Is it Time to Ban the Plastic Bottle?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2017
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every single second, 20,000 single-use drinking bottles are sold around the world. That is more than a million pieces of non-biodegradable rubbish produced every minute. And as demand grows in developing economies, so will the mountains of waste, with much of it ending up in the ocean.
We learn how the invention of the plastic bottle spawned an industry that has quickly got us hooked. We hear the consequences of our addiction from the man who has dedicated his life to The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And, with one estimate that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish, we ask if we now need a radical solution. Is it time to ban the plastic bottle?
Presenter: James Fletcher Producers: Simon Maybin and Sarah Shebbeare
(Photo: A bottle of water sits on the floor inside a recycling facility. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Welcome to the Inquiry on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:39.4 | One pressing question, four expert witnesses challenging answers. |
| 0:44.0 | It's a summer's day in August 1997, |
| 0:51.0 | and Captain Charles Moore is in one of his favorite places, the middle of nowhere. |
| 0:56.0 | He's sailing through a little travelled part of the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1:00.0 | Charles Moore grew up surfing and sailing. He loves the ocean, one of the earth's last great |
| 1:08.2 | unspoiled environments, so this day should be perfect. |
| 1:12.6 | But when he steps on deck, instead of pristine water, |
| 1:17.0 | he sees something else. |
| 1:18.9 | Plastic. |
| 1:20.2 | Just tiny traces, but everywhere he looks he sees the debris of human civilization. |
| 1:27.0 | What Charles Moore stumbled across 20 years ago has become known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. |
| 1:34.8 | This huge collection of rubbish has become a symbol of our problem with plastic waste, and it's |
| 1:40.6 | getting worse. |
| 1:42.4 | One study estimates that by 2050, |
... |
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