3 myths about plastic pollution

Brut America

No, recycling won't solve the plastic pollution crisis.   Here are three myths about plastic pollution, explained by Sam Chetan Welsh from Greenpeace UK.

Transcript

00:00Recycling is never going to be the solution to the plastic pollution crisis.

00:05Plastic is not safer for us.

00:07And it's not down to you or I to fix this problem.

00:10It's down to the plastics industry, the fossil fuel industry and the big brands

00:14because they are the ones who got us into this mess in the first place.

00:17So I think a lot of people imagine that recycling is this like magic process

00:30where you put something in the trash and then it goes away and then it comes back good as new.

00:35But that's just not the case.

00:37What happens is every single time you recycle something it starts to degrade

00:42and it makes it harder and harder to recycle it again.

00:45So plastic can only be recycled a finite amount of times.

00:48What we know is that since 1950 only 9% of all the plastic ever made has actually been recycled.

00:56Not only that but the plastics industry, that means the fossil fuel industry,

01:01big brands, big companies like Coke and Pepsi

01:04are projected to double plastic production over the next 10 years.

01:09We can never recycle our way out of this crisis.

01:12That's not the same as me telling you that we should stop recycling altogether.

01:15If your bathtub was overflowing you wouldn't go grab a mop and bucket would you?

01:20You'd go and turn off the tap and that's what we need to do.

01:23We need to turn off the tap, deal with this problem at source

01:26and switch to reuse and refill like yesterday.

01:29The plastics industry know that we need to do this, they're just not doing it

01:33because at the moment keeping things as they are is more profitable for them.

01:37The plastics industry would love for you to believe that if something's wrapped in plastic

01:47that somehow makes it safer.

01:49In fact the plastics industry has used the COVID-19 pandemic

01:53to insist that single-use plastic, more plastic packaging makes things safer.

01:59But that is just not the case.

02:01In fact Greenpeace coordinated a statement from over 120 scientists around the world

02:06saying that reusables like reusable cups can be safe.

02:11Scientists are only just discovering the impact that plastic is having on our health.

02:16For a huge amount of this plastic what happens is it gets exported

02:20by countries in the global north to countries in the global south

02:24who may have less recycling infrastructure to deal with these kind of items

02:28and that means that it just gets burnt leaving those communities with long-term devastating health impacts.

02:35What that means is that plastic pollution is not just an environmental issue

02:39it is also a health and social justice issue as well.

02:42Don't forget plastic is made from fossil fuels.

02:4699% of plastic are made from fossil fuels.

02:49That means that when you do things to them, when you use them, when you make them

02:53when you turn them into other things that releases air pollution,

02:56that releases chemicals into the atmosphere, that releases carbon emissions

03:01that further our climate emergency and there's no greater threat to public health than the climate emergency.

03:13Personally I've tried so many things to avoid plastic as I'm sure you watching this have.

03:17You know, buying the right bottle, buying the right cup, buying the right bag.

03:22What's really important to understand is that it's not you and I who are going to be able to fix this problem.

03:27We need to put pressure on big companies like Coke and Pepsi and the fossil fuel industry

03:31and the plastics industry to switch to reuse and refill.

03:35That's how we tackle the problem at source.

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