The problem with plastics -- and how to start cleaning up the mess | Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Plastics are everywhere -- they're in our favorite electronic devices, they package our food and insulate our homes. Today, the total mass of plastic is twice the total mass of all living organisms on the planet, and it's starting to change the processes that allow the Earth's climate system to work. Plastic pollution researcher Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez breaks down the consequences of producing all of this plastic at every stage, from fossil fuel extraction to the disposal of single-use plastics in landfills and oceans. The first step to breaking free of our plastic problem is admitting we have one.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. The way we think about plastic pollution
0:09.1	needs a new perspective. That's the message from Patricia Villa Rubia Gomez, an activist and
0:16.4	plastic pollution researcher. In her 2022 talk from Ted Countdowns New York session, she busts the
0:22.5	myths about plastic in the oceans, unpacks why they're harmful from before the moment they're
0:27.7	produced, and suggests what we can do about it for a sustainable planet.
0:34.5	So, plastics. Plastics come in all shapes, forms and colors.
0:40.3	They are everywhere.
0:42.3	They are in our makeup. It packages our food and insulates our homes.
0:46.3	They are in airplanes and our favorite electronic devices.
0:51.3	They are truly a remarkable material. But so are its troubles. And we produce and
0:58.9	consume plastics in staggering quantities. Since it's been mass produced, the world has created
1:05.2	over 10 billion metric tons of it, half of them just in the past 20 years.
1:11.6	I have been investigating plastic pollution about a decade,
1:16.6	and I try to align my personal choices as a consumer
1:20.6	with the aspirations of my research.
1:22.6	And you may think,
1:24.6	ah, that's easy. You know how to do it.
1:28.6	But actually it's not.
1:32.9	Sometimes it's impossible to avoid single-use plastics.
1:36.2	The system is built that way.
1:44.5	The dominant narrative about plastics tell us that this is a consumer's and a waste management problem.
1:49.4	Who of us here have not heard about details of gigantic plastic islands floating in the middle of the ocean,
	...

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