Plastic pollution with Richard Thompson

The Life Scientific

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Professor of Marine Biology who was not particularly academic at school, Richard Thompson went to university after running his own business selling greetings cards for seven years. When the rest of the world was waking up to the harm caused to marine life by larger plastic items, such as plastic bags, he searched for tiny fragments of plastic, some no bigger than a human hair; and found them in oceans and on beaches all over the world. He has spent decades studying the harm these micro-plastics might cause to marine life and is concerned. His work on plastics in cosmetics led to a UK ban on micro-beads in shower gels and exfoliating scrubs. And he advised government to ban single use plastic bags from supermarkets. Rather than demonize plastic, however, he believes we need to learn to love it more. Often plastic it is the best material for the job. Now we need to make sure that all plastic products are designed so that they can be easily recycled at the end of their useful life. Producer: Anna Buckley

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests.
0:08.8	Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.7	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing.
0:26.0	Julie, at your service.
0:28.0	Listen to all episodes on BBC Sales.
0:31.6	Welcome to the podcast of the Life Scientific.
0:34.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:39.0	The amount of rubbish in the sea is shocking.
0:42.0	Millions of plastic bottles, shoes, carrier bags,
0:46.3	toothbrushes are being washed up on beaches all over the world. It's even more shocking
0:51.6	when you remember that these unsightly piles of plastic rubbish are only part of the plastic pollution problem.
0:58.0	25 years ago, most of us were blissfully unaware of all the tiny fragments of plastic that are circulating in our
1:04.3	oceans. My guest today alerted the world to the vast and growing quantities of
1:09.4	microplastics in the ocean and the harm they might cause to marine life.
1:14.0	He's published hundreds of research papers, advised governments and written reports for the EU and the UN.
1:20.0	His research on plastics in cosmetic products led to the recent UK ban on microbeeds
1:25.0	in shower gels and facial scrubs.
1:27.5	Richard Thompson, professor of marine biology at Plymouth University, welcome to the life scientific.
	...

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