Can we live without plastic? ⏲️ 6 Minute English

434,542 views ・ 2023-12-14

BBC Learning English


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Hello. This is Six Minute
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English from BBC
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Learning English. I'm
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Neil. And I'm Beth.
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"Plastic is fantastic."
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This phrase was used a lot in the 1950s
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when mass-produced plastic items started to become part
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of our everyday lives.
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The following decades saw a revolution as plastic became
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the most commonly used material in modern life, found in everything
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from cars to furniture to packaging.
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Take a quick look around
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and you'll soon see how many everyday items contain plastic.
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But now our love of plastic is being questioned,
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mostly thanks to climate change and pollution caused by single use plastics –
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plastic products which are designed to be used just once
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before being thrown away. 11 million tonnes of plastic waste
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are dumped into our oceans every year.
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It's believed that single-use plastics make up 40%
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of all plastic pollution globally. What's more,
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it's not just land and water being polluted - tiny plastic pieces known
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as microbeads have even been found inside the human body
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and can be passed from mother to child through breast milk. And
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because plastic comes from fossil fuels, the process
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of making it creates problems at every stage,
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from burning coal, to transportation, to recycling. In this programme,
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we'll be asking: is it
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time to live without plastic? And, as usual,
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we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
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But first I have a question for you, Beth.
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One reason why plastic became so popular is that
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it's a very flexible material.
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It can be formed into different shapes,
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making it useful for keeping food fresh, or holding liquid.
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Originally, plastic was invented to replace the decreasing supply
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of natural materials like metal, wood and glass. So which items did plastic
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first replace? Was it:
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a. snooker balls b. shopping bags or c. hairbrushes?
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Hmm, I guess the first thing to be made
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of plastic was a hairbrush.
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OK, Beth, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.
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Dr Sherri Mason is Professor of Chemistry at Penn State University
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in the US, and a specialist in plastic pollution.
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Her award-winning 2017 research into microplastics
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in rivers led to the US Congress banning microbeads. Here,
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she explains the problem of plastics to BBC
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World Service Programme, The Real Story.
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Plastic is synthetic and, as a consequence of that, nature
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doesn't really know what to do with it.
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Like, a paper bag that's sitting on the side of the road –
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it's unsightly, but within weeks
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there are organisms in the soil
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they can use that paper bag as a food source, right...
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They have evolved to basically chew up that paper bag
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and turn it back into soil,
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turn it back into carbon and nitrogen and oxygen.
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But with regard to plastic, because it is a synthetic material,
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you don't have that evolution.
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There are some organisms that can use it as a food source,
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but they're few and far between, especially when you're talking
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about water systems, aquatic systems and the temperatures that exist, and
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so they can't really use it as a food source so plastic doesn't biodegrade...
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Plastic is a synthetic material,
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meaning that it's made by combining manmade chemicals,
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instead of existing naturally.
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Natural materials like paper decay and harmlessly turn back into soil
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– they biodegrade. But plastic is not like this.
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It doesn't decay and get broken down by microbes and bacteria.
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In fact, some plastic-eating microbes and bacteria do exist,
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but these are few and far between, they're rare –
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they don't happen very often. It is the fact that
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plastic doesn't decay which is responsible for the waste
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we see in the environment. Waste
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which is often unsightly, meaning ugly and unpleasant to
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look at. Fortunately, help is at hand.
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The plastic-eating microbes
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Neil mentioned, especially one called Rhodococcus ruber,
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have been tested by scientists
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and seemed capable of breaking down plastic into its basic components.
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What's also needed is an emphasis on reducing plastic production,
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especially packaging and other single-use products, rather
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than simply recycling. Action like this should help
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plastic achieve its original purpose – to help preserve, not pollute,
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our natural resources. And speaking of the origins of plastic, isn't it
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time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil?
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Right. I asked you
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which object made of natural materials was the first to be replaced by plastic?
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You said it was a hairbrush which was... the wrong answer, I'm afraid Beth.
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In fact, the first plastic-moulding machine
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was used in 1872
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to produce snooker balls.
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OK, let's recap the vocabulary
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we have learned from this programme, starting with single-use plastics –
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plastic products which are designed to be used just once,
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before being thrown away.
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Microbeads are tiny plastic particles found in products
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like toothpastes and body scrubs,
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which can enter and pollute rivers, seas and the human body.
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The adjective synthetic describes
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a non-natural material made by combining chemicals.
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To biodegrade means to decay naturally in a way that is not harmful
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to the environment. The phrase few and far between
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means very rare or not happening very often.
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And finally, if something is described as unsightly,
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it's ugly and unpleasant to look at. Once again
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our six minutes are up.
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Join us next time for more trending topics
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and useful vocabulary here at Six Minute
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English. Goodbye for now.
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Goodbye!
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