The Dirt on Plastic Waste

In 2011, we visited the Vancouver Waste Transfer Station and saw an enormous pit of plastic waste.

And perhaps one day we'll be able to tackle the problem of solid plastic waste.

When you think about plastic pollution and the marine environment, we think about the Great Pacific Gyre, which is supposed to be a floating island of plastic waste.

They start a business that gives people's gift cards to buy stuff if they recycle their plastic waste.

Because of that, waste is being put into plastic or metallic barrels, sealed by concrete mixture and buried deep in the ground.

And in their area they had a lot of shops and restaurants that were producing lots of food, cardboard and plastic waste.

Plastic.

Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.

Plastic explosives

Plastic bottle?

Plastic surgery?

While governments have begun to implement new (and often quite strict) regulations aimed at managing plastics waste for example, China banned lightweight plastic shopping bags in 2008 they are inadequate to address the world s growing plastics waste problem.

Plastic debris accounted for 77 , of which 93 was plastic bags.

It's plastic pollution.

Plastic? Sewing? Meat?

About plastic surgery...

Some plastic, eh?

A plastic hammock?

There's a waste of time there's a waste of space there's a waste of energy and there's a waste of waste.

Empty plastic water bottle

People use plastic everywhere.

How convenient. Plastic surgery?

It's a plastic bag.

He's a plastic surgeon.

Glass eyes, plastic noses.

Although they're part of the plastic, they're not covalently bonded to the plastic backbone.

The quota system upsets some because it shows that money can buy things, and even people, but it can t buy humanity. Selective waste collection Paper, Plastic, Metal, Glass, Human Hearts.

E. Waste disposal and waste management

Sami is a plastic surgeon.

Plastic does not burn easily.

Plastic does not break easily.

And that's a plastic polymer.

Then I got plastic surgery.

Han Na had plastic surgery.

When the plastic moulding machine finally arrived, Ole started making little plastic teddy bears and letters.

What a waste. What a sad waste.

Less than 10 of plastic trash is recycled compared to almost 90 of metals because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. Frustrated by this waste, Mike Biddle has developed a cheap and incredibly energy efficient plant that can, and does, recycle any kind of plastic.

Recycling of plastic in many developing countries means the incineration of the plastic, the burning of the plastic, which releases incredible toxic chemicals and, once again, kills people.

I'm also concerned about the plastic in the refrigerator, and I'm concerned about the plastic and the toxins that leach from plastic into us and into our bodies.

It's a bad thing that plastic breaks down into smaller little bits, because it's always still plastic.

The introduction of a deposit scheme for plastic bottles in Germany boosted the plastic recycling rate significantly.

It's a bad thing that plastic breaks down into smaller little bits, because it's always still plastic.

Waste!

And both in the production of plastic, the use of plastic and the disposal of plastic, the people who have the bull's eye on their foreheads are poor people.