Why the Plastic Pollution Problem Is So Much Worse Than You Think
Can we really clean our way out of this problem?
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There’s been a lot of talk on KZhead lately about ocean plastic pollution and #TeamSeas. But there hasn’t been enough talk about the *ridiculously unthinkable scale of the ocean plastic pollution problem* or how it intersects with other environmental issues like climate change. And here’s a big spoiler alert: Nearly all environmental scientists agree that ocean plastic pollution isn’t a problem we can clean our way out of. So what CAN we do? That’s what this video is about.
Detailed references and annotations: sites.google.com/view/besmart...
We’d like to thank the following researchers for helpful interviews and background materials for this episode:
Winnie Lau - Pew Charitable Trusts
Dr. Max Liboiron - Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR)
Dr. Miriam Goldstein
0:00 Intro
1:21 History of plastic
2:59 How much plastic are we making?
4:28 Plastic is petroleum
5:29 How much plastic is in the ocean?
7:38 How plastic gets to the ocean
9:09 Can we clean our way out of this?
10:30 The ACTUAL solutions
13:09 Final thoughts
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There's been a lot of talk about cleaning up plastic pollution on KZhead lately. But there was a lot that wasn't talked about too. The problem is much, MUCH bigger than you realize, and it's worth asking: Can we actually clean our way out of this problem? Or do we need other solutions? That's why I made this video. And if you want more, there's oodles of references in the description! *PS: I changed the channel name 🤓!*
Oh well
Be smart?
Hiii
i really like the channel name change, very minimalistic
Oh well… it is concise
Midwest grandmas have done their best. You wouldn’t believe the amount of plastic bags inside of plastic bags there are in their kitchens 😂
The real heroes. Always under the sink, and at least 50 bags stuffed inside of one other plastic bag
NZ banned plastic shopping bags. It's a start.
@@reed_reed This is only a benefit until we are using so many paper bags that deforestation becomes the big issue to talk about again. 30 years ago paper bags were used way more often but deforestation led to everyone moving to plastic. Re-usable is obviously preferable but what happens to people who happen to not have them handy or can't afford them, etc? Do you just say good luck carrying your 21 items with your two hands? Bans aren't the true fix. Limits make sense for sure, though. Illegal to use a bag that's bad for environment? Nah. Very heavy preferential and incentivized pushes towards more environmentally friendly solutions? Much better.
NZ embraced it. Nobody cares. Everyone uses reusable bags or shops supply cardboard boxes that would otherwise be crushed. All the paper bags offered are made from recycled paper and cardboard products.
Hemp paper!!
Dont forget businesses have a huge role in this as well. Amazon packaging can be incredibly wasteful, not to mention all the businesses that produce the plastics without investing in ways to reuse or recycle it.
Actually in my area the amazon packages are like all recyclable. It's a cardboard box with gummed tape (made from paper), and inside there are sometimes either brown packing paper, or recyclable plastic air bags. I don't throw a single piece of amazon packaging in the garbage it all goes into the recycling bin. The merchandise on the other hand, that's not amazon's fault. I'm totally not advocating amazon I'm just stating facts of my own experience, they are a huge contributor to climate change but they don't exist without the customers, so it's all of our problem too and our faults too.
I think almost every package I get from Amazon is just cardboard. They do often use way to big cardboard, but that's about it. Coca Cola is pretty much the biggest polluter in this categorie, with Companies like Pepsi and Nestle right behind.
I agree, while it's true that Amazon has lowered the amount of plastic packaging they use, it's absolutely nothing compared to how much they contribute. even for the plastic film in packers that SAYS it's recyclable.... the reality is that a lot of municipalities just don't recycle it. As he said in the video, only 15% globally is being recycled. Just because we have started using more and more recyclable paper products doesn't mean that we're not still putting tonnes and tonnes of plastic into the environment!
Biodegradable packing peanuts are available??...or should be a business opportunity.
I work in McDonald's, we have a lot of plastic waste, that isn't recycled, despite having separate bins for plastic, it all ends up in mixed waste, we are just scamming people into believing, we are environmentally friendly, it's all bullshit, there is only profit that counts
Back in the 1950s when I was growing up, things such as milk and soft drinks came in glass bottles. When the bottles were empty they were returned to the store where purchased which returned them to the bottler to be sterilized and refilled. There was no waste. Why can't we return to a system like this?
gotta nickel for every bottle too !!
Because it's probably cheaper to use plastic bottles, so why would a money greedy company use something that is more expensive just because it's better for the environment - that would be crazy talk! Unfortunately it needs regulations from the government to force companies to implement these things again... But people up top don't care because guess who's putting money into their pockets...the oil lobby
glass breaks very easily. this is why we still need plastics. i work in logistics. i've lost count of how many times i've seen packages with broken glass bottles due to mishandling (wine, cider, beer, juice, olive oil, vinegar). On the other hand, i've seen only one or 2 cases of damaged plastic bottles.
Yeah, that's just not practical. Glass is too heavy, plus it breaks easily
We could. But it would be far more expensive and it wouldn't really save much, if any, energy. At best, you would eliminate one form of pollution only to increase another form. Pick your poison, but know that the market, i.e., consumers, have already decided.
I toured a Waste Management facility when I was a kid and I was shocked by how much "recycling" they threw away. Basically if it wasn't aluminum cans, or clean and intact paper, or clean glass, or clean and uncontaminated plastic water bottles, then it was simply dumped and became the city's problem. It just wasn't economical to recycle stuff like plastic bags, shredded paper, dirty bottles, etc.
Even dirty glass will be picked out in most places. They use an acid wash, so not too labor intensive. But yeah, you're right, the only things that are worth money is glass and metal. Mainly because metal is infinitely recyclable, and glass is close to it since there is a market for brown and other dark colors. I found that my local waste management only handles one plastic, hdpe (us milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles). It's amazing that in 2022 we don't have anything better. There is hope in the fact that researchers are finding that microbes in particular are evolving to eat plastics at an astronomical rate. Two problems with that though are that they might not be fast enough or that these organisms are greenhouse emitters which is another problem.
@@grimlicentia Many cover clima-change and such. Hbomberguy too.
I am not okay with this name change (YET!)
We'll get through this together, friends 😂
your subscriber here!!
I like being okay. Smart is complicated. I heard "be smart" a lot, especially growing up. I did not hear "it's okay" enough. "Be smart" pushes me to fear being wrong and blame others. "It's okay" encourages me to experiment and collaborate with others.
@@mikeciul8599 so deep
Can’t you see it’s gaining confidence!
I really really like that you point out that the governments and companies have to change the system, not just individuals, getting a plastic free alternatives can be harder to find and more expensive at the same time, and not everyone has those resources. Obviously you cannot get rid of the plastic permanently, but some like single use plastic is just not thought out well for the long run, I always wonder in supermarkets why these vegetables are wrapped up in plastic, like bananas or oranges, they already have their own packaging...
Because people want their food untouched, that is why when picking among unpackaged fruit they encourage you to use a single-use plastic glove. And I understand it, but we need something better than plastic for that packaging.
Governments world-wide are incompetent at best, and totally corrupt at worse. They cannot unite to tackle any widespread problem in the best interest of humanity without serving the vested interests of higher, globalist forces. Just look at their response to the pandemic and the path we're on regarding climate change as examples.
@@capturedflame Agreed and it's a darn shame. Not sure if there's any way out of this situation, but if I were to envisage a new system of governance I'd have leaders remunerated at the same level as corporate CEOs, the trade off being 1. they need to remain in the public sector their entire life, and 2. their private lives are made completely and utterly transparent. In other words, politicians would be well rewarded for being highly competent AND incorruptible. Also, some system of direct democracy online using blockchains...
@@capturedflame Was kind of an aside, but it strikes me as a good way to ensure voting/election integrity.
Haven't you heard about plastopic principle? It is philosophycal belief that universe was designed in such way that is optimal for creation of plascic!
I am so proud of my country for really trying to remove the need for plastic use. We in Sweden already recycle a lot of waste and this year we forbid the selling of plastic cutlery and plates, and many more one-time-use plastics. We even have a verb for recycling bottles ("panta") because it is so unheard of to not do it. It is a shame that we are such a small country and I really hope the US and other "rich" countries will take their responsibility. How can the poor countries do something about it if the rich ones refuse? I remember when I traveled to Spain and noticed how I did not have to sort my waste at their Mc Donalds. That was so heartbreaking
do some countries near you use recycled plastics to fuel generator for power?
@@keything8487 I don't know if the countries near us do, but we do kzhead.info/sun/n9Spj9Z8mphteXA/bejne.html
And here I am in the US where the idea of a recycling bin at a McDonalds is unfathomable.
@@Yumixfan Other Fast Food places have 2 to 3 bins for recycling. Just look inside the bins and they all look the same, though. The patrons can't be bothered to separate their waste.
I live in Sweden too and although we are better than many countries, in Sweden around 80% of all plastic containers are burned up. They can't be recycled for different reasons. So, even though we collect more plastic waste, Sweden is far far from the goal. :-( Source: SCB, IKEM
Every time I go into Walmart, Target, or any store, I’m extremely overwhelmed by all of the plastic on the shelves that will eventually end up in the ocean 😔
And I'm appalled that many Targets don't even have paper bags at the checkouts! Only plastic!
@@waltp9509 i bring reusable bags, paper is also not the greatest option
@@MEADiaz yeah - but paper is VERY reusable... I use it over and over again for collecting plastics, compostables, and paper for recycling.
I watch this video on double speed so only half the amount of plastic was released while I was watching it. We all need to do our part.
Then you stressed the servers by making a comment!
@@johanlahti84 meh all comment threads are just electronic detritus that hardly matters.
Translation: "We all need to do literally nothing" Duuuuuuh, no, Patrick I'm sure there's at least a chance that was just a joke, buuuuuuuuttttt - .......... Ya know , no Do something, Pat
Thank you for your service. /s
My man
The channel's name was changed from "It's Okay to Be Smart" to "Be Smart" some time in the past 2 weeks
I just now noticed that.
Yeah, just saw that. Not sure I like it. I liked the old name better.
@@dukefrywokker6470 yeah I liked the old one too
I just know that, I like the old name better 😅
I can feel the disappointment radiating out of the name change. "We told you it was okay to be smart. NOW BE SMART."
This video genuinely needs way more views. It's great that lot's of people are talking about the problem of plastic pollution, but I haven't seen a video with this much insight and insane statistics that made me realize just how screwed we actually are. The analogy of us trying to mop the water off a sinking ship without trying to plug the hole first was perfect.
Answer to video-title: Yes.
Share it.
A good acronym for the waste solutions (to make them easier to remember): My attempt: "NICE PADS" -- Necessity, Substitution, Designs, Ease, Profitability, Conversion, Indisposables, Awareness: 1) NECESSITY -- Make/use only _necessary_ plastics, 2) SUBSTITUTION -- Substitute for compost-ready materials, 3) DESIGN -- Design "waste" to be recyclable (This is possible! -- We just need plenty of creativity and problem _awareness_ for solutions to scale), 4) EASE -- Ease waste collection in general -- (especially for poorer countries), 5) PROFITABILITY -- Expand profitability of making/using recycled options (than those that fill landfills), 6) CONVERSION -- Convert between plastic types or into other useful hydrocarbons, 7) INDISPOSABLES -- Indisposable plastics require special storage (to keep from leaking into our oceans) 8) AWARENESS -- Awareness of any solutions must increase exponentially faster than the solutions themselves
It's just weird to think that a material that lasts for years is used for something short term.
Lots of plastics aren't single-use, including appliances, electronics, furniture, clothing, building supplies, and long-term containers.
@@homewall744 Yet lots of plastic are single-use, including bottles of water, food containers, coffee caps, wrappers on fruit with natural wrappers, plastic bags to hold more plastic, and packaging.
True, especially for consumer related items. Worse are the single use items like food and other forms of packaging. Which I think should be better of using paper-based materials. For consumer electronics for example, this makes me think that maybe metals and glass are more sustainable? Since for example aluminum is far more recyclable and glass is similar I think as well. Issue is what inside though.
@@kornkernel2232 I agree with you!
500 years
Call me cynical, but I honestly don't think we'll ever truly address the plastic problem unless there's a fortune to be made doing it. Some people are willing to overpay for cleaner solutions, but most aren't.
many organizations have already thought of this problem. basically the thought process is they can reuse the plastic that is in the ocean to create new products. recycled shoes, etc.. etc... If this method works and is cheaper then producing new plastic then there is definitely tons of money to be made.
My thoughts exactly. The only future I see is one where humans are extinct.
But it’s better than never trying the thing about climate change and plastics and pollution is that “we never will solve this with all the greed” while true I think it’s the fatigue talking and we need rest and get back into it
@@LordFindogask734 I used to have this mindset until I learned and thought about people who lived pre-industrial where they didn’t have this sense of doom other than war times, take care of others and eventually it will be better for the environment, give people housing and proper waste management with less consuming
It's not even that though, if I had the money to buy long lasting items that would last a life time or close to it I absolutely would. But so much of society is living pay check to pay check or close enough, that they literally cannot afford expensive kitchen ware, fancy wooden toys built well etc etc. So we get stuck with cheap plastic toys that break, shoes that fall apart quickly, microwaves, toasters etc that only last 2 yrs.... yes sure some things you can go without and I sure do try and op shop, but then you're driving around the city looking at all these shops for the one thing you're after... there's no easy solution until companies are held more accountable. Taxes for x amount of pollution or non recyclable plastic. Idk how we can make governments do more though 😥 too many people stuck in their ways to vote for newer greener politicians.
Last year I started recycling and reusing as much plastic as I could from Amazon parcel to water bottles etc. I even thought I had only a few pounds of HDPE 2 I’ve been able melt it down at home into blocks. Hopefully turning them into new longer use items when I get enough blocks and tools
I want to thank you for pointing out that businesses and governments have to take a better role and change their processes. Me, and i bet a lot of other people, feel so helpless when we hear that WE have to stop climate change. Cause a lot of us are already doing our part when it comes to trash management, recyceling, buying used, repairing, thinking greener etc. But in the bottom line, what we do, as individuals and consumers, is not enough..It contributes, but it won´t stop the path that climate change has taken. And It´s so F´in frustrating and sucks. We have to push these big companies in to thinking greener. Hell, make them find new ways of green production, make them invest in the science to get there. And at the same time, of course, do our part - cause our future is f*... Great video btw
We need to dispense of the concept of throwing things "away". There is no "away".
It's a very tribal behavior. When we lived in tribes, you dropped it in the river and it disappeared. After that it was the oceans. You drop it in the ocean and it disappears. It took hundreds of years to raise the awareness on oceans not being infinite and, watching the video, we are still not there. How can we then fight against dropping it in the atmosphere if it dissapears?
There is. Earth already created germs that eat plastic. Scientists iterated and evolved them further. This hysteria is not logical. Throw your plastic in landfill. Not in the streets the beach or the ocean. Manage your waste responsibly and everything will be fine.
@@AmirShiriAS You seem not to understand the magnitude of what is happening right now. Those bacteria do exist and perhaps could be scaled, but we humans have *already* drastically overrun the planet's carbon cycle, and micro plastics are present in every branch of the food chain down and up - and they accumulating at an accelerated rate. The solution you speak of is not a solution. It's a bandaid, and a tiny one on a gaping, bone-sticking out wound. The average American ingests a credit-card's worth of plastic every week, and many of the chemicals embedded in theses plastics bioaccumulate. This is only the beginning, and it's already an enormous problem We MUST stop producing single-use plastics.
@@mmmbetter55 I understand it perfectly well. There is no scientific proof the plastic in the amount we consume causes any real problem. We consume all sort of many other non digestible micro parts all the time. The harsh reality is that life are contaminated not pure, yet life persevered. If you want to try to live your life without it, be my guest. I prefer to have it with me and find solutions for the waste problems plastic enfolds. If there was a sane alternative to plastic I would not mind switching to it, but there isn’t. I’m not going to stop using phones, cars keyboards dishes and a gazzilion other things because we currently don’t have a great solution to dissolve plastic. There will be a great at scale solution if we actively search for it
Thank you for letting me now what is in every hacky sack that I used to (and still kinda do) mess with all the time! Nurdles...what a word. Also, why can't we just, 1) stop being so needy for EVERYTHING, 2) use actual recyclable things for other things, like glass, cardstock, and metal. Those things are very reusable.
Stuff like this makes me understand Thanos way of thinking more. It feels so hopeless and overwhelming that the easiest way to fix things is to just get rid of everyone 😭😭😭
I am barely old enough to recall when most bottles were glass and most containers were waxed paper or cardboard. Plastic was used as a way to say something was cheap poorly made and or fake.
That probably explains why we started using it for the most disposable of things. Maybe we should rebrand plastic into a high end premium product so it costs more and we make less of it? 🤔
@@WanderTheNomad Answer to video-title: Yes.
A lot of this starts from the companies that create the products to begin with. Since little to no pressure is put on the companies they have no reason to change. Last Week Tonight did a great piece about plastics, and not just plastic in the trash but also out bodies
I’m a mechanical engineer.. I took so many classes on plastics and it’s extrusion. When you said “by the way, those little plastic pieces are called” I yelled “Nurdles!!” And woke up everyone in my house 😂 Edit: something else I learned.. Recyclable plastics are cleaned and turned into new nurdles, but the max percentage you can use of recycled material (only of thermoplastics, not thermoset plastics) is still 20%.. It stinks, but that’s how it works. Lost of companies still do it, but we’re far from having 100% recycled plastics either way 🥺
All great points. Unfortunately, collection has dwindled since recycled plastics became no longer "profitable" or other countries refused to take it. Many cities even pay fees to collect it these days (at a state level, it can be many millions), but most of it either sits some place or gets mixed back into trash later. Others can't afford the climbing costs to collect and have it shipped to a collection site many cities away as well. Paying for multiple plants to stay open proves to be more costly on the towns while state governments are not in a position to interject. Thus, those not close to the collection site or plant, or simply those without the money, do not collect or recycle. Those who do and are, very little is actually recycled in the end. People are not even well informed with what can be recycled and do not clean what they do recycle. The process needs to change with the companies, but also the people and cities/towns/states they live in.
Don’t worry if it’s OK or not, you don’t need anyone’s permission, just Be Smart.
Nono, it's imperative. You had your time to adjust - now it's not a question, you have to!
"its ok to be smart" felt comforting and friendly. "be smart" sounds like an order and threatening
@@pvic6959 I think that's what I dig about it. I like the idea of an aggressive push to make anyone willing to listen better informed than they were yesterday
This makes me feel bad for being a LEGO enthusiast. At least I'm not throwing it away. And I really hope they go with the paper bags soon.
You can give it to others(like kids) when you don't want to play with them anymore
Loved this video! ❤️ I try my best to recycle everything and don’t use disposable water bottles but I know there’s more I can do. Knowledge is power and it takes all of us to make effective change. The images of marine life getting caught up in plastic trash breaks my heart.
I saw some videos about "plastic pyrolysis" on youtube years ago, which is the process of converting plastic back to petrol (with pressure and heat I think?). The machines for that is so expensive though.
The plastic grocery bags wouldn't be an issue if the bags weren't so borderline unusable! Not even the cashiers and baggers want to deal with the horrors of those bags
In that case, people just need to bring their own bags. Cloth or reusable plastic bags are great for holding groceries and it's not like people haven't brought bags/baskets to collect their food for tens of thousands of years. Groceries just need to get out of the habit of expecting bags to be provided to them.
@@watsonwrote agreed! Shame the "marketing" that the bags with the company logo "do'" is too much to give up for some reason
Using the wrong kind of plastics for the wrong purpose really annoys me. I buy an item that I want to use for years that is made of plastics, but it degrades in just a few years. Yet the wrapper that it came in last for centuries. What the heck is that sort of insane society are we living in? Of course, this degradation of this plastic does not mean it biodegradable ether. Just that it breaks down to smaller pieces. Because it is crap plastics. Urgh... just annoys me. Plastics that last long can lead to less pollution if they're for an item you intend to keep.
Answer to video-title: Yes. I hope this channel's fans know that Hbomberguy and Wisecrack also covered Clima-Change and such-and-such.
recently, I bought myself some schleich animals and the packaging was made out of 100% biodegradable 'plastic' that was actually candy. Idk for sure how this works, but it is awesome. What we should do is make plastic out of weed. Yes, it is a drug, but there are people who have made plastic out of it, and it's also biodegradable, the plant grows fast and thus can be harvested much sooner, as it's growing it uses photosynthesis so there would be more oxygen. The only reason I can think of why people Don't use that is because the millionaires who run these corporations make a lot of money out of oil. Because weed would be so easy to make plastic out of, it would cost less and thus less income for the crazy rich people,
I dont think u understand Howard much plastik iş actually Boeing made. Teresa not nearly eneough wed to sustain the industry
I genuinely love you man! You put these astronomically difficult and overwhelming issues into understandable and digestable (and entertaining) videos. Please keep it up!
Just a couple days ago, I noticed a tree that "packages" it's seeds in a "water tight packaging". The number of seeds vary from 4 to 8 seeds, that are separated by an inch or so. The outside felt like a normal dry "leaf"(don't know exact terminology) but when I split it open, the inside felt like it was lined with a thin plastic coating. But since it is from a tree, it is obviously not plastic. I also know that seeds need water to grow into tree, so the tree won't make something that will never let water get inside, otherwise it will be nothing more than a time capsule for a tree. If we can synthesize it, we could use paper packaging more often for things don't need to be packaged for a long time and are not moisture critical.
It was probably just a waxy resin, but this is exactly the kind of solution we should be aiming for. Find materials that have our desired properties and break down within a few years of exposure to the elements.
It is critical to protect the environment so as to reduce the destruction of eco-systems caused by a myriad of anthropogenic activities. ... Air and water pollution, global warming, smog, acid rain, deforestation, wildfires are just few of the environmental issues that we are facing right now.😄😄😄
Lol I appreciate your enthusiasm but those 😄😄😄s seem a bit misplaced
@@jomalomal maybe they’re passive aggressive..? 💀
@@jomalomal I read them as the ones with a drop of sweat on the forehead
@@PyjamaRex 😅 yeah
You know nothing but you try to act like you do. Ignoramus.
I think everybody (and especially companies) need to adopt a different view on plastic packaging. I'm looking around my house and thinking "Why is this even made of plastic?" and I think the answer is mostly laziness. I think companies need to start asking themselves "Does this REALLY need to be plastic?" And if the answer cannot be justified, then it should be mentioned very clearly to inform the consumers that this company did not take their responsibility to do better.
I absolutely love the large scope of this and the actionable plans!! This is the type of solutions we need to make more meaningful change!!
Due to economies of scale, plastic monomers are typically created by massive industrial plants. Require the plants to uniquely label their products with trace minerals and isotopes. We've got technology to measure these in tiny amounts, that should have no macroscopic effects on the products being made. Assess the external cost of plastics back to the producers based on the amount found in the environment. This would create incentives to create bio-degradable plastics, to tighten up waste disposal practices, and produce plastic products that are easier to capture and recycle.
I love word salad, too.
For some materials, the trace materials would be needed at the polymerization step, such as with polyethylene.
@@AnimeHumanCoherence and the plastic main course?
In paper sounds nice, until someone manufactures plastic with some one else trace mineral recipe , so the impostor is not blamed. Needs to be way better, and too middle men are eager to make a profit doing shady stuff.
Why plastic ? Why not paper or hemp?
Thank you for this detailed analysis; I just hope you're not preaching to the choir. When buying something, I'd love to be able to have the option of a non-plastic wrapped alternative; but when you need scissors to open the hard plastic scissor packaging, something is seriously wrong! It's the manufacturers that need to take the first giant leaps away from plastic - but that will hit them in the wallet, and when money makes the decisions, we're back to square one...
That is where government needs to come up, and put extra taxes to those products that do not help. That will tilt the scale, it might cost extra initially, but someone will come up with a cheaper solution pretty soon.
@@ikocheratcr I agree; if they charged per plastic packaging, manufacturers would miraculously find another solution quickly..!
Rarely companies will do thr right thing even if its bad in the short term, Famously the company making cling wrap changed the formula resulting in a less clingy membrane because this formula didn't include a toxic compound, which is important as cling wrap's #1 use is on food items. This could also just be avoiding expensive lawsuits or reputation saving and not actively choosing to be good. Obviously this is the exception and not the rule, most companies only value "dollar value" when making decisions according to the laws of economics. And so it falls on the governments to reflect externalities like pollution back onto them in dollar costs. You would be surprised what can have a pricetag attached to it, including medical consequences of burning a pound of coal or even a human life. And its this value that sets the minimum tax needed to encourage a change in behavior, of course you can go higher and subsidize good behavior on top of paying for cleanup.
Currently, I am studying in 10th grade. Your and some others' videos have inspired me to do something for climate and environment. I dream i will do at least 'something'.
Love the video! I will make sure to overthink my behaviour when it comes to sorting trash and buying products. However, I am now worried about eating fish, because god knows how much plastic I am feeding myself this way.
I'd love to see a video of how wax worms have evolved to now eat plastic. I wonder if there is value in creating giant "farms" of these plastic eating worms.
What happens to the plastic they eat? Do they digest it into less harmful molecules, or just store it in their bodies?
@@DracarmenWinterspring I'm guessing they digest it like our bodies do with most things we put into ourselves, idk if they poop it out though....idk if worms can do that.
@@vivientakacs5599 well if a human (or most animals) ate plastic it wouldn't break down chemically, it would just build up in our bodies or wherever our waste goes. For a farm of plastic-digesting worms to be useful, I think they have to chemically change the plastic
@@DracarmenWinterspring yeah but our Bodies work differently. I just mentioned us humans to make it clearer how they would do it. how does worms work that eat plastic I have no idea about.
Nature will take care of itself, don't worry. It was here long before us and will be long after.
omg THANK YOU. The main thing that bothered me about team seas was that they didn't talk enough about this, but it's sooo important. Also, like you say in the video, just because the problem is huge and systemic doesn't mean that you can't do anything. Though it may not seem like it, by us all banding together, we *can* do things like bully governments and institutions to enact incremental change and advance the cultural conversation on this.
Nice to see a video like this one that reminds people just how quickly garbage piles up, and that simply trying to clean it up accomplishes next to nothing.
Amazing video ! Super thumps up, the numbers do help to understand how much we can help with small changes, thank you so much
0:40 Those numbers aren't surprising to me at all; I already knew that TeamSeas isn't going to even make a chip in a dent in a scratch of the amount of just plastic(let alone total garbage) in the seas. Likewise, Rohin of Medlife Crisis pointed out that TeamTrees wanted to plant 20m trees while India had already done multiple such events where they planted hundreds of millions of trees. As usual, removing the bad stuff isn't going to solve anything if we keep constantly adding orders of magnitude more. The solution that people have been saying forever is to STOP ADDING MORE. Moreover, some channels such as Second Thought have explained that Team---s actually makes things worse by causing effects like self-licensing, like "I donated $200, so it's now okay if I take a couple of plane trips this year". That said, they can help by raising awareness and encouraging some young people to get into positions of power where they can make an _actual_ difference.
By the end of your comment, I'm glad you mentioned awareness, which is truly the end goal for these things. And at the end of the day, it's better than doing absolutely nothing which the vast majority of people do.
Awareness doesn't work. I explained one of my friend and he pointed out that 1. Everything packages in plastics 2. The amount of cold beverages in plastic is more than glass. 3. People think that other people are managing their waste 4. It isn't affecting any of their lives. But change might come with awareness I guess
Yeah, STOP ADDING AND MAKING MORE
MrBeast is just another guy making money off of people by doing public stunts. What would you expect... And awareness is worthless - this "raises awareness" mostly in people who are already interested or inclined to be interested and now some of them believe it's all easy peasy if only people gave MrBeast more money... more can be done for $0. Just imagine if all those people who paid $20 to feel good about themselves and their extended families made a full year-long effort to exchange every single plastic item they regularly buy or use for a bio-degradable alternative. Bamboo or avocado stirrers, cotton buds or cutlery, personal steel-straws, skip plastic-cup coffees and get a thermos, tell the pizza guy you don't need that miniature plastic table in your otherwise degradable cardboard box. This, times 4, times what, 250K people who would donate? A million people, over a year, cutting down plastic use to minimum. They would even save a lot of money instead if they actually skip fastfood stalls and takeouts that do not provide bio-degradable packaging.
@@Eldorado1239 The issue is that the average person **isn't** willing to do that. Government action is the single easiest and most possible method that we have to combat this.
The kind of sad thing is with all these wonderful calculations we’re just calculating our own deaths. Like calculating the size of your own grave. But thank you for giving us more vision on seriousness of the situation.
Shared this video with my friends, thank you for your incredible insight on this topic.
This stuff keeps me up at night. We need closed loop systems where end of life products are used to build the new product.
@Be Smart Missing from your video's sources is analysis of floating ocean plastics makeup like this commonly sited study from 2018. "Our model estimates that this 1.6 million km2 accumulation zone (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch) is currently holding around 42k metric tons of megaplastics (e.g. fishing nets, which represented more than 46% of the GPGP load), ~20k metric tons of macroplastics (e.g. crates, eel trap cones, bottles), ~10 k metric tons of mesoplastics (e.g. bottle caps, oyster spacers), and ~6.4 k metric tons of microplastics (e.g. fragments of rigid plastic objects, ropes and fishing nets)." Source: First link when searching "Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic" Since my comment gets nuked when including links.
Thanks for this additional reference. I'll add it to our long list. One interesting point from this paper is that although macroplastics account for the majority of mass in GPGP, 94% of the nearly 2 trillion pieces in the area are microplastics by total count. Shows you how challenging the cleanup issue is. You may be able to target tonnaege, but you'll never win the numbers game.
4:20 "In places like the US and Europe, a lot of plastic ends up in landfills." OBJECTION! In Germany, only mineral wastes are allowed to be dumped right into landfills (has been like that since 2005). Everything else needs to be incinerated first. Yeah, a lot of our "recycling" plastic ends up burnt, but at least it generates electricity and - in some cases - district heating on the way. Could be better, though.
He is working of old data,
Is that policy for all of Europe, which is what he said?
@@TheSwauzz no, this is related to European union. Actually there is some plastic leak out of the collection system, and some plastic prior to 2000 s policies across EU is still separated and stored ( not landfilled). The leak is between 5 and 30 %, but getting lower on a yearly basis.
I never understood why plastic isn't burnt to a higher percentage. After all, it's just fossil fuel which has had a useful life between coming out of the earth and being blown into the air. Burning plastic saves new fossil fuel that would otherwise be just burnt without intermediate use.
@@hape3862 Because NIMBY crowd doesn't want an incinerator near them, despite new designs are much cleaner.
Amazing! I didn't expected this video to be so detailed
Fantastic video
Thank you for this video! One thing I feel would help with some of the individual and political choices that need to be made was if it were easier to find localized information on these things. A centralized database for finding out what needs to be done where you live, what kind of policies or votes can be made, what kind of problems your city is facing. Finding all that out is currently a bit frustrating, especially if you don't live in one of the biggest cities in the US that gets really specific attention about this. I'm in a mid-sized city that has spent most of a year burning its recycling bc the main recycling center was lost in a fire, and most people had no idea that the recycling they were putting in blue bins was having to go to an incinerator. Only a few people found out and even less took the time to sort and drive their recycling to a smaller center, and all this was almost ridiculously easy to never find out about.
That last thing you said about using something that lasts so long to protect something that will last only a fraction of that time is just truly wild. I would like to say that a tax on anything plastic would help but that'd only harm the less fortunate unless an alternative was made available.
Unless you tax the negative externality, you will get more of it and not generate interest in alternatives to compete. The poor create the same problems with their usage, so they shouldn't be spared.
We *already* have alternatives for most plastic items. There are a handful of situations where plastic truly is the only good option currently in some situations (the plastic straw/disability usage is an example of one such spot where there isn't a perfect alternative for every use case), but the vast majority we already have alternatives, and in some cases had since before plastic was around and switch away from for one reason or another (usually money but not always).
@@Yumixfan Answer to video-title: Yes. I hope this channel's fans know that Hbomberguy and Wisecrack also covered Clima-Change and such-and-such.
@@nenmaster5218 why did you reply to me something unrelated to what I said?
Gotta say, I'm not a fan of the name change. "It's okay to be smart" is exactly the message I needed to hear growing up. So many people praise the person who's good at throwing a ball or hitting a puck with a stick, or twisting their bodies in ways mine just won't go, but all smart kids ever got was a number on the top of a test and resentment for "blowing the curve." From kids making fun of nerds to the rampant anti-intellactualism in modern politics and pop culture, society just doesn't honor science and intellectual achievement like we used to do. Plus, the old name was a lot more memorable and, well, charming!
This one of the best contents I've seen lately on any media!! Keep it up the outstanding work!! Greetings from Brazil!
Recycling needs a full blown rebranding. That would be a good start.
*Easy one to solve:* 1. Move to a paradigm of abundant energy through emerging nuclear technologies (will also solve climate change and worldwide poverty as a bonus). 2. Standardise plastic materials to facilitate up/down/re cycling. 3. Require manufacturers to perform and declare environmental 'life cycle analyses' for all products. 4. Incentivise manufacturers to take 'end of life' responsibility for their product materials. 5. Utilise automation to reduce the human labour cost aspect of recycling. 6. Move in general towards more sustainable products, packaging and materials (should result from all of this).
Sending your link to everyone I know who needs to see this! Thank you
Thank you for addressing this!!
It's incredible how one single item has such an awful impact on society yet is allowed to be freely used.
Not really, it's mostly the CO2 in the atmosphere that had the biggest impact on this plant, so the best way and easiest way to reduce the carbon is to just reduce the people living in this plant aka not having as many children and focusing on quality instead of quantity! i myself won't be having any children.
@@glacier_10_years_ago Glad to hear that. Wich more people like you would do the same.
That would be because of the ridiculously incredible benefit it has also provided. Go to any hospital, school, etc and look around and notice how much plastic is used to save and improve lives. Can't just focus on one side of it. Plastic has been a huge boon but also a huge detriment (mostly due to consumerism).
It's not one single item. So you have started off misinformed.
@@glacier_10_years_ago Uhm.. what? Poor, uneducated people will eventually dominate then because they won't stop having kids; they already have more children on average than other demographics as it is. With your logic, Idiocracy will be real sooner than we thought.
Funny this came up as I'm doing an activity on college about plastic eating bacteria. It is fascinanting.I'm still on the idea that substituting plastic for other stuff is way better on the long run. More economic and long term sustainable. But it can be eficient on dealing with existing polution. And one of the results of this degradation can be used in fuel, if I'm understanding the articles I've found so far correctly.
Thank you so much for making this video. I know its not much I can do but I will do my part as best as I can
I absolutely love your videos Be Smart... beyond informative, interesting, and explained in a way that even a box of rocks could understand. Thank you!
Thanks for bringing attention to this colossal problem Joe! You'll inspire a lot of people with this video!!
That was great, thanks. A very balanced view on a very serious problem.....and, with the will, something can be done.
Thanks for this video. It really rings the problem of using all these plastic pollution to the attention of people all around the world. We have to change our habits of using plastics along. If each person tries it could make a difference with governments legislation.
Fantastic video! It's not only informative but also enjoyable and practical. I plan to use it as a teaching resource. Thank you so much for creating such a high-quality video! I truly appreciate the effort you put into making this video!
I've been watching this channel for years and I've always absolutely loved it. Someone of the most top tier educational content on KZhead. That said, I don't like the new name. I feel like "It's Okay to be Smart" had such a good ring to it, especially in an era of the resurgence of anti-intellectualism. Every episode reminded people that it is in fact okay to be smart. It's okay to learn and gain knowledge. Now it's just kind of skipping that reminder and telling you to just be smart. Maybe I'm looking too deeply into it, but those are my honest thoughts.
Watch the video they posted on the name change if you're truly interested.
This is just another of several major issues that requires a complete redesign of how the world handles its comfy life, just like meat consumption, disposable electronics, global warming, and even just tackling COVID. It’s just hard to care. It’s like everything is wrong and either outside of our control or majorly inconvenient and expensive.
An excellent and holistic description of the global crisis of MISMANAGEMNET of pollution,waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and a strategically good list of what kind of actions and approaches to support.Thank you.
Your video is really great. You know so much things about it and I appreciate that. I study ecology so I know a lot about these problems too and I hope that one day we will find a solution. Also, sometimes I'm thinking about some solutions how to remove old or unrecycled plastic and... some ideas are pretty great and interesting😄 Only find the way how to do that😁 Sending a lot of positive energy from Czech Republic 😊
I'm ashamed of my country's high plastic waste production number. I swear I'll keep on doing my part..
Stop using landfills and do it like we do in Denmark. And when you buy a bottle/can of water or soda put 40 to 50 cent on it that you get back from the store when you return it
I try to reduce the amount of plastic I buy, especially doing my groceries, but sometimes it's just so hard! Here in Amsterdam, the main supermarkets wrap mostly everything in plastic. I often go to a zero waste store, but I just know of one in Amsterdam and it's pretty far from where I live. I still cycle there once every two weeks. But I think supermarkets could definitely do better.
Awesome video and great stats. Loved the memes 😂
Wait, when did the channel name become be smart?! How did I not notice this before?! Never mind, I just read the pinned comment
Individuals DO have to take responsibility. Over the last two years I've seen two new types of plastic litter, and they're everywhere - facemasks, (obviously) and single use, disposable vape pens. We know that we're facing a plastic problem, but instead of facing up to it we're creating new types of litter that didn't exist three years ago - it's very depressing.
I have no idea why people use single use vapes it makes 0 sense
Using vapes at all doesn’t make sense!
@@AetherNightmare Can't speak for other countries, but Germany only allows single-use medical masks (either surgical or N95/FFP2) at this point. At least for anything covered by the mask mandate.
@@TROBassGuitar As far as I can tell it's just teenagers* who buy them, and they share them with their friends. At least that's what I see in my part of the World - teens hanging around, passing round disposable vape pens, and when they run out it's someone else's turn - obviously they aren't binned - that'd be crazy. The local general store has a huge amount of them, and almost every time I'm in there's another kid buying one or two (£6 each). I was talking to the guy in the shop and he was telling me that the wholesaler can't get enough of them. He claimed that the wholesaler invested everything he could just as these things were coming out, and he's made seven figures on them, which isn't difficult to believe. Like you, I don't understand how they've taken off - they cost a fortune compared to buying a vape device, but I don't know if the users care - the sharing seems to be part of it. They are an environmental nightmare - I couldn't think of many types of worse litter. *I'm not having a go at teenagers - I'm just stating what I see. When I was a teenager we hung around smoking hash every night, and although I hated litter, none of my friends were particularly concerned about the environment - so no real difference between then and now, except I'd much rather smoke some hash than a nasty vape pen.
@@rolfs2165 those mask are reusable, tho, if not worn for long (got wet, or damaged) they can be stored in paper bags and reused after 72 hrs. They should not be sprayed with alcohol or anything, as it can ruin masks' properties. I've got this from several - seems to me - reliable sources, experts on twitter, one citing some US health agency? (can't recall) for health care workers in time of shortage... But, certainly double checked what I'm saying. And take care! (I was looking into it since #COVIDisAirborne and surgical masks with gaps are so low in effectiveness - but others are cost prohibitive for one time use, for me... and most of the planet 😞)
My local community in Lafayette and West Lafayette just made major cuts to what kind of plastics we are allowed to recycle there. Surprisingly, neither the stores nor the consumers changed their behavior.🤷♂️
Thank you for making this!!!
short answer: yeah most likely not, but there's a chance.
Pollution researchers would most likely argue that there's literally not a chance, hence the focus on plastic sources
The biggest thing that needs to be done is moving away from hyperconsumerism and the "I need that brand new thing even though the thing I already have is fine" mindset. Like I finally convinced my parents they don't need a new iPhone every time apple shoots out a new one
We should bioengineer a salt water bateria that lives off of microplastics. Perhaps a variety based on the types and simply seed them across the ocean plastic patches and rivers. Then accept that all plastics degrade faster due to bacteria and the increased CO2 emission that comes out of the "plastic sink".
Yup. I'm sure that kind of massive bioengineering bandaid will have no other side affects whatsoever! And then we can just keep polluting, perfect!!!
@@Sir.Craze- We can all see we will never reach full circular economies with a soft approach. Microplastics are so small, your filter would glog with normal sea matter while filtering out microplastics. Even running the washing machine produces microplastocs from the ploymers that run off your clothes. Fixing the microplastic sollution cant be fixed at the source. Fixing the source would halt the size of the problem. Will you wait 400 years for plastics to degrade in the wild before its gone? Oh wait! Sea level rise will flood coastal areas putting urban areas underwater. With that comes the pollution of metals, debris and plastics, increasing the issue thousand fold. Who will clean up and pay for all of that? Never mind the pollution that mass migration will cause. Your best bet for a permanent plastic sollution is cutting the production of plastics, making degradable plastics only, and designing bacteria to help clean the oceans and coastal lines. And we should accept the increased maintenance and change of material costs that comes with that.
I'm so thankful I found this channel. It always brings so many interesting subjects, I'm always eager to see what's the next video about. Some fresh air during the difficult days we have been living. This specific topic, though, made me sign your Patreon - even if I can't collaborate more, due to how expensive dollar becomes compared to my Brazilian coins hehe). I wish we had more people talking about pollution and how to deal with that. Please, never quit sharing knowledge like that: democratically, so everyone can understand.👏
Very nice video as always!!
Surprised that you don't mention the "recently" found microbe/s that actually eats multiple kinds of plastics. Looks promising!
I think we cannot really solve this without the help from the plastic eating bacteria. i wish Joe, as a biologist, should've talked more about this approach.
Its honestly sad that microbes ever had the ability to evolve to eat plastic because that means its been everywhere for a long time. But now that some can, if we can just control production/release of plastic, they will be able to slowly consume all the microplastic we could never hope to filter out of the environment ourselves.
@@jasonreed7522 what if after eating all our plastic they evolve even more and take over earth!
@@SicilianAmericanDreams Today plastic, TOMORROW YOU
@@wildrussiansnake8978 Some More News talks a lot about political Failures, also about Clima Change Measures.
"stop being such a Nurdle* made me laugh more than it should've 🤣
I had the same criticisms about team seas and this video encapsulates the issue and solutions so well
Since it is produced by oil and is made of hydrocarbons, plastic contains a lot of chemical energy. The best way to remove plastic from the environment is to burn it to prevent it from breaking down into microplastics, but that creates a lot of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, although electricity can be generated from incineration due to the high energy content. Burying it is the best way to keep the carbon out of the air, but is an unsustainable and polluting use of land and can lead to more microplastic pollution. I personally believe that the sheer amount of plastic currently in and being added to the environment will favor the natural selection of organisms that evolve to figure out ways of extracting the chemical energy in plastics to use as food and exploit this new, now plentiful resource spread throughout the global environment. It will take time, but if things don’t change a whole new ecology of the ‘plastic cycle’ will develop. Ultimately our biggest challenge is going to be figuring out how to store all the carbon we keep extracting from fossil fuels back underground where it came from and safely out of the oceans and atmosphere.
The earth is constipated
same
Sounds like I can't do much about it. It all depends on manufacturers and law makers
Recycling is key and tbh u keep thinking to myself " everybody is making resin stuff why not break up the plastic waste we have and make a giant resin block to make structures and stuff
A friend of mine is working on a project, they figured out how to make plastic into diesel but since diesel is little by little being pushed off the market in EU, their project doesn’t get any funding and will probably end pretty soon...
sorry for asking. why did you change your name to "Be Smart"? It's a lot more comforting to see " It's okay to be smart" especially for those who were bullied for wanting to learn more
Literally a lot of folks are asking that same question
Because people should actually be smart for the survival of this planet and the peace of our society rather than it being an encouraged option.
The title is telling you to be smart, The opposite of whoever bullied you. It should be reassuring.
Another thing to point out- as I am located in South-East Asia Pacific (I’m in Singapore), the plastic for packaging is Integral to the Convenience culture. Everyone is rushing to get somewhere or get something done. So their habits follow: I need something disposable so I don’t have to worry about cleaning up later. Go to the 7/11 and even though you buy two or one items, they will put it in a plastic bag for you. They are often taken aback when I say “It’s fine- I got space in my bag” or when I carry it on my own. Takeaway culture? Plastic boxes and cutlery. Why? The organic and bio friendly option of packaging is too expensive a cost for the hawker (food sellers- their food can come in as little as $3 a meal!). Also, in Japan, they have things packaged into individual servings so you can portion your food. Also, being in South East Asia, we need plastic to preserve our food and other items because of the humid and hot climate. From this observation there needs to be a few prongs to attack. Some ideas (that are open to critique): Individual action, such as bringing a reusable bag, and your own lunch box for takeaway is a great start. The next thing is to come up with some affordable bio-degradable disposable packaging. Maybe even education for the Hawkers and SMEs about the new packaging as they are creatures of old habit. Mindset change is the first step.
well said
My university town had very little recycling because the power plant burned trash. They specifically called out plastics as a major part of it, pointing out that a milk carton is hard to light but oh dang does it burn once it gets going. OBVIOUSLY burning trash presents its own problems, very serious scrubbers needed in the smokestacks, but sometimes I ponder what sort of dent could be put in trash production (or even extant trash) if coal-fired plants were converted. Probably not pollute more than coal, and they wouldn't care about plastic being too degraded to recycle.
The most immediate "threat" from plastics is what ends up making it's way into water systems and eventually floating in the oceans. It's the things floating in the water that pose the more immediate risk. This is more a function of density than biodegradability. The "easiest" quick fix is to make the things that end up in the ocean the most (single use bags, straws, bottles, etc) from denser materials that don't float. A disposable bamboo spoon is not going to biodegrade quickly enough to not be a threat when it ends up in the ocean. A denser plastic fork that won't float is less likely to ever make it to the ocean at all. Obviously, reuse is better than single use. But it's much harder to change people's behavior on a global scale.
Scientists: we have mountains of evidence that plastic use needs to change for hundreds of reasons. Let's make the change! Capitalism: no I don't think I will.
Can you please change the channel name back to what it was? It sounded cooler and a lot inclusive
When i worked at McDonald's i was so surprised at how much plastic went into the trash.. my first time taking out the trash from the kitchen where's most of the plastic comes from i asked if there was a recycling bin or something for all that plastic, my manager laughed and gave me that " what an idiot " chuckle and he told me to just dump it in the trash.
Here in my little country (Honduras), big supermarkets have already ban plastic bags. Now you have to take your own reusable bags. Its a little step, but I have to be honest, I buy a lot of plastics and just in order to avoid doing dishes. That's gonna be one of my goals this year, reducing my use of plastics.