The Problem with Plastics | Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez | TED
Plastics are everywhere -- they're in our favorite electronic devices, they package our food and insulate our homes. Today, the total mass of plastic is twice the total mass of all living organisms on the planet, and it's starting to change the processes that allow the Earth's climate system to work. Plastic pollution researcher Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez breaks down the consequences of producing all of this plastic at every stage, from fossil fuel extraction to the disposal of single-use plastics in landfills and oceans. The first step to breaking free of our plastic problem is admitting we have one.
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Thank you for your effort to remind us of the consequences of plastic to our community.
Redesign, Reduce, then Reuse and Recycle ♻️
Saying is the easy Part
or just Refuse to buy single use plastic containers.
This is a very informative talk. First of all, it convinces me not to use single-use plastics. We need to do someting for our next generations.
10 minutes will never be enough for this topic
This video is really informative, it explain the detail why plastic is a climate problem and that there is still a solution to it. Thank you so much for this video.
We used to think plastic was fantastic but unless we do something drastic it's gonna turn the whole world spastic.
🍪
How can I find the full speech? Is there a website that shows the entire speech in written form? Thanks for your kind help.
This video is really helpful. It contains a lot of information about the consequences of plastics and how plastics effects on climate change
Am I the only one who feels like everything that makes our world's technological advances possible are destructive to the world? It's like everything that we as a species have developed to make our lives easier also is making our planet's environment less livable. I don't believe that our ability to make things is inherently bad, or even that the things we do make are bad, but what about our worldview has allowed us to advance so far zo fast without consideration of the consequences? Was there ever a time when people thought about more than the benefits of an invention, or technical advancement? Did no one even ponder that there must be a dark side to what is done, or made? It's hard to believe that the answer to these questions is no, no one ever considered it. But now that we are considering the downsides, and weighing our options we also have to think about changing our expectations. What will the world look like if we are able to do all of the things that appear to be necessary to prevent a climate change apocalypse? Will we be able to retain our standards of living? Will we be able to retain our way of life? Or will we be called upon to become poorer technically? Will it be incumbent upon us to step back from technological advancement and return to a less developed stage of society? Would we be able or even willing to do that? Would we be able or willing to make those sacrifices?
Awesome. Just what I want to say but stuck with words
You’re spot on ….and no…we are unable to do anything that even remotely looks like regression. Our species should not exist.
no
the only way across is through, we need to innovate everywhere and increase our productive capacity to the point where we can undo the damage we've done. Any solution based on reduction is doomed to fail, replacement & reclamation are the only way forward.
This video really provides useful information related to plastic. In various countries, plastic waste is still a problem. Nowadays, whatever we use or encounter must contain plastic. Plastic waste is not easy to recycle, because plastic waste is very difficult to decompose. So if we are going to recycle plastic, it will cost quite a lot of money. Then plastic pollution began to change the processes that allowed the earth's climate system to work. Plastic is indeed a versatile and durable material, but we must also think about the dangers of plastic for ourselves or for the environment, therefore we must reduce the use of plastic by using environmentally friendly materials so that our earth is maintained.
For once, can all scientists/speaker start stating the volumetric of plastic produce each year instead of the weight?? The plastic is very lightweight, if they keep talking about the weight then most people will just imagine the amount by weight of water which is 1m3 per ton. But plastic is ten or twenty times that per ton especially the Styrofoam. And that doesn't talk about the spread of it unlike normal waste.
Hear ye, her ye
That’s not accurate. There many types of plastics denser than water ..
Bacteria eat it?
Great delivery
Splendid to say the least
Good to get this info to the world i guess even if it feels like there’s little we can do to help
you can do a lot actually, she mentioned to stop using plastic bags which we can all learn to switch easily to instead use a single bag (not made of plastic of course) for grocery shopping, etc. and that would make a huge impact already considering how we all make weekly trips to buy groceries and that's just one example of the change we can start doing.
The problem with plastic is no one cares.. even though there's a sure way to break plastic down into sugars with mushrooms. But you don't hear about anyone doing it.
It's convenient and as far as most living people in "civilized countries" are concerned it's been around forever, so who's gonna cast a stone? Too many hot topics going around a populous that's already overloaded with information, ain't nobody sticking their neck out over a TV dinner.
There are no alternatives to plastic. It is too cheap, too easy to make into any shape, can have a wide range of any different properties as needed, too durable, ...
thank you for your informative talk. I totally agree with it. so many people in the world using plastics everyday. even though we know that plastic is difficult to recycle because it takes a very long time. plastic waste is disposed of carelessly until it accumulates, and some is burned which causes air pollution. Microplastics are everywhere. therefore, we must reduce the use of plastic to protect the earth
Thank you it was a great speech. Companies should really stop producing plastics cause it's the problem that we keep using them. But some of the shops doesn't use plastics anymore, so we have to bring our bags, so that's good. And yea, plastic does affect pollution.
the use of plastic is really practical but people don't think about the long term impact. I have also become introspective after watching this video, it turns out that I also want it to be simple and practical. In the future I want to shop with my own bag
I love to start the morning with a nice big bowl of microplastics
They're tragically delicious! 🍀
hi from Mexico. Excellent informational on plastics and their environmental harm. All true. thanks. Bottom line: alternatives must be developed.
Se crea conciencia desde casa. Es un compromiso
No matter how much we rant about it, but without any alternative plastic can't be banned. one way or another we will keep it.
There are a multitude of alternatives, we used them all before plastic was invented. Banning it completely is the only real solution, since paper, glass and metal come with none of the negatives plastic has. They have negatives of course, but I think we can all agree, the negatives far outweigh the positives with regard to plastic.
Plastic is a recent invention. Humans have survived for thousands of years without it.
The problem of plastic waste management in my area has not been handled properly, that can cause environmental pollution. plastic will decompose in the soil in more than 20 years and can even reach 100 years, I can’t even imagine we live side by side with plastic waste that takes even longer to decompose than our lives. the government has tried to recycle and limit the use of plastic. But the problem is not in the government, the problem is start from us. In my area when is heavy raining comes and causes flood in the street, many people take it opportunity of that to take out their trash outside from home. I don't know what they're thinking and especially when they throw away plastic waste that should be recyclable. Has it become their habit? it is deeply regretted
We gotta do something about this problem. We can at least tell the world that we care. We pay taxes, right? Then we can tell our governments to make programs fight plastic pollution. To make 100% degradable materials popular, all sorts of recycling policies. Our future needs them.
영상감사합니다ㆍ솜결
I like Ted's videos
It's true, plastic has more disadvantages than uses. especially single-use plastics that can pollute rivers. but sometimes, people use single-use plastic more often. even though single-use plastic is difficult to recycle and if you want to recycle it is difficult and expensive and even though it is recycled it still produces greenhouse gases. But I totally agree with some entrepreneurs and companies trying to create plastics with more environmentally friendly materials. because the accumulation of plastic waste can not be underestimated anymore because it can damage the climate. so, we must reduce the use of single-use plastic waste for a better earth.
I am always trying to avoid plastic, But the public won't listen so much about the plastic waste they think it's not an issue, just a simple thing plastic waste, Just throw in water pond, river etc
I hope to get solutions not the information/technical terms/data in numbers. :(
there are many solution candidates, one I find very interesting is mycelium
Ban plastic for non essential items problem solved.
Agree!! And disposable products limited to the medical field!
Sure, now all you gotta establish is what "essential" means. Care to take a crack at that?
@@Illlium start with toys and decorations, and juice/soda/water/milk bottles/ and plastic grocery bags first as non essential. give 2 year warning before ban to have businesses adapt to new change and alternative supply. Or leave water bottles alone for now as water is essential till we used to alternative packaging then switch over
@@MindlessTube Good luck.
I think many people use plastic for practical reasons. However, they don't think of the plastic hazard to our lives. Everyone should start caring about plastic problems, carry their own shopping bags and reduce the use plastic in their life. I hope that it will at least reduce the pollution caused by plastic.
Big companies or factories should stop producing big amount of plastics😭 they're the reasons of this problem.... Normal people can't produce plastics
Just think of medications in capsules. Which we steadily eat.
Capsules are not made of plastic. They are usually gelatin or non gelatin, but bio derived. That said, plastic is a huge issue, everyone must responsibly wake up to.
0:31 HAH. Plastics were invented in 1950 when the world population was only 2.5 billion (less than 1/3 of what it is now). That means "in the last 20 years" is essentially a 50-year/20-year split, lumping the middle 15 years into the first half instead of the 2nd half (35/35 is the even split). But if you take into account both population growth and economic growth, the numbers are probably completely natural numbers, so that half of plastic production in the last 20 years is literally not unusual or alarming. The plastics usage is in almost perfect proportion to the population increase! Not that pollution from plastics isn't a critical problem ...
Please help every country get potable, clean water into every fosset, every home. That alone would mean that hundreds of millions of people could stop buying bottled water 🙏💧
Good
Don’t be violent be silent and show your talent.
Mankind developed the toilets and sewer system to properly dispose of human waste; but completely and utterly failed to properly dispose of plastic waste. This must change for the survival of humanity.
Poops decompose whereas plastic take more than 500 years to decompose into bits
I've paddled all over on the rivers, lakes and the coasts in the U.S. and Canada and I've been appalled at the amount of plastic mostly single use drink bottles and packaging material littering our shores. I always collect, bag and carry away as much as I can, but it is just a drop in the bucket compared to the problem. Why we can't at muster the political will to at least pass a FEDERAL bottle deposit law to mitigate this problem is unbelievable.
I'm a Japanese student studying English on this channel😵💫It's very hard to hearing, but I can only thank you for your help in studying!It would be helpful if there were Japanese subtitles❕ I don't use a translator, so I think the sentence is strange. Sorry.
Hope you doing well. As I watched the vedio , she is not a native speaker to speak at good pronunciation that's why most of her words were strange and you didn't catch up well . More than that I really appreciate her work and presented an informative issue and make accountable people and government regarding using plastic and this issue should be considered as well.
There is no denying that plastic does make it easier for us in every way, almost every second we look at plastic. But, do we also think about the impact? Even plastic producers themselves can only produce without thinking about solutions for plastic waste pollution. Indeed, this is a new innovation to make it easier for humans to live their lives, but it can cause many new problems. Now there are many new innovations that certainly make it easier for us, but will it bring up new things too?
What would George Carlin say today?
Commentary coming later.
We....we know. We know what the problem with plastics is.
2022(G) “Respect and dignity.” Furthermore:
"The total mass of plastic is twice the total mass of all living organisms in the planet."
We are yet Doomed, so what are we waiting for? To be Doomed?
Five types of non edible fungi have been discovered which consume plastic
We ned a groop of heros for the art a real recicle. Elion musk WE NED YOUR HELP experp in desrup sistems
🧐
Do worms eat it?
Not on a large scale, no.
Yes. They’re transformed into “gummy worms”.🥴🤨😙
why can't we just collect and transport all the plastic waste to another planet or a satelite?
Raju.Bhuriya Gj 20🇮🇳👍👍👍👍
I can see where this is going the Lord put this in my heart that she's going to want to put the phone inside your body well that's old news for me cuz God told me that a while ago you think I'm hearing voices well he puts things on our hearts and then we see things but I do hear God talk to me sometimes
Chả bằng BBC News và BBC Learning English gì cả
So plastic breaks down into.... plant food. OK
Your accent is too much I cannot hear properly if there is no captions
Plastic is a property in Bangladesh. Because Bangladeshi people make petrol from plastics
She Is wearing a plástic headset...It Is an imposible prob to solve
Manage is the key, not solve.
It'd be impossible if everyone had your mindset.
@@Ozzy254 we aré managing the prob now.
@@nestorrfortuna1 Why have we allowed it to become a problem? Surely we’re smart enough to have foreseen the side effects.
@@mr.c2485 the answer to why is because we are a poorly evolved mamalian...we don't see that far in the future...yet
TF is wrong with people. There was a man in India who invented a press that can take any plastic and make it back into oil. which can the be processed into more plastic. our recycling does not work because it was never meant to. there was another invention of a fungi used for packaging. easy to grow and use. more cost effective than cutting down trees but again nothing comes of it. the amount of people who have found ways to deal with this is immense. none of it is done. it's your fault for not knowing and governments fault for brushing it under the rug. we wrap paper straws in plastic you blind fools.
Plastic can only be recycled a couple times before it loses its integrity and cannot be recycled again. Meanwhile, materials such as aluminum can be recycled infinitely. Plastic and disposable products were developed because companies no longer wanted to take responsibility for the packaging they created. In the past, old packaging was returned to the manufacturer to be used again.
@@laneatkinson6441 that is processed plastic which they make into plastic pellets. Again that's like 1990's tech...
comment
joey deacon was a plastic
Go to recycle 👌🏽
The problem with plastics, man made them. The end.
Nói ngọng thế
This problem should make the WEFORUM happy so they can depopulate, ?right
Is she a communist? Why did she say the plastic islands in the pacific don't exist? I've seen them and your a propaganda puppet. BTW nice use of the note cards being your such an expert
Just becasue you disagree with a single combination of 5 words, doesn't mean she is a comunist or everything els is wrong. Maybe she meant it doesn't exist in the literal sense "island of plastic". Infact Ive seen many people visit the location and weren't able to see anything until they started sifting the waters. Im not disagreeing with you that she could have said a few things better, but the way you present your refutals are immature and disgusting.
She lost me at climate change. Good bye
Ignorance is bliss!