1
00:01:34,924 --> 00:01:40,888
I remember the first time
I saw a picture of a blue whale,

2
00:01:41,013 --> 00:01:45,100
which was
in a National Geographic magazine.

3
00:01:47,061 --> 00:01:51,941
A drawing of the whale, and then
a tiny human standing beside it.

4
00:01:52,066 --> 00:01:54,485
This thing was bigger than any dinosaur.

5
00:01:58,572 --> 00:01:59,782
And as an eight-year-old,

6
00:01:59,907 --> 00:02:02,801
I couldn't imagine that
there was anything that big.

7
00:02:03,702 --> 00:02:10,459
I've followed them since childhood
with the absolute design

8
00:02:10,584 --> 00:02:13,420
to go and film them myself
at some point.

9
00:02:13,546 --> 00:02:15,798
And that was 40 years later.

10
00:02:32,148 --> 00:02:35,234
Never had a slate before...

11
00:02:35,359 --> 00:02:38,612
Dr. Lindsay Porter is a cetacean expert.

12
00:02:39,697 --> 00:02:42,575
And Ben Fogle is a U.K. adventurer.

13
00:02:43,826 --> 00:02:46,245
So, Lindsay, just tell me,
what kind of whales

14
00:02:46,370 --> 00:02:48,289
in particular are we looking for?

15
00:02:48,414 --> 00:02:50,040
Today, we're looking for the blue whale.

16
00:02:50,166 --> 00:02:52,877
There are two different types
of blue whale we'll see in the area,

17
00:02:53,002 --> 00:02:56,881
- the true blues and pygmy blues.
- And how do they differ?

18
00:02:57,006 --> 00:03:01,385
Pygmy blues are slightly smaller
than true blue whales.

19
00:03:01,510 --> 00:03:04,597
When you say "slightly smaller,"
what size are we talking about here?

20
00:03:04,722 --> 00:03:06,265
Twenty-five meters.

21
00:03:06,390 --> 00:03:08,726
Lindsay has such a depth of knowledge

22
00:03:08,851 --> 00:03:12,354
that she's my first go-to
when I've got a question about a whale.

23
00:03:12,479 --> 00:03:16,775
So, as the currents and the waves come in,
they create this very productive front,

24
00:03:16,901 --> 00:03:20,237
and this is why we think the animals...
the whales, feed here.

25
00:03:20,362 --> 00:03:21,802
So, when you say "productive front,"

26
00:03:21,906 --> 00:03:25,743
I imagine krill, food,
is being welled up...

27
00:03:25,868 --> 00:03:30,247
Ben Fogle rowed a boat
across the Atlantic.

28
00:03:30,372 --> 00:03:33,542
And that meant
that he had a sense of adventure.

29
00:03:33,667 --> 00:03:35,252
He was a risk-taker.

30
00:03:38,464 --> 00:03:41,258
From the very first day
we saw them blowing,

31
00:03:41,383 --> 00:03:44,720
we knew they were there,
but they were very hard to reach.

32
00:03:44,845 --> 00:03:46,165
And fluke up. Oh, nice.

33
00:03:46,180 --> 00:03:50,142
These animals can do
up to 30 kilometers an hour underwater,

34
00:03:50,267 --> 00:03:52,728
and they can stay underwater
for a half an hour

35
00:03:52,853 --> 00:03:54,939
and go in any direction.

36
00:03:56,148 --> 00:03:58,984
When we saw them,
we'd follow them, try to get near them,

37
00:03:59,109 --> 00:04:04,031
wait for them to come up again,
and then just never see them again.

38
00:04:13,499 --> 00:04:15,876
Tell me what
I should be listening out for.

39
00:04:16,001 --> 00:04:22,341
For whales, you need to listen
for a low-frequency monotone.

40
00:04:22,466 --> 00:04:24,426
And for dolphins...

41
00:04:24,551 --> 00:04:27,096
Oh, can you hear it right there? That?

42
00:04:27,221 --> 00:04:28,554
- The whistles?
- The high-pitched whistles?

43
00:04:28,555 --> 00:04:30,474
The high-pitched whistling.
That's dolphins.

44
00:04:30,599 --> 00:04:32,319
That's the group of dolphins
we just passed.

45
00:04:32,351 --> 00:04:35,061
- How far do you think they are?
- They'll still be within a kilometer.

46
00:04:35,062 --> 00:04:37,898
- That's a long way to go.
- It's a long way. It's a big ocean.

47
00:04:38,023 --> 00:04:39,903
They've got to talk to each other
over distance.

48
00:04:39,942 --> 00:04:40,901
That's incredible.

49
00:04:42,695 --> 00:04:46,573
We traveled up and down,
50 miles off the coast for two weeks

50
00:04:46,699 --> 00:04:49,201
trying to get close to these animals.

51
00:04:49,326 --> 00:04:53,372
We ran out of time.
We started heading back to port...

52
00:04:56,875 --> 00:04:59,503
- Oh, look, look.
- At two o'clock...

53
00:04:59,628 --> 00:05:02,798
another blow. Four.

54
00:05:02,923 --> 00:05:05,718
And it looks like
he's going to fluke up...

55
00:05:06,844 --> 00:05:08,679
and dive.

56
00:05:08,804 --> 00:05:11,598
So, he'll probably be down
for another ten minutes or so.

57
00:05:11,724 --> 00:05:13,642
Whoosh!

58
00:05:20,149 --> 00:05:21,692
They look like freight trains,

59
00:05:21,817 --> 00:05:26,238
like enormous spaceships
that just travel effortlessly.

60
00:05:34,538 --> 00:05:37,458
Every piece of them looked
like something

61
00:05:37,583 --> 00:05:44,131
I'd seen on a... reengineered
on an aircraft or on a supercar.

62
00:05:44,256 --> 00:05:47,843
When they fluke, they arch like that.

63
00:05:47,968 --> 00:05:51,764
Their tail comes up vertically
and drops straight in the water,

64
00:05:51,889 --> 00:05:54,600
and you can barely hear a sound.

65
00:06:10,866 --> 00:06:15,871
Wow, look at that! Wow!

66
00:06:15,996 --> 00:06:19,458
That is just beautiful!

67
00:06:49,196 --> 00:06:51,356
It's the first time
that we believe that anyone

68
00:06:51,406 --> 00:06:56,203
has ever filmed
a juvenile pygmy blue whale underwater.

69
00:07:26,316 --> 00:07:29,486
What do you think it's from, Alex?
Is it from a ship?

70
00:07:29,611 --> 00:07:31,822
No, it came from a river.

71
00:07:31,947 --> 00:07:35,159
We were in the Indian Ocean,
off the coast of Sri Lanka, where

72
00:07:35,284 --> 00:07:38,745
there hasn't been any commercial
fishing because of the civil war.

73
00:07:38,871 --> 00:07:42,875
The beaches have been closed
for up to 30 years.

74
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,712
We thought this was
a relatively pristine environment.

75
00:07:51,425 --> 00:07:52,545
Floating on the surface

76
00:07:52,634 --> 00:07:56,513
and a meter below
was just this horrible, crappy,

77
00:07:56,638 --> 00:08:01,058
emulsified mess of oil and bits of,
you know...

78
00:08:01,268 --> 00:08:03,395
It's horrible, and looking through it,

79
00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:06,690
you could see the tendrils
of the net hanging down.

80
00:08:06,815 --> 00:08:10,611
That was certainly one of the most
unpleasant dives I've ever done.

81
00:09:18,136 --> 00:09:20,639
I spent my childhood in the sea.

82
00:09:20,764 --> 00:09:22,015
Growing up in Grand Cayman,

83
00:09:22,140 --> 00:09:24,893
we didn't have
organized sports after school.

84
00:09:25,018 --> 00:09:30,107
We didn't even have a TV until I was 13,
so the sea was my playground.

85
00:09:32,943 --> 00:09:35,529
As a free-diver,
it was the place where...

86
00:09:35,654 --> 00:09:41,159
I proved myself to myself by traveling
to the absolute edge of myself.

87
00:09:49,084 --> 00:09:52,296
I need to put as much oxygen
in my blood as possible

88
00:09:52,421 --> 00:09:55,674
so that I can hold my breath
for the three-and-a-half to four minutes

89
00:09:55,799 --> 00:09:57,217
that the dive is gonna take me.

90
00:10:10,188 --> 00:10:12,316
Five-hundred and
twenty-five feet is beyond

91
00:10:12,441 --> 00:10:15,319
the crushing depth
of Second World War submarines.

92
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:38,133
In pushing so hard,
I learned about limits.

93
00:10:40,385 --> 00:10:43,805
I've got a fiery redhead,
and she redefines my limits every day.

94
00:10:46,558 --> 00:10:47,559
Finally for me,

95
00:10:47,684 --> 00:10:51,688
it feels like there's a point
to this bizarre gift I have

96
00:10:51,813 --> 00:10:54,483
of "looking pretty
and holding my breath."

97
00:10:54,608 --> 00:10:57,986
I have the opportunity
to pay the sea back...

98
00:10:58,111 --> 00:11:00,155
but I'm learning on my feet.

99
00:11:01,907 --> 00:11:05,327
I didn't know that
in the last ten years,

100
00:11:05,452 --> 00:11:10,123
we've made more plastic
than we did in the century before that.

101
00:11:10,248 --> 00:11:14,753
Half of those plastic products
are considered "disposable."

102
00:11:14,878 --> 00:11:15,921
But think about it.

103
00:11:16,046 --> 00:11:20,634
How can a disposable product be made
of a material that's indestructible?

104
00:11:20,759 --> 00:11:21,885
Where does it go?

105
00:11:30,310 --> 00:11:35,065
This is a Bryde's whale.
It's dying, taking its final breaths.

106
00:11:35,190 --> 00:11:36,525
Oh, my God.

107
00:11:36,650 --> 00:11:41,138
It was found to have six square
meters of plastic sheeting inside it.

108
00:11:41,263 --> 00:11:43,865
It couldn't eat
and it died of malnourishment.

109
00:11:43,990 --> 00:11:49,079
Its digestive system was blocked
and it died a terrible, painful death.

110
00:12:06,888 --> 00:12:08,098
That's got a hole in it.

111
00:12:08,223 --> 00:12:10,392
This is all some of the rubbish
that we found

112
00:12:10,517 --> 00:12:14,771
in the floating jetsam
and flotsam in the ocean.

113
00:12:14,896 --> 00:12:16,314
We'll get Ben to go through it,

114
00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:19,276
but there's even a pack
of unopened biscuits.

115
00:12:19,401 --> 00:12:24,281
You can see it's been there for some time,
the mollusks that are growing off it.

116
00:12:24,406 --> 00:12:27,367
There's crabs.
There's a crab in there, have a look.

117
00:12:30,787 --> 00:12:32,622
So, quite extraordinary.

118
00:12:32,747 --> 00:12:36,293
- Another one.
- Another one. Down here.

119
00:12:36,418 --> 00:12:38,418
The detritus that's built up
in these areas

120
00:12:38,462 --> 00:12:42,215
where they don't have the benefit
of getting rid of the rubbish.

121
00:12:42,340 --> 00:12:44,342
Well, we're about 20 miles offshore.

122
00:12:44,468 --> 00:12:48,180
It's been trapped in the river mouth
and now it's all flushed out into sea.

123
00:12:48,305 --> 00:12:49,931
This is one of the main areas

124
00:12:50,056 --> 00:12:51,936
where we're hunting
for the blue whales to film,

125
00:12:51,975 --> 00:12:54,269
so this is right in their environment.

126
00:12:54,394 --> 00:12:57,230
They feed by opening their mouth

127
00:12:57,355 --> 00:12:59,566
and just sucking up
whatever's in their path.

128
00:12:59,691 --> 00:13:03,236
They take in
hundreds of gallons of water,

129
00:13:03,361 --> 00:13:06,823
they express that water, and
they feed off the krill and tiny fish.

130
00:13:06,948 --> 00:13:10,827
But they can't tell the difference
between krill and plastic.

131
00:13:10,952 --> 00:13:12,829
Disposable lighters.

132
00:13:12,954 --> 00:13:14,831
Just... you know,
this is never gonna degrade.

133
00:13:14,956 --> 00:13:18,168
These are gonna be floating there for...
a very long time.

134
00:13:18,293 --> 00:13:20,504
They'll break down
to very small particles,

135
00:13:20,629 --> 00:13:24,591
and that's if some large marine mammal
doesn't come along and swallow them whole.

136
00:13:24,716 --> 00:13:27,677
It's got nowhere to go.
This is where it lives now.

137
00:13:29,262 --> 00:13:34,809
Well, to contrast that area
of affected ocean by those plastics

138
00:13:34,935 --> 00:13:38,688
with the virgin blue water
that you find very close by,

139
00:13:38,813 --> 00:13:40,273
well, there's just no comparison.

140
00:13:40,398 --> 00:13:44,611
The animals of the world deserve
the blue ocean, not that sort of shit.

141
00:13:44,736 --> 00:13:48,823
I started to wonder
what's happening in oceans

142
00:13:48,949 --> 00:13:50,325
elsewhere on the planet.

143
00:14:35,704 --> 00:14:39,249
Sixty-three billion gallons
of oil are used every year

144
00:14:39,374 --> 00:14:42,252
just to supply the U.S.
with plastic water bottles.

145
00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:49,134
The U.S. alone throws away
38 billion bottles every year.

146
00:14:49,259 --> 00:14:53,096
That's two million tons of plastic
going into U.S. landfills,

147
00:14:53,221 --> 00:14:55,807
and that's only from water bottles.

148
00:14:55,932 --> 00:14:58,685
In this year alone,
every single person on the planet

149
00:14:58,810 --> 00:15:05,567
will use and dispose about 300 pounds
or 136 kilos, of single-use plastic.

150
00:15:05,692 --> 00:15:09,195
Plastic is wonderful
because it's durable

151
00:15:09,321 --> 00:15:13,158
and plastic is terrible
because it is durable.

152
00:15:18,496 --> 00:15:21,082
Almost every piece of plastic ever made

153
00:15:21,207 --> 00:15:25,211
is still on the planet
in some form or another.

154
00:15:25,337 --> 00:15:27,255
Plastic production globally this year

155
00:15:27,380 --> 00:15:31,217
is expected to be
more than 300 million tons.

156
00:15:31,343 --> 00:15:35,388
Half of which we'll use just once
and then throw away.

157
00:15:35,513 --> 00:15:40,101
By 2050, when the population explodes
to almost ten billion people,

158
00:15:40,226 --> 00:15:43,730
it's expected that plastic production
will triple.

159
00:15:43,855 --> 00:15:47,025
The problem with that is...
is that today, only a fraction

160
00:15:47,150 --> 00:15:50,695
of the plastic that we produce
is recycled.

161
00:15:50,820 --> 00:15:52,948
The rest ends up in our environment

162
00:15:53,073 --> 00:15:57,786
and it's coating our land and our oceans
like a disease.

163
00:16:10,757 --> 00:16:15,387
Tasmania smells like freshness.
It smells like salt spray.

164
00:16:16,388 --> 00:16:19,015
Primitive. It just smells natural.

165
00:16:20,433 --> 00:16:24,187
It has the cleanest air and water
measured anywhere on the planet.

166
00:16:29,442 --> 00:16:32,988
The ocean to me, is my church,
it's my temple,

167
00:16:33,113 --> 00:16:36,449
it's my synagogue, it's my mosque.

168
00:16:36,574 --> 00:16:38,535
It's where I feel the most spiritual.

169
00:16:38,660 --> 00:16:42,664
It's where I go to work,
where I go for my enjoyment,

170
00:16:42,789 --> 00:16:44,290
and where I go to think.

171
00:16:44,416 --> 00:16:47,961
And it's also the environment
that challenges me

172
00:16:48,086 --> 00:16:50,630
more than any other environment
that I know.

173
00:16:59,889 --> 00:17:02,559
Growing up, my world was...

174
00:17:03,685 --> 00:17:05,603
exploring the rock pools...

175
00:17:06,938 --> 00:17:11,192
tiny little fish that I could catch
and study and release a day later.

176
00:17:14,612 --> 00:17:18,366
My mother was very caring
and very supportive

177
00:17:18,491 --> 00:17:20,618
of anything that we wanted to do.

178
00:17:20,744 --> 00:17:25,707
And she picked up very early on,
I think, my fascination with wildlife.

179
00:17:27,500 --> 00:17:30,462
I'm fourth-generation journalist.

180
00:17:30,587 --> 00:17:32,797
It's believed he's heading to Moscow.

181
00:17:32,922 --> 00:17:36,301
We're on a truck
taking rice down to Santa Fe.

182
00:17:36,426 --> 00:17:39,721
Okay, it's not live, is it?
Hang on, wait, wait! Whoa!

183
00:17:39,846 --> 00:17:44,559
Further outside Katmandu you travel
the worse it seems the damage becomes.

184
00:17:44,684 --> 00:17:49,647
Small villages like this one, Sankhu
stood no chance against the moving earth.

185
00:17:49,773 --> 00:17:53,359
These rescue teams have been unable
to access inside this city.

186
00:17:57,197 --> 00:18:00,492
The town that I grew up in
was an industrial town.

187
00:18:02,243 --> 00:18:06,247
I remember coming out after training
from the surf lifesaving club,

188
00:18:06,372 --> 00:18:10,460
where I was a member,
with just stinging red eyes.

189
00:18:10,585 --> 00:18:12,128
So, when I worked for the newspaper,

190
00:18:12,253 --> 00:18:15,298
I wanted to investigate
what was causing that.

191
00:18:15,423 --> 00:18:18,093
We started doing testing
on the water in Emu Bay

192
00:18:18,218 --> 00:18:22,972
and what we found was that there were
these heavy amounts of organochlorines

193
00:18:23,098 --> 00:18:26,684
and these contain dioxins
which are cancer-causing agents.

194
00:18:26,810 --> 00:18:29,437
I put this to the government of Tasmania

195
00:18:29,562 --> 00:18:33,149
and they admitted for the first time
that these dioxins existed,

196
00:18:33,274 --> 00:18:35,444
and that they were dangerous.

197
00:18:35,569 --> 00:18:39,464
Within ten years,
all of those industries had closed, and

198
00:18:39,489 --> 00:18:42,033
today the fish are back in the water.

199
00:18:42,158 --> 00:18:46,037
The water is blue again,
and it's a very beautiful city.

200
00:19:03,388 --> 00:19:06,850
We think that when we put
something in the trash

201
00:19:06,975 --> 00:19:11,896
or when we just toss it from a boat
or on a beach, that it "goes away."

202
00:19:12,021 --> 00:19:14,357
Ah! We're now free of the plastic.

203
00:19:17,819 --> 00:19:22,282
Over 80 percent of ocean plastic
leaks from land-based sources.

204
00:19:24,993 --> 00:19:27,245
Even if you don't live near the ocean,

205
00:19:27,370 --> 00:19:31,291
chances are your plastic garbage
has found its way to the sea.

206
00:19:34,419 --> 00:19:38,131
The Great Lakes in North America
are a good example.

207
00:19:38,256 --> 00:19:40,466
Eighty percent of the litter
along the shorelines

208
00:19:40,592 --> 00:19:43,303
of these majestic lakes is plastic.

209
00:19:44,512 --> 00:19:48,474
What trash doesn't remain on the shoreline
or sink into the lake sediment

210
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:50,768
flows through the canals
and river system

211
00:19:50,894 --> 00:19:55,023
through the St. Lawrence Seaway
and into the Atlantic Ocean.

212
00:19:55,148 --> 00:19:57,734
These great lakes are just one example.

213
00:19:57,859 --> 00:20:01,487
This level of plastic debris
is found all around the world.

214
00:20:08,703 --> 00:20:11,247
Thousands of years
of agriculture and industry

215
00:20:11,372 --> 00:20:16,419
have made the Med one of the most
polluted bodies of water on the planet.

216
00:20:16,544 --> 00:20:19,088
About eight million tons of plastic
is dumped

217
00:20:19,214 --> 00:20:21,758
into the world's oceans every year.

218
00:20:21,883 --> 00:20:25,678
More than 50 percent of marine debris,
including plastic,

219
00:20:25,803 --> 00:20:27,180
sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

220
00:20:30,016 --> 00:20:32,602
- Ahoy!
- Hello, Mike!

221
00:20:32,727 --> 00:20:34,604
- Hey, Popov.
- Welcome aboard.

222
00:20:34,729 --> 00:20:35,730
- Good to see you.
- Yeah.

223
00:20:35,855 --> 00:20:39,275
I met up with filmmaker,
Mike deGruy, a marine biologist

224
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,070
and also an experienced
submersible pilot.

225
00:20:47,408 --> 00:20:51,454
It'll be interesting to see
just how far-reaching it really is.

226
00:20:51,579 --> 00:20:53,248
To be this far offshore

227
00:20:53,373 --> 00:20:58,711
and see whether the plastic that we know
is coming from that direction

228
00:20:58,836 --> 00:21:02,590
is winding up out
in the depths out here, right?

229
00:21:02,715 --> 00:21:07,470
I'm really looking forward to,
of course diving the sub in the Med,

230
00:21:07,595 --> 00:21:11,432
a place that has more fishing impact
than most bodies of water on the planet.

231
00:21:46,926 --> 00:21:50,555
Hey, Mike, it's Tanya. Can you tell me
what you're seeing down there?

232
00:21:52,807 --> 00:21:54,058
You turn the light on,

233
00:21:54,183 --> 00:21:56,019
and you're descending
through these particles.

234
00:22:07,030 --> 00:22:09,907
Well, welcome to the bottom
of the ocean, Tanya.

235
00:22:10,033 --> 00:22:13,703
I wish you were down here
watching this operation.

236
00:22:15,038 --> 00:22:17,290
If you weren't hogging the sub,
I would be down there.

237
00:22:20,418 --> 00:22:23,087
So, we're just under five meters now.

238
00:22:25,006 --> 00:22:28,551
Almost 1200... About 1200 feet.

239
00:22:28,676 --> 00:22:32,722
- And a plastic bottle.
- You see a plastic bottle. Exactly.

240
00:22:34,724 --> 00:22:38,394
We're now starting to see more
and more plastic.

241
00:22:38,519 --> 00:22:42,648
More and more tires and pieces of metal,

242
00:22:42,774 --> 00:22:47,862
and just absolutely disregard
for the bottom, really.

243
00:22:47,987 --> 00:22:49,947
It's just junk everywhere.

244
00:22:59,582 --> 00:23:04,504
Fishing line is a really dangerous thing
to see in a submarine.

245
00:23:04,629 --> 00:23:08,633
You can get entangled in it and
stuck to the bottom. Not a good thing.

246
00:23:10,885 --> 00:23:13,221
Tanya, this is Remora.

247
00:23:13,346 --> 00:23:19,018
We are right in front of
a pretty good-sized bundle of plastic.

248
00:23:20,019 --> 00:23:24,482
Is there any chance that you can grab
some of it with the manipulator?

249
00:23:24,607 --> 00:23:27,985
That's exactly what we're going to do.

250
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,671
It looks like a lift bag.
Could it be a lift bag?

251
00:23:46,796 --> 00:23:47,713
It's a what?

252
00:23:52,635 --> 00:23:55,721
We saw unexploded bombs, old parachutes,

253
00:23:55,847 --> 00:23:57,515
and plenty of plastic rubbish.

254
00:24:02,395 --> 00:24:05,982
Our scientists commissioned a small,
remotely-operated vehicle

255
00:24:06,107 --> 00:24:09,694
to travel over a mile and a half down
to the deep trenches.

256
00:24:21,455 --> 00:24:23,583
The ROV is coming down.

257
00:24:23,708 --> 00:24:26,586
- There they are.
- Which is kind of cool.

258
00:24:47,064 --> 00:24:49,901
Here, where the daylight never reaches,

259
00:24:50,026 --> 00:24:54,363
the eddies and currents have
collected scores of plastic bottles.

260
00:24:56,073 --> 00:24:59,076
This plastic could remain here forever.

261
00:25:32,360 --> 00:25:36,572
You go down, you know, 350, 375 meters,

262
00:25:36,697 --> 00:25:40,493
hit bottom, start moving around,
and immediately start seeing trash.

263
00:25:40,618 --> 00:25:42,453
- Plastic?
- Plastic.

264
00:25:42,578 --> 00:25:46,749
Where in the world can you go anymore
and not find plastic?

265
00:25:51,212 --> 00:25:56,676
Our oceans are driven by five
major circular currents, or "gyres."

266
00:25:56,801 --> 00:26:01,889
These are created by the earth's rotation
and the resulting predominant winds.

267
00:26:02,014 --> 00:26:05,518
Each continent is affected
by these massive systems.

268
00:26:05,643 --> 00:26:08,938
They collect waste flowing
from our rivers and coastlines,

269
00:26:09,063 --> 00:26:11,816
and over time,
anything floating within the gyre

270
00:26:11,941 --> 00:26:15,069
will eventually move
towards the center of the gyre.

271
00:26:25,371 --> 00:26:27,999
Our producer, Jo Ruxton,
was familiar with the story

272
00:26:28,124 --> 00:26:31,544
about a huge, floating island of garbage

273
00:26:31,669 --> 00:26:34,964
twice the size of Texas
in the North Pacific.

274
00:26:37,425 --> 00:26:40,261
Jo joined Dr. Andrea Neal and her team

275
00:26:40,386 --> 00:26:44,223
on an expedition
to this Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

276
00:26:44,348 --> 00:26:46,392
So, we're deploying the manta trawl,

277
00:26:46,517 --> 00:26:49,937
and we're going to look
for fine particulates and debris.

278
00:26:50,062 --> 00:26:54,483
This mesh here is 333 microns, which is
in the size range of zooplankton.

279
00:26:56,402 --> 00:26:59,322
The manta trawl
captures material on the surface.

280
00:26:59,447 --> 00:27:04,368
It will take anything
the size of a pinhead or larger.

281
00:27:05,911 --> 00:27:09,832
Looking out over the vast expanse
of clear, sparkling water,

282
00:27:09,957 --> 00:27:12,585
there is no plastic in sight.

283
00:27:18,507 --> 00:27:21,969
The contents of the trawl
are emptied and floated.

284
00:27:22,094 --> 00:27:26,349
The tiny pieces of plastic then
reveal themselves to Jo and Dr. Neal.

285
00:27:28,642 --> 00:27:30,853
Scientists estimate
that there are more than

286
00:27:30,978 --> 00:27:35,775
five trillion pieces of plastic afloat
in our oceans worldwide.

287
00:27:39,445 --> 00:27:42,073
There is no "floating island" of plastic.

288
00:27:42,198 --> 00:27:45,576
What exists is far more insidious.

289
00:27:45,701 --> 00:27:49,663
What exists is a kind of "plastic smog."

290
00:27:49,789 --> 00:27:52,041
These tiny pieces
of plastic that are floating

291
00:27:52,166 --> 00:27:55,836
on the surface of the ocean
come from larger pieces.

292
00:27:57,046 --> 00:28:01,217
Over time, the sun's ultraviolet light,
ocean wave action, and salt,

293
00:28:01,342 --> 00:28:05,513
break it up into smaller pieces
called "microplastics."

294
00:28:06,722 --> 00:28:09,934
Microplastics have rough,
pitted surfaces.

295
00:28:12,186 --> 00:28:14,438
Waterborne chemicals
from industry and agriculture

296
00:28:14,563 --> 00:28:18,192
stick to microplastics,
making them toxic poison pills.

297
00:29:00,276 --> 00:29:01,944
There are five ocean gyres,

298
00:29:02,069 --> 00:29:05,531
and the South Pacific
is one of the least studied

299
00:29:05,656 --> 00:29:06,824
next to the Indian Ocean.

300
00:29:06,949 --> 00:29:10,870
I've been to three of the five gyres,
so this will be my number four.

301
00:29:10,995 --> 00:29:13,831
- So, let's go fishing for plastic.
- All right, let's do it.

302
00:29:13,956 --> 00:29:18,252
My first study was done
in the North Atlantic in 2009.

303
00:29:18,377 --> 00:29:24,049
We took a series of seven samples
and by weight, we then estimated

304
00:29:24,175 --> 00:29:30,139
that the North Atlantic
had 3,440 metric tons

305
00:29:30,264 --> 00:29:33,684
of just microplastics. We're not
even including the larger plastics.

306
00:29:34,977 --> 00:29:36,312
Seems really heavy.

307
00:29:38,898 --> 00:29:42,109
Maybe we caught a coconut.

308
00:29:42,234 --> 00:29:44,034
- Aw, that's... Wow, look at that.
- Oh, yeah.

309
00:29:44,069 --> 00:29:45,949
You can see how well this device works.

310
00:29:46,030 --> 00:29:47,322
- Yeah.
- It collects everything.

311
00:29:47,323 --> 00:29:50,034
They look like
they've just broken off something.

312
00:29:50,159 --> 00:29:53,496
- Yeah, I mean...
- They're very tiny. Look at this.

313
00:29:53,621 --> 00:29:55,998
Michael, I think we've found
our first "nurdle."

314
00:29:56,123 --> 00:29:58,209
- Exactly what that is.
- Preproduction pellets.

315
00:29:58,334 --> 00:30:00,836
Those things float all around the world,
don't they?

316
00:30:00,961 --> 00:30:04,006
- Right. What does it look like to you?
- It looks like a little egg.

317
00:30:10,930 --> 00:30:15,392
The sea at night
is one of my favorite times.

318
00:30:15,518 --> 00:30:18,062
It's when the ocean truly comes alive

319
00:30:18,187 --> 00:30:20,898
and you can virtually see
the food chain in action.

320
00:30:29,156 --> 00:30:33,702
Zooplankton feed on phytoplankton.
Small fish feed on zooplankton.

321
00:30:33,828 --> 00:30:35,371
Squid feed on small fish,

322
00:30:35,496 --> 00:30:38,457
and so it goes on,
up and up the food chain.

323
00:30:57,852 --> 00:31:00,019
- There are some myctophids in there.
- Oh, wow.

324
00:31:00,020 --> 00:31:02,439
Well, shall we get them on the table
and open them up

325
00:31:02,565 --> 00:31:04,650
and have a look and see what's in there?

326
00:31:04,775 --> 00:31:06,055
We'll start with this guy.

327
00:31:09,655 --> 00:31:13,909
- That's something hard right here.
- Yeah, what's that?

328
00:31:20,332 --> 00:31:23,168
This is the very first sample we did,
and it was a night trawl,

329
00:31:23,294 --> 00:31:24,712
so we could catch lantern fish.

330
00:31:24,837 --> 00:31:28,966
After I dried the sample,
I handpicked the pieces of plastic.

331
00:31:29,091 --> 00:31:31,302
This is what we found.

332
00:31:31,427 --> 00:31:34,138
So, what this means
is the feeding that's occurring

333
00:31:34,263 --> 00:31:38,017
on the surface of the ocean has these
plastic fragments floating around,

334
00:31:38,142 --> 00:31:40,352
and is actually intermixing
in the food chain.

335
00:31:40,477 --> 00:31:42,771
You know that plastic doesn't degrade.

336
00:31:42,897 --> 00:31:44,732
Most of the time we say it breaks down

337
00:31:44,857 --> 00:31:47,943
but that's probably not
an accurate way to say it.

338
00:31:48,068 --> 00:31:51,405
It actually breaks up
so it's more, um, proliferated.

339
00:31:51,530 --> 00:31:56,160
And when it's proliferated, there's more
opportunities for plastics to be ingested.

340
00:31:56,285 --> 00:32:00,289
Many of the marine creatures eating this
kind of plastic are in our food chain.

341
00:32:00,414 --> 00:32:03,626
Does that mean, then, that
this plastic is getting inside of us?

342
00:32:03,751 --> 00:32:07,171
The problem is,
these plastics adsorb chemicals

343
00:32:07,296 --> 00:32:08,736
that are free-floating in the ocean.

344
00:32:08,797 --> 00:32:15,179
So when the fish eat the plastics,
those toxins then migrate from the plastic

345
00:32:15,304 --> 00:32:18,390
into the muscles or the fats,
the parts that we like to eat in fish.

346
00:32:18,515 --> 00:32:21,352
Building up in the fish then
as they eat more and more of them.

347
00:32:21,477 --> 00:32:23,729
And so, that's the part we like to eat,

348
00:32:23,854 --> 00:32:26,815
and that's where
these chemicals migrate to.

349
00:32:53,926 --> 00:32:56,303
Big crab. Nice.

350
00:32:56,428 --> 00:32:57,638
Oh!

351
00:32:57,763 --> 00:32:59,223
It's a prawn, eh?

352
00:33:25,958 --> 00:33:29,211
- Hello, Rosie. How are you?
- Hi.

353
00:33:29,336 --> 00:33:32,673
- Hi, Bula.
- Hi. Bula, Salota.

354
00:33:32,798 --> 00:33:33,966
Dinner. What are we cooking?

355
00:33:34,091 --> 00:33:37,845
We're having taro leaves
with fish in coconut milk.

356
00:33:37,970 --> 00:33:39,637
That's a very traditional
Fijian village dinner.

357
00:33:39,638 --> 00:33:41,348
Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

358
00:33:41,473 --> 00:33:43,976
It smells really good
except for the smoke.

359
00:33:44,101 --> 00:33:46,812
- Yeah, really making my eyes water.
- Yeah.

360
00:33:47,855 --> 00:33:51,650
- Did you light your fire using plastics?
- Always, yes.

361
00:33:51,775 --> 00:33:54,987
And you do that
every time you cook food?

362
00:33:55,112 --> 00:33:56,405
Three times a day.

363
00:33:56,530 --> 00:33:58,449
Instead of buying kerosene,

364
00:33:58,574 --> 00:34:01,035
you use plastic
because it's easier to burn.

365
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:03,871
- Much cheaper, easier to find, it's free.
- Much more cheaper.

366
00:34:03,996 --> 00:34:05,622
Very much. And it's free.

367
00:34:05,748 --> 00:34:07,041
I'm feeling that in my eyes.

368
00:34:07,166 --> 00:34:09,793
Do you feel that affects you in any way?

369
00:34:09,918 --> 00:34:14,590
You start having problems in breathing
and you have problems in coughing.

370
00:34:14,715 --> 00:34:19,470
And sometimes you can have headache.
But we...

371
00:34:19,595 --> 00:34:21,638
It doesn't really bother us.

372
00:34:21,764 --> 00:34:24,349
Because, like,
we've used that for a long time.

373
00:34:24,475 --> 00:34:26,685
- So you're used to it. Yeah.
- We're used to it.

374
00:34:26,810 --> 00:34:30,189
Whereas I'm not, which is why
I'm crying right now.

375
00:34:30,314 --> 00:34:32,357
And I hope you're not crying
because of me.

376
00:34:32,483 --> 00:34:35,360
There's no chance. I'm crying
because I won't get to try this food.

377
00:34:35,486 --> 00:34:38,822
What I'd like to do is bring back
a scientist if we can

378
00:34:38,947 --> 00:34:41,075
and do some measurements on the smoke

379
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:44,953
and just see what kind of chemicals
are being released

380
00:34:45,079 --> 00:34:46,538
from the plastics as you cook.

381
00:34:46,663 --> 00:34:49,958
- Would you let us do that?
- Yes, of course.

382
00:34:50,084 --> 00:34:52,724
We can have a look
at maybe some of the health implications

383
00:34:52,836 --> 00:34:54,505
of starting the fires with plastic.

384
00:34:54,630 --> 00:34:55,923
Yes, I think that's a good idea.

385
00:35:00,886 --> 00:35:03,263
People misuse plastics
for a lot of things.

386
00:35:03,388 --> 00:35:04,973
But for cooking, I mean that's...

387
00:35:05,099 --> 00:35:08,393
for me, it's kind of
very unusual circumstances.

388
00:35:08,519 --> 00:35:10,771
And we wanna have a baseline study

389
00:35:10,896 --> 00:35:13,941
to show what kind of chemicals
we're actually breathing in.

390
00:35:14,066 --> 00:35:17,820
Because the lung is an interface
between that air we're breathing in,

391
00:35:17,945 --> 00:35:21,949
plus the smoke and our blood system,
and then we get it in our systems.

392
00:35:22,074 --> 00:35:23,951
What did we find today then

393
00:35:24,076 --> 00:35:26,036
with the experiment that you did
with this device?

394
00:35:26,078 --> 00:35:29,540
I'll show you. These filters are white
when you put them in, but...

395
00:35:29,665 --> 00:35:31,750
That's brown, almost black.

396
00:35:31,875 --> 00:35:33,085
- Yeah.
- This is a mini lung.

397
00:35:33,210 --> 00:35:34,169
This could be what

398
00:35:34,294 --> 00:35:36,504
- they're absorbing into their lungs.
- Yeah, pretty much.

399
00:35:36,505 --> 00:35:39,591
This can't be good
for your health, can it?

400
00:35:39,716 --> 00:35:42,678
What we know
specifically from this P.A.H

401
00:35:42,803 --> 00:35:46,056
and a combination of those
is that they are cancer-causing.

402
00:35:46,181 --> 00:35:47,516
That's one thing.

403
00:35:48,517 --> 00:35:52,104
But there are also maybe phthalates there
which are evaporating from plastics

404
00:35:52,229 --> 00:35:55,357
which have a large percentage
of the phthalates in there

405
00:35:55,482 --> 00:35:57,442
to give plastic its properties.

406
00:36:01,071 --> 00:36:04,533
If you breathe them, they have,
um, hormone-changing properties,

407
00:36:04,658 --> 00:36:07,161
so-called
"endocrine-disrupting properties."

408
00:36:07,286 --> 00:36:10,330
And all...
lot of other health effects as well.

409
00:36:13,041 --> 00:36:15,335
Professor Sue Jobling is the editor

410
00:36:15,460 --> 00:36:19,923
of the recent World Health Organization
report on endocrine disrupters.

411
00:36:21,717 --> 00:36:25,596
Endocrine disruption
is disruption of the normal functioning

412
00:36:25,721 --> 00:36:27,639
of the body's hormonal system.

413
00:36:27,764 --> 00:36:31,810
They fool the body into thinking
that they are hormones

414
00:36:31,935 --> 00:36:38,400
and then they either block or mimic
the action or production of hormones.

415
00:36:38,525 --> 00:36:42,863
And in doing so, they interfere
with very many bodily processes...

416
00:36:42,988 --> 00:36:47,868
growth, metabolism, reproduction,
and critically, early development.

417
00:36:47,993 --> 00:36:52,623
The majority of ocean plastic
comes from just six countries.

418
00:37:09,139 --> 00:37:10,432
RTHK News.

419
00:37:12,476 --> 00:37:13,810
Billions of plastic pellets

420
00:37:13,936 --> 00:37:16,188
have spilled into Hong Kong's
southern waters

421
00:37:16,313 --> 00:37:20,692
after several containers fell off a ship
when Typhoon Vicente battered Hong Kong.

422
00:37:20,817 --> 00:37:24,738
Six containers full of nurdles.
All of them broke up in the storm

423
00:37:24,863 --> 00:37:29,368
and disgorged most of their plastic
bags into the sea.

424
00:37:29,493 --> 00:37:33,330
The vast majority broke open
and the contents spilled out.

425
00:37:51,139 --> 00:37:53,016
Run them through your fingers there.

426
00:37:57,062 --> 00:37:58,562
Just plastic pellets everywhere. Yeah.

427
00:37:58,563 --> 00:37:59,940
It looked like snow on the beach.

428
00:38:01,525 --> 00:38:04,569
On the neighboring Lamma Island,
they found tons of this stuff

429
00:38:04,695 --> 00:38:06,363
that had come ashore.

430
00:38:06,488 --> 00:38:08,365
It seems the company
that made the nurdles

431
00:38:08,490 --> 00:38:11,076
has unwittingly put
their signature on her.

432
00:38:11,201 --> 00:38:14,079
Sinopec, a giant Chinese oil company

433
00:38:14,204 --> 00:38:17,291
that makes nurdles
for distribution worldwide.

434
00:38:32,347 --> 00:38:36,059
Close by are some other sacks,
also ripped open.

435
00:38:36,184 --> 00:38:38,645
The vast majority of them
would have been carried off

436
00:38:38,770 --> 00:38:42,441
by the typhoon
to disperse their contents far and wide.

437
00:38:45,569 --> 00:38:48,947
Four of the six are here,
so we've got the one on the top here.

438
00:38:49,072 --> 00:38:51,742
It's the one we found
at Beaufort Island.

439
00:38:51,867 --> 00:38:55,620
It's totally destroyed.
It's a... It's a 40-foot container.

440
00:38:55,746 --> 00:38:57,914
We've been told
it carries a thousand sacks.

441
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,624
- There's still one hasn't been found.
- Still one out there somewhere.

442
00:39:00,625 --> 00:39:02,753
There's a million pellets
of plastic in these bags.

443
00:39:02,878 --> 00:39:06,757
So, every single bag
saves thousands of marine species,

444
00:39:06,882 --> 00:39:08,884
so, every bag counts at this point.

445
00:39:09,009 --> 00:39:10,927
Every day, pellets are
getting washed out

446
00:39:11,053 --> 00:39:13,180
and trying to get
that sense of urgency across.

447
00:39:13,305 --> 00:39:15,640
We put a call to action out on Facebook.

448
00:39:15,766 --> 00:39:18,352
"Go to your local beach,
this is what you're looking for."

449
00:39:18,477 --> 00:39:20,395
These are the bags,
these are the pellets.

450
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,023
You know,
we came up with a rapid action plan.

451
00:39:23,148 --> 00:39:26,985
Get a quick survey of the coast
so we can see the bigger picture.

452
00:39:27,110 --> 00:39:29,863
And from that,
then we isolated some hot spots.

453
00:39:31,031 --> 00:39:35,035
"Which beach, Cheung Chau/Mui Wo,
needs more people to help?"

454
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:36,995
Uh, Beach Number 1.

455
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:41,041
I set up the Facebook page,
"Plastic Disaster Hong Kong"

456
00:39:41,166 --> 00:39:45,837
and it went from 80 to a thousand likes
in a few hours.

457
00:39:45,962 --> 00:39:49,132
And it became pretty much the one place

458
00:39:49,257 --> 00:39:51,384
where all the information
was being posted by everybody.

459
00:39:51,385 --> 00:39:55,138
Even the government were checking it.
Sinopec were checking it.

460
00:39:55,263 --> 00:39:59,684
Sinopec sent down people
from their head office.

461
00:39:59,810 --> 00:40:01,686
They had general managers
on the beaches.

462
00:40:01,812 --> 00:40:04,063
They have been very responsible.
They have been down.

463
00:40:04,064 --> 00:40:07,442
We had an emergency meeting about it.
They're very concerned

464
00:40:07,567 --> 00:40:09,068
and they're offering
all the assistance they can.

465
00:40:09,069 --> 00:40:11,321
Thanks for helping, guys. Um...

466
00:40:11,446 --> 00:40:14,699
There's some more concentrated pellets
down the end there.

467
00:40:15,784 --> 00:40:17,701
Once you let people know
what the problem is,

468
00:40:17,702 --> 00:40:19,371
people have their own ideas

469
00:40:19,496 --> 00:40:23,583
and can contribute their own ingenuity
to help solve the problem.

470
00:40:25,585 --> 00:40:28,839
The people of Hong Kong
realized the severity of the problem

471
00:40:28,964 --> 00:40:31,299
and just came out
in their masses to help.

472
00:40:31,425 --> 00:40:33,802
And that is something
that I will never, ever forget.

473
00:40:44,396 --> 00:40:47,315
So, this is what they found
in the fish farm.

474
00:40:47,441 --> 00:40:51,111
Pellets like this floating in the sea,
and then they're found in the bags.

475
00:40:51,236 --> 00:40:53,113
We caught three fish.

476
00:40:53,238 --> 00:40:58,910
They cut them open and each fish
had five, six, seven pellets in it.

477
00:41:05,625 --> 00:41:08,378
Because they can't ingest anything?
They can't take in any more food?

478
00:41:14,551 --> 00:41:16,761
Even the supermarkets won't buy them.

479
00:41:16,887 --> 00:41:18,889
So, it's completely destroyed
the local market.

480
00:41:22,184 --> 00:41:25,061
In a recent study published
in Scientific Reports,

481
00:41:25,187 --> 00:41:30,066
U.C. Davis researchers examined 76 fish
slated for human consumption

482
00:41:30,192 --> 00:41:33,653
in Indonesia, and 64 in California.

483
00:41:33,778 --> 00:41:36,281
They found that in both groups,
roughly one quarter

484
00:41:36,406 --> 00:41:39,075
had anthropogenic debris in their guts.

485
00:41:39,201 --> 00:41:42,162
The researchers found plastic
in the Indonesian population

486
00:41:42,287 --> 00:41:45,832
and plastic and textile fibers
in the American one.

487
00:41:47,167 --> 00:41:49,586
When sampling blue mussels
at six locations

488
00:41:49,711 --> 00:41:52,589
along the coastlines of France,
Belgium, and Netherlands,

489
00:41:52,714 --> 00:41:58,678
microplastics were present
in every single organism examined.

490
00:41:58,803 --> 00:42:02,140
When you eat shellfish,
you're often eating the entire animal.

491
00:42:02,265 --> 00:42:04,726
So you're more likely to eat plastic.

492
00:42:35,048 --> 00:42:37,300
Lord Howe Island
is a world heritage site...

493
00:42:40,011 --> 00:42:43,473
and home to migratory seabirds
like the shearwaters.

494
00:42:43,598 --> 00:42:46,518
Seabirds are incredibly helpful

495
00:42:46,643 --> 00:42:49,145
because they act like an army
of scientists.

496
00:42:49,271 --> 00:42:52,065
They travel thousands of miles
across the ocean.

497
00:42:52,190 --> 00:42:54,818
They pick up plastic
off the surface of the ocean,

498
00:42:54,943 --> 00:42:58,154
they bring it back to their rookeries
where they feed it to their chicks.

499
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:01,658
And that provides
an incredible amount of scientific data

500
00:43:01,783 --> 00:43:04,744
in terms of where the plastic
comes from, its distribution,

501
00:43:04,869 --> 00:43:06,830
and how it breaks up
on the ocean's surface.

502
00:43:09,749 --> 00:43:12,335
Dr. Jennifer Lavers...

503
00:43:12,460 --> 00:43:17,090
she's devoted her life to studying
the plight of seabirds.

504
00:43:22,095 --> 00:43:24,264
Shearwaters are incredible birds.

505
00:43:24,389 --> 00:43:27,892
They migrate thousands of miles,
stopping only here to breed.

506
00:43:31,021 --> 00:43:33,690
All species of shearwater
nest in the earth.

507
00:43:33,815 --> 00:43:37,819
Their parents return from their distant
ocean feeding grounds by night

508
00:43:37,944 --> 00:43:40,030
to feed their chicks in their burrows.

509
00:43:40,155 --> 00:43:44,618
After 70 to 90 days, the chicks
venture aboveground for the first time.

510
00:43:44,743 --> 00:43:47,537
They stretch their wings and
begin developing their flight muscles

511
00:43:56,338 --> 00:43:58,339
We're gonna take
some ambient temperature saltwater,

512
00:43:58,340 --> 00:44:00,175
like he would normally be fed
by his parents,

513
00:44:00,300 --> 00:44:02,761
and Ian's just gonna hold
the mouth open here,

514
00:44:02,886 --> 00:44:06,473
and I'm going to, um, put the tube
down into the stomach

515
00:44:06,598 --> 00:44:09,309
if we can get him
to cooperate for a moment.

516
00:44:10,518 --> 00:44:13,605
Have you ever received
serious injury from one of these?

517
00:44:13,730 --> 00:44:18,151
Indeed. Have I ever.
More than I can possibly count.

518
00:44:18,276 --> 00:44:21,780
Depending on how full his stomach is,
we could be here for a little while.

519
00:44:23,823 --> 00:44:27,035
No, still nothin'. Still nothin'.

520
00:44:28,828 --> 00:44:29,788
There we go.

521
00:44:35,543 --> 00:44:37,796
Whoa! Look at that.

522
00:44:39,130 --> 00:44:42,092
Need to get some of the oil
and stuff out of the way.

523
00:44:42,217 --> 00:44:44,761
It's very thick with all that oil in it.

524
00:44:44,886 --> 00:44:48,264
- That's a lot of plastic, isn't it?
- Yeah, and some interesting colors.

525
00:44:48,390 --> 00:44:51,726
The red is quite, quite, uncommon.

526
00:44:51,851 --> 00:44:56,439
It looks like we've got quite a few
of the resin pellets, the nurdles,

527
00:44:56,564 --> 00:44:58,441
lots of microplastics.

528
00:44:58,566 --> 00:44:59,692
Right.

529
00:44:59,818 --> 00:45:05,198
There's no way at 935 grams that
he would be able to take to the air.

530
00:45:05,323 --> 00:45:08,993
I'm gonna make a bit of a note, he's got
some damage to his lower mandible.

531
00:45:09,119 --> 00:45:11,746
Forty-one point seven.

532
00:45:21,131 --> 00:45:22,215
Garbage thrown away

533
00:45:22,340 --> 00:45:26,302
in the United States
can make its way to Antarctica.

534
00:45:26,428 --> 00:45:30,432
Plastic in our coastal waters
is pulled into the center of massive,

535
00:45:30,557 --> 00:45:33,935
wind-driven, churning circular gyres.

536
00:45:34,060 --> 00:45:37,605
There are many other ocean currents
also diverting the trash

537
00:45:37,730 --> 00:45:39,983
all around the surface of the ocean.

538
00:45:40,108 --> 00:45:44,404
In reality, it's just one ocean
with no boundaries.

539
00:46:30,408 --> 00:46:32,702
Yeah, the stomach is very, very full,

540
00:46:32,827 --> 00:46:36,748
and if we look here, uh,
there's some very dark pieces,

541
00:46:36,873 --> 00:46:38,500
some very light white pieces,

542
00:46:38,625 --> 00:46:42,795
and if you see, you know, as I
push on this, it's absolutely rigid.

543
00:46:42,921 --> 00:46:44,923
Completely...

544
00:46:45,048 --> 00:46:47,342
Completely full of plastic
all the way up.

545
00:46:51,346 --> 00:46:53,348
Ah! Look at that.

546
00:46:53,473 --> 00:46:58,144
Absolutely no doubt that this bird died
as a result of that plastic.

547
00:46:58,269 --> 00:47:01,105
That is literally a gut full of plastic.

548
00:47:01,231 --> 00:47:04,734
- It's quite alarming, isn't it?
- Ah, it's awful.

549
00:47:04,859 --> 00:47:07,445
Range of plastic types and colors.

550
00:47:07,570 --> 00:47:09,730
We've got everything
from the blues and the reds, to...

551
00:47:09,781 --> 00:47:12,367
His stomach's just filled with it.
Big pieces too.

552
00:47:12,492 --> 00:47:14,244
Big, sharp pieces.

553
00:47:20,875 --> 00:47:24,170
Oh, wow, look at the size
of that big, black piece.

554
00:47:24,295 --> 00:47:27,340
That is an enormous piece of plastic.

555
00:47:28,883 --> 00:47:30,301
Unbelievable.

556
00:47:32,345 --> 00:47:34,180
Look at the size of that.

557
00:47:44,816 --> 00:47:50,321
Jen, I counted 234 pieces of plastic
out of that one bird.

558
00:47:50,446 --> 00:47:53,992
- Is that a record?
- Not even close, unfortunately.

559
00:47:54,117 --> 00:47:58,454
So, for the species,
the record is 276 pieces of plastic

560
00:47:58,580 --> 00:48:00,206
inside of one 90-day-old chick.

561
00:48:00,331 --> 00:48:02,292
And that plastic,
when we weighed it out,

562
00:48:02,417 --> 00:48:05,378
accounted for 15 percent
of that bird's body mass.

563
00:48:05,503 --> 00:48:07,630
That's a pretty scary statistic.

564
00:48:07,755 --> 00:48:10,842
If we translate that into human terms,
it gets even worse.

565
00:48:10,967 --> 00:48:12,594
That would be equivalent to you and I

566
00:48:12,719 --> 00:48:16,389
having somewhere around six or eight kilos
of plastic inside of your stomach.

567
00:48:16,514 --> 00:48:21,811
It's equivalent to about 12 pizzas'
worth of food inside of your stomach.

568
00:48:44,514 --> 00:48:48,852
Midway Island is miles away
from any coastline

569
00:48:48,977 --> 00:48:54,358
but it has one of the biggest populations
of Laysan albatross in the world.

570
00:49:10,958 --> 00:49:12,459
Like the shearwater,

571
00:49:12,584 --> 00:49:16,672
their parents have traveled thousands
of kilometers to find food.

572
00:49:35,065 --> 00:49:38,318
It's quite a bit of plastic
for just one little bird.

573
00:49:40,862 --> 00:49:43,156
The parents
were trying to do the right thing.

574
00:49:43,282 --> 00:49:44,866
There's a lot of squid beaks in here

575
00:49:44,992 --> 00:49:48,954
and, um, this purple color
is evidence of the squid ink.

576
00:49:49,079 --> 00:49:51,081
It's just a shame
that every now and then

577
00:49:51,206 --> 00:49:54,293
they got it wrong,
and got it wrong in a bad way.

578
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:20,485
To try and wrap your mind
around the condition of this animal

579
00:50:20,610 --> 00:50:26,700
and the quality of its life,
really, is quite an overwhelming thing.

580
00:50:26,825 --> 00:50:29,036
I do have some pretty rough days...
have to go home

581
00:50:29,161 --> 00:50:32,622
and really wrap my mind around,
"Where do we go from here?"

582
00:50:35,375 --> 00:50:36,815
All week we've been cutting up birds

583
00:50:36,918 --> 00:50:40,130
and this is without a doubt the absolute
worst one that I've come across.

584
00:50:40,255 --> 00:50:42,674
That is an incredible amount of plastic.

585
00:51:28,136 --> 00:51:29,471
I've come to Asinara,

586
00:51:29,596 --> 00:51:34,101
a small island off the northern tip
of Sardinia, to meet with Cristina Fossi

587
00:51:34,226 --> 00:51:39,106
a professor of ecotoxicology
at the University of Siena.

588
00:51:39,231 --> 00:51:44,569
The turtle rescue center here
has just received a loggerhead turtle.

589
00:51:44,694 --> 00:51:47,697
The animals come from Corsica,
right, so from France.

590
00:51:47,823 --> 00:51:52,035
And they have identified the animals
because they have a problem of floating.

591
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:56,665
So, it was floating in a very unusual way
and then they have discovered

592
00:51:56,790 --> 00:52:02,379
that the cause is the presence of
a large amount of plastic in the stomach.

593
00:52:02,504 --> 00:52:04,171
- These plastics?
- These plastics.

594
00:52:04,172 --> 00:52:08,760
They produce gas and then the animal
is not more able to go down, to dive.

595
00:52:08,885 --> 00:52:12,097
Does he have to perform
a surgery to remove this?

596
00:52:12,222 --> 00:52:16,059
- No, no. He use very simple stuff.
- Yeah.

597
00:52:16,184 --> 00:52:19,104
This one was used to remove the gas

598
00:52:19,229 --> 00:52:23,275
from the intestinal tract,
then he use...

599
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:24,401
Metronidazole.

600
00:52:24,526 --> 00:52:27,404
It's, uh, an antibiotic,
a normal antibiotic

601
00:52:27,529 --> 00:52:29,865
in order to save the animal
from infection.

602
00:52:29,990 --> 00:52:30,949
Right.

603
00:52:31,074 --> 00:52:35,537
And then the last point
was to use a fat, uh, diet.

604
00:52:35,662 --> 00:52:38,748
- Treat the gas, get everything moving...
- Gas...

605
00:52:38,874 --> 00:52:40,500
- ...and get it out.
- Yes.

606
00:52:40,625 --> 00:52:44,463
So, commonly plastic bag
that's floating on the surface

607
00:52:44,588 --> 00:52:47,507
can be misunderstood as a jellyfish.

608
00:52:47,632 --> 00:52:51,595
And then they can be eating
days after days.

609
00:52:51,720 --> 00:52:54,097
Plastic bags or other pieces of plastic,

610
00:52:54,222 --> 00:52:58,560
obviously the consequence
can be lethal for the animals.

611
00:53:16,244 --> 00:53:19,581
Cristina's name is well-recognized
around the world for her stand

612
00:53:19,706 --> 00:53:22,667
against the killing
of whales and dolphins.

613
00:53:22,792 --> 00:53:26,755
We use the approach of the skin biopsy

614
00:53:26,880 --> 00:53:29,799
in order to identify
the level of chemicals

615
00:53:29,925 --> 00:53:34,262
and the toxicological effect
on these wild animals.

616
00:53:39,893 --> 00:53:42,354
Today we are moving around
the Gulf of Asinara,

617
00:53:42,479 --> 00:53:48,735
try to see some bottlenose dolphin, then
we collect some microplastic samples.

618
00:53:51,112 --> 00:53:53,490
An increasing number
of dolphins and turtles

619
00:53:53,615 --> 00:53:56,201
in the Mediterranean
are turning up dead.

620
00:53:56,326 --> 00:53:58,912
Cristina's focus
is to get to the bottom of this mystery.

621
00:54:03,708 --> 00:54:07,796
And she has a very unusual way
of getting the information she needs.

622
00:54:23,186 --> 00:54:25,438
How can you get a tiny piece of blubber

623
00:54:25,564 --> 00:54:28,191
from whales and dolphins
without hurting them?

624
00:54:37,909 --> 00:54:41,413
The dart bounces off,
taking a small piece of flesh with it,

625
00:54:41,538 --> 00:54:44,833
which the scientists use
to conduct their research.

626
00:54:44,958 --> 00:54:46,876
It's very difficult.

627
00:54:55,594 --> 00:54:57,262
It may be, I don't know, but...

628
00:54:59,264 --> 00:55:05,604
So, we can start to process the biopsy
that was collected with the darts.

629
00:55:05,729 --> 00:55:08,857
The species is bottlenose dolphins.

630
00:55:08,982 --> 00:55:13,361
That's one of the common species
around the coast

631
00:55:13,486 --> 00:55:17,115
and we suppose also
one of the most polluted ones.

632
00:55:17,240 --> 00:55:21,411
You expect that you're finding
derivatives from plastics

633
00:55:21,536 --> 00:55:24,497
in the blubber of these animals
because they're consuming

634
00:55:24,623 --> 00:55:27,917
other animals that are
directly consuming the plastics.

635
00:55:28,043 --> 00:55:29,044
Exactly.

636
00:55:29,169 --> 00:55:32,213
And so, if the plastics
are in the food chain for the dolphin,

637
00:55:32,339 --> 00:55:33,965
they're also in our food chain.

638
00:55:34,090 --> 00:55:35,091
Exactly.

639
00:55:45,560 --> 00:55:48,647
We have already very interesting result,

640
00:55:48,772 --> 00:55:51,983
but I would like to invite you
into the lab.

641
00:55:54,402 --> 00:55:55,779
When animals eat plastic,

642
00:55:55,904 --> 00:55:59,574
they're also consuming
the toxins attached to the plastic.

643
00:55:59,699 --> 00:56:02,160
Toxins pass into the bloodstream.

644
00:56:03,203 --> 00:56:05,914
There, they bio-accumulate
in the fatty tissue

645
00:56:06,039 --> 00:56:08,083
and around the vital organs.

646
00:56:09,501 --> 00:56:13,338
When animals use the stored fat,
the toxins circulate around the body,

647
00:56:13,463 --> 00:56:17,717
interfering with reproduction, metabolism
growth, kidney and liver function.

648
00:56:23,598 --> 00:56:25,725
As we have seen this day,

649
00:56:25,850 --> 00:56:29,062
there is clear evidence
that plankton species

650
00:56:29,187 --> 00:56:33,900
and fin whale, for example,
have a very high level of phthalates,

651
00:56:34,025 --> 00:56:36,486
that we consider
one of the plastic derivatives.

652
00:56:41,491 --> 00:56:46,246
But that data can represent
a real warning sign

653
00:56:46,371 --> 00:56:50,333
of exposure
to the Mediterranean environment,

654
00:56:50,458 --> 00:56:55,505
including humans,
in real toxicological risk.

655
00:57:30,874 --> 00:57:35,879
Smokey Mountain I operated
as a two million-metric ton waste dump

656
00:57:36,004 --> 00:57:37,797
for more than 40 years.

657
00:57:37,922 --> 00:57:40,091
It closed in 1995.

658
00:57:43,553 --> 00:57:46,556
This garbage tip
contains so much methane

659
00:57:46,681 --> 00:57:48,433
which was produced
by the garbage within it,

660
00:57:48,558 --> 00:57:52,270
that when it reaches
a certain temperature, it catches fire.

661
00:57:52,395 --> 00:57:55,774
That creates this smoke
that comes out of the top of the pile

662
00:57:55,899 --> 00:57:58,902
and filters over the city of Manila.

663
00:57:59,027 --> 00:58:03,615
So, sweet potatoes, corn, sugar cane,

664
00:58:03,740 --> 00:58:07,702
all growing on 40 years of garbage.

665
00:58:07,827 --> 00:58:12,373
- Yeah.
- You worked here as a 12-year-old.

666
00:58:12,499 --> 00:58:15,460
Yeah. To earn money
to support my family needs.

667
00:58:15,585 --> 00:58:17,587
And what would you collect up here?

668
00:58:17,712 --> 00:58:21,758
Recyclables,
like bottles, cans, and plastics.

669
00:58:21,883 --> 00:58:24,719
This, uh, local chap here is still

670
00:58:24,844 --> 00:58:27,180
harvesting the plastic
that's in the ground.

671
00:58:27,305 --> 00:58:30,058
- Yeah, lot of plastic.
- It's just everywhere.

672
00:58:30,183 --> 00:58:34,187
- What's the most common disease here?
- Uh, pulmonary.

673
00:58:34,312 --> 00:58:36,815
- Pulmonary, such as tuberculosis,
- Yeah.

674
00:58:36,940 --> 00:58:38,066
Yes, emphysema.

675
00:58:38,191 --> 00:58:41,444
Emphysema, yes.
My father died due to emphysema.

676
00:58:48,785 --> 00:58:54,374
No one knows how much plastic
has accumulated in the sea

677
00:58:54,499 --> 00:58:57,210
in the last 50 years,
but one thing is sure,

678
00:58:57,335 --> 00:58:59,087
the pace has picked up.

679
00:59:02,090 --> 00:59:05,260
The world of plastics
is present everywhere,

680
00:59:05,385 --> 00:59:08,513
yet this presence
is but a premonition of a future world.

681
00:59:08,638 --> 00:59:11,766
Our children will see
a bit of that world

682
00:59:11,891 --> 00:59:14,144
and our grandchildren
will not see the end of it.

683
00:59:30,869 --> 00:59:33,746
The smell is almost indescribable.

684
00:59:33,872 --> 00:59:38,126
It's kind of like a cross
between sewage and oil,

685
00:59:38,251 --> 00:59:39,919
and it's everywhere.

686
00:59:54,350 --> 00:59:59,480
The ground, to within two inches
above it is covered in flies.

687
01:00:21,461 --> 01:00:24,797
I could see a child flying a kite.

688
01:00:24,923 --> 01:00:28,885
You could see the kite
was made from a plastic bag

689
01:00:29,010 --> 01:00:33,932
and he'd fashioned this himself and used
straws as the mainframe for the kite.

690
01:00:35,683 --> 01:00:39,604
If you got behind him
and looked towards the sky,

691
01:00:39,729 --> 01:00:43,191
he could have been any child
anywhere in the world.

692
01:00:52,700 --> 01:00:57,413
Every time it rains here,
every time the wind blows offshore,

693
01:00:57,538 --> 01:01:02,627
the sludge, the plastic from all of that
rubbish ends up straight in Manila Bay,

694
01:01:02,752 --> 01:01:06,381
and I guess into the stomachs
of whatever marine animals

695
01:01:06,506 --> 01:01:09,467
are still able to survive in the bay.

696
01:01:12,595 --> 01:01:16,140
A lot of plastic here. I guess a lot
of this is brought in by the river.

697
01:01:16,266 --> 01:01:18,017
Yeah, it came from the Pasig River.

698
01:01:18,142 --> 01:01:22,522
Also it's been washed up
by, uh, the ocean during typhoons

699
01:01:22,647 --> 01:01:27,151
and, uh, also people living here also
throw their garbage in this area

700
01:01:27,277 --> 01:01:29,821
because there are no garbage collectors

701
01:01:29,946 --> 01:01:31,666
coming into the area
to collect the garbage.

702
01:01:31,739 --> 01:01:36,536
How much waste... plastic waste
is put into the waterways here?

703
01:01:36,661 --> 01:01:40,748
- Do you have any idea?
- Uh, around 1500 tons daily.

704
01:01:40,873 --> 01:01:43,084
One thousand five hundred tons every day?

705
01:01:43,209 --> 01:01:44,210
Yes.

706
01:01:49,173 --> 01:01:50,174
One more, one more!

707
01:01:50,300 --> 01:01:52,385
- Ready?
- You go now!

708
01:01:58,641 --> 01:02:00,727
One, two, three, four!

709
01:02:02,603 --> 01:02:03,604
Thank you.

710
01:02:03,730 --> 01:02:06,524
Well, I have to say, you're all
much better basketballers than I am.

711
01:02:06,649 --> 01:02:08,443
- I'm so bad. I'm sorry.
- Again, again?

712
01:02:08,568 --> 01:02:11,988
I'm no good at basketball.
You're very good at basketball. This guy.

713
01:02:12,113 --> 01:02:13,823
- Thank you.
- Very good.

714
01:02:13,948 --> 01:02:17,744
- Do you all live here? In Pier 18?
- Yes.

715
01:02:17,869 --> 01:02:20,538
- And you play basketball all the time?
- Yeah.

716
01:02:20,663 --> 01:02:21,998
Do you go to school?

717
01:02:22,123 --> 01:02:23,124
- Yes.
- No.

718
01:02:23,249 --> 01:02:25,752
Yes, you go to school?
You don't go to school? No?

719
01:02:25,877 --> 01:02:26,961
- No.
- No?

720
01:02:27,086 --> 01:02:30,923
- So, what do you do during the day?
- Uh, scavenger work.

721
01:02:31,049 --> 01:02:34,302
Scavenger, yeah?
What do you scavenge for?

722
01:02:34,427 --> 01:02:36,012
- This.
- The plastic?

723
01:02:36,137 --> 01:02:37,180
Plastic.

724
01:02:37,305 --> 01:02:39,557
Ah! And what do you do with the plastic,
once you...?

725
01:02:39,682 --> 01:02:42,143
- Go to the junk shop.
- Yeah?

726
01:02:42,268 --> 01:02:44,896
And what do they
give you for the plastic?

727
01:02:45,021 --> 01:02:48,441
- Money.
- Money. Is it good money?

728
01:02:50,485 --> 01:02:52,862
- What kind of money?
- Money.

729
01:02:52,987 --> 01:02:55,030
- He's asking how much we're earning.
- It's 150 pesos.

730
01:02:55,031 --> 01:02:57,075
- Yeah?
- One day.

731
01:02:57,200 --> 01:02:58,201
- For one day?
- Yeah.

732
01:02:58,326 --> 01:03:00,119
And what do you do with the money?

733
01:03:00,244 --> 01:03:01,829
- I give it to my mother.
- Your mother.

734
01:03:01,954 --> 01:03:03,081
- Yeah.
- Yes?

735
01:03:03,206 --> 01:03:05,625
And what does she do with the money?

736
01:03:05,750 --> 01:03:08,795
- Buy the rice.
- The rice. Right.

737
01:03:08,920 --> 01:03:12,882
So you can play, grow up,
be healthy, play good basketball.

738
01:03:13,007 --> 01:03:14,717
Show me. Give me your shot.

739
01:03:30,942 --> 01:03:33,027
Most of the waste
created by the individuals

740
01:03:33,152 --> 01:03:35,321
within each of these villages,
towns and cities

741
01:03:35,446 --> 01:03:40,159
generally ends up on the streets
or in their canals.

742
01:03:40,284 --> 01:03:43,121
It's easy to understand
how these sorts of places

743
01:03:43,246 --> 01:03:47,458
become delivery systems
for plastic into our oceans.

744
01:03:52,588 --> 01:03:56,467
I understand that this
was ten feet deep in plastic.

745
01:03:56,592 --> 01:04:02,056
Literally ten feet of plastic
that was pulled out of this canal.

746
01:04:02,181 --> 01:04:03,850
First we dredged,

747
01:04:03,975 --> 01:04:07,145
but we realized that we're digging
down to China, we stopped.

748
01:04:07,270 --> 01:04:11,774
What we did
was to cover it up with, uh, good soil

749
01:04:11,899 --> 01:04:17,447
and garden soil, and
then we put up, uh, the coco-pillows.

750
01:04:17,572 --> 01:04:20,825
It's, uh, made from coconut husk.

751
01:04:20,950 --> 01:04:25,621
And then we spread it up until there.
We vegetated it in the vetiver grass.

752
01:04:28,624 --> 01:04:32,837
The plants take
the rest of the waste out of the water.

753
01:04:32,962 --> 01:04:35,882
- Yes.
- And now we've got fish swimming.

754
01:04:36,007 --> 01:04:37,257
- And turtles.
- Wildlife.

755
01:04:37,258 --> 01:04:39,176
It's clean enough
for animals to live in now.

756
01:04:39,177 --> 01:04:40,343
It's clean enough, yes.

757
01:04:40,344 --> 01:04:41,464
- Is it drinkable?
- Not yet.

758
01:04:41,554 --> 01:04:44,140
- Not yet. Working on that one.
- Working on that one.

759
01:04:44,265 --> 01:04:46,726
And so you're going
to do this project now

760
01:04:46,851 --> 01:04:49,228
throughout the canals
and river systems of Manila?

761
01:04:49,353 --> 01:04:53,858
Yes, uh, with the same idea
of putting bioremediation

762
01:04:53,983 --> 01:04:55,526
and phytoremediation together.

763
01:05:09,123 --> 01:05:12,543
Do you think that will solve
the plastic pollution problem here?

764
01:05:12,668 --> 01:05:15,046
The one that will solve
the plastic solution

765
01:05:15,171 --> 01:05:17,548
is the behavior of the people
around this area.

766
01:05:17,673 --> 01:05:20,009
So, maybe we'll start with that first

767
01:05:20,134 --> 01:05:22,470
and then we'll solve
everything else afterwards.

768
01:05:32,730 --> 01:05:36,317
I'm off to visit the tiny,
isolated coral atoll of Tuvalu

769
01:05:36,442 --> 01:05:38,694
in the South Pacific, near Fiji.

770
01:05:40,446 --> 01:05:45,952
As a mother, I care deeply about
the effects of plastic on our health.

771
01:06:06,973 --> 01:06:10,768
Tuvalu gained its independence in 1978.

772
01:06:13,104 --> 01:06:17,817
It began importing foreign goods
and food and with that came plastic.

773
01:06:20,444 --> 01:06:25,157
I realized just how tiny this nation was
when I flew in over the atoll.

774
01:06:25,283 --> 01:06:29,036
Tuvalu is a microcosm
of the entire planet,

775
01:06:29,161 --> 01:06:32,623
and they have nowhere
to put the plastic.

776
01:06:32,748 --> 01:06:35,501
During World War II,
in order to build an airstrip

777
01:06:35,626 --> 01:06:39,672
for the Allies in the Pacific theater,
large quantities of coral were dug up

778
01:06:39,797 --> 01:06:43,134
and carted off to be crushed
and mixed for the tarmac.

779
01:06:43,259 --> 01:06:46,929
Gaping holes left behind
are called "borrow pits."

780
01:06:47,054 --> 01:06:50,308
They were never filled back in,
and are now used for refuse.

781
01:07:46,781 --> 01:07:49,325
How long have you lived
in this borrow pit?

782
01:07:49,450 --> 01:07:52,119
- Twenty-five years.
- So, you're 25 years old?

783
01:07:52,244 --> 01:07:54,664
- Yeah.
- In your 25-year lifetime,

784
01:07:54,789 --> 01:07:59,585
have you seen the amount of plastic
in your surrounding community increase?

785
01:07:59,710 --> 01:08:03,005
Yeah. Very increase.

786
01:08:03,130 --> 01:08:08,969
Before, in my early childhood,
I don't see any plastic

787
01:08:09,095 --> 01:08:12,598
because we don't used
to import packaging, plastics.

788
01:08:12,723 --> 01:08:17,395
Tell me what it was like
growing up here as a child.

789
01:08:17,520 --> 01:08:20,690
We always, uh, swim at the borrow pit.

790
01:08:20,815 --> 01:08:26,404
We don't know that there is,
uh, "affectiveness" to us.

791
01:08:26,529 --> 01:08:30,574
We just swim and then we go...
We like fishing.

792
01:08:30,700 --> 01:08:33,536
You used to fish out
of the borrow pit and eat the fish?

793
01:08:33,661 --> 01:08:35,204
But you don't do that anymore?

794
01:08:35,329 --> 01:08:38,207
No, we don't eat the fish.
We just feed the pigs.

795
01:08:38,332 --> 01:08:40,291
- You feed the fish to the pigs?
- Yeah.

796
01:08:42,920 --> 01:08:48,300
What kind of health problems
are you seeing people suffer from?

797
01:08:48,426 --> 01:08:52,054
Flu. Some people, they get cancer.

798
01:08:52,179 --> 01:08:56,851
And then some people,
they don't get pregnant.

799
01:08:56,976 --> 01:09:00,354
People in the borrow pit
are having problems conceiving?

800
01:09:00,479 --> 01:09:04,191
If things don't change
in the borrow pit,

801
01:09:04,316 --> 01:09:07,528
but the people stay here,
what do you think will happen?

802
01:09:08,654 --> 01:09:13,284
I think they get disease.
And they don't want to leave.

803
01:09:13,409 --> 01:09:15,202
Like, this is a nice place,

804
01:09:15,327 --> 01:09:22,084
but because of the imported packaging,
they destroy our paradise.

805
01:09:23,794 --> 01:09:26,672
And I want to give good future
for my children.

806
01:09:27,798 --> 01:09:29,592
'Cause I love my children.

807
01:09:46,817 --> 01:09:50,362
How does a U.S. Navy
aircraft carrier handle its waste?

808
01:09:50,488 --> 01:09:55,493
With about 4,500 sailors onboard, just
shy of half the population of Tuvalu

809
01:09:55,618 --> 01:09:59,455
the amount of waste generated
every day is enormous.

810
01:09:59,580 --> 01:10:03,209
U.S. Navy is looking for a way
to deal with shipboard waste

811
01:10:03,334 --> 01:10:04,574
without having to go into port.

812
01:10:08,255 --> 01:10:10,135
The belly of the latest aircraft carrier

813
01:10:10,257 --> 01:10:16,472
will be fitted with a gleaming maze of
steel pipes to devour the ship's waste.

814
01:10:16,597 --> 01:10:20,142
PyroGenesis of Montreal
was contracted by the U.S. Navy

815
01:10:20,267 --> 01:10:24,230
to develop a green technology capable
of processing the waste

816
01:10:24,355 --> 01:10:26,273
generated by these sailors.

817
01:10:26,398 --> 01:10:29,735
At the heart of this technology
is a plasma torch

818
01:10:29,860 --> 01:10:33,781
that changes the molecular structure
of whatever is put into it

819
01:10:33,906 --> 01:10:36,492
transforming it back
to its core elements.

820
01:10:36,617 --> 01:10:39,537
Better still, it has no detrimental
effect on the environment,

821
01:10:39,662 --> 01:10:42,498
it runs off its own energy,
and is affordable.

822
01:10:43,666 --> 01:10:45,543
If they could shrink
the plant into the size

823
01:10:45,668 --> 01:10:48,629
of something that you can put
into a shipping container,

824
01:10:48,754 --> 01:10:52,341
take to small islands like Tuvalu,
set it up so that you can put in

825
01:10:52,466 --> 01:10:55,135
all of the rubbish
that's existing on the island,

826
01:10:55,261 --> 01:10:58,681
and have it turn into inert
or nontoxic substances,

827
01:10:58,806 --> 01:11:01,350
that's going to go a long way
to help solving the problems

828
01:11:01,475 --> 01:11:03,102
that exist on islands in the Pacific.

829
01:11:24,123 --> 01:11:26,542
If an innovative, workable solution

830
01:11:26,667 --> 01:11:30,880
like pyrogenesis is not implemented
in places like Tuvalu,

831
01:11:31,005 --> 01:11:34,091
the quality of life
will continue to decline.

832
01:11:34,216 --> 01:11:38,721
The island will eventually be choked
by its own plastic waste.

833
01:11:38,846 --> 01:11:41,765
Combined with the rising sea level
caused by climate change,

834
01:11:41,891 --> 01:11:44,602
Tuvalu's habitability
is under serious threat.

835
01:11:57,031 --> 01:11:58,949
One of the kids we've befriended here

836
01:11:59,074 --> 01:12:02,745
has developed
a pretty bad lingering cough.

837
01:12:02,870 --> 01:12:06,248
We think his problems might be linked
to a hobby he shares with his friends,

838
01:12:06,373 --> 01:12:08,751
making jewelry out of melted plastic.

839
01:12:28,312 --> 01:12:31,273
Tanya is extremely protective
of her children,

840
01:12:31,398 --> 01:12:33,859
so she's incredibly engaged
in their well-being,

841
01:12:33,984 --> 01:12:36,528
particularly where she has control.

842
01:12:36,654 --> 01:12:39,114
And she has control
over her environment.

843
01:12:40,449 --> 01:12:42,158
This is Charlie, huh?

844
01:12:42,159 --> 01:12:45,079
Surprised he wasn't born
with a face mask.

845
01:12:45,204 --> 01:12:47,604
- Yeah, right? And a nose clip?
- And a nose clip.

846
01:12:47,706 --> 01:12:50,209
It wasn't easy for me to conceive.
I'm an older mom.

847
01:12:50,334 --> 01:12:52,252
I worked really hard for this.

848
01:12:52,378 --> 01:12:55,297
All the time trying to conceive
being really clean in my body.

849
01:12:55,422 --> 01:12:59,093
Went through my entire pregnancy
without taking so much as a Tylenol.

850
01:12:59,218 --> 01:13:02,012
- Throw the line in there, Till.
- Okay.

851
01:13:02,137 --> 01:13:03,806
This is actually Catfish Corner.

852
01:13:05,849 --> 01:13:09,770
My kids make me really passionate
about the subject. Annoyingly passionate.

853
01:13:09,895 --> 01:13:12,940
You know. Ask my husband.
He'll roll his eyes.

854
01:13:13,065 --> 01:13:16,819
He goes from this guy
who is washing Ziploc bags

855
01:13:16,944 --> 01:13:20,656
and I think, "Oh, I'm winning!
My husband is washing Ziploc bags!"

856
01:13:20,781 --> 01:13:23,450
I see them drying in the sink
and I'm like, "Yes!"

857
01:13:23,575 --> 01:13:28,998
But then he'll forget and I see,
you know, plastic wrap over a food,

858
01:13:29,123 --> 01:13:30,624
and I'm like, "No!"

859
01:13:30,749 --> 01:13:34,420
Now, you've had a very
healthy, uh, lifestyle.

860
01:13:34,545 --> 01:13:36,630
You haven't been able to control
every aspect of it,

861
01:13:36,755 --> 01:13:40,175
so the likelihood is he may have plastic
in his system.

862
01:13:40,300 --> 01:13:42,386
It's terrifying. It's awful.

863
01:13:42,511 --> 01:13:46,265
And it... you know,
it's made me question sometimes,

864
01:13:46,390 --> 01:13:48,726
"Gosh, is even having children
the right thing to do?"

865
01:13:49,977 --> 01:13:51,770
I'm still very, very motivated

866
01:13:51,895 --> 01:13:54,898
to obviously do the right thing
by myself and my family,

867
01:13:55,024 --> 01:13:58,736
but also to try to incite change

868
01:13:58,861 --> 01:14:01,864
where I can as an environmentalist,
as an activist.

869
01:14:01,989 --> 01:14:06,326
I'm optimistic
because it beats the alternative.

870
01:14:12,041 --> 01:14:15,252
Austin is a very cool city.
It's environmentally aware.

871
01:14:17,588 --> 01:14:20,841
It was the first city in Texas
to ban the plastic bag.

872
01:14:21,925 --> 01:14:24,011
It's an oasis of eco-friendly people

873
01:14:24,136 --> 01:14:26,889
in a state that's headquarters
for the largest oil companies

874
01:14:27,014 --> 01:14:29,308
and petrochemical plants.

875
01:14:36,732 --> 01:14:41,695
PlastiPure is where
we formulate and test plastics

876
01:14:41,820 --> 01:14:43,906
for their physical characteristics.

877
01:14:44,031 --> 01:14:49,203
On the CertiChem side, where we are here,
we test plastics and other substances,

878
01:14:49,328 --> 01:14:55,125
as well as individual chemicals, uh,
to see if they have estrogenic activity.

879
01:14:56,835 --> 01:15:00,881
A lot of plastics,
perhaps the great majority, probably

880
01:15:01,006 --> 01:15:04,301
release chemicals
that have estrogenic activity.

881
01:15:04,426 --> 01:15:07,513
Estrogenic activity, or "E.A.,"

882
01:15:07,638 --> 01:15:10,808
happens when a chemical
like BPA or phthalate

883
01:15:10,933 --> 01:15:16,313
leaches from plastic and enters the body
where it mimics the hormone estrogen.

884
01:15:16,438 --> 01:15:18,941
Ninety-two point six percent
of Americans

885
01:15:19,066 --> 01:15:24,113
age six and older have detectible levels
of BPA in their bodies.

886
01:15:24,238 --> 01:15:27,574
The levels in children
between six and 11 years of age

887
01:15:27,699 --> 01:15:30,369
are twice as high
as those in older Americans.

888
01:15:31,745 --> 01:15:34,081
Are all of those chemicals not regulated?

889
01:15:34,206 --> 01:15:40,462
No, the FDA at present
does not have any regulations

890
01:15:40,587 --> 01:15:46,969
for how many chemicals and what levels
of chemicals having estrogenic activity

891
01:15:47,094 --> 01:15:52,224
can be released from plastics or
from cosmetics or papers or silicones.

892
01:15:52,349 --> 01:15:55,310
So, how is the general public protected
from that kind of thing?

893
01:15:55,435 --> 01:15:57,479
- Uh, they aren't.
- They aren't?

894
01:15:57,604 --> 01:16:01,316
From baby bottles
to sippy cups to food can liners

895
01:16:01,441 --> 01:16:03,652
to water bottles hydrating
the youngest athletes,

896
01:16:03,777 --> 01:16:08,866
consumers have been exposed to a
root chemical called Bisphenol A or BPA.

897
01:16:08,991 --> 01:16:11,994
An artificial sex hormone
used as a core building block

898
01:16:12,119 --> 01:16:16,290
in close to seven billion pounds
of plastic on the market today,

899
01:16:16,415 --> 01:16:18,208
because of its strength and resiliency.

900
01:16:18,333 --> 01:16:21,128
This isn't a weak, uh, contaminant.

901
01:16:21,253 --> 01:16:22,462
This is a powerful contaminant

902
01:16:22,588 --> 01:16:25,841
and it's striking right at the core
of American public health.

903
01:16:25,966 --> 01:16:29,386
When something says that it's BPA-free,
is that something I can trust?

904
01:16:29,511 --> 01:16:36,268
Over 90 percent of all plastics
that don't have BPA,

905
01:16:36,393 --> 01:16:41,190
nonetheless, uh, release chemicals
having estrogenic activity.

906
01:16:41,315 --> 01:16:45,360
So, BPA is not the only bad guy
that we need to be looking out for.

907
01:16:45,485 --> 01:16:48,655
BPA is only one bad guy.

908
01:16:48,780 --> 01:16:51,825
- Like saying, "I've caught Al Capone!"
- Yeah.

909
01:16:51,950 --> 01:16:53,619
- "I've just handled...
- Yeah.

910
01:16:53,744 --> 01:16:55,913
...the criminal problem
in the United States!"

911
01:16:57,539 --> 01:17:00,375
We do quite a bit of this testing
to see where the issues are

912
01:17:00,500 --> 01:17:04,588
but we also use that data to
help manufacturers make safer products.

913
01:17:04,713 --> 01:17:07,049
Right. The average consumer goes,
"Poly-whatta-whatta?"

914
01:17:07,174 --> 01:17:08,383
You know, "I don't get it.

915
01:17:08,508 --> 01:17:11,011
Tell me what is the right one,
what is safe, what isn't."

916
01:17:11,136 --> 01:17:12,346
When we look at baby bottles,

917
01:17:12,471 --> 01:17:14,640
we have to look
at all the different components

918
01:17:14,765 --> 01:17:17,893
that come in contact
with the milk or with the baby.

919
01:17:18,018 --> 01:17:21,188
All of the hard and clear materials
that we've tested

920
01:17:21,313 --> 01:17:23,023
leach these estrogenic chemicals.

921
01:17:23,148 --> 01:17:28,695
Other things, like the nipple, are
generally made from silicone or latex.

922
01:17:28,820 --> 01:17:33,992
Latex, uh, always, from our tests,
has come back positive for E.A.

923
01:17:34,117 --> 01:17:36,437
And silicone generally is positive
for estrogenic activity.

924
01:17:36,495 --> 01:17:41,291
And stainless steel is obviously,
I thought, a better option.

925
01:17:41,416 --> 01:17:43,168
If it doesn't have a liner,

926
01:17:43,293 --> 01:17:46,296
uh, stainless steel, it tends to be fine
and glass tends to be fine.

927
01:17:46,421 --> 01:17:49,841
The colorants, uh, tend
to leach a lot of chemicals,

928
01:17:49,967 --> 01:17:53,303
so we, uh, try to stay away
from colorants when we can.

929
01:17:53,428 --> 01:17:56,139
When we can't,
white and black tend to be...

930
01:17:56,265 --> 01:17:57,808
- The least? Okay.
- The least.

931
01:17:57,933 --> 01:18:01,395
And we've started using a lot more foil
in our house, rather than this stuff.

932
01:18:01,520 --> 01:18:02,645
- Foil is a better option.
- Okay.

933
01:18:02,646 --> 01:18:05,816
We use foil in the lab because foil
doesn't leach these chemicals.

934
01:18:05,941 --> 01:18:11,113
And this, I know, Styrofoam, is
a personal, personal pet peeve of mine.

935
01:18:11,238 --> 01:18:15,701
The likelihood is estrogenic chemicals
will leach out of styrene products.

936
01:18:15,826 --> 01:18:17,077
Cold foods, anything?

937
01:18:17,202 --> 01:18:20,080
Likely, hot fluids would increase
the amount of leaching,

938
01:18:20,205 --> 01:18:21,539
but it'd still be leaching something.

939
01:18:21,540 --> 01:18:26,795
The majority of plastics
increase the release of chemicals

940
01:18:26,920 --> 01:18:31,300
having estrogenic activity
after they've been exposed,

941
01:18:31,425 --> 01:18:33,093
to particularly sunlight.

942
01:18:33,218 --> 01:18:34,803
How do you not consume it?

943
01:18:34,928 --> 01:18:38,557
You can't go anywhere
without seeing food wrapped in plastic.

944
01:18:38,682 --> 01:18:42,144
You can't go to a restaurant
without, you know,

945
01:18:42,269 --> 01:18:46,356
takeout boxes being in plastic,
hot foods going into plastic.

946
01:18:46,481 --> 01:18:49,443
My answer there is, well,
demand safer plastic.

947
01:18:49,568 --> 01:18:53,405
So, what we're gonna do
is go inside a couple of restaurants

948
01:18:53,530 --> 01:18:56,408
and ask them about, uh...

949
01:18:56,533 --> 01:18:57,534
We'll ask them for food

950
01:18:57,659 --> 01:19:00,139
and see if they can't give it to us
in a non-plastic container.

951
01:19:04,666 --> 01:19:06,546
- Hello, how are you doing?
- Good, how are you?

952
01:19:06,585 --> 01:19:09,713
I'm not too bad.
Can I get the, um, "Power Plant"?

953
01:19:09,838 --> 01:19:12,424
Can I get a small "Berry Blast"?

954
01:19:12,549 --> 01:19:17,304
Hello, there. Um...
Can I get an orange juice, please?

955
01:19:17,429 --> 01:19:18,512
What can I get you for lunch today?

956
01:19:18,513 --> 01:19:20,932
- I'm getting the BLT.
- A BLT.

957
01:19:21,058 --> 01:19:23,935
Do you have anything
not wrapped in plastic?

958
01:19:24,061 --> 01:19:25,936
I have nothing to do with the food.

959
01:19:25,937 --> 01:19:29,441
Do you have anything
other than plastic to put it in?

960
01:19:29,566 --> 01:19:32,986
No. You can buy
our giant little reusables.

961
01:19:33,111 --> 01:19:35,280
Yeah, but that's still plastic.

962
01:19:35,405 --> 01:19:37,531
- This one's what we got.
- Without the plastic lid's fine.

963
01:19:37,532 --> 01:19:39,868
- Is that paper? It is? Great. Yeah.
- Yes.

964
01:19:39,993 --> 01:19:43,330
- Do you have anything other than plastic?
- We have that one in a cold press.

965
01:19:43,455 --> 01:19:46,375
It's actually exposed to less oxygen,
so it's way better juice

966
01:19:46,500 --> 01:19:48,380
with twice the amount
of vitamins and nutrients.

967
01:19:48,502 --> 01:19:51,588
- That sounds really healthy.
- Yeah, it's the way to go for the balance.

968
01:19:51,713 --> 01:19:53,340
- Yeah, that sounds great.
- Cool, man.

969
01:19:53,465 --> 01:19:55,800
But do you serve it in
anything other than plastic containers?

970
01:19:55,801 --> 01:19:58,595
We have them made, uh,
at our central kitchen every morning,

971
01:19:58,720 --> 01:20:01,056
and they bring 'em to us
on the cold press juicer,

972
01:20:01,181 --> 01:20:03,350
so it's ready to go,
bottled for convenience.

973
01:20:03,475 --> 01:20:04,935
But that's in plastic, yeah?

974
01:20:05,060 --> 01:20:07,729
- Do you have something not plastic?
- No.

975
01:20:07,854 --> 01:20:10,607
And you serve all your drinks
in plastic cups as well?

976
01:20:10,732 --> 01:20:11,775
Yes, sir.

977
01:20:11,900 --> 01:20:13,527
Keep the straw 'cause that's plastic.

978
01:20:13,652 --> 01:20:16,321
- I'll have to leave it then, I think.
- Yeah?

979
01:20:16,446 --> 01:20:17,614
- Yeah.
- Okay, that's okay.

980
01:20:17,739 --> 01:20:19,825
- Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks very much.
- Yeah.

981
01:20:19,950 --> 01:20:21,493
All right, what can I get you?

982
01:20:21,618 --> 01:20:24,371
Yeah, I felt like I was
a bit of an eco-warrior.

983
01:20:24,496 --> 01:20:28,792
Tell me, what's my food wrapped in?
It's not plastic, is it?

984
01:20:28,917 --> 01:20:31,128
I'm going to die of something.

985
01:20:31,253 --> 01:20:34,840
Yeah, but do you wanna die early or late?

986
01:20:34,965 --> 01:20:37,509
My boyfriend actually tells me
every single day of my life

987
01:20:37,634 --> 01:20:39,428
to not be drinking water bottles
from my car

988
01:20:39,553 --> 01:20:40,833
but if I'm thirsty, I'm thirsty.

989
01:20:40,887 --> 01:20:43,515
You know what? He's right.
And you've got that wrapped in paper.

990
01:20:43,640 --> 01:20:44,724
That's good.

991
01:20:44,850 --> 01:20:46,560
That's impressive for a takeaway place.

992
01:20:46,685 --> 01:20:48,812
Take the salad and stick 'em in
like, a few of these.

993
01:20:48,937 --> 01:20:50,937
Yeah, that'd be better
than sticking it in plastic.

994
01:20:50,939 --> 01:20:53,150
If you could put it maybe
between two paper plates.

995
01:20:53,275 --> 01:20:55,861
It's just all the chemicals
in this that get into the food.

996
01:20:55,986 --> 01:20:58,780
You've made such a great sandwich,
by the look of it.

997
01:20:58,905 --> 01:21:03,201
We gave in to the sales hype of
the '50s that plastic was "disposable,"

998
01:21:03,326 --> 01:21:05,829
that we could throw it away.

999
01:21:05,954 --> 01:21:07,706
There is no "away."

1000
01:21:13,503 --> 01:21:17,132
It's so very hard as a parent,
as a mom, as a woman,

1001
01:21:17,257 --> 01:21:20,635
to feel like you can do the best thing,

1002
01:21:20,760 --> 01:21:22,553
you know, that you can do
the right thing anymore.

1003
01:21:22,554 --> 01:21:25,974
Every day, you know,
we're contributing potentially

1004
01:21:26,099 --> 01:21:29,561
to a dreadful health problem later on
down the line.

1005
01:21:37,777 --> 01:21:39,738
No. There's nothing else to put it in.

1006
01:21:39,863 --> 01:21:41,490
Beep, beep, beep.

1007
01:21:44,826 --> 01:21:48,455
What this white stuff is,
is like the worst of the worst.

1008
01:21:49,539 --> 01:21:52,459
Like a rubbish bin,
the earth is filling up with the stuff.

1009
01:21:52,584 --> 01:21:54,794
There is nowhere else to put it.

1010
01:21:54,920 --> 01:21:56,630
That's why, as much as possible,

1011
01:21:56,755 --> 01:22:02,636
we choose foods and drinks
that don't have plastic around them.

1012
01:22:02,761 --> 01:22:06,056
It starts with the individual
and it starts with us.

1013
01:22:06,181 --> 01:22:09,351
What do you do?
You can't possibly filter out

1014
01:22:09,476 --> 01:22:11,853
these tiny particles
from the entire ocean.

1015
01:22:11,978 --> 01:22:13,563
You can't filter the entire ocean.

1016
01:22:13,688 --> 01:22:17,067
In fact,
so much plastic is in the ocean now

1017
01:22:17,192 --> 01:22:20,028
in a form that we really can't get to it

1018
01:22:20,153 --> 01:22:24,407
that I feel the emphasis needs
to immediately shift

1019
01:22:24,533 --> 01:22:25,742
toward "stop putting it in."

1020
01:22:29,454 --> 01:22:30,579
Mike deGruy is right.

1021
01:22:30,580 --> 01:22:33,375
But how do we get to the point
where we can stop putting it in?

1022
01:22:35,168 --> 01:22:37,208
- Hi. That's me.
- I'd like to speak to the manager.

1023
01:22:37,295 --> 01:22:39,631
I notice when I came in here
and ordered, uh,

1024
01:22:39,756 --> 01:22:44,052
my sandwich and my drink,
they both came in plastic containers.

1025
01:22:44,177 --> 01:22:47,472
Our cups are a hundred percent
plant-based so they can be composted.

1026
01:22:47,597 --> 01:22:51,309
You're one of the first places in Austin
I've come to that has an alternative.

1027
01:22:51,434 --> 01:22:52,394
Is that right?

1028
01:22:52,519 --> 01:22:54,270
Best alternative option
I've got for you today.

1029
01:22:54,271 --> 01:22:56,438
That's perfect. I appreciate it.
Least you've got an alternative.

1030
01:22:56,439 --> 01:22:58,319
- Exactly.
- Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

1031
01:22:58,400 --> 01:23:00,068
- Have a great weekend.
- You too.

1032
01:23:00,193 --> 01:23:04,406
Find me some Gala apples
that are not in plastic.

1033
01:23:05,407 --> 01:23:07,866
Demand that your supermarket
deliver your food products in paper

1034
01:23:07,867 --> 01:23:09,578
or just as they come.

1035
01:23:09,703 --> 01:23:13,665
They don't need to be wrapped in plastic
and if they are, take the plastic off

1036
01:23:13,790 --> 01:23:15,750
and leave it with them and say,

1037
01:23:15,875 --> 01:23:18,837
"You dispose of it
and dispose of it properly."

1038
01:23:18,962 --> 01:23:21,131
Because once it becomes their problem,

1039
01:23:21,256 --> 01:23:23,466
you'll find that they will do
something about it.

1040
01:23:48,491 --> 01:23:52,245
Don't put your plastic rubbish
in a dumpster

1041
01:23:52,370 --> 01:23:54,331
where you know it's going to landfill.

1042
01:23:58,585 --> 01:24:02,464
In 1991, Germany became
the first country in the world

1043
01:24:02,589 --> 01:24:05,800
to pass packaging laws
forcing plastic manufacturers

1044
01:24:05,925 --> 01:24:08,803
to be responsible
for the recycling or disposal

1045
01:24:08,928 --> 01:24:11,431
of any packaging material they sell.

1046
01:24:11,556 --> 01:24:13,099
The industry set up a company

1047
01:24:13,224 --> 01:24:17,937
to oversee plastic waste collection
recognized by the green dot.

1048
01:24:19,147 --> 01:24:21,566
When I was a kid,
we used to run around the neighborhood

1049
01:24:21,691 --> 01:24:24,569
collecting glass bottles
to take to the store

1050
01:24:24,694 --> 01:24:26,529
to collect the 5-cent refund
that we'd get.

1051
01:24:28,239 --> 01:24:31,785
Plastic packaging pretty much killed
the bottle deposit system.

1052
01:24:31,910 --> 01:24:35,205
But here in Germany,
they've reinstated it.

1053
01:24:35,330 --> 01:24:38,833
You can take your plastic bottles
to almost any supermarket

1054
01:24:38,958 --> 01:24:42,754
and put them in this machine.
And what it does is it reads a barcode

1055
01:24:42,879 --> 01:24:45,882
which tells the machine
the kind of plastic that it is,

1056
01:24:46,007 --> 01:24:49,803
that it's recyclable,
and which retailer it comes from.

1057
01:24:49,928 --> 01:24:53,682
So the consumer gets
a 25-cent deposit off every bottle,

1058
01:24:53,807 --> 01:24:55,225
the retailer gets the plastic,

1059
01:24:55,350 --> 01:24:59,145
which they can sell to recyclers
for a lucrative amount of money.

1060
01:24:59,270 --> 01:25:00,855
And on the streets of Germany,

1061
01:25:00,980 --> 01:25:05,568
you very rarely see these things anymore
because everybody recycles them.

1062
01:25:10,657 --> 01:25:13,868
The Germans demonstrated
that there is profit to be made.

1063
01:25:15,328 --> 01:25:18,665
Today, recycling
is a lucrative industry.

1064
01:25:23,169 --> 01:25:24,546
Pressure your government.

1065
01:25:24,671 --> 01:25:28,550
Tell them that you do not accept that
plastic should be in the environment.

1066
01:25:28,675 --> 01:25:31,344
The manufacturers of plastic
have their own lobby groups

1067
01:25:31,469 --> 01:25:33,846
and they'll lobby the government
to get the best possible deal

1068
01:25:33,847 --> 01:25:36,808
for them to get their products
into the marketplace

1069
01:25:36,933 --> 01:25:39,394
for the least cost,
and the least cost means

1070
01:25:39,519 --> 01:25:41,980
that they don't have
to be responsible for it.

1071
01:25:42,105 --> 01:25:44,065
If they manufacture it,
they should be responsible

1072
01:25:44,149 --> 01:25:46,443
for its collection
and for its proper disposal.

1073
01:25:46,568 --> 01:25:49,487
We will all be better off
if less plastic is manufactured

1074
01:25:49,612 --> 01:25:50,780
in the first place.

1075
01:25:50,905 --> 01:25:53,783
Scientists are already calling
for governments

1076
01:25:53,908 --> 01:25:57,245
to reclassify plastic
as a hazardous substance.

1077
01:25:57,370 --> 01:26:01,332
Because then, existing laws
about hazardous substances

1078
01:26:01,458 --> 01:26:02,542
will already be in effect.

1079
01:26:02,667 --> 01:26:06,254
Plastic bags and water bottles
are the worst single-use offenders.

1080
01:26:06,379 --> 01:26:10,383
What if we ban them outright
to stop that vicious cycle?

1081
01:26:10,508 --> 01:26:15,638
Rwanda is one of the very few countries
that has banned plastic bags.

1082
01:26:18,433 --> 01:26:23,813
Rwanda being an agricultural country...

1083
01:26:23,938 --> 01:26:26,524
whereby we don't have
a lot of industries

1084
01:26:26,649 --> 01:26:30,361
we have tried to assess
the impact of plastic bags

1085
01:26:46,377 --> 01:26:49,088
I think it's a shocking waste
of valuable resources

1086
01:26:49,214 --> 01:26:52,175
that these materials
are being put in the landfill.

1087
01:26:52,300 --> 01:26:56,054
They're so much more valuable.
If we put them in the landfill,

1088
01:26:56,179 --> 01:27:01,309
the cost in Europe is roundabout
a minus 100 pounds a ton, $150.

1089
01:27:01,434 --> 01:27:08,024
But as a useful plastic, it could be
worth plus $1,200, $1,500 a ton.

1090
01:27:08,149 --> 01:27:09,734
So, it's a huge difference in value.

1091
01:27:11,152 --> 01:27:14,656
We actually have the answers now
to recycling most plastics,

1092
01:27:14,781 --> 01:27:17,951
uh, and the challenge really
is to get everyone onboard

1093
01:27:18,076 --> 01:27:21,704
with those ideas, and also to get the
collection infrastructure going right

1094
01:27:21,830 --> 01:27:24,624
so that we get big volumes coming
concentrated in one place,

1095
01:27:24,749 --> 01:27:27,377
so that people can then have
the confidence to invest

1096
01:27:27,502 --> 01:27:29,337
in the recovery technology.

1097
01:27:30,338 --> 01:27:33,424
Once sorted, recycled plastics
are brought into factories like this

1098
01:27:33,550 --> 01:27:36,970
where they can become part
of a circular economy,

1099
01:27:37,095 --> 01:27:40,098
cleaned of labels and processed
into newborn nurdles,

1100
01:27:40,223 --> 01:27:42,517
ready to be sold once again.

1101
01:27:43,601 --> 01:27:45,603
As recyclers,
we think governments could do more

1102
01:27:45,728 --> 01:27:47,939
to encourage development
of circular supply chains.

1103
01:27:48,064 --> 01:27:50,775
A lot of recycled plastics
can be used back, as we say,

1104
01:27:50,900 --> 01:27:52,944
in "closed loop,"
back in the same products.

1105
01:27:53,069 --> 01:27:54,863
And that's happening a lot with bottles

1106
01:27:54,988 --> 01:27:57,699
and pots, tubs and trays
from the packaging stream,

1107
01:27:57,824 --> 01:27:59,304
but there are plenty of other outlets

1108
01:27:59,325 --> 01:28:01,369
where a short-life item,
like a piece of packaging

1109
01:28:01,494 --> 01:28:03,121
can go into a long-life application.

1110
01:28:03,246 --> 01:28:05,456
For example, in construction products,

1111
01:28:05,582 --> 01:28:08,793
uh, in automotive,
in making cars and trains

1112
01:28:08,918 --> 01:28:10,295
and airplanes and things like that

1113
01:28:10,420 --> 01:28:13,840
where you can get the performance
of the recycled polymer just as good

1114
01:28:13,965 --> 01:28:16,050
as virgin material
that's come out of the ground.

1115
01:28:16,175 --> 01:28:19,053
You can take it from a bottle one day
to a shirt the next day.

1116
01:28:19,178 --> 01:28:22,849
From that shirt, then it can become
a component in a vehicle.

1117
01:28:22,974 --> 01:28:25,101
It can become something
that's sent to space.

1118
01:28:25,226 --> 01:28:26,603
Through the Plastic Bank,

1119
01:28:26,728 --> 01:28:30,857
we make plastic waste a currency,
so that people in developing countries

1120
01:28:30,982 --> 01:28:35,820
can earn an income while preventing
plastic from entering the ocean.

1121
01:28:37,196 --> 01:28:40,700
David Katz and Shaun Frankson
founded the Plastic Bank.

1122
01:28:42,035 --> 01:28:44,746
They established a social plastic
recycling system in Haiti

1123
01:28:44,871 --> 01:28:48,374
that exchanges plastic
for solar cell phone charging,

1124
01:28:48,499 --> 01:28:51,002
sustainable cook stoves and cash.

1125
01:28:51,127 --> 01:28:55,590
It's like a fair-trade plastic
where it's ethically sourced...

1126
01:28:55,715 --> 01:28:58,801
and it's above-market rate income
that they earn.

1127
01:28:58,927 --> 01:29:01,095
The people in need can go
and collect the plastic

1128
01:29:01,220 --> 01:29:02,888
and create a microeconomy
around recycling.

1129
01:29:02,889 --> 01:29:06,726
This is something that we can scale
anywhere in the world.

1130
01:29:06,851 --> 01:29:08,891
This is a self-sustaining
social enterprise.

1131
01:29:10,355 --> 01:29:12,773
All of the plastic collected
through the Plastic Bank goes through

1132
01:29:12,774 --> 01:29:16,235
the recycling process
and is sold as "social plastic"

1133
01:29:16,361 --> 01:29:19,656
to be used in manufacturing
by values-aligned brands,

1134
01:29:19,781 --> 01:29:22,033
or it can be used to 3D print.

1135
01:29:22,158 --> 01:29:24,202
They're using it instead
of virgin plastic.

1136
01:29:25,286 --> 01:29:26,996
If you're choosing between two products

1137
01:29:27,121 --> 01:29:29,457
and one's made
of social plastic and one's not,

1138
01:29:29,582 --> 01:29:32,794
you're really choosing between,
"Do I help or do I hurt the planet?"

1139
01:29:33,878 --> 01:29:36,255
Social plastic is really our way

1140
01:29:36,381 --> 01:29:39,926
that we can create an organic,
global infrastructure.

1141
01:29:40,051 --> 01:29:44,764
New technology means that waste
can now be converted into energy.

1142
01:29:46,099 --> 01:29:48,518
In Europe alone,
there are 15 million tons

1143
01:29:48,643 --> 01:29:52,605
of end-of-life plastic
going into landfill every year.

1144
01:29:52,730 --> 01:29:54,691
Cynar, a waste-to-fuel company,

1145
01:29:54,816 --> 01:29:57,819
designed a machine
that turns end-of-life plastic

1146
01:29:57,944 --> 01:29:59,904
like candy wrappers and snack packets,

1147
01:30:00,029 --> 01:30:03,074
which aren't usually recyclable,
into diesel.

1148
01:30:04,158 --> 01:30:07,286
Using a heating process
called "pyrolysis,"

1149
01:30:07,412 --> 01:30:11,791
it turns an environmental problem
into a valuable commodity.

1150
01:30:11,916 --> 01:30:16,295
Each machine can process
about 20 tons of plastic daily,

1151
01:30:16,421 --> 01:30:19,799
making about 18,000 liters of diesel

1152
01:30:19,924 --> 01:30:23,052
or the equivalent
of 113 barrels of oil a day.

1153
01:30:30,601 --> 01:30:33,438
Islands like Lord Howe
manage their plastic waste

1154
01:30:33,563 --> 01:30:36,274
with solutions that match
the way they live.

1155
01:30:36,399 --> 01:30:38,759
There is no burning
and there is no landfill on this island.

1156
01:30:38,776 --> 01:30:42,613
Food waste, the garden waste,
paper and cardboard gets composted.

1157
01:30:42,739 --> 01:30:46,033
All the recyclables
are baled and sent back to the mainland,

1158
01:30:46,159 --> 01:30:48,453
and currently the island's
diverting 85 percent

1159
01:30:48,578 --> 01:30:50,037
of all their waste from landfill.

1160
01:30:50,163 --> 01:30:52,081
This is the recycling sorting facility.

1161
01:30:52,206 --> 01:30:55,168
We can separate, we can bale everything.

1162
01:30:55,293 --> 01:30:59,547
You can galvanize a community
to do amazing things.

1163
01:31:05,386 --> 01:31:08,306
The whales are diving
into a sea of plastic bottles

1164
01:31:08,431 --> 01:31:12,018
and the bottles were collected
from the Bristol 10K Race.

1165
01:31:13,019 --> 01:31:16,063
It was important to the artist,
Sue Lipscombe,

1166
01:31:16,189 --> 01:31:19,358
to make this sculpture
out of sustainable materials.

1167
01:31:19,484 --> 01:31:24,405
She used recycled plastics
and locally-grown willow.

1168
01:31:24,530 --> 01:31:26,949
There are 70,000 bottles.

1169
01:31:27,074 --> 01:31:28,993
That means in some way,

1170
01:31:29,118 --> 01:31:33,539
up to 70,000 people
have contributed to this art.

1171
01:31:33,664 --> 01:31:37,043
I kick off by telling the kids
something about whales

1172
01:31:37,168 --> 01:31:40,129
and the reaction is just fantastic.

1173
01:31:40,254 --> 01:31:44,425
They love hearing about how big
they are. They really get it.

1174
01:31:44,550 --> 01:31:47,553
They ask you
all sorts of perceptive questions

1175
01:31:47,678 --> 01:31:50,056
an adult might not think about.

1176
01:31:50,181 --> 01:31:52,391
And I really just love
the enthusiasm of the pupils.

1177
01:31:52,517 --> 01:31:55,686
Wouldn't it be great
if politicians 40 years down the line

1178
01:31:55,812 --> 01:31:57,563
still had that same enthusiasm

1179
01:31:57,688 --> 01:31:59,816
that schoolchildren show
when they come here?

1180
01:31:59,941 --> 01:32:01,541
Wouldn't the world be a different place?

1181
01:32:07,949 --> 01:32:11,327
We've treated the ocean
as a place to throw things,

1182
01:32:11,452 --> 01:32:16,082
dispose of things that we did not
want close to where we thought we live.

1183
01:32:57,081 --> 01:33:00,960
In 2015, natural history
broadcaster Sir David Attenborough,

1184
01:33:01,085 --> 01:33:03,629
met with President Barack Obama.

1185
01:33:03,754 --> 01:33:06,924
Obama, who spent his boyhood
in the natural splendor of Hawaii,

1186
01:33:07,049 --> 01:33:08,968
grew up watching Attenborough's films.

1187
01:33:10,303 --> 01:33:14,307
What we're seeing is global trend,
uh, that...

1188
01:33:14,432 --> 01:33:17,268
depend on the entire world
working together.

1189
01:33:17,393 --> 01:33:20,396
- Yes.
- My daughters, I find Malia and Sasha...

1190
01:33:20,521 --> 01:33:23,649
they're much more environmentally
aware, this generation...

1191
01:33:23,774 --> 01:33:25,609
- I believe that.
- ...than some previous generations.

1192
01:33:25,610 --> 01:33:28,696
They think it's, uh, self-apparent
that we've got a problem

1193
01:33:28,821 --> 01:33:30,740
and that we should be
doing something about it.

1194
01:33:30,865 --> 01:33:36,078
I absolutely agree.
And the young people, they care.

1195
01:33:36,203 --> 01:33:38,831
They know that this is the world
that they're gonna grow up in

1196
01:33:38,956 --> 01:33:40,833
and they're going
to spend their lives in.

1197
01:33:40,958 --> 01:33:44,503
But I think it's...
I think it's more idealistic than that.

1198
01:33:44,629 --> 01:33:48,257
They actually believe that humanity,
human species,

1199
01:33:48,382 --> 01:33:52,929
has no right to destroy
and despoil, regardless.

1200
01:33:53,054 --> 01:33:55,414
- They actually feel that very powerfully.
- Right. They do.

1201
01:33:55,514 --> 01:34:00,895
The whole of the ecosystems of the world
are based on a healthy ocean.

1202
01:34:01,020 --> 01:34:06,400
And if that part of the planet
becomes dysfunctional, goes wrong,

1203
01:34:06,525 --> 01:34:09,445
then the whole of life
on this planet will suffer.

1204
01:34:10,488 --> 01:34:12,990
The whole planet is where we live.

1205
01:34:13,115 --> 01:34:19,246
There is no "away" that you can put things
and expect that they're really away.

1206
01:34:19,372 --> 01:34:21,958
This phrase "not in my back yard"...

1207
01:34:22,083 --> 01:34:27,088
the ocean is everyone's back yard
or front yard or living space.

1208
01:34:27,213 --> 01:34:32,426
No matter how you look at it, this
planet is governed by the blue part.

1209
01:34:32,551 --> 01:34:36,430
The world truly is mostly a blue place.

1210
01:34:36,555 --> 01:34:40,226
I'll be just as worried
about Tilly and Charlie

1211
01:34:40,351 --> 01:34:41,686
when they're...

1212
01:34:41,811 --> 01:34:44,355
in their 70s and 80s and I'm long gone.

1213
01:34:44,480 --> 01:34:46,773
I still want them to be healthy
and certainly not suffering

1214
01:34:46,774 --> 01:34:48,734
the effects of
any decisions that I made.

1215
01:35:04,750 --> 01:35:07,169
I wanna go back to where it all started.

1216
01:35:07,294 --> 01:35:09,213
I wanna go back to the whales.

1217
01:35:09,338 --> 01:35:13,426
I wanna go and find the juvenile
that we first saw.

1218
01:35:14,510 --> 01:35:18,681
If whales could talk to us,
I imagine they would ask us,

1219
01:35:18,806 --> 01:35:20,516
"What were we thinking?"

1220
01:35:20,641 --> 01:35:24,145
Every other species on the planet
works towards the benefit

1221
01:35:24,270 --> 01:35:26,856
of the ecology
and environment that it lives in,

1222
01:35:26,981 --> 01:35:30,568
but us humans, we just seem
like passengers on this earth.

1223
01:35:32,028 --> 01:35:34,530
I want to say
to the parents of the juvenile,

1224
01:35:34,655 --> 01:35:38,617
"I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry, on behalf of humanity,

1225
01:35:38,743 --> 01:35:41,954
for putting plastic into your home."

1226
01:35:42,079 --> 01:35:44,874
And I want to say,
"We'll share this story

1227
01:35:44,999 --> 01:35:48,085
because from knowing comes caring

1228
01:35:48,210 --> 01:35:50,880
and from caring comes change."