What about those people who leave their trash on the beach without any passion? Which would be the majority of the people who leave their trash on the beach.
I can relate to that burning passion. A lot of new houses were built near mine and, since then, I keep seeing more and more trash alongside the sidewalk.
The people who leave trash on the beach without thinking at least once about it don't have a clue how much that'll end up having consequences sometime in the future, making it more difficult for everyone else to fix.
I feel this won't be profitable until fossil fuels are more on the decline and the government starts to give better incentives for this kind of thing. If there is less oil coming in, that could mean less plastic being produced, so any plastic obtained from these sites can be sold at higher values.
i dont really find that to be sad. Want to clean the plastic from the oceans? Forget about the how, just make it possible for the workers to live off of the fruits of their labor and it will be clean. People need** to make money to survive in the modern world. Being able to make a living and turn a profit to reinvest into company or personal interests are necessary to make a career attractive to an individual. Face it, most people simply are incapable of providing volunteer work for the rest of their lives. I'm not entirely sure if i understood the original poster correctly but this was my 2 cents on my understanding of the post
We need to implement the style of recycling Japan has. When I lived there I had to separate my trash into 5 different categories. It only took me like a month to get used to and it reduces the amount of trash you see in the streets and in the ocean (I would know I was in the Navy there). Biodegradable plastics are also an option. For those looking to lessen the amount of waste in their life I highly recommend checking out Lauren Singer's site, she inspired me to start reducing my waste output.
just having an easier recycling pickup of single stream recycling in a lot of communities would help. My small town here in S. Carolina use to have curbside single stream pickup on a weekly bases, then a few years back they stopped doing it because they claimed it cost to much, and now they just have a big dumpster for it at the end of town they take off whenever it gets full which means a lot of elder people in my community no longer even bother doing the recycle because it's not convenient, or because they just simply don't remember the big recycle dumpster is there. Sad but that's the way it is in a lot of rural communities, if they have any type of recycling options at all.
Commodorefan64 Exactly, I live in South Carolina as well. I live in an apartment complex that doesn't have a recycling bin so I have to horde all my recyclables in separate piles and then make a trip to the local dump where there are recycle bins. I also think it wouldn't hurt to incentivize it the way certain states do. Places where glass and plastic bottles get 5-10 cents a piece have the highest rates of recycling... go figure.
Richard Powell Yep for big stuff we have to haul it off as well to an even larger county dump site which again for my seniors can be a pain(I work for non profit that deals with various senior based programs). I also like the approach some states have of place anything on the curbside for a day, and it will be hauled off for recycle no questions asked. I remember visiting my ex mother in law in TN one year, and helping her clean out her garage for that day, and they took everything from a washing machine down to simple plastic bottles, and newspapers, and almost everyone in the neighborhood had at least a few things to throw out. So yeah make it simple, and easy for people to do, and they will do it, otherwise most people will just throw it in the regular trash.
Sad thing is most plastics aren't really worth recycling and is more of a "greenwash" project. Metal and Paper are the only ones that are genuinely good to be recycled. But regardless, (much like a lot of things in our society) we have this whole situation backwards by looking to recycle first. Really we need to become more proactive and do the other two R's first - Reduce and Reuse
Daft Jubs Reduce, and reuse when you can are good things I'll agree, but I don't know if recycling plastic is a "greenwash" because most plastics can at the very least be turned into polyester threads for clothes, and synthetic ropes.
Nice to get an update on the ocean cleanup project. I just found out about it this year, but I didn't realize it was an ongoing thing for almost 4 years now. I really hope we can keep our oceans clean.
The thing is, the companies that produce plastic or use it on their products, dont really care about what happens to their products when it becomes waste, I think if somehow we could charge fees from companies for the waste they produce, they would educate their costumers to recicle it or at the least they would think twice to keep producing waste, because after all "planned obsolescence" is real. Great video by the way.
Fuck we suck. By, dumping trucks full of our muck we fuck up ducks and hapless ocean schmucks. Yuck. Frankly, I'm awestruck. Thank you, I'll be here all week.
It always amazes me how you guys can consistently come up with fascinating, important topics to cover, and can do so in a seriously entertaining way. Kudos.
One of the million problem is there is not enough exposure to the public by government. Public and communal bins should show recent pictures of plastic waste in the sea, we also should have advertisements in the papers and TV showing the reality of it. Most people are just denying this huge problem burying thier heads in the sand.
1. don't litter. carry your garbage in your pocket til you find a garbage can. 2. Make sure governments aren't using the Ocean as their own personal landfill 3. use less plastics
1. I was taught this when I was young, I still can't understand why people can't do that. 2. Valid point, the ocean is not a landfill. 3. It is really hard not to use lots of plastic, especially when a lot items are packaged in lots and lots and lots of plastic, especially when it's not recyclable... Though I've seen companies cut back on this practice a considerable amount.
I've heard people say we should not use plastic bags for carrying groceries anymore to help this problem, but I've also hear that if we used paper instead of plastic, the environmental impact would be worse. There aren't always easy solutions, but I hope smart people can keep coming up with better options!
A friend brought me back some candies from her trip to Spain. A really sweet gift (literally and figuratively). I was however pretty horrified by the packaging. It was a paper box wrapped in plastic film. In the box was a plastic tray upon which the candies sat. The candies were each individually wrapped in plastic as well. Any one of these 3 different plastics could have been removed and still protected the candies. While I fully understand the necessity and support the use of plastics, there are some really easy ways companies can cut back on the amount of plastics surrounding the products we purchase.
That sounds like the sort of packaging you find in Japan. They package the hell out everything. Every piece individually wrapped, plastic inside of plastic inside of plastic. It's so wasteful.
I really enjoy these topics, I'm a very proud patreon! Pollution, the ocean, and wildlife are just a few of my favorites. Thanks for the great content!
Great video! It is fundamental to seek for ways to stop using plastic, but it will be very difficult because plastic is currently used for many things in the world. I guess we should recycle more...
What a coincidence. I just read about a thing to keep six packs of beer together that's made of waste from the brewing process and would dissolve in the water and would also be able to serve as fish food.
IMO specially built drones. 1: Solar powered floating platform that constantly roams around and filter out plastic out of the water. 2. In the rear it "poops" out links of bags made out of a UV and physically tough polymer. It will come out looking like big plastic links of sausage. 3. Each super link (say 100 segments) detaches from the drone and floats freely. The drone can attach a long lasting "pinger" tag, but that is optional. 4: A larger vessel collects the super link segments at a later time. Advantage to my plan is it could be deployed at a large scale, say hundreds of drones. Once designed it could likely be mass produced and made very cheaply. If a storm disables a drone, another one can easily replace it. Collections is easy and even if all the super links are not collected, the large self contained units are not nearly as harmful as micro plastics and lose bits. They may even get some plant life adhering to them and make some micro biomes around them.
Sounds similar to the SolarBees project.(except for the 'pooping' part) Which failed recently and was canceled. I'm not discrediting your idea, I just thought you might be interested in reading about it and why it failed(I don't know why, probably politics though.)
1) Biodegradable plastic 2) Strict enforcement of no littering on beaches 3) Don't let it get into the water in the first place 4) Use one of the ideas in this video to get out what's already in 5) Education on how littering affects wildlife
We just need some plastic-seeking, swimming, solar-powered drones. They could double as search-and-rescue bots, and would be available for world domination when Skynet took over.
"Some people worry about the effect the catchers will have on marine life" ... as opposed to, say, the effect of 12 million tons of plastic? Let's have some perspective, people. It will have an effect, nothing can happen in the ocean without having some repercussions, but will the localized effect of a few catchers really outweigh the good of the global reduction of plastic past the collectors? Also, that's a lot of plastic. If we can collect it, maybe we can reuse and resell it. Although it's my understanding that plastic isn't cheap to recycle, so it probably wouldn't actually be profitable.
Plastic is formed from a component of crude oil, it can be converted back to crude oil. The process is just not economically beneficial RIGHT NOW. With a source of cheaper energy (maybe, thorium?), it could be profitable to salvage plastic from the ocean and convert it to crude oil, running the engines of the collection ship on some of the oil and hauling the rest back for sale.
It's cost more to do that and all the fuel used would cost more. Plastic to payments of the crew wouldn't even be close. Not only the fuel and food costs of the vessel, they pay me 200-400 a day to be out there, my mates 400-1000 a day and that's just our pay. Not counting food costs, as well as fuel and maintenance, the engineering department.
I feel like there are more pressing matters to be dealt with before we start cleaning oceans.... like the threat of the white walkers north of the wall for example
Would it be possible to genetically modify a type of fish or water mammal to be able to eat and digest plastic and there chemical compounds? Some problems that I have thought of in the past 2 minutes would be, if another sea creature ate this animal before it digested the plastic could harm the predator. So in order to maintain the food chain these creatures would have to be fast at moving and fast at eating. Another problem that seems easy enough to me right now is, what happens when the plastic gets eaten up and what if the plastic gets too deep for the fish to survive. My answer for the first question would be, they die. After all we would not want to mess up the food chain too much by adding another possibly fast predator and the answer to the second problem would be that it would need to be able to dive deep and survive but also be able to survive in shallow water. This is only a idea I had and may be to impossible to do but it could solve the plastic problem now and later.
Lots of water being used for meat and dairy production, lots of land taken up by it, giant patches of rainforest felled/burned for grazing grounds or soy fields (mostly used as animal feed), more energy used to produce 1 kJ of meat nutritional value compared to 1 kJ of plant matter, animal excrements being used to fertilize fields which get into the water cycle, etc, etc...
QuantumFluxable large animals require large amounts of water regardless of farms, animals like horses and cows require a large amount of land to graze on that's just normal, rainforest in places like south America and Africa are being lost not because of the food industry, but because of wood industry, most of north America are plains which is more than enough for wildlife to graze, and animal feces is the most safe fertilizer than chemicals, it's organic and also processed to get hazardous waste out of the matter, people aren't just scooping up cow shit and putting it in bags and selling it to people, there's a process to make it safe, and if water purification protocols are being followed all water run off should go through purification and processing before it even reaches your home. I live in the great plains of the US, my family owns a farm, I can look outside right now and see the cows grazing in fact. Most of what your concerned about it possibly propaganda. I encourage you to do your own research.
skrubritos I'd rather not because knowing the internet it a video of some foreign processing factory treating animals terribly. I'll tell you now that those things do not happen in the US. The meat that we eat here are all up to grade from the USDA. All processing plants in the US all have strict laws and regulations that the USDA monitor every day to make sure plants are clean and treat animals humanly.
I remember a time growing up that I didnt see the little single serve water bottles everywhere. Maybe going back to filling a reusable bottle from a water fountain would be a good first step.
Don't forget about the microplastics! Fibers from plastic clothing, those tiny scrubs from toothpaste and cleansers, even the parts into which bigger debris physically "degrades" over time. Currently those Microplastics are found EVERYWHERE. Literally every water source which I read of being checked contained them. Yes, tap water, too. And bottled water. And food.
I have a few ideas: .Heavy fines on littering .Install more bins .Make recycling more profitable to incentivise people to recycle .Incentivise ordinary citizens into picking up trash by giving them a small amount of money for every kilo they collect If anyone else has some ideas please tell me⬇️
Huge problem! Really glad SciShow have covered it. Plastic is a disease we should kick, invest more in developing and producing bio degradable alternatives where necessary and encouraging the reduce of use where possible, i.e. cutting down on plastic bottle water and encouraging reusable water bottles!
The kind you get from trying to estimate small three dimensionally dispersed items in 3 very large oceans. Following plastic production it has been estimated that annually there's approximately 85 million tons of plastic waste which cannot be accounted for, at least some of that ends up in the oceans.
It's kind of like trying to estimate the mass of an iceberg - what we can see is definitely _not_ all there is. I assume you've heard the phrase "only the tip of the iceberg".
we need to be less dependent on plastics, as recorded on a plastic camera and watched on a plastic computer by millions of people wearing plastic filled cloths :P this world needs soo much more work!
the reason why we switched from glass to plastic is because plastic has a lower melting point thus it's easier to work with, which also means it's cheaper to produce
Wow thank you for enlightening me on this issue. Living on the Mid West Canada we only have small lakes around and when there is garbage in the water, it's because of some jerk camper who tossed theirs trash out while boating.
Saltwater Brewery is currently developing a can rings made from barley rather than plastic. These can rings are biodegradable, edible, and made from recycled barley used in the brewing process. If more companies invest in this technology, one of the most commonly found plastics in the ocean will be eliminated. Find out more at: www.saltwaterbrewery.com/community-swb/
I'm not sure that substitution is the way to go with plastics. I mean take the plastic bag for instance yes it dose not biodegrade but it dose take 10 times less fuel to produce then a paper bag and when plastic bags do rot down they release methane. Personally I think that we should focus on using less material on things like packaging and focus our attention more towards efficiency. Love to hear others opinions, I am no expert.
oh i already know this, the debaters all over the US already know this. We talked about this for the full year last year. this plan won me most of my rounds out of the 5 tournaments i attended. The thing is that this plan doesn't solve for the microplastics in the ocean. As Hank said in the video, the microplastics actually do the damage to the ecosystem. These plastics are just as small, if not smaller than a hair follicle and can't be collected by the arrays proposed by slat. The plan also doesn't handle the deep ocean plastic as it only stays on the surface. plus, it doesn't stop new plastics from coming into the ocean. Its true that a significant amount of plastics are on the surface. but this plan doesn't stop the microplastics, which are the onces being ingested by animals and giving us cancer when we consume them. Slat's plan has ben the most viable in recent years and i like how we are taking initiative towards helping the environment, but we still is to iron out the creases before we spread the word and false hope along with it.
I agree that implementing some kind of idea to limit how much plastic gets into the ocean in the first place is going to help over the long run, but is nobody doing anything about those big garbage islands? I'm sure monetary cost is probably why nobody with the power to do something is responding, but I'm really surprised no company is even trying to clean it up as a PR effort. I'm sure I'm over-simplifying, but wouldn't it be easy too? Just get a big ship with a crane and heavy-duty net and "shovel" the plastic onboard until it's time to go to shore and unload, then repeat until the island is gone.
Teaching people why they must stop throwing trash in streets and natural areas. This should be a subject in schools instead of other almost useless subjects
After seeing the documentary Plastic Planet I'm pretty upset about the whole plastic industry. Could you make a video about the health risks of plastic?
Hank, there are more important things to worry about, like ironing your shirt, and losing that tummy! Hell, just straighten out your collar! It's like you didn't even try! lol
This is highly dependent on the fuel being burned. The substance Triethylborane has one of the lowest autoignition temperatures at -4 Fahrenheit (-20C). This means that this substance can produce a flame at -4 degrees. But this flame is not a traditional *”visible”* flame. The coldest possible visible flame is at least a couple hundred degrees F.
"And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children." *George Carlin*
What I don't understand is why we don't send ships out to the garbage patches with nets and scoop up everything on the surface to take back to land and be recycled. I would think that would be a much faster temporary solution, and it keeps the plastics already in the garbage patches from getting smaller and hard to clean up. And it's probably worth the price once you factor in the recycling.
if this island of plastic the size of texas even exist, it wouldn't be that easy to just go and scoop it up. I thought that at first. but what you're imagining just doesn't exist. I tried my best to find video or photo evidence but came up empty handed. one video showed a group going out searching for this huge field of plastic floating around and they came up with extremely tiny pieces of what they said was plastic. and even what they recovered was an extremely small amount.
Why don't we introduce a gigantic armada of tiny robots that swim around collecting all sorts of plastics. They could power themselves using tidal or solar energy, they could dive deep in the ocean if needed, be completely self sufficient, not hurt the wild life and we'll be able to monitor these bots as well. Oh and on another note, they could be made out of easily bio degradable materials so that in the event of one of them "dying" they won't be a hindrance to anyone.
Good vid, but Zwart is not pronounced as Slat, rather like Z(emphasis)w-art(slightly slower). Good plan he came up with btw, it has the highest chance of at least starting the cleanup of the oceans. The plastic soup issue was considered unsolvable with current tech, but then this kid scientist from NL of all places came up with the idea showcased in the vid. XD
I've quit using bottled water and I try to recycle everything I can. Even with my morning Diet Coke, I refill a Big Gulp cup. I'm sure there's more I could do but soft drinks and water are where I've been most wasteful in my life. Save the fishes!
I think plastic-eating bacteria, whenever they develop, are going to cause a second wave of the anthropic extinction event by covering the oceans and the land and releasing all of the carbon locked up in plastics to the atmosphere.
I wonder if plankton could be engineered to breakdown plastic. Even just breaking them down to monomers would be a massive help as the monomers would degrade much more quickly. Of course that would need an array of enzymes just for that one job because of all the plastics. If it is possible, then plankton could be engineered to need plastic to survive; and in that case, the plankton would only flourish as and when and where we (and the turtles) need them to. I'm sure someone will tell me its an awful and/or unworkable idea though.... seems too simple to not have already been done.
What we need is some kind of algae or bacteria that feeds on carbon in the plastics and in the oceans. Solving the acidification and plastic problem all at once. Not sure how feasible that would be though. And the lifespan on these have to be really short so they don't go out of control
Wouldn't the first step to be setting up these screener things at the mouths of rivers to greatly lessen the problem's growth? If most of it is going from land to ocean via rivers, that seems the most logical place to start. Also, if we can't make bacteria that eat it, what about something that will make it sink. Plastic isn't the first material we've made that doesn't biodegrade (pottery for example) it's just the first one of those that floats.
consumerism. people have to start realising the difference between wanting and needing things. another thing is tech. newer tech is making older stuff obsolete and we end up with all sorts of household items that can no longer be used but still would work fine; like tv's when they stopped analog signals. we have recycling plants in Australia that don't even process stuff anymore, even though people are trying to do the right thing and place their recyclables in the assigned bins. bah, i could go on for hours........
I hate people who leave their trash on the beach with a burning passion.
What about those people who leave their trash on the beach without any passion? Which would be the majority of the people who leave their trash on the beach.
+RustyTube sorry I forgot a comma lol. why u gotta be such a grammar Nazi?
I can relate to that burning passion. A lot of new houses were built near mine and, since then, I keep seeing more and more trash alongside the sidewalk.
The people who leave trash on the beach without thinking at least once about it don't have a clue how much that'll end up having consequences sometime in the future, making it more difficult for everyone else to fix.
+RustyTube i just threw a bottle into the ocean in your honor.
Make it profitable and it will be done in a week.
That's the sad truth
This is why we need the government. No one will obviously pay money to clean up the ocean.
+Bill Brasky There will always be trash though.
No profit big enough in something like that
I feel this won't be profitable until fossil fuels are more on the decline and the government starts to give better incentives for this kind of thing. If there is less oil coming in, that could mean less plastic being produced, so any plastic obtained from these sites can be sold at higher values.
Your team is so cool. From script to video editing seriously 10/10
Want to clean the plastic from the oceans? Forget about the how, just make it profitable and it will be clean in no time.
it's sad how right you are
i dont really find that to be sad. Want to clean the plastic from the oceans? Forget about the how, just make it possible for the workers to live off of the fruits of their labor and it will be clean. People need** to make money to survive in the modern world. Being able to make a living and turn a profit to reinvest into company or personal interests are necessary to make a career attractive to an individual. Face it, most people simply are incapable of providing volunteer work for the rest of their lives. I'm not entirely sure if i understood the original poster correctly but this was my 2 cents on my understanding of the post
The profits from doing this is worth more than money, too bad governments are not interested
that's how it works. nobody wants to spend money with no reward.
@@panzerfaust5046 Yep
We need to implement the style of recycling Japan has. When I lived there I had to separate my trash into 5 different categories. It only took me like a month to get used to and it reduces the amount of trash you see in the streets and in the ocean (I would know I was in the Navy there). Biodegradable plastics are also an option. For those looking to lessen the amount of waste in their life I highly recommend checking out Lauren Singer's site, she inspired me to start reducing my waste output.
just having an easier recycling pickup of single stream recycling in a lot of communities would help. My small town here in S. Carolina use to have curbside single stream pickup on a weekly bases, then a few years back they stopped doing it because they claimed it cost to much, and now they just have a big dumpster for it at the end of town they take off whenever it gets full which means a lot of elder people in my community no longer even bother doing the recycle because it's not convenient, or because they just simply don't remember the big recycle dumpster is there. Sad but that's the way it is in a lot of rural communities, if they have any type of recycling options at all.
Commodorefan64 Exactly, I live in South Carolina as well. I live in an apartment complex that doesn't have a recycling bin so I have to horde all my recyclables in separate piles and then make a trip to the local dump where there are recycle bins. I also think it wouldn't hurt to incentivize it the way certain states do. Places where glass and plastic bottles get 5-10 cents a piece have the highest rates of recycling... go figure.
Richard Powell Yep for big stuff we have to haul it off as well to an even larger county dump site which again for my seniors can be a pain(I work for non profit that deals with various senior based programs). I also like the approach some states have of place anything on the curbside for a day, and it will be hauled off for recycle no questions asked. I remember visiting my ex mother in law in TN one year, and helping her clean out her garage for that day, and they took everything from a washing machine down to simple plastic bottles, and newspapers, and almost everyone in the neighborhood had at least a few things to throw out. So yeah make it simple, and easy for people to do, and they will do it, otherwise most people will just throw it in the regular trash.
Sad thing is most plastics aren't really worth recycling and is more of a "greenwash" project. Metal and Paper are the only ones that are genuinely good to be recycled. But regardless, (much like a lot of things in our society) we have this whole situation backwards by looking to recycle first. Really we need to become more proactive and do the other two R's first - Reduce and Reuse
Daft Jubs Reduce, and reuse when you can are good things I'll agree, but I don't know if recycling plastic is a "greenwash" because most plastics can at the very least be turned into polyester threads for clothes, and synthetic ropes.
Nice to get an update on the ocean cleanup project. I just found out about it this year, but I didn't realize it was an ongoing thing for almost 4 years now. I really hope we can keep our oceans clean.
The thing is, the companies that produce plastic or use it on their products, dont really care about what happens to their products when it becomes waste, I think if somehow we could charge fees from companies for the waste they produce, they would educate their costumers to recicle it or at the least they would think twice to keep producing waste, because after all "planned obsolescence" is real.
Great video by the way.
Fuck we suck. By, dumping trucks full of our muck we fuck up ducks and hapless ocean schmucks. Yuck. Frankly, I'm awestruck.
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
We need plastic version of Magneto. Plastico to just remove all of the plastic from the ocean in one go.
im dying dude xD
+thatone240girl please don't die. we love you.
Plastico surly must be a girl. If you know what I mean 😂
Plastineto. He sadly fails miserably because plastics are that bad at interacting with electromagnetism.
thatone240girl shit.my butt just fell off. now i cant shit .. literally i lmao
It always amazes me how you guys can consistently come up with fascinating, important topics to cover, and can do so in a seriously entertaining way. Kudos.
One of the million problem is there is not enough exposure to the public by government. Public and communal bins should show recent pictures of plastic waste in the sea, we also should have advertisements in the papers and TV showing the reality of it. Most people are just denying this huge problem burying thier heads in the sand.
that one wing of his colar staying up, its taunting us all
1. don't litter. carry your garbage in your pocket til you find a garbage can.
2. Make sure governments aren't using the Ocean as their own personal landfill
3. use less plastics
1. I was taught this when I was young, I still can't understand why people can't do that.
2. Valid point, the ocean is not a landfill.
3. It is really hard not to use lots of plastic, especially when a lot items are packaged in lots and lots and lots of plastic, especially when it's not recyclable... Though I've seen companies cut back on this practice a considerable amount.
well people are assholes and to many don't care. I live near a main road and people throw trash out all the time
That is exactly what I did all my life,except 2 obviously.I'm not a hacker,just a 13 year old Filipino.
+over9000713 Many plastic products can actually be replaced by wood and paper.
Exactly, plus it is easily biodegradable.
Thanks again for paying attention to the ocean! We need it.
We really need to start cleaning the oceans more
I've heard people say we should not use plastic bags for carrying groceries anymore to help this problem, but I've also hear that if we used paper instead of plastic, the environmental impact would be worse. There aren't always easy solutions, but I hope smart people can keep coming up with better options!
Why don't we get all the plastic, AND PUSH IT OVER THERE
yeah! and not just OVER THERE, but WAY OVER THERE!
I see you trying to steal somebody's reply from the top comment.
LOL
👏🏼 love it
Hemp plastic has to be the easiest solution but the monopolies won't let it happen until the people get pissed off about it......
A friend brought me back some candies from her trip to Spain. A really sweet gift (literally and figuratively). I was however pretty horrified by the packaging. It was a paper box wrapped in plastic film. In the box was a plastic tray upon which the candies sat. The candies were each individually wrapped in plastic as well. Any one of these 3 different plastics could have been removed and still protected the candies. While I fully understand the necessity and support the use of plastics, there are some really easy ways companies can cut back on the amount of plastics surrounding the products we purchase.
That sounds like the sort of packaging you find in Japan. They package the hell out everything. Every piece individually wrapped, plastic inside of plastic inside of plastic. It's so wasteful.
I have a great idea. STOP LITTERING.
***** I know mr kerbal ;p. But it would reduce it by quite a bit.
I personally don't litter, but I do my best to influence others who don't care to do the same.
I couldn't have said it better myself
It's not as easy as it sounds.
Unfortunately, we will never be able to stop everyone from littering. Just gotta fight the good fight and pick up what we can on a daily basis!!
That's amazing! Finally!!
I really enjoy these topics, I'm a very proud patreon! Pollution, the ocean, and wildlife are just a few of my favorites. Thanks for the great content!
Great video! It is fundamental to seek for ways to stop using plastic, but it will be very difficult because plastic is currently used for many things in the world. I guess we should recycle more...
*My friend throws a trash in to the water*
*I throw him in to the water*
don't pollute the water with your friend
You and your friend are doing the same thing....both throwing trash in water
Chow Tom It's not polluting since my friend is biodegradable.
+Robert Bay hahahaha yeah, killing people is environmental-friendly
+Robert Bay best response ever
What a coincidence.
I just read about a thing to keep six packs of beer together that's made of waste from the brewing process and would dissolve in the water and would also be able to serve as fish food.
The weird net thingy?
So what happens if the six-pack gets wet? Say in the rain, or if someone's playing with a hose?
@@ErzengelDesLichtes better than polluting and Killing innocent fish.
IMO specially built drones.
1: Solar powered floating platform that constantly roams around and filter out plastic out of the water.
2. In the rear it "poops" out links of bags made out of a UV and physically tough polymer. It will come out looking like big plastic links of sausage.
3. Each super link (say 100 segments) detaches from the drone and floats freely. The drone can attach a long lasting "pinger" tag, but that is optional.
4: A larger vessel collects the super link segments at a later time.
Advantage to my plan is it could be deployed at a large scale, say hundreds of drones. Once designed it could likely be mass produced and made very cheaply. If a storm disables a drone, another one can easily replace it. Collections is easy and even if all the super links are not collected, the large self contained units are not nearly as harmful as micro plastics and lose bits. They may even get some plant life adhering to them and make some micro biomes around them.
Sounds similar to the SolarBees project.(except for the 'pooping' part) Which failed recently and was canceled. I'm not discrediting your idea, I just thought you might be interested in reading about it and why it failed(I don't know why, probably politics though.)
Pooping is the key part!
It's always politics...
1) Biodegradable plastic
2) Strict enforcement of no littering on beaches
3) Don't let it get into the water in the first place
4) Use one of the ideas in this video to get out what's already in
5) Education on how littering affects wildlife
We just need some plastic-seeking, swimming, solar-powered drones. They could double as search-and-rescue bots, and would be available for world domination when Skynet took over.
The first microbe to develop the ability to efficiently break down plastic might just surpass beetles is biological success and fame.
"Some people worry about the effect the catchers will have on marine life"
... as opposed to, say, the effect of 12 million tons of plastic? Let's have some perspective, people. It will have an effect, nothing can happen in the ocean without having some repercussions, but will the localized effect of a few catchers really outweigh the good of the global reduction of plastic past the collectors?
Also, that's a lot of plastic. If we can collect it, maybe we can reuse and resell it. Although it's my understanding that plastic isn't cheap to recycle, so it probably wouldn't actually be profitable.
1. Start a business to recycle plastic from the ocean which no one wants
2. Get some boats to collect the huge garbage patch
3?????
4 Profit???
Plastic is formed from a component of crude oil, it can be converted back to crude oil. The process is just not economically beneficial RIGHT NOW.
With a source of cheaper energy (maybe, thorium?), it could be profitable to salvage plastic from the ocean and convert it to crude oil, running the engines of the collection ship on some of the oil and hauling the rest back for sale.
It's cost more to do that and all the fuel used would cost more. Plastic to payments of the crew wouldn't even be close. Not only the fuel and food costs of the vessel, they pay me 200-400 a day to be out there, my mates 400-1000 a day and that's just our pay. Not counting food costs, as well as fuel and maintenance, the engineering department.
3 Get free taxes to make the job workable at the begin
4 do it
5 profit
+downey klip thorium is less harmful, is really hard to turn into weapons, produces much more energy per ton of material and is abundant
***** mainly because nuclear innovation stalled in the 70's due to loss of interest, but also because of anti nuclear lobbying
I feel like there are more pressing matters to be dealt with before we start cleaning oceans.... like the threat of the white walkers north of the wall for example
Are you mad?! We have to take Winterfell from the Bolton's first!
Winter is coming... Like a porn star.
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRDS!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
you fool, the plastics form a bridge for them, they can simply walk around the wall, this must be our top priority
I really have to learn about this in more depth. It's a topic that I find to be pretty important.
Would it be possible to genetically modify a type of fish or water mammal to be able to eat and digest plastic and there chemical compounds? Some problems that I have thought of in the past 2 minutes would be, if another sea creature ate this animal before it digested the plastic could harm the predator. So in order to maintain the food chain these creatures would have to be fast at moving and fast at eating. Another problem that seems easy enough to me right now is, what happens when the plastic gets eaten up and what if the plastic gets too deep for the fish to survive. My answer for the first question would be, they die. After all we would not want to mess up the food chain too much by adding another possibly fast predator and the answer to the second problem would be that it would need to be able to dive deep and survive but also be able to survive in shallow water.
This is only a idea I had and may be to impossible to do but it could solve the plastic problem now and later.
Please do a video on the impact the meat and dairy industry has on the environment
I'm probably going to regret asking this since it sounds pro animal rights, but how does the meat and dairy production affect the environment?
Lots of water being used for meat and dairy production, lots of land taken up by it, giant patches of rainforest felled/burned for grazing grounds or soy fields (mostly used as animal feed), more energy used to produce 1 kJ of meat nutritional value compared to 1 kJ of plant matter, animal excrements being used to fertilize fields which get into the water cycle, etc, etc...
QuantumFluxable large animals require large amounts of water regardless of farms, animals like horses and cows require a large amount of land to graze on that's just normal, rainforest in places like south America and Africa are being lost not because of the food industry, but because of wood industry, most of north America are plains which is more than enough for wildlife to graze, and animal feces is the most safe fertilizer than chemicals, it's organic and also processed to get hazardous waste out of the matter, people aren't just scooping up cow shit and putting it in bags and selling it to people, there's a process to make it safe, and if water purification protocols are being followed all water run off should go through purification and processing before it even reaches your home.
I live in the great plains of the US, my family owns a farm, I can look outside right now and see the cows grazing in fact. Most of what your concerned about it possibly propaganda. I encourage you to do your own research.
Deisma how about you go watch Cowspiracy
skrubritos I'd rather not because knowing the internet it a video of some foreign processing factory treating animals terribly. I'll tell you now that those things do not happen in the US. The meat that we eat here are all up to grade from the USDA. All processing plants in the US all have strict laws and regulations that the USDA monitor every day to make sure plants are clean and treat animals humanly.
I remember a time growing up that I didnt see the little single serve water bottles everywhere. Maybe going back to filling a reusable bottle from a water fountain would be a good first step.
You Guys Have the Most Interesting Topics, That's Why I LOVE SciShow !!
In Fact I'm SUBSCRIBING Right Now !!
I just went scuba diving and have been thinking about this! What a coincidence!
The plastic might be worth collecting and profiting.
For how dire this problem is, the presenter's tone is surprisingly casual.
Well he's not here to rally the troops for a call to action, he's just presenting information.
+msblanc good point.
Moore's law for plastics!
make sense
Sonny Moore.
I love sci show :)
Thank for the video
It would be really appreciated if a video going to more details was made
Don't forget about the microplastics!
Fibers from plastic clothing, those tiny scrubs from toothpaste and cleansers, even the parts into which bigger debris physically "degrades" over time.
Currently those Microplastics are found EVERYWHERE. Literally every water source which I read of being checked contained them. Yes, tap water, too. And bottled water. And food.
Only so much one person can do. It needs to be a group effort.
I have a few ideas:
.Heavy fines on littering
.Install more bins
.Make recycling more profitable to incentivise people to recycle
.Incentivise ordinary citizens into picking up trash by giving them a small amount of money for every kilo they collect
If anyone else has some ideas please tell me⬇️
Huge problem! Really glad SciShow have covered it. Plastic is a disease we should kick, invest more in developing and producing bio degradable alternatives where necessary and encouraging the reduce of use where possible, i.e. cutting down on plastic bottle water and encouraging reusable water bottles!
500,000-200,000,000?
What the fuck kind of estimation is that?
i was thinking the same thing lmfao
The kind you get from trying to estimate small three dimensionally dispersed items in 3 very large oceans. Following plastic production it has been estimated that annually there's approximately 85 million tons of plastic waste which cannot be accounted for, at least some of that ends up in the oceans.
It means they know jack shit
It's kind of like trying to estimate the mass of an iceberg - what we can see is definitely _not_ all there is. I assume you've heard the phrase "only the tip of the iceberg".
But. You can use tools to check the mass of an iceberg. But they can't do jack shit for this
Wish there were ships who sole purpose was to take volunteers out there to clean it up. I'd be volunteering all the time.
How to maje a difference
1.Please use reusable bags
2.Bring your own cups to a coffee shop
3.use less plastic
we need to be less dependent on plastics, as recorded on a plastic camera and watched on a plastic computer by millions of people wearing plastic filled cloths :P this world needs soo much more work!
"LET'S BLOW UP THE OCEAN!"
-Torgue, gone but not forgotten
I should name a band "29 Hypothetical Floating Trash Collectors"
First and foremost...QUIT THROWING SHIT IN IT!!! Second...Stop throwing shit in it!! X 1000...
Another problem is all those microplastic in cosmetics and soaps. But nice video, as always!
One solution would be to just use less plastic. For example, we could go back to making bottles out of glass.
the reason why we switched from glass to plastic is because plastic has a lower melting point thus it's easier to work with, which also means it's cheaper to produce
I say we build a wall around the floating garbage patches, and make the dolphins pay for it.
whales aren't off the hook, they pay as well
They'll pay, and they'll like it.
Why can't we just build a wall around those people who put garbage into the oceans? :-P
That wall just got 10 feet higher!
keenan irwin orcas can still jump over it, it needs to be even higher
GOOD EARLY MORNING THE WORLD. What's on today ? Cleaning up the Oceans, ok I go back to bed. Have a GREAT n PRODUCTION day every one
Wow thank you for enlightening me on this issue. Living on the Mid West Canada we only have small lakes around and when there is garbage in the water, it's because of some jerk camper who tossed theirs trash out while boating.
Saltwater Brewery is currently developing a can rings made from barley rather than plastic. These can rings are biodegradable, edible, and made from recycled barley used in the brewing process. If more companies invest in this technology, one of the most commonly found plastics in the ocean will be eliminated.
Find out more at:
www.saltwaterbrewery.com/community-swb/
one of my favorite statements is that life will adapt to humanities mistakes except for humanity itself.
this reminds me of that indiegogo campaign for the seabin project
I'm not sure that substitution is the way to go with plastics. I mean take the plastic bag for instance yes it dose not biodegrade but it dose take 10 times less fuel to produce then a paper bag and when plastic bags do rot down they release methane.
Personally I think that we should focus on using less material on things like packaging and focus our attention more towards efficiency.
Love to hear others opinions, I am no expert.
how about engineering a bacteria that eats the stuff? one that can only live in salt water for example
They tried it. Became immensely dangerous.
oh i already know this, the debaters all over the US already know this. We talked about this for the full year last year. this plan won me most of my rounds out of the 5 tournaments i attended. The thing is that this plan doesn't solve for the microplastics in the ocean. As Hank said in the video, the microplastics actually do the damage to the ecosystem. These plastics are just as small, if not smaller than a hair follicle and can't be collected by the arrays proposed by slat. The plan also doesn't handle the deep ocean plastic as it only stays on the surface. plus, it doesn't stop new plastics from coming into the ocean. Its true that a significant amount of plastics are on the surface. but this plan doesn't stop the microplastics, which are the onces being ingested by animals and giving us cancer when we consume them. Slat's plan has ben the most viable in recent years and i like how we are taking initiative towards helping the environment, but we still is to iron out the creases before we spread the word and false hope along with it.
Can we try to consolidate the Pacific garbage patch into a proper floating island? I would like to visit the plastic beach.
I agree that implementing some kind of idea to limit how much plastic gets into the ocean in the first place is going to help over the long run, but is nobody doing anything about those big garbage islands? I'm sure monetary cost is probably why nobody with the power to do something is responding, but I'm really surprised no company is even trying to clean it up as a PR effort. I'm sure I'm over-simplifying, but wouldn't it be easy too? Just get a big ship with a crane and heavy-duty net and "shovel" the plastic onboard until it's time to go to shore and unload, then repeat until the island is gone.
Fire resistant materials in the food chain? Well, you're gonna have fireproof sharks.
Teaching people why they must stop throwing trash in streets and natural areas. This should be a subject in schools instead of other almost useless subjects
I see a lot of comments telling people to stop letting but you have to understand it's not as easy as it sounds, everyone has at least littered once
Do one on the great barrier reef!!
After seeing the documentary Plastic Planet I'm pretty upset about the whole plastic industry. Could you make a video about the health risks of plastic?
I love how he moves his hands while talking, I always thought it was just me!!
maybe he's really you, we are all ONE being
Hi Hank,a daunting task that gets too little attention.Here's hoping there's a solution before it's too late:/ Thanks Hanks
We could always explode the ocean
same.
nuke it
WE SHOULD TAKE THE OCEAN AND PUSH IT SOMEWHERE ELSE.
Rawmon94 pretty badass
we should just build a wall an forget about the ocean. make the land great again!
now that we asked that question, let's ask a similar question, how clean up the space dibris that orbits our earth?
Hank, there are more important things to worry about, like ironing your shirt, and losing that tummy! Hell, just straighten out your collar! It's like you didn't even try! lol
How cold could a flame be
thats interesting id say 100 c prob lowest actually idk
This is highly dependent on the fuel being burned. The substance Triethylborane has one of the lowest autoignition temperatures at -4 Fahrenheit (-20C). This means that this substance can produce a flame at -4 degrees. But this flame is not a traditional *”visible”* flame. The coldest possible visible flame is at least a couple hundred degrees F.
"And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children."
*George Carlin*
Rivers take a lot of trash to oceans, example, the nets placed in the river between Guatemala & El Salvador that was leading to ocean.
What I don't understand is why we don't send ships out to the garbage patches with nets and scoop up everything on the surface to take back to land and be recycled. I would think that would be a much faster temporary solution, and it keeps the plastics already in the garbage patches from getting smaller and hard to clean up.
And it's probably worth the price once you factor in the recycling.
if this island of plastic the size of texas even exist, it wouldn't be that easy to just go and scoop it up. I thought that at first. but what you're imagining just doesn't exist. I tried my best to find video or photo evidence but came up empty handed. one video showed a group going out searching for this huge field of plastic floating around and they came up with extremely tiny pieces of what they said was plastic. and even what they recovered was an extremely small amount.
Watch VICE's episode 'Toxic: Garbage Island' where they actually voyage out to the Pacific gyre. It's extremely depressing.
Another problem is that sealife may be interrupted.
Why don't we introduce a gigantic armada of tiny robots that swim around collecting all sorts of plastics. They could power themselves using tidal or solar energy, they could dive deep in the ocean if needed, be completely self sufficient, not hurt the wild life and we'll be able to monitor these bots as well. Oh and on another note, they could be made out of easily bio degradable materials so that in the event of one of them "dying" they won't be a hindrance to anyone.
Good vid, but Zwart is not pronounced as Slat, rather like Z(emphasis)w-art(slightly slower). Good plan he came up with btw, it has the highest chance of at least starting the cleanup of the oceans. The plastic soup issue was considered unsolvable with current tech, but then this kid scientist from NL of all places came up with the idea showcased in the vid. XD
What does it look like?!? Twice the size of Texas? Where are the damn pictures!
I've quit using bottled water and I try to recycle everything I can. Even with my morning Diet Coke, I refill a Big Gulp cup. I'm sure there's more I could do but soft drinks and water are where I've been most wasteful in my life. Save the fishes!
The answer to our problem is simple... Let's build a wall around the ocean and make the fish pay for it!!!
Build a wall. That should help. Somehow.
Good point, voting for Donald.
+Brad you ok?
+Brad you should sit down buddy, I mean I feel like your face turned red during that rant. Woosaw, woosaw
What about plastic eating bacteria?
Genius!
Saw that on VSause :)
Depends, you have to be careful of the ecosystems into which they may be introduced.
I think plastic-eating bacteria, whenever they develop, are going to cause a second wave of the anthropic extinction event by covering the oceans and the land and releasing all of the carbon locked up in plastics to the atmosphere.
There are more problems than solutions about it.
and we could possibly recycle a percentage of that and reduce production of new plastics :)
Archeologists in the far future will call this the "Plastic Age" because of the layer of plastic in the sedimentary rocks.
I wonder if plankton could be engineered to breakdown plastic. Even just breaking them down to monomers would be a massive help as the monomers would degrade much more quickly. Of course that would need an array of enzymes just for that one job because of all the plastics.
If it is possible, then plankton could be engineered to need plastic to survive; and in that case, the plankton would only flourish as and when and where we (and the turtles) need them to.
I'm sure someone will tell me its an awful and/or unworkable idea though.... seems too simple to not have already been done.
The intro played at speed 2x sounds so satisfying.
We might need a govt regulation of plastics, and we need a new season of Deadliest Catch where they just collect ocean garbage
Those who are littering must feel the pain and they must clean
Hank your named after a octopus in finding dory!!!! YOU MUST KNOW THIS!!!!
What we need is some kind of algae or bacteria that feeds on carbon in the plastics and in the oceans.
Solving the acidification and plastic problem all at once. Not sure how feasible that would be though.
And the lifespan on these have to be really short so they don't go out of control
They should use some kind of material that's biodegradable for packaging
Wouldn't the first step to be setting up these screener things at the mouths of rivers to greatly lessen the problem's growth?
If most of it is going from land to ocean via rivers, that seems the most logical place to start.
Also, if we can't make bacteria that eat it, what about something that will make it sink.
Plastic isn't the first material we've made that doesn't biodegrade (pottery for example) it's just the first one of those that floats.
consumerism. people have to start realising the difference between wanting and needing things. another thing is tech. newer tech is making older stuff obsolete and we end up with all sorts of household items that can no longer be used but still would work fine; like tv's when they stopped analog signals. we have recycling plants in Australia that don't even process stuff anymore, even though people are trying to do the right thing and place their recyclables in the assigned bins. bah, i could go on for hours........
Have you guys seen the biodegradable hemp plastic substitute? Could be a thing.
Can you make a video on biodegradable hemp plastic?