurricanes. 842 00:39:21,620 --> 00:39:23,622 But since we've been up there, we can measure 843 00:39:23,665 --> 00:39:25,841 the roughness of the ocean surface, 844 00:39:25,885 --> 00:39:28,061 looking at the behavior of the data, 845 00:39:28,104 --> 00:39:29,889 and it turns out that there's 846 00:39:29,932 --> 00:39:33,066 this very strong correlation between how much microplastic 847 00:39:33,109 --> 00:39:35,155 is in the ocean at any particular place 848 00:39:35,198 --> 00:39:38,854 and how much the wind roughening of the surface is suppressed. 849 00:39:38,898 --> 00:39:42,336 And what we found, which is a new discovery, 850 00:39:42,380 --> 00:39:44,860 is that the concentration of microplastics 851 00:39:44,904 --> 00:39:46,427 in the big gyres, like 852 00:39:46,471 --> 00:39:48,603 the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, varies seasonally. 853 00:39:48,647 --> 00:39:51,345 That wasn't really known or appreciated before. 854 00:39:51,389 --> 00:39:53,391 There's, um, a number of organizations, 855 00:39:53,434 --> 00:39:55,523 and the biggest and most well-known one, 856 00:39:55,567 --> 00:39:57,264 is the Ocean Cleanup people 857 00:39:57,307 --> 00:39:59,179 in the Netherlands, and they have fleets of ships 858 00:39:59,222 --> 00:40:01,790 that go out into the ocean to clean up the microplastics. 859 00:40:01,834 --> 00:40:05,011 And this information tells them 860 00:40:05,054 --> 00:40:06,752 when is the most efficient time 861 00:40:06,795 --> 00:40:09,972 to go out and also where to go. 862 00:40:10,408 --> 00:40:13,889 So, we've been able to zoom in with our measurements 863 00:40:13,933 --> 00:40:17,327 on the mouths of major rivers around the world, 864 00:40:17,371 --> 00:40:19,765 and what we've seen is that some of them have 865 00:40:19,808 --> 00:40:21,767 much, much more outflow than others. 866 00:40:21,810 --> 00:40:23,769 And, in particular, the one 867 00:40:23,812 --> 00:40:26,075 that is much higher concentration outflows 868 00:40:26,119 --> 00:40:28,295 than any of the other rivers is the Yangtze. 869 00:40:28,338 --> 00:40:30,166 The one in the top left is just the average 870 00:40:30,210 --> 00:40:31,777 concentration over an entire year. 871 00:40:31,820 --> 00:40:33,126 So, you don't really see anything. 872 00:40:33,169 --> 00:40:34,736 But then the other three around it 873 00:40:34,780 --> 00:40:37,870 are isolated weeks where we see these huge bursts 874 00:40:37,913 --> 00:40:39,349 of things coming out of the mouth 875 00:40:39,393 --> 00:40:41,221 of the Yangtze into the East China Sea. 876 00:40:41,264 --> 00:40:44,485 That gets sort of evidence-based attribution 877 00:40:44,529 --> 00:40:46,269 where is the plastic coming from. 878 00:40:46,313 --> 00:40:49,751 So, where is all this plastic coming from? 879 00:40:49,795 --> 00:40:51,274 Well, the answer, 880 00:40:51,318 --> 00:40:54,277 it turns out, is rivers. 881 00:40:54,321 --> 00:40:58,151 1,000 rivers are responsible 882 00:40:58,194 --> 00:41:00,893 for roughly 80% 883 00:41:00,936 --> 00:41:02,938 of the world's plastic pollution. 884 00:41:02,982 --> 00:41:05,375 Now, every one of these red dots 885 00:41:05,419 --> 00:41:09,205 is one of the top 1,000 heaviest polluting rivers. 886 00:41:09,249 --> 00:41:10,990 So, this global picture 887 00:41:11,033 --> 00:41:14,341 of where river plastic emissions occur, 888 00:41:14,384 --> 00:41:15,951 it's very useful for the Ocean Cleanup, 889 00:41:15,995 --> 00:41:17,475 but I think it's 890 00:41:17,518 --> 00:41:19,651 really powerful information for everyone. 891 00:41:19,694 --> 00:41:22,392 To truly rid the oceans of plastic, 892 00:41:22,436 --> 00:41:25,134 what we need to do is two things. 893 00:41:26,179 --> 00:41:29,574 One, we need to clean up the legacy pollution, right? 894 00:41:29,617 --> 00:41:31,576 So, the stuff that has been accumulating 895 00:41:31,619 --> 00:41:34,100 for decades and doesn't go away by itself. 896 00:41:34,622 --> 00:41:37,712 But two, we need to close the tap, 897 00:41:37,756 --> 00:41:39,540 which means preventing 898 00:41:39,584 --> 00:41:42,369 more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place. 899 00:41:42,412 --> 00:41:44,023 [Sherri] When you go to other parts of the world. 900 00:41:44,066 --> 00:41:46,199 And the concept of-- of something 901 00:41:46,242 --> 00:41:48,244 that doesn't decompose, 902 00:41:48,288 --> 00:41:50,769 of something that is truly waste, 903 00:41:50,812 --> 00:41:53,728 and they're doing the same behaviors. 904 00:41:53,772 --> 00:41:59,995 ♪ 905 00:42:00,039 --> 00:42:02,084 And that was fine a generation ago, 906 00:42:02,128 --> 00:42:04,609 when waste, in this part of the world, 907 00:42:04,652 --> 00:42:07,481 was basically 90% inorganic material. 908 00:42:07,525 --> 00:42:09,788 But now, thanks to rapid economic development, 909 00:42:09,831 --> 00:42:12,094 so much of that waste looks a lot more like 910 00:42:12,138 --> 00:42:15,445 the waste you see back in the US or in Europe. 911 00:42:15,489 --> 00:42:16,969 But investments in infrastructure 912 00:42:17,012 --> 00:42:18,448 haven't kept pace. 913 00:42:18,492 --> 00:42:20,320 You have one of three people in the world 914 00:42:20,363 --> 00:42:22,017 that don't have proper waste management. 915 00:42:22,061 --> 00:42:23,976 The single most effective thing 916 00:42:24,019 --> 00:42:26,413 we can do to address ocean plastics is 917 00:42:26,456 --> 00:42:28,850 to really help the developing world, 918 00:42:28,894 --> 00:42:31,070 fix the gap in waste management 919 00:42:31,113 --> 00:42:33,246 so that if the waste is collected, 920 00:42:33,289 --> 00:42:35,422 that waste is not going to go to the ocean. 921 00:42:36,249 --> 00:42:37,946 It-- it's not technology dependent, 922 00:42:37,990 --> 00:42:39,469 it's just will. 923 00:42:39,513 --> 00:42:41,733 How can we organize as a global community, 924 00:42:41,776 --> 00:42:44,736 international collaboration companies, government, 925 00:42:44,779 --> 00:42:48,261 develop one blueprint of where are 926 00:42:48,304 --> 00:42:49,828 the areas in the world that are leaking 927 00:42:49,871 --> 00:42:51,656 the most plastic to the ocean, 928 00:42:51,699 --> 00:42:53,962 with least waste management, and fix that. 929 00:42:54,006 --> 00:42:55,660 [Sherri] We really need 930 00:42:55,703 --> 00:42:57,400 that infrastructure put into place 931 00:42:57,444 --> 00:43:00,578 in a comprehensive and cohesive way. 932 00:43:00,621 --> 00:43:04,669 That's infrastructure, man, that's infrastructure. 933 00:43:05,757 --> 00:43:07,585 -Yes. -[director laughing] 934 00:43:09,325 --> 00:43:11,632 -Make me the trash star. -[director continues laughing] 935 00:43:11,676 --> 00:43:13,547 We know what we have to do. 936 00:43:13,591 --> 00:43:16,463 We have to prevent this plastic from entering the ocean. 937 00:43:16,506 --> 00:43:20,554 What if we could intercept plastic in rivers 938 00:43:20,598 --> 00:43:23,209 before it reaches the oceans? 939 00:43:23,252 --> 00:43:26,125 What we need is a product, 940 00:43:26,168 --> 00:43:29,171 one integrated system that you can bring anywhere 941 00:43:29,215 --> 00:43:31,260 in the world, installed within days, 942 00:43:31,304 --> 00:43:32,610 and that just works. 943 00:43:33,219 --> 00:43:35,047 That's the missing piece. 944 00:43:35,090 --> 00:43:38,354 That's what we need to close the tap. 945 00:43:38,398 --> 00:43:40,661 And it doesn't exist. 946 00:43:42,576 --> 00:43:43,664 Until... 947 00:43:44,491 --> 00:43:45,535 today. 948 00:43:45,579 --> 00:43:48,147 [dramatic music playing] 949 00:44:10,430 --> 00:44:12,040 [dramatic music stops] 950 00:44:12,084 --> 00:44:14,173 [atmospheric music playing] 951 00:44:29,928 --> 00:44:31,581 The Great Bubble Barrier in itself 952 00:44:31,625 --> 00:44:33,409 is young social enterprise. 953 00:44:33,453 --> 00:44:36,978 And what we're doing is, we are stopping plastic debris 954 00:44:37,022 --> 00:44:39,502 from flowing from our rivers into our oceans. 955 00:44:39,546 --> 00:44:40,852 And we do that 956 00:44:40,895 --> 00:44:42,418 with nothing more than air bubbles. 957 00:44:42,462 --> 00:44:44,507 The rising air bubbles will create 958 00:44:44,551 --> 00:44:46,031 an upwards water flow, 959 00:44:46,074 --> 00:44:47,728 and then together with the natural flow 960 00:44:47,772 --> 00:44:50,600 of the river, it's going to be pushed all to one side 961 00:44:50,644 --> 00:44:53,473 because the rubber hose is usually lying at an angle. 962 00:44:53,516 --> 00:44:55,736 And then all that trash is going to collect at the side 963 00:44:55,780 --> 00:44:58,652 in the collection unit catchment system 964 00:44:58,696 --> 00:45:00,959 and then we can remove it from the water. 965 00:45:01,002 --> 00:45:03,004 The main reason why we're using air bubbles 966 00:45:03,048 --> 00:45:05,877 is because it doesn't interrupt the natural ecosystem 967 00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,531 of the river and everything that's going on in the river. 968 00:45:08,575 --> 00:45:10,533 There's a lot of commercial ship traffic, 969 00:45:10,577 --> 00:45:12,579 but also recreational ship traffic. 970 00:45:12,622 --> 00:45:14,624 And it wouldn't really go well 971 00:45:14,668 --> 00:45:16,104 if we started blocking off 972 00:45:16,148 --> 00:45:18,411 all those rivers with physical barriers. 973 00:45:18,454 --> 00:45:20,239 So we had to come up with something that's, 974 00:45:20,282 --> 00:45:22,937 well, non-intrusive in a way that could allow 975 00:45:22,981 --> 00:45:24,852 all the other activity to just go on. 976 00:45:24,896 --> 00:45:26,767 And that's what the bubbles do so beautifully. 977 00:45:26,811 --> 00:45:29,509 They create a barrier for the plastic, 978 00:45:29,552 --> 00:45:31,380 but they allow ships, and wildlife, 979 00:45:31,424 --> 00:45:34,644 and fish to still pass through it freely. 980 00:45:34,688 --> 00:45:36,821 [Anne] So, here in Amsterdam, it's a very unique location 981 00:45:36,864 --> 00:45:39,084 because Amsterdam is really one of the pioneers 982 00:45:39,127 --> 00:45:41,042 that is already focusing with their policy 983 00:45:41,086 --> 00:45:42,870 on plastic pollution in rivers. 984 00:45:42,914 --> 00:45:45,525 And Amsterdam is one of the cities that had that policy 985 00:45:45,568 --> 00:45:47,614 already in place and really pioneers 986 00:45:47,657 --> 00:45:49,485 on that aspect. 987 00:45:49,529 --> 00:45:51,444 [Philip] There's a lot of governments that do want to do 988 00:45:51,487 --> 00:45:53,794 something about it because at the moment, 989 00:45:53,838 --> 00:45:55,187 almost everywhere in the world 990 00:45:55,230 --> 00:45:57,145 no one is really officially responsible 991 00:45:57,189 --> 00:45:58,625 for plastic pollution in the water. 992 00:45:58,668 --> 00:46:00,409 Which is, of course, in a way ridiculous 993 00:46:00,453 --> 00:46:02,107 because, I mean, I think 994 00:46:02,150 --> 00:46:04,239 the whole society agrees that we don't want to have 995 00:46:04,283 --> 00:46:06,024 plastic in our waters and that's bad. [chuckles] 996 00:46:06,067 --> 00:46:08,548 But we're confident it will come and-- 997 00:46:08,591 --> 00:46:10,506 We see more and more cities joining. 998 00:46:10,550 --> 00:46:12,465 -Yeah. -So, that's really nice. 999 00:46:12,508 --> 00:46:13,988 So the good thing is, there's not much change 1000 00:46:14,032 --> 00:46:15,642 in existing infrastructure 1001 00:46:15,685 --> 00:46:17,775 needed to deploy our bubble barrier. 1002 00:46:17,818 --> 00:46:20,125 The only real physical object we have to place 1003 00:46:20,168 --> 00:46:22,431 in the waterway is the collection unit 1004 00:46:22,475 --> 00:46:23,868 to remove the plastic from the water. 1005 00:46:23,911 --> 00:46:25,521 But the barrier itself is literally 1006 00:46:25,565 --> 00:46:28,742 just a curtain made of small air bubbles. 1007 00:46:28,786 --> 00:46:30,831 [upbeat electronica playing] 1008 00:46:38,926 --> 00:46:40,536 We all can do something about it, 1009 00:46:40,580 --> 00:46:42,147 you know, we can make sure we consume 1010 00:46:42,190 --> 00:46:44,366 less plastic and if there's no one to collect it 1011 00:46:44,410 --> 00:46:47,717 then there will always be a spill into the environment. 1012 00:46:47,761 --> 00:46:49,937 You know, cleaning up the ocean is all fine 1013 00:46:49,981 --> 00:46:51,417 and good and, you know, 1014 00:46:51,460 --> 00:46:52,679 it's a good thing people are doing it, 1015 00:46:52,722 --> 00:46:53,985 but it's not gonna solve this problem. 1016 00:46:54,028 --> 00:46:55,551 The right way to solve this problem 1017 00:46:55,595 --> 00:46:57,205 is to get people to stop using plastics. 1018 00:46:57,249 --> 00:46:59,599 Realistically, we can't just keep running around 1019 00:46:59,642 --> 00:47:01,514 in the ocean cleaning up everybody's litter. 1020 00:47:01,557 --> 00:47:06,606 ♪ 1021 00:47:15,310 --> 00:47:17,225 "Welcome to the world of PulPac. 1022 00:47:17,269 --> 00:47:19,445 PulPac on a mission to replace 1023 00:47:19,488 --> 00:47:21,926 single-use plastics globally." 1024 00:47:24,450 --> 00:47:26,060 [Linus] We are an RND company. 1025 00:47:26,104 --> 00:47:27,540 We are replacing plastics 1026 00:47:27,583 --> 00:47:29,455 and helping the industry to do so. 1027 00:47:29,498 --> 00:47:31,413 And what we have is a new production method 1028 00:47:31,457 --> 00:47:33,894 that actually enables to replace plastics 1029 00:47:33,938 --> 00:47:35,896 with fiber alternatives. 1030 00:47:35,940 --> 00:47:37,637 So what we do, right, is that we convert it 1031 00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:39,813 into a fluff web basically 1032 00:47:39,857 --> 00:47:42,860 where we can actually mold it into the shape that we want. 1033 00:47:42,903 --> 00:47:45,123 We have these smaller lab cells 1034 00:47:45,166 --> 00:47:47,603 where we'd have a single cavity where we can do 1035 00:47:47,647 --> 00:47:49,997 iterations and verify a product basically. 1036 00:47:50,606 --> 00:47:52,043 Everything is how fast 1037 00:47:52,086 --> 00:47:53,783 can we actually get the machinery to move. 1038 00:47:53,827 --> 00:47:56,351 The products came out right, stiff and complete. 1039 00:47:56,395 --> 00:47:58,223 And if you compare that to plastics, 1040 00:47:58,266 --> 00:48:00,312 right, plastics you need to melt, 1041 00:48:00,355 --> 00:48:02,314 then form, then cool. 1042 00:48:02,357 --> 00:48:05,795 Everything when we do our DMF process, it's instant. 1043 00:48:05,839 --> 00:48:07,580 This tray is what you could use 1044 00:48:07,623 --> 00:48:09,582 to replace the meat trays in the grocery store? 1045 00:48:09,625 --> 00:48:10,888 Sure, absolutely, yeah. 1046 00:48:10,931 --> 00:48:12,585 We see them in the grocery store 1047 00:48:12,628 --> 00:48:14,761 for packing meat, chicken, fish sometimes, right? 1048 00:48:14,804 --> 00:48:17,895 I mean the Styrofoam, the EPS, the expanded polystyrene, 1049 00:48:17,938 --> 00:48:19,374 that's a huge problem. 1050 00:48:19,418 --> 00:48:21,333 And what we are set out to do 1051 00:48:21,376 --> 00:48:23,030 is to really make impact that scales fast. 1052 00:48:23,074 --> 00:48:26,425 Why haven't we used fiber for more applications? 1053 00:48:26,468 --> 00:48:28,122 And that is due to the conventional way 1054 00:48:28,166 --> 00:48:30,124 of molding it, I mean, it's too expensive basically. 1055 00:48:30,168 --> 00:48:32,648 I mean, the material is cheaper than plastics 1056 00:48:32,692 --> 00:48:34,955 so it doesn't make sense, right? 1057 00:48:34,999 --> 00:48:37,566 I mean, the material is cheaper but the production process 1058 00:48:37,610 --> 00:48:41,005 is more expensive and that is what we are trying to change. 1059 00:48:41,048 --> 00:48:43,355 Plastic is a little bit overqualified its purposes 1060 00:48:43,398 --> 00:48:46,401 and that is why we have fiber as an alternative, right? 1061 00:48:46,445 --> 00:48:49,404 Fiber as it is in its purest form 1062 00:48:49,448 --> 00:48:51,450 is truly sustainable, it's circular, right? 1063 00:48:51,493 --> 00:48:53,104 It's a renewable material 1064 00:48:53,147 --> 00:48:55,976 and it will degrade in weeks, months in nature. 1065 00:48:56,020 --> 00:48:58,239 I mean, that is the material that we have at hand 1066 00:48:58,283 --> 00:49:00,676 that really can replace plastics today. 1067 00:49:00,720 --> 00:49:03,462 Sustainable forestry is, of course, key here, right? 1068 00:49:03,505 --> 00:49:05,812 But in order for us to scale long term, 1069 00:49:05,855 --> 00:49:07,466 we need to find other alternatives 1070 00:49:07,509 --> 00:49:10,686 of resources as well, like agricultural waste, 1071 00:49:10,730 --> 00:49:12,993 straw-based fibers and that sort of stuff. 1072 00:49:13,037 --> 00:49:16,301 Fiber can actually be replaced 25 times. 1073 00:49:16,344 --> 00:49:18,129 It's circular, it grows, right? 1074 00:49:18,172 --> 00:49:20,174 But we need to have a sustainable forestry 1075 00:49:20,218 --> 00:49:21,654 and that's key here. 1076 00:49:21,697 --> 00:49:24,135 Here we have the material inlets 1077 00:49:24,178 --> 00:49:26,398 and it feeds into a mill 1078 00:49:26,441 --> 00:49:29,183 where we separate the fibers mechanically. 1079 00:49:29,227 --> 00:49:33,231 So we get this ductile, formable web of material. 1080 00:49:33,274 --> 00:49:36,538 And then we press the products, so we form the products. 1081 00:49:39,150 --> 00:49:41,500 And then we-- we get-- 1082 00:49:41,543 --> 00:49:44,329 get items like this replacing simply 1083 00:49:44,372 --> 00:49:47,071 a plastic lid or paper tubes. 1084 00:49:51,292 --> 00:49:53,512 Set aside plastics for a minute. 1085 00:49:53,555 --> 00:49:56,950 Look at the statistics of any country. 1086 00:49:56,994 --> 00:50:00,910 50% is this biodegradable organic waste. 1087 00:50:00,954 --> 00:50:02,390 That's what this is. 1088 00:50:02,434 --> 00:50:04,305 What do we do with this today? 1089 00:50:04,349 --> 00:50:08,048 In the US and in the developed world, 1090 00:50:08,092 --> 00:50:10,311 we bury it in a landfill. 1091 00:50:11,138 --> 00:50:15,229 And because we don't want it to leak into the environment, 1092 00:50:15,273 --> 00:50:18,624 we line the landfill so that nothing degrades. 1093 00:50:18,667 --> 00:50:20,887 So we are creating what I call 1094 00:50:20,930 --> 00:50:23,672 uh, a hole in the ground 1095 00:50:23,716 --> 00:50:26,110 for preserving garbage, for posterity. 1096 00:50:26,153 --> 00:50:28,242 [Cole] The problem with that is nothing really degrades 1097 00:50:28,286 --> 00:50:30,679 when it's in an anaerobic environment. 1098 00:50:30,723 --> 00:50:33,639 So as they do that, all they're doing is basically 1099 00:50:33,682 --> 00:50:35,467 creating a lid on top of that day's trash 1100 00:50:35,510 --> 00:50:37,860 and then the next day they do the same thing and over 1101 00:50:37,904 --> 00:50:40,124 and over and over again, just creating these layers 1102 00:50:40,167 --> 00:50:43,127 and layers of airtight pockets. 1103 00:50:43,170 --> 00:50:45,912 They dug up landfills from 30, 40 years ago 1104 00:50:45,955 --> 00:50:48,654 and found apples and newspapers and hot dog buns 1105 00:50:48,697 --> 00:50:50,395 that were still in good condition 1106 00:50:50,438 --> 00:50:52,353 because it was in a sealed environment. 1107 00:50:52,397 --> 00:50:54,747 And that's what most landfills here in the US. 1108 00:50:54,790 --> 00:50:57,358 There are some active landfills 1109 00:50:57,402 --> 00:50:59,186 where they're actually pulling off 1110 00:50:59,230 --> 00:51:01,449 the off gas from that landfill, 1111 00:51:01,493 --> 00:51:04,626 primarily methane, for energy. 1112 00:51:04,670 --> 00:51:07,716 They may run the plant or they may pump it out 1113 00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:09,327 to a local facility that uses it 1114 00:51:09,370 --> 00:51:10,763 for power for the city. 1115 00:51:10,806 --> 00:51:12,243 Um, those are not widely available 1116 00:51:12,286 --> 00:51:13,766 here in the US. 1117 00:51:13,809 --> 00:51:15,724 And it's really not-- 1118 00:51:15,768 --> 00:51:17,422 even though they are using the off gas, 1119 00:51:17,465 --> 00:51:19,772 we still don't want that same linear economy 1120 00:51:19,815 --> 00:51:22,775 of just throwing everything directly into a landfill. 1121 00:51:23,297 --> 00:51:25,169 In the emerging economies world, 1122 00:51:25,212 --> 00:51:26,605 the developing world, 1123 00:51:26,648 --> 00:51:29,303 they don't have landfills per se. 1124 00:51:29,347 --> 00:51:32,089 They're all open dumps, most of it. 1125 00:51:32,567 --> 00:51:35,831 And so in that case, 1126 00:51:35,875 --> 00:51:38,356 all this waste is just dumped 1127 00:51:38,399 --> 00:51:41,185 near the oceans or wherever they are. 1128 00:51:41,228 --> 00:51:42,838 So it produces methane. 1129 00:51:42,882 --> 00:51:44,579 [Cole] Recently, I'd say probably 1130 00:51:44,623 --> 00:51:47,800 within the last five years, there's been a big push 1131 00:51:47,843 --> 00:51:49,932 towards waste-to-energy 1132 00:51:49,976 --> 00:51:52,892 or incineration is basically what it is. 1133 00:51:52,935 --> 00:51:55,024 Uh, they are taking in all sorts of trash, 1134 00:51:55,068 --> 00:51:58,724 dirty recycling, dirty plastic, throwing it into a giant hopper 1135 00:51:58,767 --> 00:52:02,554 or pot and melting it down with intense heat 1136 00:52:02,597 --> 00:52:06,210 to either create, you know, recycled plastics 1137 00:52:06,253 --> 00:52:09,343 or create a new composite material 1138 00:52:09,387 --> 00:52:11,954 out of multiple different types of plastics. 1139 00:52:11,998 --> 00:52:14,218 Um, the downside to incineration is that 1140 00:52:14,261 --> 00:52:16,698 there's a lot of gases that are involved 1141 00:52:16,742 --> 00:52:18,570 and a lot of chemicals that come off 1142 00:52:18,613 --> 00:52:20,354 of superheating plastic. 1143 00:52:20,398 --> 00:52:25,620 ♪ 1144 00:52:25,664 --> 00:52:28,754 In Copenhagen, Denmark, engineers have taken 1145 00:52:28,797 --> 00:52:32,061 the waste-to-energy concept one step further. 1146 00:52:32,105 --> 00:52:36,892 ♪ 1147 00:52:42,463 --> 00:52:45,466 Amager Bakke, also known as Copenhill, 1148 00:52:45,510 --> 00:52:48,208 is a waste-to-energy plant that also serves 1149 00:52:48,252 --> 00:52:50,819 as a sports complex offering 1150 00:52:50,863 --> 00:52:53,213 hiking, climbing, and skiing. 1151 00:52:53,257 --> 00:52:55,563 The whole project about Copenhill started 1152 00:52:55,607 --> 00:52:58,218 when there was a waste-to-energy plant 1153 00:52:58,262 --> 00:53:00,307 over there that became too old. 1154 00:53:00,351 --> 00:53:02,309 And they need to either renovate it, 1155 00:53:02,353 --> 00:53:03,745 using a lot of money to do that, 1156 00:53:03,789 --> 00:53:05,704 or build something completely new. 1157 00:53:05,747 --> 00:53:08,315 The city's felt like when we build it, 1158 00:53:08,359 --> 00:53:10,970 it should be something that is publicly available. 1159 00:53:11,013 --> 00:53:13,015 It should be pretty, it should be usable, 1160 00:53:13,059 --> 00:53:15,148 so the roof should be used somehow. 1161 00:53:15,192 --> 00:53:16,671 Normally you wouldn't go this close 1162 00:53:16,715 --> 00:53:18,195 to a waste-to-energy plant 1163 00:53:18,238 --> 00:53:22,024 because the smoke coming out is polluting. 1164 00:53:22,068 --> 00:53:23,809 -Yeah. -But this is so clean. 1165 00:53:23,852 --> 00:53:25,419 There's so many-- Did you take the elevator up? 1166 00:53:25,463 --> 00:53:27,421 -[Janice] Yes. -So when you look in, 1167 00:53:27,465 --> 00:53:29,075 there's all these pipes. 1168 00:53:29,118 --> 00:53:31,295 So, the heat is used to heat up water that goes 1169 00:53:31,338 --> 00:53:33,688 to the district heating and used to run 1170 00:53:33,732 --> 00:53:36,387 a turbine that produces electricity as well. 1171 00:53:36,430 --> 00:53:39,346 And all of these pipes and tubes are used 1172 00:53:39,390 --> 00:53:41,609 to, uh, clean the smoke. 1173 00:53:41,653 --> 00:53:44,830 That's the real beauty of, uh, of this plant, 1174 00:53:44,873 --> 00:53:47,180 is that it's so clean that it's pure steam 1175 00:53:47,224 --> 00:53:48,921 that comes out of the chimney. 1176 00:53:48,964 --> 00:53:50,488 Oh, and if you look out this direction, 1177 00:53:50,531 --> 00:53:51,924 that's a climbing wall, so you have climbers 1178 00:53:51,967 --> 00:53:53,578 on the side of the building as well. 1179 00:53:53,621 --> 00:53:55,449 -[Janice] Oh, that's awesome. -[Christian] Yeah. 1180 00:53:55,493 --> 00:53:57,364 We have the world's largest artificial rock climbing wall. 1181 00:53:57,408 --> 00:53:59,279 It's 85 meters high. 1182 00:53:59,323 --> 00:54:01,803 [Janice] There's a stigma on waste-to-energy. 1183 00:54:01,847 --> 00:54:05,067 And I was wondering if you could tell me 1184 00:54:05,111 --> 00:54:06,678 a little bit about that. 1185 00:54:06,721 --> 00:54:09,028 There's a lot of opinions about waste-to-energy 1186 00:54:09,071 --> 00:54:10,986 and incineration in general. 1187 00:54:11,030 --> 00:54:12,901 I think a lot of it origins 1188 00:54:12,945 --> 00:54:15,513 from burning of trash that somewhere 1189 00:54:15,556 --> 00:54:16,992 it's just a landfill 1190 00:54:17,036 --> 00:54:18,820 that you-- you kind of make into a fire. 1191 00:54:18,864 --> 00:54:22,781 Other places, they burn it in a facility, 1192 00:54:22,824 --> 00:54:24,826 but they don't produce any energy. 1193 00:54:24,870 --> 00:54:28,700 And now what we have is like the last generation 1194 00:54:28,743 --> 00:54:30,832 of clean energy production, 1195 00:54:30,876 --> 00:54:33,270 uh, coming from waste-to-energy. 1196 00:54:33,313 --> 00:54:35,446 So it's so clean that we have pure steam 1197 00:54:35,489 --> 00:54:37,143 coming out of the smoke. 1198 00:54:37,186 --> 00:54:38,753 And people are sitting here enjoying their lunch. 1199 00:54:38,797 --> 00:54:40,320 Up here, there's a cafe. 1200 00:54:40,364 --> 00:54:43,323 You can get some snacks and Danish beer. 1201 00:54:43,367 --> 00:54:46,544 Your kids can hang out here and do some exercise. 1202 00:54:46,587 --> 00:54:48,067 And people can walk up here. 1203 00:54:48,110 --> 00:54:49,373 You can run because it's completely clean, 1204 00:54:49,416 --> 00:54:51,113 what comes out. 1205 00:54:51,157 --> 00:54:54,116 Kids coming looking into the waste-to-energy plant, 1206 00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:55,857 asking their dad, "What goes on here? 1207 00:54:55,901 --> 00:54:58,077 "That's where we burn all the leftover trash. 1208 00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,340 "And then we get hot water for our shower. 1209 00:55:00,384 --> 00:55:03,082 And you can heat the apartment right down there." 1210 00:55:03,125 --> 00:55:04,910 And they kind of get the mentality 1211 00:55:04,953 --> 00:55:07,913 from five years old, "Okay, that's what we should do." 1212 00:55:07,956 --> 00:55:09,567 And then 30 years from now, they will have 1213 00:55:09,610 --> 00:55:11,612 their own thoughts about how can we make 1214 00:55:11,656 --> 00:55:13,962 the world a better place, because they've been educated 1215 00:55:14,006 --> 00:55:15,790 about what's going on. 1216 00:55:15,834 --> 00:55:17,749 So an incinerator like this one has 1217 00:55:17,792 --> 00:55:21,013 a lot better carbon footprint than a landfill. 1218 00:55:22,928 --> 00:55:24,233 Cheers. 1219 00:55:30,936 --> 00:55:34,896 [Ramani] The way we handle waste is terrible. 1220 00:55:34,940 --> 00:55:37,072 Now compound that with the fact 1221 00:55:37,116 --> 00:55:41,163 that almost up to 50% of the plastics 1222 00:55:41,207 --> 00:55:44,253 which we manufacture is used for packaging. 1223 00:55:45,472 --> 00:55:49,041 It is going to be difficult, if not impossible, 1224 00:55:49,084 --> 00:55:52,000 to recover these thin plastic films 1225 00:55:52,044 --> 00:55:55,003 which are used for ketchup and other things 1226 00:55:55,047 --> 00:55:57,484 on soaps and cosmetics, 1227 00:55:57,528 --> 00:56:00,922 whatever have you, from that wastry. 1228 00:56:00,966 --> 00:56:02,924 I don't know if you've looked into it 1229 00:56:02,968 --> 00:56:04,404 or spoken with anybody, 1230 00:56:04,448 --> 00:56:06,319 composting is a very interesting subject. 1231 00:56:06,363 --> 00:56:08,103 ♪ 1232 00:56:20,768 --> 00:56:23,292 [Bob] Well, I think the value of compost is-- is primary. 1233 00:56:23,336 --> 00:56:26,470 It's the sustainable last chain in the loop. 1234 00:56:26,513 --> 00:56:29,647 We like to say eat it, compost it, use it, eat it. 1235 00:56:29,690 --> 00:56:32,171 [chuckles] It kind of goes in a circle type thing. 1236 00:56:32,214 --> 00:56:34,782 And in order to do that more effectively, 1237 00:56:34,826 --> 00:56:37,568 you need to make the plastics there 1238 00:56:37,611 --> 00:56:39,134 completely biodegradable. 1239 00:56:39,178 --> 00:56:42,834 Composting can be, especially on large scales 1240 00:56:42,877 --> 00:56:45,750 like that at sporting events, event centers, 1241 00:56:45,793 --> 00:56:47,012 and conference halls 1242 00:56:47,055 --> 00:56:48,274 where there's a large amount of people 1243 00:56:48,317 --> 00:56:49,580 at one point in time. 1244 00:56:49,623 --> 00:56:51,756 There is a system in place 1245 00:56:51,799 --> 00:56:53,714 where all that food waste will go. 1246 00:56:53,758 --> 00:56:58,066 They can use compostable plates and cutlery and cups 1247 00:56:58,110 --> 00:57:00,765 and put that into the food waste as well. 1248 00:57:00,808 --> 00:57:03,507 And that is more of a circular economy 1249 00:57:03,550 --> 00:57:06,379 as well, because that material that is composted 1250 00:57:06,423 --> 00:57:08,120 can then be sold to the farmers. 1251 00:57:08,163 --> 00:57:10,557 They can create more plants, which could then create 1252 00:57:10,601 --> 00:57:12,907 more plates and cutlery and straws, 1253 00:57:12,951 --> 00:57:15,388 which then they can reuse and just continue 1254 00:57:15,432 --> 00:57:17,129 that cycle of composting. 1255 00:57:17,172 --> 00:57:21,046 [excavator rumbling & beeping] 1256 00:57:21,568 --> 00:57:22,961 [Janice] So, if I put my hand 1257 00:57:23,004 --> 00:57:24,092 -in there, it would hurt? -[woman] No. 1258 00:57:24,136 --> 00:57:26,312 [Bob] No, it's 135 degrees. 1259 00:57:28,096 --> 00:57:29,620 It's going to be wet on the outside there. 1260 00:57:29,663 --> 00:57:31,491 See-- see that microbial action? 1261 00:57:31,535 --> 00:57:34,363 -That's-- -[Janice] The steam! 1262 00:57:34,407 --> 00:57:36,975 -[Bob] And the white-- -[Janice] Wow. 1263 00:57:37,018 --> 00:57:39,978 It is so warm. It's like a hot spring. 1264 00:57:40,021 --> 00:57:42,284 [Bob] So, you have wood and then you have grass leaves, 1265 00:57:42,328 --> 00:57:44,112 tree trimmings that'll come in 1266 00:57:44,156 --> 00:57:45,592 and we'll compost that. 1267 00:57:45,636 --> 00:57:46,985 [Janice] Wow. 1268 00:57:47,028 --> 00:57:48,247 [Bob] So you have a football stadium 1269 00:57:48,290 --> 00:57:49,901 and they want to send 1270 00:57:49,944 --> 00:57:51,293 all their food waste to compost it. 1271 00:57:51,337 --> 00:57:53,861 And they have bins where you can put 1272 00:57:53,905 --> 00:57:55,820 your food waste but don't put your package. 1273 00:57:55,863 --> 00:57:57,952 Well, then if they put it all in there-- 1274 00:57:57,996 --> 00:58:00,041 or they have compostable packaging 1275 00:58:00,085 --> 00:58:01,608 and for us, what happens is we get 1276 00:58:01,652 --> 00:58:03,392 all packaging and no food waste. 1277 00:58:03,436 --> 00:58:05,351 You don't pay nine bucks for a hot dog and throw it away. 1278 00:58:05,394 --> 00:58:08,180 The compostable plastic design 1279 00:58:08,223 --> 00:58:10,922 is to create additional diversion 1280 00:58:10,965 --> 00:58:12,619 of food waste for a composter. 1281 00:58:13,141 --> 00:58:15,361 That's why we do it, and that's why 1282 00:58:15,404 --> 00:58:16,971 a lot of composters don't do it. 1283 00:58:17,015 --> 00:58:18,538 They haven't chosen to try to deal 1284 00:58:18,582 --> 00:58:19,931 with the contamination issue. 1285 00:58:19,974 --> 00:58:21,585 The composters want the food 1286 00:58:21,628 --> 00:58:23,108 more than they want the packaging. 1287 00:58:23,151 --> 00:58:24,805 So if it's food soiled, that food soil, 1288 00:58:24,849 --> 00:58:27,112 the grease on that package is no problem for them. 1289 00:58:27,155 --> 00:58:28,461 That's actually what they want, right? 1290 00:58:28,505 --> 00:58:30,507 It's the food residual material. 1291 00:58:30,942 --> 00:58:33,684 [Rob] Large capacity stadiums, such as Beaver Stadium, 1292 00:58:33,727 --> 00:58:36,948 located on the campus of Penn State University, 1293 00:58:36,991 --> 00:58:40,255 jumped on the bandwagon to give composting a shot. 1294 00:58:40,299 --> 00:58:43,998 Beaver Stadium seats over 106,000 people 1295 00:58:44,042 --> 00:58:46,479 during their home football games and is 1296 00:58:46,523 --> 00:58:49,221 America's second largest seated stadium. 1297 00:58:49,264 --> 00:58:52,441 The Penn State University's composting program has been 1298 00:58:52,485 --> 00:58:55,053 so successful, they applied the concept 1299 00:58:55,096 --> 00:58:58,839 campus-wide and now have compost and recycling bins 1300 00:58:58,883 --> 00:59:01,320 present at all of their other arenas, 1301 00:59:01,363 --> 00:59:04,410 buildings, classrooms, and even parking lots. 1302 00:59:04,453 --> 00:59:06,325 Our Beaver Stadium is one of the largest 1303 00:59:06,368 --> 00:59:09,023 football stadiums in the United States. 1304 00:59:09,067 --> 00:59:12,244 Our record crowd is 110,000 fans. 1305 00:59:12,287 --> 00:59:13,941 That's a lot of hot dogs, 1306 00:59:13,985 --> 00:59:16,204 a lot of water bottles and sodas. 1307 00:59:16,248 --> 00:59:18,119 And that means that there's a lot of waste 1308 00:59:18,163 --> 00:59:19,599 that we should be managing correctly 1309 00:59:19,643 --> 00:59:21,383 to keep away from landfill. 1310 00:59:21,427 --> 00:59:23,603 And so we have a very comprehensive 1311 00:59:23,647 --> 00:59:27,085 recycling program both inside the stadium and out. 1312 00:59:27,128 --> 00:59:29,914 And we made that within two years. 1313 00:59:29,957 --> 00:59:32,351 Zero waste where nothing was going to landfill. 1314 00:59:32,394 --> 00:59:35,354 Instead of sending material to the landfill, 1315 00:59:35,397 --> 00:59:37,530 we can send it to our own compost facility 1316 00:59:37,574 --> 00:59:39,053 and compost it there. 1317 00:59:39,097 --> 00:59:40,533 After it's composted, we take 1318 00:59:40,577 --> 00:59:42,666 the landscaping amendment, bring it back 1319 00:59:42,709 --> 00:59:44,929 onto campus and spread it out here. 1320 00:59:44,972 --> 00:59:47,932 Which means we don't have to buy any composted materials 1321 00:59:47,975 --> 00:59:49,803 to help our grass to go greener. 1322 00:59:49,847 --> 00:59:52,197 And then we also do materials management 1323 00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:55,809 of recyclables that get sent to our local county. 1324 00:59:55,853 --> 00:59:59,596 So, a big challenge is can we get a product 1325 00:59:59,639 --> 01:00:02,120 that is either compostable or recyclable? 1326 01:00:02,163 --> 01:00:05,036 This required us to start to purchase PLA 1327 01:00:05,079 --> 01:00:07,299 compostable food service items. 1328 01:00:07,342 --> 01:00:09,170 So, for example, if you're a caterer 1329 01:00:09,214 --> 01:00:11,129 from the local town and you want to cater 1330 01:00:11,172 --> 01:00:12,826 an event on campus, 1331 01:00:12,870 --> 01:00:16,395 you're required to use compostable PLA products. 1332 01:00:16,438 --> 01:00:21,487 ♪ 1333 01:00:33,064 --> 01:00:35,544 In an effort to add value 1334 01:00:35,588 --> 01:00:38,635 to the organic farm that I lived on, 1335 01:00:38,678 --> 01:00:41,507 I decided to develop 1336 01:00:41,550 --> 01:00:44,989 an organic dairy, got it started, 1337 01:00:45,032 --> 01:00:47,992 only to find out that we had to put the milk 1338 01:00:48,035 --> 01:00:49,689 in a bottle made from oil. 1339 01:00:49,733 --> 01:00:51,560 That was the wrong decision. 1340 01:00:51,604 --> 01:00:54,085 So, we actually selected 1341 01:00:54,128 --> 01:00:56,565 a brand new material of resin 1342 01:00:56,609 --> 01:00:59,003 called PLA, 1343 01:00:59,046 --> 01:01:01,092 polylactic acid, 1344 01:01:01,135 --> 01:01:03,311 which is sugarcane. 1345 01:01:03,355 --> 01:01:05,662 And so we made the first 1346 01:01:05,705 --> 01:01:07,968 milk PLA bottle in the world. 1347 01:01:08,012 --> 01:01:10,101 It was a pretty big deal for us. 1348 01:01:10,144 --> 01:01:12,886 We didn't realize how big a deal it could become. 1349 01:01:12,930 --> 01:01:16,716 And proceeded to bottle milk 1350 01:01:16,760 --> 01:01:17,935 for five or six years. 1351 01:01:18,326 --> 01:01:21,460 One problem, our first customer was Costco. 1352 01:01:21,503 --> 01:01:23,418 We quickly learned 1353 01:01:23,462 --> 01:01:25,507 we didn't have enough milk 1354 01:01:25,551 --> 01:01:28,119 to supply Costco, which was unfortunate. 1355 01:01:28,162 --> 01:01:30,948 So, we had to close that down 1356 01:01:30,991 --> 01:01:33,472 and shifted to bottled water. 1357 01:01:33,515 --> 01:01:35,692 This is what we're producing, guys. 1358 01:01:36,257 --> 01:01:39,043 This is a-- this is a preform. This is what we're making. 1359 01:01:39,086 --> 01:01:40,871 We're getting ready to go see the machine right now. 1360 01:01:40,914 --> 01:01:42,263 It looks like a test tube. 1361 01:01:42,307 --> 01:01:44,744 And it will get heated and blown out 1362 01:01:44,788 --> 01:01:47,573 into whatever form that you want into a bottle. 1363 01:01:47,616 --> 01:01:49,009 So this is what they-- 1364 01:01:49,053 --> 01:01:51,446 all bottles start out as, as a preform. 1365 01:01:53,318 --> 01:01:55,842 We got some preforms coming off right here. 1366 01:01:58,062 --> 01:02:00,412 From-- from this it will become this 1367 01:02:00,455 --> 01:02:02,849 in the next phase of the process. 1368 01:02:02,893 --> 01:02:05,809 [Bill] If we can place the bottles in what we call 1369 01:02:05,852 --> 01:02:08,420 a closed loop venue... 1370 01:02:09,290 --> 01:02:11,945 then three or four different things 1371 01:02:11,989 --> 01:02:13,599 can be done with those empty bottles. 1372 01:02:13,642 --> 01:02:16,776 So, that's why we are sticking very closely 1373 01:02:16,820 --> 01:02:19,300 to only placing our bottles 1374 01:02:19,344 --> 01:02:21,172 in venues where we can collect 1375 01:02:21,215 --> 01:02:24,392 90% of the bottles 90% of the time. 1376 01:02:28,353 --> 01:02:30,747 [Bruno] By replacing all the different products 1377 01:02:30,790 --> 01:02:33,619 by compostable alternatives, for example, in Holland, 1378 01:02:33,662 --> 01:02:34,838 there is a discussion going on, 1379 01:02:34,881 --> 01:02:36,796 okay, the composting industry 1380 01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:40,713 is positive towards accepting compostable coffee cups 1381 01:02:40,757 --> 01:02:44,108 on condition that all in the market are compostable. 1382 01:02:44,151 --> 01:02:46,066 So that the consumer cannot make a mistake. 1383 01:02:46,110 --> 01:02:49,374 Don't leave the possibility open to the consumer 1384 01:02:49,417 --> 01:02:52,464 that he can confuse, that he has to make his choice 1385 01:02:52,507 --> 01:02:55,467 no, there is only one option, it's only compostable. 1386 01:02:56,207 --> 01:02:57,904 [Bob] Plastics don't compost, 1387 01:02:57,948 --> 01:03:00,080 no more than they break down in a landfill. 1388 01:03:00,689 --> 01:03:03,301 And so how do we manage the food waste stream? 1389 01:03:03,344 --> 01:03:05,651 What kind of containers-- that you'll see compostable 1390 01:03:05,694 --> 01:03:08,959 packagings promoted and that's great. 1391 01:03:09,002 --> 01:03:12,397 We-- we're working on methods to make sure what we get 1392 01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:15,487 on the compostable side actually composts. 1393 01:03:15,530 --> 01:03:17,837 We aligned ourselves with an organization called 1394 01:03:17,881 --> 01:03:20,884 the Compost Manufacturers Alliance, CMA, 1395 01:03:20,927 --> 01:03:23,843 so we do field testing, actual field, 1396 01:03:23,887 --> 01:03:26,411 not on a laptop, not in a bucket on a desk, 1397 01:03:26,454 --> 01:03:27,978 but in the field. 1398 01:03:28,021 --> 01:03:33,113 ♪ 1399 01:03:40,642 --> 01:03:43,863 [Susan] In 2007, 2008 I took 1400 01:03:43,907 --> 01:03:47,780 the first compostable cutlery that we had 1401 01:03:47,824 --> 01:03:50,565 and I took it to a mayor's event so there was the mayor 1402 01:03:50,609 --> 01:03:52,306 and so they were taking the spoons 1403 01:03:52,350 --> 01:03:54,482 -and stirring their coffee... -[Janice] Yeah. 1404 01:03:54,526 --> 01:03:57,224 ...and they pull out stubs then I was freaking out 1405 01:03:57,268 --> 01:03:58,486 and the mayor was like, "What?" 1406 01:03:58,530 --> 01:03:59,836 And so I'm chasing him around. 1407 01:03:59,879 --> 01:04:01,881 Well, six years later, 1408 01:04:01,925 --> 01:04:04,841 they're making it hot enough where you can put that 1409 01:04:04,884 --> 01:04:06,930 into a cup of hot chowder and it's fine. 1410 01:04:06,973 --> 01:04:09,497 This is what I love to show people. 1411 01:04:09,541 --> 01:04:11,195 This is how we get it wrong. 1412 01:04:11,238 --> 01:04:12,849 All the little pieces of plastic 1413 01:04:12,892 --> 01:04:16,026 from, you know, not using a compostable bag. 1414 01:04:16,069 --> 01:04:17,592 [Bob] That plastic contamination 1415 01:04:17,636 --> 01:04:19,899 causes us, and any composter that's doing it, 1416 01:04:19,943 --> 01:04:21,770 a lot of challenges and headaches. 1417 01:04:21,814 --> 01:04:23,860 We can't get it out, you know? 1418 01:04:23,903 --> 01:04:25,905 We do all kinds of techniques, and we've been 1419 01:04:25,949 --> 01:04:27,864 very successful in getting it minimized 1420 01:04:27,907 --> 01:04:29,430 in our finished product. 1421 01:04:29,474 --> 01:04:32,651 But what comes out is-- still we have to deal 1422 01:04:32,694 --> 01:04:35,262 with microplastic, small pieces of plastic. 1423 01:04:35,306 --> 01:04:36,568 [Susan] So, this is a portion cup 1424 01:04:36,611 --> 01:04:38,483 that's clearly plastic. 1425 01:04:38,526 --> 01:04:40,702 If we had a compostable version 1426 01:04:40,746 --> 01:04:42,922 it wouldn't be a contaminant. 1427 01:04:42,966 --> 01:04:44,576 You can see the plastic building up 1428 01:04:44,619 --> 01:04:46,621 -in it, right? -[Janice] Look over there. 1429 01:04:46,665 --> 01:04:48,014 [Susan] Well, see? 1430 01:04:48,058 --> 01:04:49,537 And at some point, it gets so entrained 1431 01:04:49,581 --> 01:04:51,713 with plastic that they have to throw away 1432 01:04:51,757 --> 01:04:53,541 -all the good organics too. -[Janice] Oh, [indistinct]. 1433 01:04:53,585 --> 01:04:56,588 In the late '90s there were a lot of claims being made 1434 01:04:56,631 --> 01:05:00,592 around bio-based plastics, biodegradable plastics. 1435 01:05:00,635 --> 01:05:03,943 There needed to be standards and tests to make sure that 1436 01:05:03,987 --> 01:05:06,467 claims were responsible and made sense. 1437 01:05:06,511 --> 01:05:09,427 Food is the number one thing going to landfills today. 1438 01:05:09,470 --> 01:05:11,820 The fact that it's oftentimes intertwined 1439 01:05:11,864 --> 01:05:13,648 with plastic and paper packaging, 1440 01:05:13,692 --> 01:05:16,651 that makes it really difficult for composters to recover. 1441 01:05:16,695 --> 01:05:18,958 Packaging seems so simple to consumers. 1442 01:05:19,002 --> 01:05:21,743 But when you look at a little thin wrapper 1443 01:05:21,787 --> 01:05:24,398 around your snack bar, typically it's not one layer 1444 01:05:24,442 --> 01:05:26,009 of plastic, there are so many different layers 1445 01:05:26,052 --> 01:05:28,750 in there to get the right barrier properties, 1446 01:05:28,794 --> 01:05:30,187 food contact safety, 1447 01:05:30,230 --> 01:05:32,232 keeping it fresh, all these things. 1448 01:05:32,276 --> 01:05:35,670 And to redesign that to be compostable is possible. 1449 01:05:35,714 --> 01:05:36,845 And companies are doing it. 1450 01:05:36,889 --> 01:05:38,195 But the issue is, 1451 01:05:38,238 --> 01:05:39,587 like, they're also still wondering, 1452 01:05:39,631 --> 01:05:41,198 like, "Well, is this actually going to work?" 1453 01:05:41,241 --> 01:05:43,809 I gotta be honest with you, a large percentage 1454 01:05:43,852 --> 01:05:46,029 of what we test doesn't pass. 1455 01:05:46,072 --> 01:05:48,292 And that feedback loop has never gotten back 1456 01:05:48,335 --> 01:05:49,989 to those manufacturers. 1457 01:05:50,033 --> 01:05:51,469 So, what do we do with that? 1458 01:05:51,512 --> 01:05:53,123 We get to work with them and talk to them 1459 01:05:53,166 --> 01:05:55,821 about the pile science versus the design science. 1460 01:05:55,864 --> 01:05:57,475 And hopefully we can move those products 1461 01:05:57,518 --> 01:06:00,086 into products that will work in the piles 1462 01:06:00,130 --> 01:06:02,871 as well as perform in the field for the consumer. 1463 01:06:02,915 --> 01:06:06,440 [excavator rumbling] 1464 01:06:06,484 --> 01:06:11,532 ♪ 1465 01:06:15,580 --> 01:06:18,235 We have a team of almost 50 people working on 1466 01:06:18,278 --> 01:06:21,020 biodegradability testing and compostability testing 1467 01:06:21,064 --> 01:06:23,892 of plastics, of packaging of several applications. 1468 01:06:23,936 --> 01:06:25,372 Well, here we are doing 1469 01:06:25,416 --> 01:06:28,071 home composting disintegration tests. 1470 01:06:28,636 --> 01:06:31,988 So if we-- for example, if one wants to produce 1471 01:06:32,031 --> 01:06:35,861 a compostable teabag, there is a plastic fiber. 1472 01:06:35,904 --> 01:06:38,820 We check if the plastic will fragment 1473 01:06:38,864 --> 01:06:41,519 within a normal duration of composting. 1474 01:06:41,562 --> 01:06:43,216 So, home composting, the duration 1475 01:06:43,260 --> 01:06:44,826 is set at six months. 1476 01:06:44,870 --> 01:06:46,654 Uh, so these are all tests which are running 1477 01:06:46,698 --> 01:06:49,527 for six months, and in which we are testing 1478 01:06:49,570 --> 01:06:51,964 items to see whether they fragment 1479 01:06:52,008 --> 01:06:54,010 and they become crumbly compost 1480 01:06:54,053 --> 01:06:55,533 and they disappear. 1481 01:06:55,576 --> 01:06:57,535 Standards are being written how to determine 1482 01:06:57,578 --> 01:06:59,841 biodegradability in different fields. 1483 01:06:59,885 --> 01:07:01,800 So that you have, like, objective, 1484 01:07:01,843 --> 01:07:03,671 scientifically based tools 1485 01:07:03,715 --> 01:07:05,195 to prove what you want to prove, 1486 01:07:05,238 --> 01:07:07,110 which then lead, in the next step, 1487 01:07:07,153 --> 01:07:08,850 eventually to certifications. 1488 01:07:08,894 --> 01:07:10,678 We'd like to see the composting infrastructure grow 1489 01:07:10,722 --> 01:07:12,941 because there's only 500 of those facilities 1490 01:07:12,985 --> 01:07:14,334 that'll take food scrap 1491 01:07:14,378 --> 01:07:16,858 and we probably need closer to 2000. 1492 01:07:16,902 --> 01:07:20,210 [Susan] So, one of the things we got was compostable bags 1493 01:07:20,253 --> 01:07:22,821 in our state can only be green and brown. 1494 01:07:22,864 --> 01:07:25,258 You'll see brown cutlery, you'll see brown straws. 1495 01:07:25,302 --> 01:07:27,782 And that's where we need packaging companies 1496 01:07:27,826 --> 01:07:29,393 to work with us to come up with 1497 01:07:29,436 --> 01:07:31,960 a simpler system of coloring and marking 1498 01:07:32,004 --> 01:07:34,224 and make sure that we're not getting the wrong stuff. 1499 01:07:34,267 --> 01:07:36,835 We're seeing much less 1500 01:07:36,878 --> 01:07:40,186 remaining "compostable" material 1501 01:07:40,230 --> 01:07:41,883 that-- what didn't break down. 1502 01:07:41,927 --> 01:07:43,885 That's-- that's not occurring anymore because of-- 1503 01:07:43,929 --> 01:07:45,713 because we're doing that certification. 1504 01:07:45,757 --> 01:07:47,150 [Rhodes] If food waste were a country, 1505 01:07:47,193 --> 01:07:48,760 it would be the third largest emitter 1506 01:07:48,803 --> 01:07:51,110 of greenhouse gases after the US and China. 1507 01:07:51,154 --> 01:07:53,025 If we're really going to get food out of landfills, 1508 01:07:53,069 --> 01:07:54,331 it's not going to work 1509 01:07:54,374 --> 01:07:55,549 unless we have people understand 1510 01:07:55,593 --> 01:07:57,682 what does composting mean? 1511 01:07:57,725 --> 01:07:59,118 Is composting always done in a backyard? 1512 01:07:59,162 --> 01:08:01,033 What does it mean when you collect it 1513 01:08:01,077 --> 01:08:02,643 and send it to a large-scale facility? 1514 01:08:02,687 --> 01:08:04,689 And I think that's where I get 1515 01:08:04,732 --> 01:08:07,648 really excited when-- as-- big brands are really starting 1516 01:08:07,692 --> 01:08:10,390 to investigate and invest in compostable packaging, 1517 01:08:10,434 --> 01:08:12,218 they're associated with food, right? 1518 01:08:12,262 --> 01:08:13,785 They help divert that food 1519 01:08:13,828 --> 01:08:15,613 and the packaging at the same time. 1520 01:08:15,656 --> 01:08:17,267 So, you're solving two problems. 1521 01:08:17,309 --> 01:08:22,880 ♪ 1522 01:08:25,405 --> 01:08:27,363 They've got whole research and development 1523 01:08:27,407 --> 01:08:29,496 packaging divisions at these big companies 1524 01:08:29,540 --> 01:08:31,977 and so they're already well equipped to analyze 1525 01:08:32,020 --> 01:08:34,631 new polymer types, come up with new structures. 1526 01:08:34,675 --> 01:08:36,328 And so I think that's why we're starting to see 1527 01:08:36,372 --> 01:08:38,375 this huge peak in increase 1528 01:08:38,417 --> 01:08:40,116 where companies are putting a lot of money 1529 01:08:40,158 --> 01:08:42,683 into understanding compostable materials, 1530 01:08:42,727 --> 01:08:43,858 end of life of their materials, 1531 01:08:43,902 --> 01:08:45,032 composting systems, 1532 01:08:45,077 --> 01:08:47,035 how they can help fund composting. 1533 01:08:47,078 --> 01:08:48,862 If we're going to get composting to work, 1534 01:08:48,907 --> 01:08:51,344 it needs to be all these big brands coming together 1535 01:08:51,388 --> 01:08:53,345 and agreeing on-- on sort of the ground rules 1536 01:08:53,389 --> 01:08:55,522 and figuring out, "Okay, how do we actually get this to work?" 1537 01:08:55,566 --> 01:09:00,440 ♪ 1538 01:09:21,244 --> 01:09:22,941 How long do you think it'll take them to do 1539 01:09:22,984 --> 01:09:24,421 what we've asked them to do today? 1540 01:09:24,464 --> 01:09:25,857 The six miles that we've asked them to do today? 1541 01:09:25,899 --> 01:09:27,075 Oh, I imagine we could probably 1542 01:09:27,119 --> 01:09:28,468 do it in a couple of hours. 1543 01:09:28,512 --> 01:09:29,991 Most of the litter that you pick up 1544 01:09:30,035 --> 01:09:32,298 uh, involves some sort of plastic. 1545 01:09:32,342 --> 01:09:34,344 The European Commission did-- they did a study, 1546 01:09:34,387 --> 01:09:37,869 the ten products which were most visible on beaches, 1547 01:09:37,912 --> 01:09:40,001 and they were almost all plastics. 1548 01:09:40,045 --> 01:09:42,700 Of course, cigarette filters were number one. 1549 01:09:42,743 --> 01:09:44,919 Drinking straws were also in the top five. 1550 01:09:54,581 --> 01:09:56,583 Lake Allatoona is 1551 01:09:56,627 --> 01:09:59,195 less than two miles from where we're standing 1552 01:09:59,237 --> 01:10:01,545 here at Hobgood Park in Cherokee County. 1553 01:10:01,588 --> 01:10:05,201 There are coves of this lake where you can... 1554 01:10:06,637 --> 01:10:08,726 literally walk on the garbage 1555 01:10:08,769 --> 01:10:11,250 and never get your feet wet in the lake. 1556 01:10:11,772 --> 01:10:15,080 In 2012, we conducted the first survey 1557 01:10:15,123 --> 01:10:18,039 for plastic pollution within the Great Lakes. 1558 01:10:18,083 --> 01:10:21,913 And the findings that we had were quite dramatic. 1559 01:10:21,956 --> 01:10:24,437 At that time, 75% of what we found 1560 01:10:24,481 --> 01:10:27,135 was less than five millimeters in size. 1561 01:10:27,179 --> 01:10:28,485 So, microplastics. 1562 01:10:28,528 --> 01:10:30,226 A number of those particles 1563 01:10:30,269 --> 01:10:32,706 we were able to identify as micro beads coming from 1564 01:10:32,750 --> 01:10:34,577 personal care products. 1565 01:10:34,621 --> 01:10:37,276 So, face wash, body wash, toothpaste, 1566 01:10:37,320 --> 01:10:40,279 and they're just like little balls of plastic. 1567 01:10:40,323 --> 01:10:42,281 And so that is, in fact, what led 1568 01:10:42,325 --> 01:10:44,457 to the Microbeads Free Water Act 1569 01:10:44,501 --> 01:10:47,852 of 2015 signed by President Obama. 1570 01:10:47,895 --> 01:10:50,376 They are still being produced, and in some countries, 1571 01:10:50,420 --> 01:10:51,898 they are still used. 1572 01:10:51,943 --> 01:10:53,771 And so you're washing your face, 1573 01:10:53,814 --> 01:10:55,294 it goes down the drain, 1574 01:10:55,338 --> 01:10:56,904 they make their way through 1575 01:10:56,948 --> 01:10:59,037 wastewater treatment plants and end up deposited 1576 01:10:59,080 --> 01:11:00,907 into local bodies of water. 1577 01:11:00,952 --> 01:11:02,780 Most often, this is rivers that flow 1578 01:11:02,823 --> 01:11:04,695 into lakes that eventually flow into the ocean. 1579 01:11:04,737 --> 01:11:06,130 I mean-- and-- 1580 01:11:06,174 --> 01:11:07,959 You, know, that's a really important point. 1581 01:11:08,002 --> 01:11:09,830 Water connects us all to each other. 1582 01:11:09,874 --> 01:11:12,137 So, it doesn't matter almost if it's been banned 1583 01:11:12,180 --> 01:11:15,096 in the United States, if it's still legal in, 1584 01:11:15,139 --> 01:11:16,315 say, Indonesia, 1585 01:11:16,359 --> 01:11:18,230 because water flows, 1586 01:11:18,273 --> 01:11:20,493 we are all downstream from somewhere. 1587 01:11:20,537 --> 01:11:23,103 When you're talking about a water pollution issue, 1588 01:11:23,148 --> 01:11:24,976 it doesn't matter where in the world it is. 1589 01:11:25,019 --> 01:11:26,369 It's affecting all of us. 1590 01:11:26,412 --> 01:11:29,285 More than 95% of the plastics 1591 01:11:29,327 --> 01:11:33,157 and also of the nanoplastics is removed from the wastewater 1592 01:11:33,201 --> 01:11:35,246 and is ending up in the sewage sludge. 1593 01:11:35,291 --> 01:11:37,335 It's good news that they are removed 1594 01:11:37,380 --> 01:11:40,339 from the wastewater stream, but that also means 1595 01:11:40,383 --> 01:11:43,210 it's accumulated in the sewage sludge. 1596 01:11:43,255 --> 01:11:45,910 And then it depends what happens 1597 01:11:45,952 --> 01:11:47,346 to the sewage sludge. 1598 01:11:47,389 --> 01:11:50,001 In Switzerland, we exclusively burned 1599 01:11:50,044 --> 01:11:53,526 the sewage sludge, but looking maybe 20, 1600 01:11:53,570 --> 01:11:56,616 30, 40 years ahead, maybe burning sewage sludge 1601 01:11:56,660 --> 01:11:58,487 is not the best option. 1602 01:11:58,531 --> 01:12:01,186 Other alternative approaches which are used 1603 01:12:01,228 --> 01:12:02,883 all around the world, in the States, 1604 01:12:02,927 --> 01:12:06,234 but also in part of Europe, in France, in England, 1605 01:12:06,278 --> 01:12:08,498 is using the sludge as fertilizer. 1606 01:12:08,541 --> 01:12:10,369 So, the plastics that are removed 1607 01:12:10,413 --> 01:12:12,066 in a wastewater treatment plant 1608 01:12:12,110 --> 01:12:14,504 actually are just being moved. 1609 01:12:14,547 --> 01:12:15,592 [Ralf] You spread the sewage sludge 1610 01:12:15,635 --> 01:12:17,245 where you have accumulated 1611 01:12:17,289 --> 01:12:19,246 all the microplastics on agricultural fields, 1612 01:12:19,291 --> 01:12:20,858 that's not what you want. 1613 01:12:20,901 --> 01:12:22,425 [Sherri] And being applied to crops 1614 01:12:22,468 --> 01:12:24,340 that we are then going to eat. 1615 01:12:24,383 --> 01:12:26,777 And some really interesting study is showing 1616 01:12:26,820 --> 01:12:29,519 that microplastics are making their way 1617 01:12:29,562 --> 01:12:32,565 across root systems and making their way 1618 01:12:32,609 --> 01:12:34,480 actually into plants. 1619 01:12:34,523 --> 01:12:36,960 [Ralf] The better option is to have measures at the source. 1620 01:12:37,004 --> 01:12:40,356 Do not put any microplastics into the wastewater, 1621 01:12:40,398 --> 01:12:42,835 the first point, and then you don't have to remove it. 1622 01:12:42,880 --> 01:12:44,664 And then you don't have to deal 1623 01:12:44,708 --> 01:12:48,189 with the treatment options 1624 01:12:48,233 --> 01:12:49,930 for the sewage sludge. 1625 01:12:49,974 --> 01:12:51,541 [Sherri] People often ask is, 1626 01:12:51,584 --> 01:12:53,585 "Well, how can we clean this out of the water?" 1627 01:12:53,630 --> 01:12:55,458 And it's just you can't. 1628 01:12:55,501 --> 01:13:00,245 [somber music playing] 1629 01:13:00,288 --> 01:13:02,334 These particles are so incredibly small 1630 01:13:02,378 --> 01:13:05,250 and there's so much life in water. 1631 01:13:05,293 --> 01:13:06,599 You know, I don't think 1632 01:13:06,643 --> 01:13:09,428 people really fully appreciate that. 1633 01:13:09,472 --> 01:13:11,996 You know, we think of trees as being these 1634 01:13:12,039 --> 01:13:13,650 great oxygen generators. 1635 01:13:13,693 --> 01:13:16,696 They are. But phytoplankton in the oceans generate 1636 01:13:16,740 --> 01:13:18,916 more oxygen than all the trees. 1637 01:13:18,959 --> 01:13:22,267 They are the real oxygen generators. 1638 01:13:22,309 --> 01:13:24,443 These are organisms that live in the water. 1639 01:13:24,487 --> 01:13:27,664 So when you're talking about a particle that is 1640 01:13:27,707 --> 01:13:30,057 actually small enough that these phytoplankton eat them, 1641 01:13:30,101 --> 01:13:32,538 that's how incredibly small they are. 1642 01:13:32,582 --> 01:13:36,237 And they are eating this micro plastic. 1643 01:13:36,281 --> 01:13:38,109 There's no doubt about that. 1644 01:13:38,152 --> 01:13:41,547 And especially the microfibers are being retained by them, 1645 01:13:41,591 --> 01:13:44,811 impacting their ability to survive. 1646 01:13:44,855 --> 01:13:47,466 Because if it's impacting the ability of phytoplankton 1647 01:13:47,510 --> 01:13:49,380 to survive... 1648 01:13:49,425 --> 01:13:51,296 it's impacting our ability. 1649 01:13:51,339 --> 01:13:52,862 And there's no doubt that this stuff is making 1650 01:13:52,906 --> 01:13:54,299 its way into us. 1651 01:14:00,566 --> 01:14:02,612 [somber music fades] 1652 01:14:02,655 --> 01:14:05,005 [tranquil music playing] 1653 01:14:07,355 --> 01:14:08,966 [Troy] Here at the Cherokee County Recycling Center, 1654 01:14:09,009 --> 01:14:11,142 we do single-stream recycling. 1655 01:14:12,491 --> 01:14:14,928 Single-stream recycling came about 1656 01:14:14,972 --> 01:14:16,974 because the biggest complaint about recycling is 1657 01:14:17,017 --> 01:14:18,628 it's such a hassle. 1658 01:14:18,671 --> 01:14:20,499 Because you got to separate the different plastics 1659 01:14:20,543 --> 01:14:24,198 and the paper and nobody wants seven bins in their house. 1660 01:14:24,242 --> 01:14:26,418 So they came up with single-stream recycling. 1661 01:14:26,462 --> 01:14:29,594 And what single-stream recycling enables you to do is, 1662 01:14:29,639 --> 01:14:32,468 with the exception of glass, everything can go together. 1663 01:14:32,511 --> 01:14:34,121 -And when you say everything-- -Your paper, 1664 01:14:34,165 --> 01:14:36,907 your plastic, your cardboard, cans. 1665 01:14:36,950 --> 01:14:38,299 -[Janice] Okay. -It can all come 1666 01:14:38,343 --> 01:14:39,952 -in one container. -[Janice] Okay. 1667 01:14:39,996 --> 01:14:41,651 And it all goes into the same container 1668 01:14:41,693 --> 01:14:44,958 out here, then it's taken to a separate facility 1669 01:14:45,002 --> 01:14:47,134 where it's processed, and that's where it's actually sorted. 1670 01:14:47,178 --> 01:14:49,093 The problem with recycling plastics 1671 01:14:49,136 --> 01:14:50,921 is that the polymer structure breaks down 1672 01:14:50,964 --> 01:14:52,531 after you recycle it a few times. 1673 01:14:52,575 --> 01:14:55,621 So after one or two times, maybe three or four, 1674 01:14:55,665 --> 01:14:57,014 depending on the type of plastic, 1675 01:14:57,057 --> 01:14:58,450 to the point where you can no longer 1676 01:14:58,494 --> 01:15:00,670 turn that back into a usable product. 1677 01:15:00,713 --> 01:15:02,148 So then what do you do 1678 01:15:02,193 --> 01:15:03,934 with all of that material as well, too? 1679 01:15:03,977 --> 01:15:05,326 Where does that go? 1680 01:15:05,370 --> 01:15:08,416 [upbeat string music playing] 1681 01:15:16,120 --> 01:15:18,209 I worked for a recycling program 1682 01:15:18,252 --> 01:15:20,472 in Pennsylvania in the '70s. 1683 01:15:20,516 --> 01:15:23,475 My daughter was about four years old 1684 01:15:23,519 --> 01:15:26,609 and I sent her to daycare 1685 01:15:26,652 --> 01:15:29,916 with a T-shirt that said, "I am the future." 1686 01:15:29,960 --> 01:15:34,094 Now I have an almost 11-year-old granddaughter 1687 01:15:34,138 --> 01:15:36,835 and we still have the same problems. 1688 01:15:37,315 --> 01:15:38,882 So, let's fix it. 1689 01:15:42,450 --> 01:15:45,323 We've got Graham Packaging right here. 1690 01:15:45,366 --> 01:15:48,413 York, Pennsylvania. So what they're doing is 1691 01:15:48,456 --> 01:15:50,023 they're taking it back, 1692 01:15:50,067 --> 01:15:51,590 we're selling our material to them. 1693 01:15:51,634 --> 01:15:53,418 They need it as a feedstock. 1694 01:15:53,460 --> 01:15:56,116 People are always going to need milk jugs. 1695 01:15:56,160 --> 01:15:58,423 They're washing it, they're pelletizing it 1696 01:15:58,466 --> 01:16:00,773 and they're turning it right back into 1697 01:16:00,817 --> 01:16:03,080 the same product from which it came. 1698 01:16:03,123 --> 01:16:06,692 The truth is, only a fraction of plastics are recycled. 1699 01:16:06,736 --> 01:16:10,217 Only 9% have ever been collected to be recycled. 1700 01:16:10,261 --> 01:16:12,611 And half of all plastic is designed 1701 01:16:12,655 --> 01:16:14,482 to be used only once. 1702 01:16:14,526 --> 01:16:16,353 So, while we do need to look at 1703 01:16:16,397 --> 01:16:18,617 how are we recycling plastics, 1704 01:16:18,661 --> 01:16:20,706 how do we reduce the number of 1705 01:16:20,750 --> 01:16:23,273 single-use plastics that we're buying, 1706 01:16:23,317 --> 01:16:24,666 and so on and so forth, 1707 01:16:24,710 --> 01:16:26,407 we really need to make sure 1708 01:16:26,451 --> 01:16:30,281 that what we're manufacturing can be either reused, 1709 01:16:30,324 --> 01:16:33,458 recycled or otherwise have 1710 01:16:33,501 --> 01:16:36,112 an end of life that is more acceptable 1711 01:16:36,156 --> 01:16:39,159 than either waste energy or landfilling. 1712 01:16:40,508 --> 01:16:44,164 When you look at consumer packaged goods today, 1713 01:16:44,208 --> 01:16:46,602 it's very rare that one of them 1714 01:16:46,645 --> 01:16:48,647 isn't looked at to say, 1715 01:16:48,691 --> 01:16:50,388 "How can this be more sustainable? 1716 01:16:50,431 --> 01:16:53,913 "How can we launch to market a better solution 1717 01:16:53,957 --> 01:16:55,567 that has a lighter footprint on the earth?" 1718 01:16:55,611 --> 01:16:57,656 [atmospheric music playing] 1719 01:17:11,539 --> 01:17:14,673 We founded Preserve back in 1996 1720 01:17:14,717 --> 01:17:17,371 to make products that were both lighter on the Earth 1721 01:17:17,415 --> 01:17:19,156 and fabulous to use. 1722 01:17:19,199 --> 01:17:21,549 And the biggest way we did that 1723 01:17:21,593 --> 01:17:25,031 was to use recycled materials. 1724 01:17:25,075 --> 01:17:28,513 So there was a lot of recycling going on back in the early '90s, 1725 01:17:28,556 --> 01:17:30,689 but the people who are recycling were wondering, 1726 01:17:30,733 --> 01:17:32,169 "Where does all this material go?" 1727 01:17:32,212 --> 01:17:33,996 There really wasn't evidences 1728 01:17:34,040 --> 01:17:36,521 of products made from recycled materials. 1729 01:17:36,564 --> 01:17:40,438 What Preserve wanted to do was use these recycled materials 1730 01:17:40,481 --> 01:17:42,092 and raise the bar up here 1731 01:17:42,135 --> 01:17:44,964 and say, "We're putting it in a toothbrush. 1732 01:17:45,008 --> 01:17:47,532 A product that we hope everybody uses 1733 01:17:47,575 --> 01:17:49,708 and one that you stick in your mouth. 1734 01:17:49,752 --> 01:17:52,014 We've got to be able to make excellent products 1735 01:17:52,058 --> 01:17:54,147 out of these recycled materials." 1736 01:17:54,191 --> 01:17:56,106 There are companies 1737 01:17:56,148 --> 01:17:58,282 that are really big companies, 1738 01:17:58,325 --> 01:18:00,501 in this consumer-product space, 1739 01:18:00,545 --> 01:18:03,156 that now are looking to make a difference. 1740 01:18:03,200 --> 01:18:04,767 Right now we're caught in a world 1741 01:18:04,809 --> 01:18:08,074 where we have a shampoo bottle, 1742 01:18:08,118 --> 01:18:10,728 a single-use plastic shampoo bottle 1743 01:18:10,773 --> 01:18:13,297 to get your shampoo, you know, 1744 01:18:13,340 --> 01:18:15,342 from through the supply chain to the market 1745 01:18:15,386 --> 01:18:17,040 to your home to use and then poof, 1746 01:18:17,083 --> 01:18:18,344 where does it go? 1747 01:18:18,389 --> 01:18:19,825 There absolutely is a lot of 1748 01:18:19,869 --> 01:18:22,045 great brainstorming around reuse systems. 1749 01:18:22,088 --> 01:18:25,091 We have reuse systems with reusable tableware. 1750 01:18:25,135 --> 01:18:28,442 There also can be reuse systems as it relates 1751 01:18:28,486 --> 01:18:30,183 to the packaging, particularly 1752 01:18:30,227 --> 01:18:33,665 of formulation products or bulk food, 1753 01:18:33,709 --> 01:18:37,103 where you're actually bringing the package back to the market 1754 01:18:37,147 --> 01:18:40,106 to be refilled when you need new product. 1755 01:18:40,150 --> 01:18:43,762 And that's a huge way to eliminate massive amounts 1756 01:18:43,806 --> 01:18:44,937 of single use plastics 1757 01:18:44,981 --> 01:18:46,416 that are currently used today. 1758 01:18:46,460 --> 01:18:51,074 [truck rumbling] 1759 01:18:54,120 --> 01:18:56,775 We are at a recycling station 1760 01:18:56,818 --> 01:19:00,344 in Gothenburg, Sweden where people can bring 1761 01:19:00,387 --> 01:19:02,128 all their big stuff 1762 01:19:02,172 --> 01:19:05,653 that don't fit into the household bin. 1763 01:19:05,697 --> 01:19:08,612 So, you can deposit anything from paint 1764 01:19:08,656 --> 01:19:11,485 to metal to bikes here. 1765 01:19:11,529 --> 01:19:13,791 -And it's free? -And it's free. 1766 01:19:13,835 --> 01:19:16,012 In Sweden we want to make it convenient 1767 01:19:16,055 --> 01:19:17,883 and easy to recycle. 1768 01:19:17,927 --> 01:19:19,580 So we have these facilities 1769 01:19:19,624 --> 01:19:21,495 all around Gothenburg and Sweden. 1770 01:19:21,539 --> 01:19:24,237 It seems like Swedish people are really good recyclers 1771 01:19:24,281 --> 01:19:27,284 Yeah, we are. And, um, it's-- 1772 01:19:27,327 --> 01:19:29,808 we know that it's important and it's also driven 1773 01:19:29,852 --> 01:19:31,201 by peer pressure. 1774 01:19:31,244 --> 01:19:33,986 It's shameful to not recycle. 1775 01:19:34,030 --> 01:19:36,075 You shame yourself because you know 1776 01:19:36,119 --> 01:19:37,511 that this is important. 1777 01:19:37,555 --> 01:19:38,861 So this is something that you should 1778 01:19:38,904 --> 01:19:41,733 and could do for the environment. 1779 01:19:41,777 --> 01:19:43,952 The infrastructure to recycle all that 1780 01:19:43,996 --> 01:19:47,043 is still '70s and '80s infrastructure. 1781 01:19:47,085 --> 01:19:48,827 And what we need to do is invest 1782 01:19:48,871 --> 01:19:51,308 so that the infrastructure can take all packaging types. 1783 01:19:51,351 --> 01:19:54,005 So we need to upgrade not only the mechanical recycling 1784 01:19:54,050 --> 01:19:56,269 that we have that's decades old, 1785 01:19:56,313 --> 01:19:57,835 but we also need to invest 1786 01:19:57,880 --> 01:19:59,532 in what's called advanced recycling. 1787 01:19:59,577 --> 01:20:01,144 So, that's chemical recycling. 1788 01:20:01,187 --> 01:20:03,276 Chemical recycling can take 1789 01:20:03,320 --> 01:20:06,671 those products and break it down into its building blocks 1790 01:20:06,714 --> 01:20:08,847 so it can be remade back into new products 1791 01:20:08,891 --> 01:20:12,242 whether they're for packaging or for textiles. 1792 01:20:12,764 --> 01:20:14,940 [Rob] Chemical or advanced recycling takes 1793 01:20:14,984 --> 01:20:18,161 the various layers of plastic and breaks it down 1794 01:20:18,204 --> 01:20:21,642 in a way it can be recycled an infinite number of times. 1795 01:20:21,686 --> 01:20:23,383 It is therefore possible 1796 01:20:23,427 --> 01:20:25,342 to recycle used plastics 1797 01:20:25,385 --> 01:20:28,388 that are difficult or even impossible to recycle 1798 01:20:28,432 --> 01:20:30,564 with traditional mechanical recycling. 1799 01:20:30,608 --> 01:20:34,264 [upbeat electronica playing] 1800 01:20:34,307 --> 01:20:37,180 Licella, an advanced recycling plant located 1801 01:20:37,223 --> 01:20:39,398 in Sydney, Australia, is pioneering 1802 01:20:39,443 --> 01:20:42,228 the next generation of advanced recycling 1803 01:20:42,272 --> 01:20:44,883 that uses hot pressurized water. 1804 01:20:44,927 --> 01:20:48,407 Licella converts plastic to oil using water 1805 01:20:48,452 --> 01:20:50,541 under high temperature and pressure. 1806 01:20:51,107 --> 01:20:53,892 Once I've recycled physically a plastic bottle, 1807 01:20:53,936 --> 01:20:55,719 a milk bottle, two or three times, 1808 01:20:55,763 --> 01:20:57,287 that plastic degrades 1809 01:20:57,330 --> 01:20:59,463 where you can no longer physically recycle it. 1810 01:21:00,159 --> 01:21:02,770 What we can do, we can chemically recycle it 1811 01:21:02,814 --> 01:21:06,773 and convert it back to oil to make new plastics. 1812 01:21:06,818 --> 01:21:09,603 And when it comes back again, we can do it all over again. 1813 01:21:10,169 --> 01:21:12,084 So it's a true circular economy. 1814 01:21:12,606 --> 01:21:15,044 [Rob] Previously, non-recyclable plastics, 1815 01:21:15,087 --> 01:21:18,308 including multilayer packaging, can now be recycled. 1816 01:21:18,351 --> 01:21:23,269 ♪ 1817 01:21:26,490 --> 01:21:28,579 By turning hard-to-recycle plastics 1818 01:21:28,621 --> 01:21:31,799 into a reusable resource, this innovative solution 1819 01:21:31,843 --> 01:21:33,932 is helping create a better environment 1820 01:21:33,976 --> 01:21:35,368 for future generations. 1821 01:21:36,369 --> 01:21:38,719 Another innovator in the recycling space 1822 01:21:38,763 --> 01:21:40,721 is a company that has found a way to recycle 1823 01:21:40,764 --> 01:21:43,463 the polymers found in clothes. 1824 01:21:43,942 --> 01:21:45,639 I don't think most people realize 1825 01:21:45,683 --> 01:21:47,815 how much plastic is in our clothing. 1826 01:21:47,859 --> 01:21:51,776 There was a really interesting study that came out of UK. 1827 01:21:51,818 --> 01:21:55,736 Each individual article of synthetic clothing 1828 01:21:55,780 --> 01:21:57,651 was shedding, at a minimum, 1829 01:21:57,695 --> 01:22:00,132 15,000 microfibers 1830 01:22:00,175 --> 01:22:01,612 for every time it was washed. 1831 01:22:01,655 --> 01:22:04,223 And that's one article of clothing. 1832 01:22:04,267 --> 01:22:05,702 With textile recycling, 1833 01:22:05,964 --> 01:22:07,226 most people think it's already happening. 1834 01:22:07,270 --> 01:22:09,837 But in the United States, the reality is 1835 01:22:09,880 --> 01:22:12,884 that only 1% of clothing gets recycled 1836 01:22:12,928 --> 01:22:14,494 back into new clothing. 1837 01:22:14,538 --> 01:22:16,975 And the reason why is because most of the clothes 1838 01:22:17,019 --> 01:22:18,672 we wear is blended. 1839 01:22:18,716 --> 01:22:21,284 It's mostly polyester and cotton blended together. 1840 01:22:21,675 --> 01:22:24,330 Our solution is different because we can take 1841 01:22:24,374 --> 01:22:27,333 those poly-cotton blends and break them apart. 1842 01:22:27,377 --> 01:22:28,856 With this terry cloth, 1843 01:22:28,900 --> 01:22:31,163 you can see it's dark blue, 1844 01:22:31,207 --> 01:22:32,991 um, it has that nice feel. 1845 01:22:33,035 --> 01:22:34,993 And when it goes into the process, 1846 01:22:35,037 --> 01:22:36,821 we chemically break down, 1847 01:22:36,864 --> 01:22:38,996 we cut down that polyester molecule 1848 01:22:39,041 --> 01:22:40,693 and it goes into the liquid. 1849 01:22:40,737 --> 01:22:42,000 And then you're just left 1850 01:22:42,044 --> 01:22:43,871 with this beautiful, solid cotton. 1851 01:22:43,915 --> 01:22:45,916 -[whispering] Wow. -And you can see 1852 01:22:45,960 --> 01:22:47,963 where all the polyester was before. 1853 01:22:48,005 --> 01:22:49,312 -Exact same-- -And this is the after. 1854 01:22:49,355 --> 01:22:50,922 This is the same material. 1855 01:22:50,966 --> 01:22:52,706 -Same material. -Before and after. 1856 01:22:52,750 --> 01:22:54,230 Wow. 1857 01:22:54,273 --> 01:22:56,406 [Peter] I get asked all the time what to wear, 1858 01:22:56,449 --> 01:22:57,929 what is the right answer? 1859 01:22:57,973 --> 01:22:59,191 And unfortunately, 1860 01:22:59,235 --> 01:23:01,063 there really isn't one right now. 1861 01:23:01,106 --> 01:23:03,543 The best thing you can do is wear your clothing longer, 1862 01:23:03,587 --> 01:23:04,980 repair it or donate it, 1863 01:23:05,023 --> 01:23:06,982 or find somebody who can keep using it. 1864 01:23:07,678 --> 01:23:09,157 Or go thrifting. 1865 01:23:09,201 --> 01:23:13,031 Uh, but until we have new technologies, 1866 01:23:13,075 --> 01:23:15,164 we're going to continue down this path. 1867 01:23:15,207 --> 01:23:17,514 There's been a huge push for new solutions. 1868 01:23:17,557 --> 01:23:19,777 A lot of it's been natural fibers, 1869 01:23:19,820 --> 01:23:21,822 hemp or stronger cottons 1870 01:23:21,866 --> 01:23:24,825 or things like that, but they still don't quite have 1871 01:23:24,869 --> 01:23:26,958 the same performance characteristics. 1872 01:23:27,002 --> 01:23:29,308 There's been some new polymers coming out 1873 01:23:29,352 --> 01:23:31,353 that can be biodegradable, 1874 01:23:31,397 --> 01:23:33,746 some that come from methane gas. 1875 01:23:33,791 --> 01:23:36,402 And so I'm really excited to see what else is out there 1876 01:23:36,446 --> 01:23:38,535 because this is such a big problem 1877 01:23:38,577 --> 01:23:41,059 that we need all these solutions to scale. 1878 01:23:41,103 --> 01:23:44,367 Our solution focuses on recycling polyester 1879 01:23:44,410 --> 01:23:45,803 over and over again, 1880 01:23:45,846 --> 01:23:47,934 and other great technology startups 1881 01:23:47,978 --> 01:23:50,025 are working on filtration systems 1882 01:23:50,068 --> 01:23:51,460 in our washing machines in our homes 1883 01:23:51,504 --> 01:23:53,332 that can capture those microfibers 1884 01:23:53,376 --> 01:23:55,073 so they don't go into our waterways. 1885 01:23:55,117 --> 01:23:59,947 ♪ 1886 01:23:59,991 --> 01:24:01,558 [Rob] I'm originally from Michigan. 1887 01:24:01,601 --> 01:24:03,125 And I can remember 1888 01:24:03,168 --> 01:24:05,910 when Michigan roads 1889 01:24:05,952 --> 01:24:07,999 were absolutely horrible 1890 01:24:08,043 --> 01:24:10,654 and the biggest piece of litter on Michigan roads, 1891 01:24:10,697 --> 01:24:13,612 on the side of the roads were aluminum cans, 1892 01:24:13,657 --> 01:24:15,311 and they came up with this great idea 1893 01:24:15,353 --> 01:24:17,356 of 8-10 cent can deposit. 1894 01:24:17,400 --> 01:24:19,184 So when you buy a six pack of cans, 1895 01:24:19,228 --> 01:24:21,099 that six pack of cans 1896 01:24:21,143 --> 01:24:23,841 may be $4, but you pay $4.60 1897 01:24:23,884 --> 01:24:26,539 because you're also paying ten cents per can. 1898 01:24:26,583 --> 01:24:28,411 Well, when you're done drinking those cans, 1899 01:24:28,454 --> 01:24:31,327 you take the cans back, you get that $0.60 back. 1900 01:24:31,370 --> 01:24:33,503 And it was an incredible motivator 1901 01:24:33,546 --> 01:24:34,721 for people not to throw 1902 01:24:34,764 --> 01:24:36,201 ten cents out the window, 1903 01:24:36,245 --> 01:24:37,942 which is essentially what they were doing. 1904 01:24:37,985 --> 01:24:39,726 Not only that, but now you've got folks 1905 01:24:39,770 --> 01:24:41,293 who are actually walking the roads 1906 01:24:41,337 --> 01:24:43,643 picking up cans because, "Hey, 1907 01:24:43,687 --> 01:24:45,906 there's dimes laying all over out here." 1908 01:24:45,950 --> 01:24:48,561 Right, so Europe has had a lot of good policies, 1909 01:24:48,605 --> 01:24:50,041 one of which we call 1910 01:24:50,085 --> 01:24:51,260 the extended producer responsibility. 1911 01:24:51,303 --> 01:24:53,130 And that basically means you'll put a fee 1912 01:24:53,175 --> 01:24:55,133 on every single type of package. 1913 01:24:55,177 --> 01:24:57,309 But that fee goes towards infrastructure 1914 01:24:57,353 --> 01:25:00,356 to ensure that it is recyclable over time. 1915 01:25:00,398 --> 01:25:04,011 [man] So, you have ¢99 and then there's eight cents... 1916 01:25:04,751 --> 01:25:06,405 -[Janice] Fund -[man] Fund on it. 1917 01:25:06,449 --> 01:25:08,799 So, you're actually paying $1.07. 1918 01:25:08,842 --> 01:25:10,192 But if you bring it back... 1919 01:25:11,148 --> 01:25:13,543 you get seven cents times 24, 1920 01:25:13,585 --> 01:25:15,806 and put them in there, and get that money back. 1921 01:25:15,849 --> 01:25:17,416 [Alison] We see in Europe, Germany has done 1922 01:25:17,460 --> 01:25:19,026 a fantastic job, the Netherlands has done 1923 01:25:19,070 --> 01:25:20,419 a fantastic job. 1924 01:25:20,463 --> 01:25:22,246 Even Japan has done a really good job. 1925 01:25:22,291 --> 01:25:24,902 They have more reuse model and we're also looking at that. 1926 01:25:24,945 --> 01:25:27,905 [man speaking German] 1927 01:25:31,603 --> 01:25:34,259 When you return this in the machine. 1928 01:25:47,142 --> 01:25:50,797 [man speaking German] 1929 01:26:00,242 --> 01:26:03,288 [woman speaking German] 1930 01:26:03,332 --> 01:26:06,509 [machine beeping & whirring] 1931 01:26:12,254 --> 01:26:18,260 [man speaking German] 1932 01:26:18,303 --> 01:26:23,395 [woman and man speaking German] 1933 01:26:23,439 --> 01:26:27,050 [gong crashing and drums pounding] 1934 01:26:27,617 --> 01:26:29,662 [Rob] In 2017, China was 1935 01:26:29,706 --> 01:26:32,621 the world's largest importer of plastic waste. 1936 01:26:32,665 --> 01:26:34,101 In 2018, 1937 01:26:34,145 --> 01:26:36,452 China stopped taking most plastics. 1938 01:26:36,495 --> 01:26:38,584 This left many countries scrambling 1939 01:26:38,628 --> 01:26:40,369 on what to do with it. 1940 01:26:40,412 --> 01:26:42,849 Suddenly, the world was faced with a problem 1941 01:26:42,893 --> 01:26:44,851 that seemed too big to handle. 1942 01:26:44,895 --> 01:26:47,985 As a result, the country's 2018 1943 01:26:48,028 --> 01:26:50,509 plastic import volume dropped 1944 01:26:50,553 --> 01:26:52,859 99.1% 1945 01:26:52,903 --> 01:26:54,905 compared to 2017. 1946 01:26:55,471 --> 01:26:59,083 This massive global industry basically ended overnight. 1947 01:27:09,441 --> 01:27:12,575 That was a big change to the recycling industry. 1948 01:27:12,618 --> 01:27:14,011 What it did was 1949 01:27:14,054 --> 01:27:17,406 all of the recycling facilities 1950 01:27:17,449 --> 01:27:21,932 that once shipped off those less valuable materials 1951 01:27:21,975 --> 01:27:24,108 and made money on them-- and they then 1952 01:27:24,151 --> 01:27:26,589 had to say, "What am I going to do with these?" 1953 01:27:26,632 --> 01:27:28,286 Most of them had to then say, 1954 01:27:28,330 --> 01:27:30,419 "I can't take that material anymore." 1955 01:27:30,462 --> 01:27:32,290 [Cole] The city of Greeley, here in Colorado, 1956 01:27:32,334 --> 01:27:33,987 closed the recycling facility, 1957 01:27:34,031 --> 01:27:35,989 and do not plan to open another one 1958 01:27:36,032 --> 01:27:37,600 because it's not making any money. 1959 01:27:37,643 --> 01:27:39,471 It was kind of a big deal because up in Greeley, 1960 01:27:39,514 --> 01:27:41,821 it's, like, northeastern Colorado. 1961 01:27:41,865 --> 01:27:44,650 So the next closest facility is a landfill. 1962 01:27:44,693 --> 01:27:46,565 The city of Waleska just recently put out 1963 01:27:46,609 --> 01:27:49,175 that they are no longer doing recyclables. 1964 01:27:49,219 --> 01:27:54,269 [atmospheric music playing] 1965 01:28:11,373 --> 01:28:13,331 Well, I had the idea, this crazy idea, 1966 01:28:13,375 --> 01:28:16,682 9th May, 2013, really looking for a solution. 1967 01:28:16,726 --> 01:28:19,206 I went looking to see what I could do, 1968 01:28:19,250 --> 01:28:21,165 if I could do something, about what was unfolding 1969 01:28:21,208 --> 01:28:22,688 in the ocean. 1970 01:28:22,732 --> 01:28:25,387 How might we create a platform for the world 1971 01:28:25,430 --> 01:28:27,432 where the world's disadvantaged, 1972 01:28:27,476 --> 01:28:29,085 the areas where 80% 1973 01:28:29,129 --> 01:28:31,480 of land-based debris is entering the ocean? 1974 01:28:31,523 --> 01:28:33,133 It should be no surprise 1975 01:28:33,177 --> 01:28:35,353 that most of that plastic is entering 1976 01:28:35,397 --> 01:28:37,355 from areas that don't have solid waste management. 1977 01:28:37,398 --> 01:28:39,314 They throw it in the river, they throw it in the canal, 1978 01:28:39,357 --> 01:28:40,706 they throw it outside, they burn it. 1979 01:28:40,750 --> 01:28:42,534 They suffer cardiopulmonary disease. 1980 01:28:42,577 --> 01:28:43,796 They suffer, you know, 1981 01:28:43,840 --> 01:28:45,668 clogged waterways, flooding. 1982 01:28:45,710 --> 01:28:47,191 "Okay. It's poverty, well-- 1983 01:28:47,234 --> 01:28:48,714 okay, there's no solid waste management. 1984 01:28:48,758 --> 01:28:50,281 Okay, got it. There's no other alternative 1985 01:28:50,325 --> 01:28:52,152 than just throwing-- Oh, hold on a second. 1986 01:28:52,196 --> 01:28:53,893 What if there was an alternative?" 1987 01:28:53,937 --> 01:28:57,157 You know, I use this, um, a metaphor. 1988 01:28:57,201 --> 01:28:58,855 If you were to walk over a field of diamonds... 1989 01:28:59,769 --> 01:29:02,206 and you were to see rubies, diamonds, 1990 01:29:02,249 --> 01:29:03,947 gold sitting on the ground, and you looked at 1991 01:29:03,990 --> 01:29:06,297 it like, "Oh, my goodness, wealth everywhere." 1992 01:29:06,341 --> 01:29:07,777 But you wanted to pick them up 1993 01:29:07,820 --> 01:29:09,300 and simultaneously like, "Well, hold on a second. 1994 01:29:09,344 --> 01:29:10,606 There's nowhere that I can take 1995 01:29:10,648 --> 01:29:12,085 diamonds or rubies or gold to, 1996 01:29:12,129 --> 01:29:14,349 There's no bank that I can take them to, 1997 01:29:14,392 --> 01:29:16,525 there's no store that I could spend them at. 1998 01:29:16,568 --> 01:29:18,831 No one would barter with me for them at all. 1999 01:29:18,875 --> 01:29:22,139 There's nothing I can do with rubies, gold, and diamonds. 2000 01:29:22,182 --> 01:29:24,097 Nothing. Do you pick them up? 2001 01:29:24,707 --> 01:29:25,925 No, because they're like rocks. 2002 01:29:25,969 --> 01:29:27,362 They're worthless to you." 2003 01:29:27,405 --> 01:29:29,014 And diamonds are carbon, same as plastic. 2004 01:29:29,538 --> 01:29:31,627 Plastic Bank ultimately is an agreed upon exchange system 2005 01:29:31,670 --> 01:29:33,324 that operates around the world 2006 01:29:33,368 --> 01:29:37,241 where the bank accepts plastic waste as a currency. 2007 01:29:38,198 --> 01:29:40,418 So, now when they look below their feet, 2008 01:29:40,462 --> 01:29:41,680 they look at it and go, "Wait. 2009 01:29:42,246 --> 01:29:43,769 That's school tuition for my children. 2010 01:29:43,813 --> 01:29:45,423 That's the end of poverty. 2011 01:29:45,467 --> 01:29:47,860 That's clean water. That's the end of sickness." 2012 01:29:47,904 --> 01:29:50,862 We've revealed the material as a currency for the world. 2013 01:29:50,907 --> 01:29:52,212 That's what we've done. 2014 01:29:52,255 --> 01:29:53,996 We're operating in Haiti, 2015 01:29:54,040 --> 01:29:57,174 the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, Egypt. 2016 01:29:57,740 --> 01:30:00,830 We're about to enter Thailand and Cameroon next year, 2017 01:30:00,873 --> 01:30:03,049 Tanzania, Kenya. 2018 01:30:03,093 --> 01:30:05,138 We continue to expand globally. 2019 01:30:05,182 --> 01:30:06,575 All that material we collect, 2020 01:30:06,618 --> 01:30:08,054 we sell to great companies in the world. 2021 01:30:08,098 --> 01:30:09,447 They want to use that as a feedstock 2022 01:30:09,491 --> 01:30:11,144 of their manufacturing 2023 01:30:11,188 --> 01:30:13,451 so they can connect it with a conscious consumer. 2024 01:30:13,495 --> 01:30:15,410 We sell to great companies like SC Johnson, 2025 01:30:15,452 --> 01:30:17,412 or Henkel or Hugo Boss or... 2026 01:30:18,500 --> 01:30:19,718 Gillette, or so many others 2027 01:30:19,762 --> 01:30:21,677 that use that material. 2028 01:30:22,504 --> 01:30:24,767 You see, we're a solution that provides a platform 2029 01:30:24,809 --> 01:30:26,682 for every single person in the world 2030 01:30:26,725 --> 01:30:28,423 to not even have to change. 2031 01:30:29,335 --> 01:30:32,296 They just have to shift maybe a little bit. 2032 01:30:32,905 --> 01:30:34,690 So we're just making it easy for the whole world 2033 01:30:34,733 --> 01:30:38,215 to participate in being a part of the solution 2034 01:30:38,258 --> 01:30:40,304 and no longer a part of the pollution. 2035 01:30:40,347 --> 01:30:43,263 ♪ 2036 01:30:55,014 --> 01:30:56,755 [Cole] The problem that we're facing 2037 01:30:56,799 --> 01:30:59,148 is what do we do now 2038 01:30:59,192 --> 01:31:00,672 and how do we fix it? 2039 01:31:00,716 --> 01:31:04,546 Is there anything more vital 2040 01:31:04,589 --> 01:31:06,896 to address than trying to keep 2041 01:31:06,939 --> 01:31:08,724 the Earth alive and vibrant? 2042 01:31:08,767 --> 01:31:10,246 I don't know anything more important. 2043 01:31:10,290 --> 01:31:11,857 I really don't. 2044 01:31:11,901 --> 01:31:13,511 [Cole] The climate crisis is already happening. 2045 01:31:13,555 --> 01:31:16,209 It-- it's in our face right now. 2046 01:31:16,253 --> 01:31:19,430 [Bill] Are we addressing this soon enough? 2047 01:31:19,474 --> 01:31:22,128 I know we need to address 2048 01:31:22,172 --> 01:31:24,261 the issue now. 2049 01:31:34,271 --> 01:31:38,231 [girl] Dear Mother Earth, it has been recently brought 2050 01:31:38,275 --> 01:31:40,233 to my attention that my parents 2051 01:31:40,277 --> 01:31:42,496 and my grandparents and their friends 2052 01:31:42,540 --> 01:31:45,282 have not been taking care of you very well. 2053 01:31:45,325 --> 01:31:49,112 Maybe I shouldn't blame them because they didn't know. 2054 01:31:49,155 --> 01:31:52,245 Who could have known that my plastic sandwich bag 2055 01:31:52,289 --> 01:31:56,946 or fruit cup container could ruin the world? 2056 01:31:56,989 --> 01:32:00,818 I have a future ahead of me and someday if I have children 2057 01:32:00,862 --> 01:32:04,648 of my own, they too will be using this planet. 2058 01:32:04,693 --> 01:32:07,347 I like to make you a promise right now. 2059 01:32:07,391 --> 01:32:09,915 I promise to keep your land as clean 2060 01:32:09,959 --> 01:32:14,441 as possible but also tell my friends to do the same. 2061 01:32:14,485 --> 01:32:17,662 Your Earth is a gift and I've learned 2062 01:32:17,706 --> 01:32:20,404 that this is the most valuable gift 2063 01:32:20,447 --> 01:32:21,840 I can ever have. 2064 01:32:25,975 --> 01:32:29,848 [Janice] So while we're working on the solution part of it-- 2065 01:32:29,892 --> 01:32:31,241 It's just so complicated. 2066 01:32:31,284 --> 01:32:32,764 There's so many brilliant people-- 2067 01:32:32,808 --> 01:32:35,027 It is complicated. This is a wicked problem. 2068 01:32:35,071 --> 01:32:36,594 I'll tell you a story. 2069 01:32:37,116 --> 01:32:41,120 My granddaughter was born 2070 01:32:41,164 --> 01:32:42,731 two months premature. 2071 01:32:43,296 --> 01:32:45,342 She spent the first two months of her life 2072 01:32:45,385 --> 01:32:47,562 in a neonatal intensive care unit. 2073 01:32:48,824 --> 01:32:52,305 Plastic tubes, plastic bags all around her. 2074 01:32:52,349 --> 01:32:54,656 Those plastics saved her life. 2075 01:32:54,699 --> 01:32:58,007 I know that. NICUs need plastic. 2076 01:32:58,616 --> 01:33:01,880 But I also know that there are downstream hazards 2077 01:33:01,924 --> 01:33:04,013 that are created by exposure 2078 01:33:04,056 --> 01:33:06,276 to those plastics that we need to solve. 2079 01:33:06,318 --> 01:33:08,407 [Cole] Walking into a store and picking up 2080 01:33:08,452 --> 01:33:11,411 a bottle of water is convenient and easy. 2081 01:33:11,455 --> 01:33:14,327 And we don't necessarily see the entire impact 2082 01:33:14,371 --> 01:33:16,547 of that purchase decision either. 2083 01:33:16,591 --> 01:33:19,376 There are three key pieces to solving this problem. 2084 01:33:19,419 --> 01:33:20,986 One is to rethink. 2085 01:33:21,030 --> 01:33:23,335 Do we actually need to use plastic to do that? 2086 01:33:23,380 --> 01:33:25,295 Second, we've got to reform 2087 01:33:25,338 --> 01:33:28,428 the regulatory process so that it really tells us... 2088 01:33:28,472 --> 01:33:30,126 [clicks tongue] ...what's safe and what's not. 2089 01:33:30,169 --> 01:33:32,650 But the third thing, and for me the most hopeful, 2090 01:33:32,693 --> 01:33:34,826 is we have to redesign plastic. 2091 01:33:34,870 --> 01:33:36,785 We can design safer plastics. 2092 01:33:36,827 --> 01:33:38,568 I've spent a lot of time thinking about this 2093 01:33:38,612 --> 01:33:40,876 and working on this with colleagues, with chemists. 2094 01:33:40,919 --> 01:33:42,138 So why not? 2095 01:33:42,181 --> 01:33:43,269 It turns out, why not, 2096 01:33:43,313 --> 01:33:45,707 it's because the first step 2097 01:33:45,750 --> 01:33:47,752 is to test what you have. 2098 01:33:48,535 --> 01:33:51,538 As you design something new, you got to test it. 2099 01:33:51,582 --> 01:33:54,106 If you don't test it, you don't know. 2100 01:33:54,150 --> 01:33:55,541 Okay? It's that simple. 2101 01:33:57,109 --> 01:34:00,591 And testing at that stage in the process costs more money. 2102 01:34:00,635 --> 01:34:02,985 So, if your goal is to get a product out 2103 01:34:03,028 --> 01:34:04,856 as quickly as possible, 2104 01:34:04,900 --> 01:34:06,945 you're going to be deterred from doing the testing 2105 01:34:06,989 --> 01:34:10,427 that you need to do, even though in the long run, 2106 01:34:10,469 --> 01:34:13,169 you're going to save money because you wind up 2107 01:34:13,212 --> 01:34:14,648 with a safer product 2108 01:34:14,692 --> 01:34:17,260 and you can sell it as a safer product. 2109 01:34:17,303 --> 01:34:18,957 And hopefully, the consumers 2110 01:34:19,001 --> 01:34:20,698 who want safer products will reward you, 2111 01:34:20,742 --> 01:34:22,395 which they are now doing. 2112 01:34:22,439 --> 01:34:24,353 [Daniel] Large global corporations 2113 01:34:24,397 --> 01:34:26,356 are publishing commitments that they're making 2114 01:34:26,398 --> 01:34:28,619 to their environmental performance. 2115 01:34:28,663 --> 01:34:31,100 So, you can pick up an annual report 2116 01:34:31,143 --> 01:34:34,581 of just about any large global brand owner 2117 01:34:34,625 --> 01:34:37,933 and they publicly say, "These are the things 2118 01:34:37,976 --> 01:34:41,023 we're going to do," and they put a date on it. 2119 01:34:41,066 --> 01:34:45,723 Businesses are and need to 2120 01:34:45,767 --> 01:34:48,160 play a key role in reducing 2121 01:34:48,204 --> 01:34:50,249 our greenhouse gas emissions 2122 01:34:50,293 --> 01:34:52,904 and creating systems within their business 2123 01:34:52,948 --> 01:34:55,254 that allows them to be net zero, 2124 01:34:55,298 --> 01:34:57,255 or to be carbon negative. 2125 01:34:57,300 --> 01:35:00,216 And along with that, is absolutely 2126 01:35:00,259 --> 01:35:03,132 finding ways to reduce 2127 01:35:03,175 --> 01:35:05,525 the amount of waste 2128 01:35:05,568 --> 01:35:09,268 reduce the amount of emissions that they're creating 2129 01:35:09,312 --> 01:35:12,489 and transporting their products to market. 2130 01:35:12,532 --> 01:35:14,839 Consumers are looking for more sustainable options. 2131 01:35:14,883 --> 01:35:16,666 They're asking for sustainable packaging. 2132 01:35:16,710 --> 01:35:19,888 So, Disney is removing a lot of their plastic 2133 01:35:19,931 --> 01:35:23,456 from their packaging so there's no clear windows 2134 01:35:23,500 --> 01:35:26,111 or anything like that on their packaging anymore. 2135 01:35:26,155 --> 01:35:28,766 Barilla, the pasta maker, is about to remove 2136 01:35:28,809 --> 01:35:31,073 all the little plastic windows from their cardboard boxes 2137 01:35:31,116 --> 01:35:32,465 as well, too. 2138 01:35:32,509 --> 01:35:34,641 Um, Samsung is doing the same thing. 2139 01:35:34,684 --> 01:35:36,861 They're removing plastic from their packaging 2140 01:35:36,905 --> 01:35:39,559 so when they send you a new computer the insert 2141 01:35:39,603 --> 01:35:41,474 may be made out of the gas 2142 01:35:41,518 --> 01:35:43,607 which is a byproduct of the sugarcane industry. 2143 01:35:48,786 --> 01:35:52,572 Around 2005 it was very rare to-- 2144 01:35:52,616 --> 01:35:53,835 for anyone to have ever heard of 2145 01:35:53,878 --> 01:35:56,272 a chief sustainability officer 2146 01:35:56,315 --> 01:36:00,058 and now every major corporation has one. 2147 01:36:00,102 --> 01:36:03,758 So, a lot of these companies are starting to eliminate 2148 01:36:03,800 --> 01:36:06,282 plastic as well which means 2149 01:36:06,325 --> 01:36:09,589 the fossil fuel industry, again, is having that wall 2150 01:36:09,633 --> 01:36:11,287 that they're going to be meeting. 2151 01:36:11,330 --> 01:36:14,986 [Daniel] You recognize that there is a global effort 2152 01:36:15,030 --> 01:36:17,641 by really large, 2153 01:36:17,684 --> 01:36:20,252 global companies that's all being driven 2154 01:36:20,296 --> 01:36:23,299 by consumers for better environmental performance. 2155 01:36:23,342 --> 01:36:26,998 It's either adapt or die. At this point in time. 2156 01:36:29,130 --> 01:36:32,395 [cheerful music playing] 2157 01:36:44,276 --> 01:36:46,191 There's British Petroleum 2158 01:36:46,235 --> 01:36:48,846 who really doesn't even call themselves 2159 01:36:48,889 --> 01:36:50,239 British Petroleum anymore, 2160 01:36:50,282 --> 01:36:53,416 you know, they changed to BP. 2161 01:36:53,459 --> 01:36:55,679 At-- at one point in time they were saying it means 2162 01:36:55,722 --> 01:36:58,246 "Beyond Petroleum," and now they're moving 2163 01:36:58,290 --> 01:37:01,337 even further away from that to talk about 2164 01:37:01,380 --> 01:37:02,904 how they're going to shift the business 2165 01:37:02,947 --> 01:37:05,080 of their company away 2166 01:37:05,123 --> 01:37:07,952 from using petroleum-based resources 2167 01:37:07,996 --> 01:37:11,869 to using annually renewable resources. 2168 01:37:12,434 --> 01:37:16,047 The topic of plastics can be confusing and debatable. 2169 01:37:16,091 --> 01:37:18,657 The solutions to the plastic dilemma, 2170 01:37:18,702 --> 01:37:19,790 it's not easy. 2171 01:37:20,486 --> 01:37:22,445 Scientists agree though that we can't wait 2172 01:37:22,487 --> 01:37:24,142 any longer to change. 2173 01:37:24,577 --> 01:37:27,276 We can all help, though, by making smart choices 2174 01:37:27,318 --> 01:37:29,931 and keeping our environment center-focused. 2175 01:37:30,496 --> 01:37:33,891 We all can, individually and collectively, 2176 01:37:33,934 --> 01:37:38,068 make the choice today to better our world for the future. 2177 01:37:40,680 --> 01:37:41,898 I'm gonna go get that bottle. 2178 01:37:41,943 --> 01:37:47,035 ♪ 2179 01:37:56,522 --> 01:37:58,263 Petroleum plastics, 2180 01:37:58,307 --> 01:38:01,005 will the technology advance that eventually 2181 01:38:01,049 --> 01:38:02,789 bioplastics could get us there? 2182 01:38:02,833 --> 01:38:04,530 I hope so. 2183 01:38:04,574 --> 01:38:08,925 ["Freedom Mile" by Ziv Moran playing] 2184 01:38:08,969 --> 01:38:14,236 ♪ I got my bags packed, timeline on track ♪ 2185 01:38:14,279 --> 01:38:18,153 ♪ My winter coat stuck in the closet way back ♪ 2186 01:38:18,196 --> 01:38:22,200 ♪ I won't be needing that, I won't be needing that ♪ 2187 01:38:27,335 --> 01:38:33,646 ♪ I'm ready to fly down 65, hit the coastline ♪ 2188 01:38:33,690 --> 01:38:40,305 ♪ In the sunshine I'm going to find my new high ♪ 2189 01:38:40,349 --> 01:38:44,353 ♪ Hit the coastline in the sunshine ♪ 2190 01:38:44,396 --> 01:38:50,054 ♪ Freedom Mile 2191 01:38:51,316 --> 01:38:53,623 ♪ I'm free 2192 01:38:56,582 --> 01:38:58,758 ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh 2193 01:39:00,847 --> 01:39:05,764 ♪ It's only blue skies on my horizon line ♪ 2194 01:39:05,809 --> 01:39:09,769 ♪ So far from the hurt and the bad times ♪ 2195 01:39:09,813 --> 01:39:15,384 ♪ I'm feeling so alive, I'm feeling so alive ♪ 2196 01:39:15,427 --> 01:39:18,300 ♪ Yeah, yeah 2197 01:39:18,343 --> 01:39:23,174 ♪ I'm ready to fly down 65 2198 01:39:23,218 --> 01:39:27,396 ♪ Hit the coastline in the sunshine ♪ 2199 01:39:27,439 --> 01:39:32,618 ♪ Freedom Mile 2200 01:39:32,662 --> 01:39:35,795 The most amazing food wrap ever developed. 2201 01:39:35,839 --> 01:39:37,580 The Bio-P film. 2202 01:39:37,623 --> 01:39:40,278 That's right. It's a biopolymer film. 2203 01:39:40,322 --> 01:39:41,888 And it's the film of the future. 2204 01:39:41,932 --> 01:39:45,240 It's safe for everyone. Come get yours today. 2205 01:39:46,719 --> 01:39:48,678 [whooping and laughing] 2206 01:39:55,554 --> 01:39:58,296 [music fades]