Plastic Earth (2023) Movie Script

[announcer]
Here it is, the most amazing
food wrap ever developed.
-Saran-Wrap.
-That's right.
There's nothing
like Saran-Wrap.
It's a crystal clear plastic
that lets you see
everything you wrap.
Now look at this,
Saran Wrap clings like magic.
Just press it into place
over any bowl
or dish and it stays.
You have a smooth, tight cover
that keeps flavor locked in.
The problem
of plastic pollution
in the seas is well known.
But new research suggests
there could be
many more tiny particles
of the waste floating
just beneath the surface.
[Helen] So most of
the plastic is more dense
than sea water,
so it eventually sinks down.
[man] Plastic that's produced
is used just once
before being dumped again.
Plastic gets into
the marine environment,
it breaks down into
tiny little pieces,
and anything
that eats in the ocean
will inadvertently eat
plastic.
[anchor] In 2015,
a marine biologist's video
went viral,
documenting the painful process
as she removed a plastic straw
stuck in a sea turtle's nose.
[Helen] [indistinct]
Oh, man.
This is becoming
more and more common.
It's-- it's not
a one off anymore.
It's not just ending up
in the ocean,
it's also ending up
in the environment everywhere.
And recent studies have shown
that microplastic particles
are even in the air
we breathe
and the food we eat.
[Helen] They found now
microplastics on mountains
because they get distributed
by the wind.
So, yeah, I don't think
there's any place on Earth
where there's no plastic.
[atmospheric music playing]
If you put
your ear to a plastic bottle,
you can actually hear
what ocean
it's gonna end up in. [cackles]
Too soon? I understand.
Well, unfortunately,
what I'm about to share
with you is no joking matter.
Plastics, single-use plastics,
particularly microplastics,
are here, there,
they're everywhere.
And it seems likely
that the production
of fossil fuel plastics
isn't going to stop
anytime soon.
So amidst
all the negative talk,
it's no wonder
things are looking
a little grim
for planet Earth.
But the world is starting
to wake up and recognize
the dangers threatening
Earth's health.
That's a good thing.
However, is it too late
to reverse the damage?
More importantly, is there
a better way going forward?

Hey, Kylie,
how was school today?
-Good.
-Can I have a hug?
[Janice] Casey, did you have
a good day at school?
My name is Janice Overbeck.
I'm married
to a German husband
and we've been married
for 14 years.
We have four children,
all girls, and we own
a real estate company
here in the town
that I grew up in.
All right, girls,
so it's Earth Day today
and we are going to do
a plastic sculpture
competition.
[girl]
How much plastic is there?
[Janice] A lot. So, it's
a lot of single-use plastic.
[girl] Is it washed?
Yes, of course it's washed.
[chuckles]
I have a concern.
I was minding my own business,
raising my children,
when I came across a video.
It was about
a minute and a half long,
and it was absolutely
unbelievable to see
what was floating around
in the ocean.
I'm looking at what's
happening,
through the headlines
and through the news
and through everything
around me,
that the world is in crisis,
from climate change
to the plastic crisis.
And it really concerns me.
[Rob] The United Nations
Environment Program defines
our planet as being
in a triple planetary crisis.
That includes air pollution,
which kills around
seven million people every
year,
biodiversity loss,
as more than
one million species
face extinction,
and climate change.
And guess what?
Plastics contribute
to all three of those.
And they're at the heart
of this debate.
There are more
parts per million
of carbon dioxide
in our atmosphere
than the Cretaceous period
or something.
So, dinosaur time.
Starting at about 1850,
the amount of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere began
to climb.
Today, it stands
at 419 parts per million.
419 is way more carbon dioxide
than we've had
for thousands of years.
And the number continues
to rise.
The current way
the world produces plastic
consumes much more energy
than is sustainable.
And the situation
is getting worse.
Petroleum goes into polymers
because petroleum is carbon
that you need
because
polymers are routinely made of
carbon, there's very few
that are not.
You had to have an easy source
to make your carbon
and oil coming out of
the ground was the easiest.
And when you have
an easy liquid form of carbon
to utilize you can turn those
into plastics.
["Plastic Man"
by Red Meadow]
Plastic man will save
the day now
Fractured to the core
Burned by bloody war
There must be something
we can do now
To bring down
this charade...
That's the popularity
of petroleum plastics.
It is this super material
that is great
on a commercial scale,
it's extremely inexpensive,
it's very easy to create.
The problem is that
it's designed to last forever.
And that is the problem
that we are facing,
is all of this material
is just continuously
building up
and becoming
an even bigger problem
for the environment.
[Clay] Nowadays,
people are looking for
alternatives to petroleum
because petroleum is getting
harder to come by.
You know, you have to go
and start fracking.
And then there's implications
around that mechanism
of extracting oil
as well as all the oil
that you bring out
of the ground is going to be
probably turned into
carbon dioxide
by the end of its life
whether it's burned
or processed
or digested somehow.
The more carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere,
the more blanketing
of the Earth you have.
The more sunlight
that gets trapped on the Earth,
the higher
the temperature gets.
If you do this
in a different way
so, for instance,
in the case of bioplastic,
you can make it from corn,
you can make it
from sugar cane,
you can make it from sugar.
And that sugar came from
a plant,
and that plant used
photosynthesis
to absorb carbon dioxide
from the air.
And the difference between
a petroleum based plastic
and a bioplastic is that
the carbon came out of the air
for the bio-based plastic,
and the carbon came
out of the Earth
for the petroleum-based
plastic.
If you're
doing it from the air
to the air,
it's a circular process.
[Cole]
Bioplastics are a bio,
or plant-based,
derived plastic.
The beauty of bioplastics is
it can actually replace
a lot of
the petroleum plastics
that we have now,
and there is a proper
end of life for that material
which is the compost pile.
Whereas petroleum plastics,
the end of life is
the recycling stream
which we know isn't working.
It's actually being
incinerated or landfilled.
Bioplastics
is a word that is used
to describe
two different terms.
I call it a term described
for beginning of life
and a term for end of life.
[Rob] Let's break this down
into simple terms.
Most plastics today are made
out of fossil fuels,
coal, natural gas
or petroleum oil.
These are identified
by the labels
PE, PP or PET.
They are considered
non-biodegradable.
But plastics can also be
bio-based,
meaning,
they can be manufactured
from a plant source
such as corn,
hemp, olive oil, sugarcane,
among others.
And they can either be
non-biodegradable
or biodegradable.
What we are most interested in
are bioplastics
which are bio-based
and biodegradable.
Common bioplastics
in this quadrant
are identified with the labels
PLA, PHA and PBS.
These are some of
the bioplastics
which may lead us to the
solution
to the plastic crisis.

PHA stands for
polyhydroxy canoids.
PLA
is the most commercialized
bioplastic out there currently
and that's polylactic acid.
PHA is actually certified
home compostable,
industrially compostable.
It's much more compostable
than the others.
PLA is not certified
marine degradable,
meaning,
if it falls in the ocean,
it lasts
a significant amount of time,
it doesn't break down
naturally.
PHA is certified
marine degradable.
It's actually been studied
as a fish food additive
for aquaculture.
I mean,
even just to prove a point,
Dane and I have eaten some...
[both chuckle]
...like any good founders.
Uh,
but it's entirely nontoxic.
It's basically
just a microbe fat molecule.
Most of those materials
under the PHA umbrella,
there's thousands
of variations,
but anything
under that PHA umbrella is
a true sustainable,
ecofriendly bioplastic.
And it can be done
with coffee grounds,
sugarcane, corn, hemp,
anything in between.
Instead of buying sugar
or growing food crops,
we decided
we would use food waste.

We're living in San Diego
and we're body surfing
every single day
and getting hit in the face
with plastic pollution
that we decided to actually
start to apply some of
these principles and see
what we could do with it.
So, we decided to put
our engineering degrees
to work to try and solve
one of these great issues,
which led us to this solution
and then this company.
[Rob] Full Cycle Bioplastics
has partnered
with one of the world's
largest tech companies,
in Silicon Valley, California,
to produce PHA,
and since has proven PHA
to be a low-cost,
low-carbon alternative
to fossil fuel plastics.
This is Full Cycle Bioplastics
where we actually take in
food waste from the cafes.
They have a lot of cafes
throughout the peninsula
here in the Bay Area.
We sort of did an inventory
of all of the ways
PHA had failed.
PHA had gone through
a whole industrial life
when sugar was cheap.
[Jeff] PHA was first discovered
back in 1925
in a biological
wastewater treatment plant.
In the 1980s,
people started
to actually commercialize it,
so they were using sugar
as a feed stock.
Now, the price of sugar went up
in the '90s,
which basically
killed
the generation one producers
of PHA.
So, PHA became off the market.
It was prohibitively expensive
and it was way more expensive
than what
it was trying to replace,
which is petroleum plastics.
So, we looked at ways
of sort of using
one problem to solve another.
Most PHA, PHP bioplastics,
on average,
depending on
the thickness of the wall
of the physical product
that is produced,
will break down in six months
or less in composting
in your backyard
or commercial settings.
If it were to land
on the side of the road
or the ocean, you're looking at
probably 12 to 18 months,
depending on the thickness
of the material.
That's the beauty of
the material is
without
a long-term outside influence,
microbes, solar degradation,
um,
the heat from the compost,
salt water,
using it as a toothbrush
and getting it wet,
using it for a few minutes
and it dries off
and then you use it again,
won't have any
effect on the plastic itself.
[Janice] And is it harder
depending on the mix of food?
Like if you have a bunch of
burgers compared to apples,
is that going to--
you got to change
your formula a little bit?
Yeah, absolutely.
So, not all food waste
is created equally.
And the best way
I can describe it is
anything that's going to
make me really fat
is going to make
my bacteria really fat,
which is really what PHA is,
PHA is a bacteria fat molecule.
It's an energy storage
molecule, effectively.
So, if what--
your feedstock is 99% water,
you're not going to make
much PHA out of that.
It's just mostly water.
But if it's pure bread waste,
for example, yeah,
it's got tons of carbon in it.
It's really useful.
This is our onsite lab.
[Janice] So what is this?
This is just PHA
that's been extracted
and melted down into this.
So showing
it could be like a film.
Yeah, exactly.
Wow.
-[Janice] It's pretty cool.
-Yeah.
This is a--
a-- a case for glasses, right?
And if you can make
something injection moulded
like this big
with how many--
is this maybe
two millimeters thickness,
and you can, on the other end
of the spectrum,
you can make a whole chair
out of one shot,
then anything in between
will likely also be possible,
right?
This is an example of
a PHA fork.
And after you're done with it,
it can home-compost
within a month,
and it can be benign,
once we're finished
with the development of it,
in a marine environment.
There needs to be a change in
perception of the consumer
to say, "I don't need
a fork to eat my salad
that's going to last
500 years."
Just have to be
very careful when we say
bioplastics,
we need to have better clarity
on what bioplastics
are we referring to.
This might sound
a little bit contradictory,
but something can be
biodegradable
and at the same time toxic.
And this is, of course,
not what we want.

We're doing a study
on oxo-degradable plastics.
Or, "degradable,"
let's say. [chuckles]
Oxo-biodegradable plastics,
probably the worst idea
that has ever come out
from plastics.
It is traditional
virgin polypropylene primarily
or any other type of one
through six petroleum plastic
where they add special
additives to it to allow it
to break down faster
into micro plastics,
but only in specific
landfill conditions.
And this type of plastic
has actually been banned
by the European Union.
As scientists
we were very confused about
what we are buying, um, but,
yeah--
It's really bad when
the scientists are confused.
[Lisa] So, a colleague
of mine worked on extracts
of plastics they extracted
with solvents,
all the chemicals
from both bioplastics
and also
from conventional ones,
and then tested them
on small plates
of cell organisms
to see whether they are toxic.
One of the major finding was
that from a toxicological
perspective bio-based
and biodegradable materials
are not better
than conventional plastics.
67% contained chemicals
that are toxic in vitro.
And another finding was
that they contained
a really enlarged number
and wide variety of chemicals.
One single product can contain
several hundred
or thousands of chemicals.
[Cole] That is the problem
for the average consumer.
There is so much
misinformation or green washing
that is out there
it's hard for them
to actually understand,
"What do I do
with this product?
Is it eco-friendly
or sustainable
as they say it is?"
The problem
with those bio-composites
is they can say,
"Oh yeah, we're using,
um, hemp for our plastic."
And it's actually
maybe 10% hemp or 20% hemp,
or corn, or sugarcane,
for example.
The consumer is not going to
know that,
they're not going to do
the research
either, unfortunately.
[Ramani]
You cannot make general claims
on biodegradability
because unfortunately
life is not so simple.

When did you start studying
microplastics?
I started lecturing
on microplastics
and they didn't-- weren't
called microplastics then
in about 1992.
So I've been exposed
to plastic issues
for a really long time.
[Janice]
That's a really long time.
That's when
phthalates were a big deal.
They're still the most common
contaminant in the water.
They're plasticizers,
they're probably known
as plasticizers.
Yeah, they give
different plastics
different properties,
flexibility,
rigidity, um, color, stability.
Just different chemicals
for different things.
But they tend to be
very toxic.
[Janice] You're able
to pull out and see
if there's microplastics
in these?
Yes.
[Janice] If they're there.
[Janice]
Right, okay, and are you--
[Greg speaking]
[Janice speaking]
Usually, you want to blend
these materials
with other types of materials
in order to improve
its material properties,
the stiffness, the tensile
strength, and so on.
That way it can be used
for industrial applications
such as plastic utensils,
and even medical devices.
[Rob] Almost 90%
of polymer plasticizers,
commonly called phthalates,
are used in plastic.
Phthalates have been found
in most plastic containers,
water bottles,
and many medications.
Substantial concerns have been
expressed over their safety
and now have been classified
as potential
endocrine disruptors.
BPA is obviously a big one.
It's not removed
from all types of
plastic either.
It is mainly removed
from number one
and number two.
The FDA has only banned
BPA in baby bottles.
It can be used
anywhere else.
There's something like
40 different variants
of BPA that are being used
in products
that are labeled BPA free.
But they're still toxic
because they share
the toxicity characteristics
with bisphenol A.
[Rob]
Endocrine disrupting chemicals
are found in many plastics.
One example
of these are phthalates.
They have the ability
to enter the bloodstream
and disrupt the sexual
development in infants,
and impairment
of fertility in adults.
Phthalates cause these
and other effects
by suppressing
the activity of male hormones
during the development
of the fetus.
Research has linked
exposure to phthalates,
to diabetes, breast cancer,
obesity,
including
child neurodevelopment,
among other
disorders and cancers.
What's happening isn't that
you have the wrong gene...
it's that
the gene is misbehaving,
-which could be from--
-Endocrine disruption.

[Janice] Ever since
I saw your Ted Talk,
I-- I'm like,
"I don't want the receipt."
Something as banal
as thermal paper receipts,
which we handle every day
when we grab the receipt
at the gas station
or at the ATM,
those are coated
in dust with BPA.
And every time you handle one,
it's transferred to your skin
and it penetrates and gets into
your bloodstream.
I was thinking, "Gosh,
I-- I'm really concerned about
having four daughters
with the proliferation
of these chemicals
in our bodies
and how it's actually growing
more so in their life than me,
who was born
in the '80s, um--"
It is-- it is growing worse.
[Rob] Professor Pete Myers
was part of a team
that studied the chemical
commonly used in plastics, BPA.
Thanks to Dr. Myers
and his team,
BPA free plastics are labeled.
One of the chemicals
that came out of the 1980s
to replace BPA was called BPS,
even though almost nothing
was known about
the replacement's toxicity.
I'm curious. I'm drinking
out of a metal water bottle.
Are there any
toxins or chemicals
in there that
I should be concerned about?
Well, it's hard to say
because this is made in China.
Um,
they have different rules.
It also says it's BPA free,
but we know
that things that are labeled
BPA free, in fact--
probably are BPA free
but they have
another bisphenol,
BPS, BPF, BP whatever.
And we found
that it was just as bad as BPA.
After testing BPS,
Dr. Meyer's team found
BPS to be
just as bad as BPA.
However, it has never been
further tested
by the FDA
or other approving regulators.
Many products, including
aluminum water bottles,
have a plastic coating
which lines the inside.
Because
aluminum reacts to acidity,
they must have
a plastic liner.
This liner may contain
toxic chemicals.
Stainless steel containers
are a much better option.
So why has the world not...
embraced and spread
the knowledge enough
that we've gotten rid of BPS?
I don't know,
because we've been shouting
about this for a long time.
There's a whole field in the--
in the area I work in
called regrettable substitutes.
It chemically does what
the chemical engineer needs it
to do,
but there's nothing known
about the toxicity,
and it's assumed it's safe.
[announcer]
Petrochemicals in modern meds
have transformed our lives.
We enjoy a standard
of health never dreamed of.
Most of our preventive
and curative drugs have
petrochemical ingredients.
But what we know now,
firmly based on
animal experiments,
is that type two diabetes
and obesity can be caused
by endocrine disrupting
compounds.
It's-- it may sound unlikely,
but I can show you photographs
of a morbidly obese mouse...
compared to the control mouse,
in which the only difference
is that that morbidly
obese mouse was exposed
to a part per billion,
a really small amount,
of an endocrine disrupting
compound
just after it was born.
And it grew
up to be morbidly obese,
even though
it ate the same amount
and it moved the same amount
as the control mouse.
[Cole]
There are other chemicals,
and we're starting
to find more
and more of them,
just like DET,
we thought
it was a good thing
at one point in time,
and it's not.
When people talk about,
um, toxic chemicals
and plastics,
um, first of all,
they'll tell you that...
[sighs]
...polymers,
the major component
of plastics, they are too large
to fit into the...
the proteins and the enzymes
and the mechanics of your body,
and they'll generally
just pass through your body.
However, the additives are...
more capable
of getting into
the molecular machinery
of your body.

So,
in addition to the monomer
and the additives,
there are what are called
non-intentionally added
substances,
NIAS, what are those?
When you make plastic
you have a chemical source
never pure, particularly
in cheaper plastics,
and the impurities interact
with the monomer,
they interact
with the additives
to make chemicals
no one knows about.
We don't even know
of all the NIAS...
substances
that are in plastics.
And that's--
they are really challenging
for their risk assessment
or it makes it impossible.
Like, you can't just take
one chemical
and analyze the risks,
on one hand,
because
it's just too many chemicals,
and on the other hand,
you have a lot of
different chemicals
you don't know.
So, there you've got
NIAS
as the third layer.
Then, particularly
in the marine environment,
those pieces
of plastics are rolling around
on the surface and it turns out
there's a thin layer of lipids
over most of the surface
of the oceans.
So, there's
all these different mixtures
of chemicals
that wind up in the plastics
that people are trying to
recycle.
[Cole] Reclaimed ocean plastics
is a great marketing idea.
Uh, the downside
to reclaimed ocean plastic is
it is very labor-intensive
and chemically intensive
to take
that already degraded plastic
out of the ocean
and turning it into
a usable product.
And they'll take
maybe a good plastic
and they'll take
another plastic
and they'll combine the two,
and when you combine
a good plastic
and a toxic plastic,
the result is
a toxic plastic.
In Dante's Inferno,
the eighth and the ninth layers
are Fraud and Treachery.
And there's fraud
and treachery in abundance
in the regulation
and use of plastics.
They've looked at honey,
they've looked at soda,
they've looked at water,
they've looked at beer.
It doesn't matter
what we're wrapping in plastic
if you're packaging it
in plastic,
all of these studies have shown
that it has plastic in it.

Our lab was the first lab
to do a global bottled water
assessment looking at
plastic that could be leached
or make its way into
bottled water.
93% were shown
to have micro plastic
contamination,
100% of the brands.
And in fact, we had one bottle
of Nestle Pure Life
where we found
over 10,000 pieces
of plastic
in that one bottle.
It's the act
of opening the bottle
when you have
plastic rubbing on plastic.
So when you open that bottle,
just that action
could be contributing
a lot of the micro plastic
into the bottle
of water itself.
You shouldn't have a water
bottle sitting
in your car on a hot summer day
on your dash
because it'll actually inject
those chemicals
into the water itself.
And the same thing happens
as it degrades.
I mean, it is a petrochemical,
so it actually--
not only does it fragment,
it can leach chemicals
into its environment
as it breaks down.
The water-- CamelBak
that he uses to drink out of,
because you got to stay
hydrated,
that's the most toxic
of all the plastics.
-[Janice gasping] Really?
-[Greg] You can taste those.
-[Janice] Yeah, that's right.
-If you can taste it,
you know
it's biologically active.
[Janice] That is so interesting
because you're right.
That's not just one compound
you're tasting,
it's a whole bunch.
So I should throw my
CamelBak in the trash can?
-[Tom] I still use mine.
-[scientists laughing]
But-- so, I mean, really,
the safest thing to drink
-out of is glass, I guess.
-[Dan] Yeah.
[Janice speaking]

In the PHA resins
that we make,
we don't use any phthalates,
we don't use additives
that come from
non-renewable sources.

My wife and I started
a biopolymer company
called Danimer Scientific.
We started that
at our kitchen table,
you know, working nights
with a computer,
trying to figure out how
to make that all come about.
Initially, we were working
with PLAs because at the time,
PLA was the only biopolymer
that was available
in anything really close
to commercial quantities.
So, in the early days
of Danimer, we partnered
with Green Mountain Coffee
and International Paper
to produce the world's
first compostable coffee cup.
In that journey
of trying to take
a biopolymer
that wasn't well-suited
for a broad array
of applications,
we, you know,
began to learn about PHA.
And we learned that PHA was
just an incredible material.
If you only had one biopolymer,
PHA would be a really good one
to have.
The nice peach milkshake
looking stuff,
that's the PHA
being made in there.
So, that's what it looks like
inside the big vessel.
If you think of this
as the miniature version,
this is what's happening
out there
in the production facility,
just at larger scale.
We use plant-based oils
as our feedstock for PHAs.
Olive oils and canola oils
and corn oils,
and all the wonderful things
we do with plant-based oils.
And those polymers then go
into food service
and food packaging
and consumer packaging
and personal care items.
Ultimately,
what we want to do is
really bypass
the plant-based oil
and just use the CO2
directly from the atmosphere.
We have
a laboratory technology now,
and over
the next seven to ten years,
we're going to be working
to convert
that laboratory technology
into a full-scale
commercial technology.
And then we'll be able
to be even more sustainable
because
we won't have to transport
that waste cooking oil
from wherever
it happens to be
to our facility.
We'll just be able to turn on
a big fan and bring the air
into our facility
and use the CO2 directly.
-[fan whirring]
-Hey, guys.
Hey, Cartez.
How are you doing?
I'm all right.
[machinery whirring]
[Daniel] These machines take
the different powders,
and then they're melted
and combined and made
into these pellets
that we send to the customer.
I'll show you
how fast we're running.
We haven't even had time
to paint our wall over there.
You know? [laughing]
There are many
new materials
that are being developed
that are 100% bio-based.
They're completely nontoxic.
They're natural materials,
and you don't have to rely on
those older technologies.
So, in all of our materials,
we avoid, matter of fact,
we don't let
any of those types of materials
even come into our facility,
and it's just not necessary
to use those.
If you wanted to make
a paper cup, the--
you know,
the paper board has to be
coated with a polymer lining
to make it waterproof
or grease proof.
Um, and so
in this particular case,
we supply
a little bit different form.
It looks like, you know,
just almost like house paint.
This is a fiber
that was made from our PHAs,
and it's like a cotton,
-it's like a soft cotton.
-[Janice] Oh, my gosh!
[Daniel]
And that will be used
in both textile applications
and also
non-woven applications.
So, an example
of a non-woven application
would be like a face mask,
or a baby wipe
or a baby diaper.
There are a number of
other biopolymers out there.
One that's very exciting
is PEF.
PEF is a great material
for beverage bottles.
They got the fracking
and the cracking
In your hands
They got the whole world
In their hands
[Rob]
The news isn't anything new.
The constant campaigns
by Greenpeace
about the beverage corporation,
Coca-Cola.
As the numbers
continue to show,
the company's plastic bottles
are one of the top polluters
in our oceans.
Hi, everybody.
This is David Pinsky
with Greenpeace out here
in the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch.
We need to see
companies like Coca-Cola
taking responsibility
for this plastics crisis.
One of the first meetings
we had
with the Coca-Cola Company
in Atlanta,
the CEO of Coke
saw this bottle
and said,
"Look, this is great.
This is fully plant based.
This is what we're looking for.
So, let's make sure
we get it on the market
in two, three years' time."
Now, the timelines for bringing
a new plastic material
to the market,
they are much longer.
You know, this takes
typically ten years,
if you're-- if you're doing it
really well.
Coke invested in Avantium
to actually give us the capital
to develop this new technology
and to build our plant.
[all applauding]

[Rob] Avantium
was originally created
in February 2000
as a spinoff from Shell Oil.
As one of the early-formed
biotech companies emerging
in the world,
scientists from Avantium
discovered a new form
of bio-friendly polymer, PEF.
We are planning to build
a 5,000 ton plant
in the north
of the Netherlands,
which will be the first plant
in the world to produce this.
And that will enable PEF,
which is this material,
to come to the market.
So, this is a PEF bottle.
It-- it completely
looks like PET.
Uh, it's PEF, and it has
much better properties.
We've been looking at
all kinds of partners
in the plastic supply chain
to make it.
They include
the Coca-Cola Company.
They include
Danone from France.
But also Carlsberg in Denmark,
from the beer side.
If you have carbonated
soft drink or beer,
you don't want the CO2
to migrate out
through the bottle.
And-- and they're also--
the PEF is--
is much better.
[Tom A] It has all
the performance characteristics
that make it
very suitable for packaging.
It's also going to be used
for making fibers for apparel.
So, we use plant-based sugars
in the waste part
of the forestry industry.
It's all the branches,
all the things
that cannot be used
for making wood products.
But if it ends up in nature,
it's going to degrade
100 times faster
than products like PET.
This is a paper bottle.
What is interesting
about a paper bottle
is that if you have
ten times better
barrier for oxygen,
in principle,
we can make the plastic bottle
ten times thinner.
So, if we can compete
with a multilayer bottle
with a nylon barrier on price,
and we can,
and now we have
a material that in many aspects
is much better, so we can
also compete on performance.
So, if you look at
the need for change
to materials
like you see over here,
it's climate change
and it is concerns
over plastic waste
that is really,
you know,
clogging our natural systems.
All the drivers are pointing
in this direction,
in renewable plastics that have
lower carbon footprints
and that are not as bad
for the environment
if they end up in nature,
but that degrade by themselves
and that are recyclable.
So, it is going there.
The question is, how fast?

There's a place in the world
where I want to be
I imagine it's
[indistinct lyrics]
[indistinct lyrics]
So what you see
behind us now
in the containers
and still on the ship as well,
is the 29,000 kilos of trash
that has been collected
during the test phase.
It's really
hard to imagine that
all that stuff
just used to float out there.
This stuff is so persistent
and that's,
of course, precisely the reason
why we have to go
and clean it up.
[trash rattling]
[Rob] Plastic fishing nets are
one of the biggest problems
with plastic pollution
in our oceans.
It's estimated
640,000 tons of fishing gear
gets lost every year.
Called ghost fishing,
this problem entangles
and kills hundreds
of thousands
of marine animals
unintentionally.
Some companies
are currently testing
nets made from microalgae.
Other organizations
are working on developing
biodegradable materials
that will someday be able
to replace
traditional plastic nets.
[ocean waves crashing]

We built eight satellites
that are in orbit now.
Originally,
they were designed
to measure
the wind and hurricanes.
But since we've been up there,
we can measure
the roughness
of the ocean surface,
looking at
the behavior of the data,
and it turns out
that there's
this very strong correlation
between how much microplastic
is in the ocean
at any particular place
and how much the wind roughening
of the surface is suppressed.
And what we found,
which is a new discovery,
is that the concentration
of microplastics
in the big gyres, like
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
varies seasonally.
That wasn't really known
or appreciated before.
There's, um, a number of
organizations,
and the biggest and most
well-known one,
is the Ocean Cleanup people
in the Netherlands,
and they have fleets of ships
that go out into the ocean
to clean up the microplastics.
And this information tells them
when is the most
efficient time
to go out
and also where to go.
So, we've been able to zoom in
with our measurements
on the mouths of major rivers
around the world,
and what we've seen
is that some of them have
much, much more outflow
than others.
And, in particular, the one
that is much higher
concentration outflows
than any of the other rivers
is the Yangtze.
The one in the top left
is just the average
concentration
over an entire year.
So, you don't
really see anything.
But then
the other three around it
are isolated weeks
where we see these huge bursts
of things
coming out of the mouth
of the Yangtze
into the East China Sea.
That gets sort of
evidence-based attribution
where is the plastic
coming from.
So, where is
all this plastic coming from?
Well, the answer,
it turns out, is rivers.
1,000 rivers are responsible
for roughly 80%
of the world's
plastic pollution.
Now, every
one of these red dots
is one of the top 1,000
heaviest polluting rivers.
So, this global picture
of where river plastic
emissions occur,
it's very useful
for the Ocean Cleanup,
but I think it's
really powerful information
for everyone.
To truly rid
the oceans of plastic,
what we need to do
is two things.
One, we need to clean up
the legacy pollution, right?
So, the stuff
that has been accumulating
for decades
and doesn't go away by itself.
But two,
we need to close the tap,
which means preventing
more plastic from reaching
the oceans in the first place.
[Sherri] When you go to
other parts of the world.
And the concept of--
of something
that doesn't decompose,
of something
that is truly waste,
and they're doing
the same behaviors.

And that was fine
a generation ago,
when waste,
in this part of the world,
was basically
90% inorganic material.
But now, thanks to rapid
economic development,
so much of that waste looks
a lot more like
the waste you see
back in the US or in Europe.
But investments
in infrastructure
haven't kept pace.
You have one of three people
in the world
that don't have
proper waste management.
The single most effective thing
we can do to address
ocean plastics is
to really help
the developing world,
fix the gap in waste management
so that
if the waste is collected,
that waste is not going to go
to the ocean.
It-- it's not
technology dependent,
it's just will.
How can we organize
as a global community,
international collaboration
companies, government,
develop one blueprint
of where are
the areas in the world
that are leaking
the most plastic to the ocean,
with least waste management,
and fix that.
[Sherri] We really need
that infrastructure
put into place
in a comprehensive
and cohesive way.
That's infrastructure, man,
that's infrastructure.
-Yes.
-[director laughing]
-Make me the trash star.
-[director continues laughing]
We know what we have to do.
We have to prevent this plastic
from entering the ocean.
What if we could intercept
plastic in rivers
before it reaches the oceans?
What we need is a product,
one integrated system
that you can bring anywhere
in the world,
installed within days,
and that just works.
That's the missing piece.
That's what
we need to close the tap.
And it doesn't exist.
Until...
today.
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music stops]
[atmospheric music playing]
The Great Bubble Barrier
in itself
is young social enterprise.
And what we're doing is,
we are stopping plastic debris
from flowing from our rivers
into our oceans.
And we do that
with nothing more
than air bubbles.
The rising
air bubbles will create
an upwards water flow,
and then together
with the natural flow
of the river, it's going to be
pushed all to one side
because the rubber hose
is usually lying at an angle.
And then all that trash
is going to collect at the side
in the collection unit
catchment system
and then we can remove it
from the water.
The main reason why
we're using air bubbles
is because it doesn't interrupt
the natural ecosystem
of the river and everything
that's going on in the river.
There's a lot of
commercial ship traffic,
but also
recreational ship traffic.
And it wouldn't really
go well
if we started blocking off
all those rivers
with physical barriers.
So we had to come up
with something that's,
well, non-intrusive
in a way that could allow
all the other activity
to just go on.
And that's what
the bubbles do so beautifully.
They create
a barrier for the plastic,
but they allow ships,
and wildlife,
and fish to still
pass through it freely.
[Anne] So, here in Amsterdam,
it's a very unique location
because Amsterdam is
really one of the pioneers
that is already focusing
with their policy
on plastic pollution
in rivers.
And Amsterdam is one of
the cities that had that policy
already in place
and really pioneers
on that aspect.
[Philip] There's a lot of
governments that do want to do
something about it
because at the moment,
almost everywhere
in the world
no one is really
officially responsible
for plastic pollution
in the water.
Which is, of course,
in a way ridiculous
because, I mean,
I think
the whole society agrees that
we don't want to have
plastic in our waters
and that's bad. [chuckles]
But we're confident
it will come and--
We see more
and more cities joining.
-Yeah.
-So, that's really nice.
So the good thing is,
there's not much change
in existing infrastructure
needed to deploy
our bubble barrier.
The only real physical object
we have to place
in the waterway
is the collection unit
to remove
the plastic from the water.
But the barrier itself is
literally
just a curtain made of
small air bubbles.
[upbeat electronica playing]
We all can do
something about it,
you know,
we can make sure we consume
less plastic and if there's
no one to collect it
then there will always be
a spill into the environment.
You know, cleaning up
the ocean is all fine
and good and, you know,
it's a good thing
people are doing it,
but it's not gonna solve
this problem.
The right way to
solve this problem
is to get people
to stop using plastics.
Realistically, we can't
just keep running around
in the ocean
cleaning up everybody's litter.

"Welcome to the world
of PulPac.
PulPac on a mission
to replace
single-use plastics globally."
[Linus]
We are an RND company.
We are replacing plastics
and helping
the industry to do so.
And what we have is
a new production method
that actually enables
to replace plastics
with fiber alternatives.
So what we do, right,
is that we convert it
into a fluff web basically
where we can actually mold it
into the shape that we want.
We have
these smaller lab cells
where we'd have a single cavity
where we can do
iterations and verify
a product basically.
Everything is how fast
can we actually get
the machinery to move.
The products came out right,
stiff and complete.
And if you compare
that to plastics,
right,
plastics you need to melt,
then form,
then cool.
Everything when we do our DMF
process, it's instant.
This tray
is what you could use
to replace the meat trays
in the grocery store?
Sure, absolutely, yeah.
We see them
in the grocery store
for packing meat, chicken,
fish sometimes, right?
I mean the Styrofoam, the EPS,
the expanded polystyrene,
that's a huge problem.
And what we are set out
to do
is to really make impact
that scales fast.
Why haven't we used fiber
for more applications?
And that is due
to the conventional way
of molding it, I mean,
it's too expensive basically.
I mean, the material is cheaper
than plastics
so it doesn't make sense,
right?
I mean, the material is cheaper
but the production process
is more expensive and that is
what we are trying to change.
Plastic is a little bit
overqualified its purposes
and that is why we have
fiber as an alternative, right?
Fiber as it is
in its purest form
is truly sustainable,
it's circular, right?
It's a renewable material
and it will degrade in weeks,
months in nature.
I mean, that is the material
that we have at hand
that really can replace
plastics today.
Sustainable forestry is,
of course, key here, right?
But in order
for us to scale long term,
we need to
find other alternatives
of resources as well,
like agricultural waste,
straw-based fibers
and that sort of stuff.
Fiber can actually
be replaced 25 times.
It's circular,
it grows, right?
But we need to have
a sustainable forestry
and that's key here.
Here we have
the material inlets
and it feeds into a mill
where we separate
the fibers mechanically.
So we get this ductile,
formable web of material.
And then we press the products,
so we form the products.
And then we-- we get--
get items like this
replacing simply
a plastic lid or paper tubes.
Set aside plastics
for a minute.
Look at the statistics
of any country.
50% is this biodegradable
organic waste.
That's what this is.
What do we do
with this today?
In the US
and in the developed world,
we bury it in a landfill.
And because we don't want it
to leak into the environment,
we line the landfill
so that nothing degrades.
So we are creating what I call
uh, a hole in the ground
for preserving garbage,
for posterity.
[Cole] The problem with that
is nothing really degrades
when it's in
an anaerobic environment.
So as they do that,
all they're doing is basically
creating a lid
on top of that day's trash
and then the next day they do
the same thing and over
and over and over again,
just creating these layers
and layers
of airtight pockets.
They dug up landfills from 30,
40 years ago
and found apples and newspapers
and hot dog buns
that were still
in good condition
because it was
in a sealed environment.
And that's what most landfills
here in the US.
There are some
active landfills
where they're actually
pulling off
the off gas
from that landfill,
primarily methane,
for energy.
They may run the plant
or they may pump it out
to a local facility
that uses it
for power for the city.
Um, those are not
widely available
here in the US.
And it's really not--
even though they are using
the off gas,
we still don't want
that same linear economy
of just throwing everything
directly into a landfill.
In the emerging
economies world,
the developing world,
they don't have
landfills per se.
They're all open dumps,
most of it.
And so in that case,
all this waste is just dumped
near the oceans
or wherever they are.
So it produces methane.
[Cole] Recently,
I'd say probably
within the last five years,
there's been a big push
towards waste-to-energy
or incineration
is basically what it is.
Uh, they are taking in
all sorts of trash,
dirty recycling, dirty plastic,
throwing it into a giant hopper
or pot and melting it down
with intense heat
to either create, you know,
recycled plastics
or create
a new composite material
out of multiple
different types of plastics.
Um, the downside
to incineration is that
there's a lot of gases
that are involved
and a lot of chemicals
that come off
of superheating plastic.

In Copenhagen, Denmark,
engineers have taken
the waste-to-energy concept
one step further.

Amager Bakke,
also known as Copenhill,
is a waste-to-energy plant
that also serves
as a sports complex offering
hiking, climbing, and skiing.
The whole project about
Copenhill started
when there was
a waste-to-energy plant
over there that became too old.
And they need to
either renovate it,
using a lot of money
to do that,
or build
something completely new.
The city's felt like
when we build it,
it should be something
that is publicly available.
It should be pretty,
it should be usable,
so the roof should be used
somehow.
Normally you wouldn't go
this close
to a waste-to-energy plant
because the smoke coming out
is polluting.
-Yeah.
-But this is so clean.
There's so many--
Did you take the elevator up?
-[Janice] Yes.
-So when you look in,
there's all these pipes.
So, the heat is used
to heat up water that goes
to the district heating
and used to run
a turbine that produces
electricity as well.
And all of these pipes
and tubes are used
to, uh, clean the smoke.
That's the real beauty of, uh,
of this plant,
is that it's so clean
that it's pure steam
that comes
out of the chimney.
Oh, and if you look out
this direction,
that's a climbing wall,
so you have climbers
on the side of the building
as well.
-[Janice] Oh, that's awesome.
-[Christian] Yeah.
We have the world's largest
artificial rock climbing wall.
It's 85 meters high.
[Janice] There's a stigma
on waste-to-energy.
And I was wondering
if you could tell me
a little bit about that.
There's a lot of opinions
about waste-to-energy
and incineration in general.
I think
a lot of it origins
from burning of trash
that somewhere
it's just a landfill
that you-- you kind of make
into a fire.
Other places,
they burn it in a facility,
but they don't produce
any energy.
And now what we have is
like the last generation
of clean energy production,
uh, coming from
waste-to-energy.
So it's so clean
that we have pure steam
coming out of the smoke.
And people are sitting here
enjoying their lunch.
Up here, there's a cafe.
You can get some snacks
and Danish beer.
Your kids can hang out here
and do some exercise.
And people can walk up here.
You can run
because it's completely clean,
what comes out.
Kids coming looking into
the waste-to-energy plant,
asking their dad,
"What goes on here?
"That's where we burn
all the leftover trash.
"And then we get hot water
for our shower.
And you can heat the apartment
right down there."
And they kind of
get the mentality
from five years old, "Okay,
that's what we should do."
And then 30 years from now,
they will have
their own thoughts about
how can we make
the world a better place,
because they've been educated
about what's going on.
So an incinerator
like this one has
a lot better carbon footprint
than a landfill.
Cheers.
[Ramani] The way
we handle waste is terrible.
Now compound that
with the fact
that almost
up to 50% of the plastics
which we manufacture
is used for packaging.
It is going to be difficult,
if not impossible,
to recover these thin
plastic films
which are used for ketchup
and other things
on soaps and cosmetics,
whatever have you,
from that wastry.
I don't know
if you've looked into it
or spoken with anybody,
composting is a very
interesting subject.

[Bob] Well, I think the value
of compost is-- is primary.
It's the sustainable
last chain in the loop.
We like to say eat it,
compost it, use it, eat it.
[chuckles] It kind of goes
in a circle type thing.
And in order to do that
more effectively,
you need to make
the plastics there
completely biodegradable.
Composting can be,
especially on large scales
like that at sporting events,
event centers,
and conference halls
where there's
a large amount of people
at one point in time.
There is a system in place
where all that
food waste will go.
They can use compostable plates
and cutlery and cups
and put that
into the food waste as well.
And that is more
of a circular economy
as well, because that material
that is composted
can then be sold
to the farmers.
They can create more plants,
which could then create
more plates and cutlery
and straws,
which then they can reuse
and just continue
that cycle of composting.
[excavator rumbling
& beeping]
[Janice]
So, if I put my hand
-in there, it would hurt?
-[woman] No.
[Bob] No, it's 135 degrees.
It's going to be wet
on the outside there.
See-- see
that microbial action?
-That's--
-[Janice] The steam!
-[Bob] And the white--
-[Janice] Wow.
It is so warm.
It's like a hot spring.
[Bob] So, you have wood
and then you have grass leaves,
tree trimmings
that'll come in
and we'll compost that.
[Janice] Wow.
[Bob]
So you have a football stadium
and they want to send
all their food waste
to compost it.
And they have
bins where you can put
your food waste
but don't put your package.
Well, then if they put
it all in there--
or they have
compostable packaging
and for us,
what happens is we get
all packaging
and no food waste.
You don't pay nine bucks
for a hot dog and throw it away.
The compostable plastic design
is to create
additional diversion
of food waste
for a composter.
That's why we do it,
and that's why
a lot of composters
don't do it.
They haven't
chosen to try to deal
with the contamination issue.
The composters want the food
more than they want
the packaging.
So if it's food soiled,
that food soil,
the grease on that package
is no problem for them.
That's actually what they want,
right?
It's the food
residual material.
[Rob] Large capacity stadiums,
such as Beaver Stadium,
located on the campus
of Penn State University,
jumped on the bandwagon
to give composting a shot.
Beaver Stadium seats
over 106,000 people
during their home
football games and is
America's second largest
seated stadium.
The Penn State University's
composting program has been
so successful,
they applied the concept
campus-wide and now have
compost and recycling bins
present at all of their
other arenas,
buildings, classrooms,
and even parking lots.
Our Beaver Stadium
is one of the largest
football stadiums
in the United States.
Our record crowd is
110,000 fans.
That's a lot of hot dogs,
a lot of water bottles
and sodas.
And that means that there's
a lot of waste
that we should be
managing correctly
to keep away from landfill.
And so we have
a very comprehensive
recycling program both
inside the stadium and out.
And we made that
within two years.
Zero waste where nothing
was going to landfill.
Instead of sending material
to the landfill,
we can send it
to our own compost facility
and compost it there.
After it's composted,
we take
the landscaping amendment,
bring it back
onto campus
and spread it out here.
Which means we don't have to
buy any composted materials
to help our grass
to go greener.
And then we also do
materials management
of recyclables that get sent
to our local county.
So, a big challenge is
can we get a product
that is either
compostable or recyclable?
This required us
to start to purchase PLA
compostable food service items.
So, for example,
if you're a caterer
from the local town
and you want to cater
an event on campus,
you're required to use
compostable PLA products.

In an effort to add value
to the organic farm
that I lived on,
I decided to develop
an organic dairy,
got it started,
only to find out
that we had to put the milk
in a bottle made from oil.
That was the wrong decision.
So, we actually selected
a brand new material
of resin
called PLA,
polylactic acid,
which is sugarcane.
And so we made the first
milk PLA bottle
in the world.
It was a pretty big deal
for us.
We didn't realize how big
a deal it could become.
And proceeded to bottle milk
for five or six years.
One problem,
our first customer was Costco.
We quickly learned
we didn't have enough milk
to supply Costco,
which was unfortunate.
So, we had to
close that down
and shifted
to bottled water.
This is what we're
producing, guys.
This is a-- this is a preform.
This is what we're making.
We're getting ready to go
see the machine right now.
It looks like a test tube.
And it will get heated
and blown out
into whatever form
that you want into a bottle.
So this is what they--
all bottles start out as,
as a preform.
We got some preforms
coming off right here.
From-- from this
it will become this
in the next
phase of the process.
[Bill] If we can place
the bottles in what we call
a closed loop venue...
then three or four
different things
can be done
with those empty bottles.
So, that's why
we are sticking very closely
to only placing our bottles
in venues
where we can collect
90% of the bottles
90% of the time.
[Bruno] By replacing
all the different products
by compostable alternatives,
for example, in Holland,
there is a discussion
going on,
okay, the composting industry
is positive towards accepting
compostable coffee cups
on condition that all
in the market are compostable.
So that the consumer
cannot make a mistake.
Don't leave the possibility
open to the consumer
that he can confuse,
that he has to make his choice
no, there is only one option,
it's only compostable.
[Bob]
Plastics don't compost,
no more than they break down
in a landfill.
And so how do we manage
the food waste stream?
What kind of containers--
that you'll see compostable
packagings promoted
and that's great.
We-- we're working on methods
to make sure what we get
on the compostable side
actually composts.
We aligned ourselves
with an organization called
the Compost Manufacturers
Alliance, CMA,
so we do field testing,
actual field,
not on a laptop,
not in a bucket on a desk,
but in the field.

[Susan] In 2007, 2008 I took
the first compostable cutlery
that we had
and I took it to a mayor's
event so there was the mayor
and so they were taking
the spoons
-and stirring their coffee...
-[Janice] Yeah.
...and they pull out stubs
then I was freaking out
and the mayor was like,
"What?"
And so
I'm chasing him around.
Well, six years later,
they're making it hot enough
where you can put that
into a cup of hot chowder
and it's fine.
This is what
I love to show people.
This is how we get
it wrong.
All the little pieces
of plastic
from, you know,
not using a compostable bag.
[Bob]
That plastic contamination
causes us, and any composter
that's doing it,
a lot of challenges
and headaches.
We can't get it out,
you know?
We do all kinds of techniques,
and we've been
very successful
in getting it minimized
in our finished product.
But what comes out is--
still we have to deal
with microplastic,
small pieces of plastic.
[Susan]
So, this is a portion cup
that's clearly plastic.
If we had
a compostable version
it wouldn't be a contaminant.
You can see
the plastic building up
-in it, right?
-[Janice] Look over there.
[Susan] Well, see?
And at some point,
it gets so entrained
with plastic
that they have to throw away
-all the good organics too.
-[Janice] Oh, [indistinct].
In the late '90s there
were a lot of claims being made
around bio-based plastics,
biodegradable plastics.
There needed to be standards
and tests to make sure that
claims were responsible
and made sense.
Food is the number one thing
going to landfills today.
The fact that
it's oftentimes intertwined
with plastic
and paper packaging,
that makes it really difficult
for composters to recover.
Packaging seems
so simple to consumers.
But when you look at
a little thin wrapper
around your snack bar,
typically it's not one layer
of plastic, there are
so many different layers
in there to get
the right barrier properties,
food contact safety,
keeping it fresh,
all these things.
And to redesign that to be
compostable is possible.
And companies are doing it.
But the issue is,
like, they're also
still wondering,
like, "Well, is this
actually going to work?"
I gotta be honest with you,
a large percentage
of what we test doesn't pass.
And that feedback loop
has never gotten back
to those manufacturers.
So,
what do we do with that?
We get to work
with them and talk to them
about the pile science
versus the design science.
And hopefully we can move
those products
into products
that will work in the piles
as well as perform
in the field for the consumer.
[excavator rumbling]

We have a team
of almost 50 people working on
biodegradability testing
and compostability testing
of plastics, of packaging
of several applications.
Well, here we are doing
home composting
disintegration tests.
So if we-- for example,
if one wants to produce
a compostable teabag,
there is a plastic fiber.
We check
if the plastic will fragment
within a normal duration
of composting.
So, home composting,
the duration
is set at six months.
Uh, so these are all tests
which are running
for six months,
and in which we are testing
items to see
whether they fragment
and they become
crumbly compost
and they disappear.
Standards are being written
how to determine
biodegradability
in different fields.
So that you have, like,
objective,
scientifically based tools
to prove
what you want to prove,
which then lead,
in the next step,
eventually to certifications.
We'd like to see the composting
infrastructure grow
because there's only 500
of those facilities
that'll take food scrap
and we probably need
closer to 2000.
[Susan] So, one of the things
we got was compostable bags
in our state can
only be green and brown.
You'll see brown cutlery,
you'll see brown straws.
And that's where
we need packaging companies
to work with us
to come up with
a simpler system
of coloring and marking
and make sure that we're
not getting the wrong stuff.
We're seeing much less
remaining
"compostable" material
that-- what didn't break down.
That's-- that's not occurring
anymore because of--
because we're doing
that certification.
[Rhodes]
If food waste were a country,
it would be
the third largest emitter
of greenhouse gases
after the US and China.
If we're really going to get
food out of landfills,
it's not going to work
unless we have people
understand
what does composting mean?
Is composting
always done in a backyard?
What does it mean
when you collect it
and send it
to a large-scale facility?
And I think
that's where I get
really excited when-- as--
big brands are really starting
to investigate and invest
in compostable packaging,
they're associated with food,
right?
They help divert that food
and the packaging
at the same time.
So, you're solving
two problems.

They've got whole research
and development
packaging divisions
at these big companies
and so they're already
well equipped to analyze
new polymer types,
come up with new structures.
And so I think that's
why we're starting to see
this huge peak in increase
where companies
are putting a lot of money
into understanding
compostable materials,
end of life
of their materials,
composting systems,
how they can help
fund composting.
If we're going to get
composting to work,
it needs to be all these
big brands coming together
and agreeing on-- on
sort of the ground rules
and figuring out, "Okay, how do
we actually get this to work?"

How long do you think
it'll take them to do
what we've asked them
to do today?
The six miles that
we've asked them to do today?
Oh, I imagine we could
probably
do it in a couple of hours.
Most of the litter
that you pick up
uh, involves
some sort of plastic.
The European Commission did--
they did a study,
the ten products which were
most visible on beaches,
and they were
almost all plastics.
Of course, cigarette filters
were number one.
Drinking straws
were also in the top five.
Lake Allatoona is
less than two miles
from where we're standing
here at Hobgood Park
in Cherokee County.
There are coves of this lake
where you can...
literally walk
on the garbage
and never get your feet
wet in the lake.
In 2012,
we conducted the first survey
for plastic pollution
within the Great Lakes.
And the findings that we had
were quite dramatic.
At that time,
75% of what we found
was less than
five millimeters in size.
So, microplastics.
A number of those particles
we were able to identify
as micro beads coming from
personal care products.
So, face wash, body wash,
toothpaste,
and they're just
like little balls of plastic.
And so that is, in fact,
what led
to the Microbeads Free
Water Act
of 2015
signed by President Obama.
They are still being produced,
and in some countries,
they are still used.
And so you're washing
your face,
it goes down the drain,
they make their way through
wastewater treatment plants
and end up deposited
into local bodies of water.
Most often,
this is rivers that flow
into lakes that eventually
flow into the ocean.
I mean-- and--
You, know, that's
a really important point.
Water connects
us all to each other.
So, it doesn't matter almost
if it's been banned
in the United States,
if it's still legal in,
say, Indonesia,
because water flows,
we are all downstream
from somewhere.
When you're talking about
a water pollution issue,
it doesn't matter
where in the world it is.
It's affecting all of us.
More than
95% of the plastics
and also of the nanoplastics
is removed from the wastewater
and is ending
up in the sewage sludge.
It's good news
that they are removed
from the wastewater stream,
but that also means
it's accumulated
in the sewage sludge.
And then it depends
what happens
to the sewage sludge.
In Switzerland,
we exclusively burned
the sewage sludge,
but looking maybe 20,
30, 40 years ahead,
maybe burning sewage sludge
is not the best option.
Other alternative approaches
which are used
all around the world,
in the States,
but also in part of Europe,
in France, in England,
is using
the sludge as fertilizer.
So, the plastics
that are removed
in a wastewater treatment plant
actually
are just being moved.
[Ralf]
You spread the sewage sludge
where you have accumulated
all the microplastics
on agricultural fields,
that's not what you want.
[Sherri]
And being applied to crops
that we are then going to eat.
And some really
interesting study is showing
that microplastics
are making their way
across root systems
and making their way
actually into plants.
[Ralf] The better option is
to have measures at the source.
Do not put any microplastics
into the wastewater,
the first point, and then
you don't have to remove it.
And then you don't have to deal
with the treatment options
for the sewage sludge.
[Sherri]
People often ask is,
"Well, how can we clean this
out of the water?"
And it's just you can't.
[somber music playing]
These particles
are so incredibly small
and there's so much life
in water.
You know, I don't think
people really
fully appreciate that.
You know, we think
of trees as being these
great oxygen generators.
They are. But phytoplankton
in the oceans generate
more oxygen
than all the trees.
They are the real
oxygen generators.
These are organisms
that live in the water.
So when you're talking about
a particle that is
actually small enough that
these phytoplankton eat them,
that's how
incredibly small they are.
And they are eating
this micro plastic.
There's no doubt about that.
And especially the microfibers
are being retained by them,
impacting
their ability to survive.
Because if it's impacting
the ability of phytoplankton
to survive...
it's impacting our ability.
And there's no doubt
that this stuff is making
its way into us.
[somber music fades]
[tranquil music playing]
[Troy] Here at the Cherokee
County Recycling Center,
we do single-stream recycling.
Single-stream recycling
came about
because the biggest complaint
about recycling is
it's such a hassle.
Because you got to separate
the different plastics
and the paper and nobody wants
seven bins in their house.
So they came up with
single-stream recycling.
And what single-stream
recycling enables you to do is,
with the exception of glass,
everything can go together.
-And when you say everything--
-Your paper,
your plastic,
your cardboard, cans.
-[Janice] Okay.
-It can all come
-in one container.
-[Janice] Okay.
And it all goes
into the same container
out here, then it's taken
to a separate facility
where it's processed, and that's
where it's actually sorted.
The problem
with recycling plastics
is that the polymer structure
breaks down
after you recycle it
a few times.
So after one or two times,
maybe three or four,
depending on
the type of plastic,
to the point
where you can no longer
turn that back into
a usable product.
So then what do you do
with all of that material
as well, too?
Where does that go?
[upbeat string music playing]
I worked
for a recycling program
in Pennsylvania in the '70s.
My daughter was about
four years old
and I sent her to daycare
with a T-shirt that said,
"I am the future."
Now I have an almost
11-year-old granddaughter
and we still have
the same problems.
So, let's fix it.
We've got Graham Packaging
right here.
York, Pennsylvania.
So what they're doing is
they're taking it back,
we're selling
our material to them.
They need it as a feedstock.
People are always going to need
milk jugs.
They're washing it,
they're pelletizing it
and they're turning it
right back into
the same product
from which it came.
The truth is, only a fraction
of plastics are recycled.
Only 9% have ever been collected
to be recycled.
And half of all plastic
is designed
to be used only once.
So, while we do
need to look at
how are we recycling plastics,
how do we reduce the number of
single-use plastics
that we're buying,
and so on and so forth,
we really need to make sure
that what we're manufacturing
can be either reused,
recycled or otherwise have
an end of life
that is more acceptable
than either waste
energy or landfilling.
When you look at
consumer packaged goods today,
it's very rare
that one of them
isn't looked at to say,
"How can this be
more sustainable?
"How can we launch to market
a better solution
that has a lighter footprint
on the earth?"
[atmospheric music playing]
We founded Preserve
back in 1996
to make products that were
both lighter on the Earth
and fabulous to use.
And the biggest way
we did that
was to use
recycled materials.
So there was a lot of recycling
going on back in the early '90s,
but the people who are recycling
were wondering,
"Where does
all this material go?"
There really wasn't evidences
of products made
from recycled materials.
What Preserve wanted to do
was use these recycled materials
and raise the bar up here
and say, "We're putting it
in a toothbrush.
A product that we hope
everybody uses
and one that you stick
in your mouth.
We've got to be able
to make excellent products
out of these recycled
materials."
There are companies
that are really big companies,
in this consumer-product space,
that now are looking to make
a difference.
Right now
we're caught in a world
where we have
a shampoo bottle,
a single-use plastic
shampoo bottle
to get your shampoo,
you know,
from through the supply chain
to the market
to your home
to use and then poof,
where does it go?
There absolutely is a lot of
great brainstorming
around reuse systems.
We have reuse systems
with reusable tableware.
There also can be
reuse systems as it relates
to the packaging,
particularly
of formulation products
or bulk food,
where you're actually bringing
the package back to the market
to be refilled
when you need new product.
And that's a huge way
to eliminate massive amounts
of single use plastics
that are currently used today.
[truck rumbling]
We are at a recycling station
in Gothenburg, Sweden where
people can bring
all their big stuff
that don't
fit into the household bin.
So, you can deposit
anything from paint
to metal to bikes here.
-And it's free?
-And it's free.
In Sweden
we want to make it convenient
and easy to recycle.
So we have these facilities
all around Gothenburg
and Sweden.
It seems like Swedish people are
really good recyclers
Yeah, we are.
And, um, it's--
we know that it's important
and it's also driven
by peer pressure.
It's shameful
to not recycle.
You shame yourself
because you know
that this is important.
So this is something
that you should
and could do
for the environment.
The infrastructure
to recycle all that
is still '70s
and '80s infrastructure.
And what we need to do
is invest
so that the infrastructure
can take all packaging types.
So we need to upgrade not only
the mechanical recycling
that we have
that's decades old,
but we also need to invest
in what's called
advanced recycling.
So, that's chemical recycling.
Chemical recycling can take
those products and break it down
into its building blocks
so it can be remade
back into new products
whether they're for packaging
or for textiles.
[Rob] Chemical
or advanced recycling takes
the various layers of plastic
and breaks it down
in a way it can be recycled
an infinite number of times.
It is therefore possible
to recycle used plastics
that are difficult
or even impossible to recycle
with traditional
mechanical recycling.
[upbeat electronica playing]
Licella, an advanced
recycling plant located
in Sydney, Australia,
is pioneering
the next generation
of advanced recycling
that uses
hot pressurized water.
Licella converts plastic
to oil using water
under high temperature
and pressure.
Once I've recycled
physically a plastic bottle,
a milk bottle, two
or three times,
that plastic degrades
where you can no longer
physically recycle it.
What we can do,
we can chemically recycle it
and convert it back to oil
to make new plastics.
And when it comes back again,
we can do it all over again.
So it's a true
circular economy.
[Rob] Previously,
non-recyclable plastics,
including multilayer packaging,
can now be recycled.

By turning
hard-to-recycle plastics
into a reusable resource,
this innovative solution
is helping create
a better environment
for future generations.
Another innovator
in the recycling space
is a company that has found
a way to recycle
the polymers found in clothes.
I don't think
most people realize
how much plastic
is in our clothing.
There was a really interesting
study that came out of UK.
Each individual article
of synthetic clothing
was shedding, at a minimum,
15,000 microfibers
for every time
it was washed.
And that's one article
of clothing.
With textile recycling,
most people think
it's already happening.
But in the United States,
the reality is
that only 1%
of clothing gets recycled
back into new clothing.
And the reason why
is because most of the clothes
we wear is blended.
It's mostly polyester and
cotton blended together.
Our solution is different
because we can take
those poly-cotton blends
and break them apart.
With this terry cloth,
you can see it's dark blue,
um, it has that nice feel.
And when it goes
into the process,
we chemically break down,
we cut down
that polyester molecule
and it goes into the liquid.
And then
you're just left
with this beautiful,
solid cotton.
-[whispering] Wow.
-And you can see
where
all the polyester was before.
-Exact same--
-And this is the after.
This is the same material.
-Same material.
-Before and after.
Wow.
[Peter] I get asked
all the time what to wear,
what is the right answer?
And unfortunately,
there really
isn't one right now.
The best thing you can do
is wear your clothing longer,
repair it or donate it,
or find somebody
who can keep using it.
Or go thrifting.
Uh, but until we have
new technologies,
we're going to continue
down this path.
There's been a huge
push for new solutions.
A lot of it's been
natural fibers,
hemp or stronger cottons
or things like that,
but they still don't quite have
the same
performance characteristics.
There's been
some new polymers coming out
that can be biodegradable,
some that come from methane gas.
And so I'm really excited
to see what else is out there
because
this is such a big problem
that we need
all these solutions to scale.
Our solution focuses
on recycling polyester
over and over again,
and other great
technology startups
are working on
filtration systems
in our washing machines
in our homes
that can capture
those microfibers
so they don't go
into our waterways.

[Rob] I'm originally
from Michigan.
And I can remember
when Michigan roads
were absolutely horrible
and the biggest piece of litter
on Michigan roads,
on the side of the roads
were aluminum cans,
and they came up
with this great idea
of 8-10 cent can deposit.
So when you buy
a six pack of cans,
that six pack of cans
may be $4,
but you pay $4.60
because you're also paying
ten cents per can.
Well, when you're done
drinking those cans,
you take the cans back,
you get that $0.60 back.
And it was
an incredible motivator
for people not to throw
ten cents out the window,
which is essentially
what they were doing.
Not only that,
but now you've got folks
who are actually walking
the roads
picking up cans because,
"Hey,
there's dimes laying
all over out here."
Right, so Europe has had
a lot of good policies,
one of which we call
the extended
producer responsibility.
And that basically means
you'll put a fee
on every single
type of package.
But that fee goes
towards infrastructure
to ensure that
it is recyclable over time.
[man] So, you have 99
and then there's eight cents...
-[Janice] Fund
-[man] Fund on it.
So, you're actually paying
$1.07.
But if you bring it back...
you get seven cents times 24,
and put them in there,
and get that money back.
[Alison] We see in Europe,
Germany has done
a fantastic job,
the Netherlands has done
a fantastic job.
Even Japan has done
a really good job.
They have more reuse model
and we're also looking at that.
[man speaking German]
When you return this
in the machine.
[man speaking German]
[woman speaking German]
[machine beeping & whirring]
[man speaking German]
[woman and man speaking German]
[gong crashing
and drums pounding]
[Rob] In 2017, China was
the world's largest importer
of plastic waste.
In 2018,
China stopped taking
most plastics.
This left
many countries scrambling
on what to do with it.
Suddenly, the world was faced
with a problem
that seemed too big
to handle.
As a result,
the country's 2018
plastic import volume dropped
99.1%
compared to 2017.
This massive global industry
basically ended overnight.
That was a big change
to the recycling industry.
What it did was
all of the recycling facilities
that once shipped off
those less valuable materials
and made money on them--
and they then
had to say, "What am I going
to do with these?"
Most of them had to then say,
"I can't take
that material anymore."
[Cole] The city of Greeley,
here in Colorado,
closed the recycling facility,
and do not plan to
open another one
because
it's not making any money.
It was kind of a big deal
because up in Greeley,
it's, like,
northeastern Colorado.
So the next closest facility
is a landfill.
The city of Waleska
just recently put out
that they are no longer
doing recyclables.
[atmospheric music playing]
Well, I had the idea,
this crazy idea,
9th May, 2013,
really looking for a solution.
I went looking to see
what I could do,
if I could do something,
about what was unfolding
in the ocean.
How might we create
a platform for the world
where the world's disadvantaged,
the areas where 80%
of land-based debris
is entering the ocean?
It should be no surprise
that most of that plastic
is entering
from areas that don't
have solid waste management.
They throw it in the river,
they throw it in the canal,
they throw it outside,
they burn it.
They suffer
cardiopulmonary disease.
They suffer, you know,
clogged waterways, flooding.
"Okay. It's poverty, well--
okay, there's no
solid waste management.
Okay, got it.
There's no other alternative
than just throwing--
Oh, hold on a second.
What if there
was an alternative?"
You know, I use this, um,
a metaphor.
If you were to walk
over a field of diamonds...
and you were to see rubies,
diamonds,
gold sitting on the ground,
and you looked at
it like, "Oh, my goodness,
wealth everywhere."
But you wanted to pick them up
and simultaneously like,
"Well, hold on a second.
There's nowhere
that I can take
diamonds
or rubies or gold to,
There's no bank
that I can take them to,
there's no store
that I could spend them at.
No one would barter
with me for them at all.
There's nothing I can do
with rubies, gold, and diamonds.
Nothing.
Do you pick them up?
No, because
they're like rocks.
They're worthless to you."
And diamonds are carbon,
same as plastic.
Plastic Bank ultimately is
an agreed upon exchange system
that operates
around the world
where the bank accepts
plastic waste as a currency.
So, now when they look
below their feet,
they look at it and go,
"Wait.
That's school tuition
for my children.
That's the end of poverty.
That's clean water.
That's the end of sickness."
We've revealed the material
as a currency for the world.
That's what we've done.
We're operating in Haiti,
the Philippines,
Indonesia, Brazil, Egypt.
We're about to enter Thailand
and Cameroon next year,
Tanzania, Kenya.
We continue to expand globally.
All that material we collect,
we sell to great companies
in the world.
They want to use that
as a feedstock
of their manufacturing
so they can connect it
with a conscious consumer.
We sell to great companies
like SC Johnson,
or Henkel or Hugo Boss or...
Gillette,
or so many others
that use that material.
You see, we're a solution
that provides a platform
for every single person
in the world
to not even have to change.
They just have to shift
maybe a little bit.
So we're just making
it easy for the whole world
to participate in being
a part of the solution
and no longer
a part of the pollution.

[Cole] The problem
that we're facing
is what do we do now
and how do we fix it?
Is there anything more vital
to address
than trying to keep
the Earth alive
and vibrant?
I don't know anything
more important.
I really don't.
[Cole] The climate crisis
is already happening.
It-- it's in our face right now.
[Bill] Are we addressing this
soon enough?
I know we need to address
the issue now.
[girl] Dear Mother Earth,
it has been recently brought
to my attention
that my parents
and my grandparents
and their friends
have not been taking
care of you very well.
Maybe I shouldn't blame them
because they didn't know.
Who could have known
that my plastic sandwich bag
or fruit cup container
could ruin the world?
I have a future ahead of me
and someday if I have children
of my own, they too
will be using this planet.
I like to make you
a promise right now.
I promise to keep
your land as clean
as possible but also tell
my friends to do the same.
Your Earth is a gift
and I've learned
that this is
the most valuable gift
I can ever have.
[Janice] So while we're working
on the solution part of it--
It's just so complicated.
There's so many
brilliant people--
It is complicated.
This is a wicked problem.
I'll tell you a story.
My granddaughter was born
two months premature.
She spent the first
two months of her life
in a neonatal
intensive care unit.
Plastic tubes,
plastic bags all around her.
Those plastics saved her life.
I know that.
NICUs need plastic.
But I also know that there are
downstream hazards
that are created by exposure
to those plastics
that we need to solve.
[Cole] Walking into
a store and picking up
a bottle of water
is convenient and easy.
And we don't necessarily see
the entire impact
of that purchase
decision either.
There are three key pieces
to solving this problem.
One is to rethink.
Do we actually need to use
plastic to do that?
Second, we've got to reform
the regulatory process
so that it really tells us...
[clicks tongue]
...what's safe and what's not.
But the third thing,
and for me the most hopeful,
is we have to
redesign plastic.
We can design
safer plastics.
I've spent a lot of
time thinking about this
and working on this
with colleagues, with chemists.
So why not?
It turns out, why not,
it's because the first step
is to test what you have.
As you design something new,
you got to test it.
If you don't test it,
you don't know.
Okay? It's that simple.
And testing at that stage
in the process costs more money.
So, if your goal
is to get a product out
as quickly as possible,
you're going to be deterred
from doing the testing
that you need to do,
even though in the long run,
you're going to save money
because you wind up
with a safer product
and you can sell it
as a safer product.
And hopefully, the consumers
who want safer products
will reward you,
which they are now doing.
[Daniel]
Large global corporations
are publishing commitments
that they're making
to their environmental
performance.
So, you can pick up
an annual report
of just about
any large global brand owner
and they publicly say,
"These are the things
we're going to do,"
and they put a date on it.
Businesses are and need to
play a key role in reducing
our greenhouse gas emissions
and creating systems
within their business
that allows them
to be net zero,
or to be carbon negative.
And along with that,
is absolutely
finding ways to reduce
the amount of waste
reduce the amount of emissions
that they're creating
and transporting
their products to market.
Consumers are looking for
more sustainable options.
They're asking for
sustainable packaging.
So, Disney is removing
a lot of their plastic
from their packaging
so there's no clear windows
or anything like that
on their packaging anymore.
Barilla, the pasta maker,
is about to remove
all the little plastic windows
from their cardboard boxes
as well, too.
Um, Samsung is doing
the same thing.
They're removing plastic
from their packaging
so when they send
you a new computer the insert
may be made
out of the gas
which is a byproduct
of the sugarcane industry.
Around 2005
it was very rare to--
for anyone
to have ever heard of
a chief sustainability officer
and now every major
corporation has one.
So, a lot of these companies
are starting to eliminate
plastic as well which means
the fossil fuel industry, again,
is having that wall
that they're going to be
meeting.
[Daniel] You recognize that
there is a global effort
by really large,
global companies
that's all being driven
by consumers for better
environmental performance.
It's either adapt or die.
At this point in time.
[cheerful music playing]
There's British Petroleum
who really
doesn't even call themselves
British Petroleum anymore,
you know,
they changed to BP.
At-- at one point in time
they were saying it means
"Beyond Petroleum,"
and now they're moving
even further away
from that to talk about
how they're going to shift
the business
of their company away
from using
petroleum-based resources
to using annually renewable
resources.
The topic of plastics can be
confusing and debatable.
The solutions
to the plastic dilemma,
it's not easy.
Scientists agree
though that we can't wait
any longer to change.
We can all help, though,
by making smart choices
and keeping
our environment center-focused.
We all can, individually
and collectively,
make the choice today to better
our world for the future.
I'm gonna go get that bottle.

Petroleum plastics,
will the technology advance
that eventually
bioplastics
could get us there?
I hope so.
["Freedom Mile"
by Ziv Moran playing]
I got my bags packed,
timeline on track
My winter coat stuck
in the closet way back
I won't be needing that,
I won't be needing that
I'm ready to fly down 65,
hit the coastline
In the sunshine
I'm going to find my new high
Hit the coastline
in the sunshine
Freedom Mile
I'm free
Ooh, ooh, ooh
It's only blue skies
on my horizon line
So far from the hurt
and the bad times
I'm feeling so alive,
I'm feeling so alive
Yeah, yeah
I'm ready to fly down 65
Hit the coastline
in the sunshine
Freedom Mile
The most amazing
food wrap ever developed.
The Bio-P film.
That's right.
It's a biopolymer film.
And it's the film
of the future.
It's safe for everyone.
Come get yours today.
[whooping and laughing]
[music fades]