What really happens to the plastic you throw away - Emma Bryce

Translator: Xusto Rodriguez Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

This is the story of three plastic bottles,

Esta é a historia de tres botellas de plástico,

empty and discarded.

baleiras e refugadas.

Their journeys are about to diverge

A súas viaxes sufrirán un cambio

with outcomes that impact nothing less than the fate of the planet.

cuxos resultados impactan nada menos que no destino do planeta.

But they weren't always this way.

Pero non sempre foron así.

To understand where these bottles end up, we must first explore their origins.

Para entender onde terminan estas botellas,

primeiro cómpre investigar as súas orixes.

The heroes of our story were conceived in this oil refinery.

As heroínas da nosa historia foron concibidas nesta refinaría de petróleo.

The plastic in their bodies

O plástico dos seus corpos

was formed by chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together

formouse grazas ao enlace químico de moléculas de petróleo e gas,

to make monomers.

que crea monómeros.

In turn, these monomers were bonded into long polymer chains to make plastic

Pola súa vez, estes monómeros únense en longas cadeas de polímeros

para convertérense en plástico en forma de millóns de gránulos.

in the form of millions of pellets.

Those were melted at manufacturing plants and reformed in molds

Estes fundíronse en plantas de fabricación e transformáronse en moldes

to create the resilient material that makes up the triplets' bodies.

para crear o material resistente que forma o corpo das nosas tres botellas.

Machines filled the bottles with sweet bubbily liquid

As máquinas encheron as botellas cun líquido doce con burbullas

and they were then wrapped, shipped, bought, opened, consumed

e logo foron empaquetadas, transportadas, compradas, abertas, consumidas,

and unceremoniously discarded.

e, sen máis, refugadas.

And now here they lie,

E agora xacen aquí,

poised at the edge of the unknown.

ás beiras do descoñecido.

Bottle one, like hundreds of millions of tons of his plastic brethren,

A botella un, como centos de millóns de toneladas das súas irmás de plástico,

ends up in a landfill.

acaba nun vertedoiro.

This huge dump expands each day

Este enorme vertedoiro medra cada día conforme chega máis lixo

as more trash comes in and continues to take up space.

e segue ocupando espazo.

As plastics sit there being compressed amongst layers of other junk,

A medida que o plástico queda comprimido entre capas de lixo,

rainwater flows through the waste

a auga de choiva flúe a través dos residuos

and absorbs the water-soluble compounds it contains,

e absorbe os compostos solubles en auga que estes conteñen,

and some of those are highly toxic.

algúns deles altamente tóxicos.

Together, they create a harmful stew called leachate,

Xuntos, crean un caldo daniño chamado lixiviado,

which can move into groundwater, soil and streams,

que pasa á auga subterránea, ao solo e ás correntes,

poisoning ecosystems and harming wildlife.

envelenando os ecosistemas e danando a vida silvestre.

It can take bottle one an agonizing 1,000 years to decompose.

A botella un pode agonizar mil anos ata descomporse.

Bottle two's journey is stranger but, unfortunately, no happier.

A viaxe da botella dúas é estraña pero, por desgraza, non máis feliz.

He floats on a trickle that reaches a stream,

Aboia nunha corrente que dá nun regato,

a stream that flows into a river,

que dá nun río

and a river that reaches the ocean.

que chega ao mar.

After months lost at sea,

Despois de meses perdida no mar,

he's slowly drawn into a massive vortex, where trash accumulates,

únese lentamente a un enorme remuíño onde se acumula lixo,

a place known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

un lugar coñecido como Gran Mancha de Lixo do Pacífico.

Here the ocean's currents have trapped millions of pieces of plastic debris.

Aquí as correntes oceánicas atraparon millóns de refugallos plásticos.

This is one of five plastic-filled gyres in the world's seas.

Este é un dos cinco remuíños de plástico dos mares do mundo.

Places where the pollutants turn the water into a cloudy plastic soup.

Sitios onde os contaminantes converten a auga nunha turbia sopa de plástico.

Some animals, like seabirds, get entangled in the mess.

Algúns animais, como as aves mariñas, enguedéllanse nesa lea.

They, and others, mistake the brightly colored plastic bits for food.

Estas, e outras, confunden con alimentos

os anacos de plástico de cores brillantes.

Plastic makes them feel full when they're not,

O plástico dálles sensación de saciedade pero non é así,

so they starve to death

por iso morren de fame

and pass the toxins from the plastic up the food chain.

e pasan as toxinas do plástico á cadea alimentaria.

For example, it's eaten by lanternfish,

Por exemplo, os peixes lanterna comen os plásticos,

the lanternfish are eaten by squid,

as luras comen os peixes lanterna,

the squid are eaten by tuna,

os atúns come as luras,

and the tuna are eaten by us.

e nós comemos os atúns.

E a maioría dos plásticos non son biodegradables,

And most plastics don't biodegrade,

which means they're destined to break down into smaller and smaller pieces

o que significa que se desintegrarán en anacos cada vez máis pequenos

called micro plastics,

chamados microplásticos,

which might rotate in the sea eternally.

que poden permanecer no mar eternamente.

But bottle three is spared the cruel purgatories of his brothers.

Pero a botella tres líbrase do purgatorio cruel das súas irmás.

A truck brings him to a plant

Un camión lévaa a unha planta

where he and his companions are squeezed flat

onde é comprimida xunto coas súas compañeiras

and compressed into a block.

para formar un bloque.

Okay, this sounds pretty bad, too, but hang in there.

Vale, isto tamén soa bastante mal, pero espera.

It gets better.

Isto mellora.

The blocks are shredded into tiny pieces,

Os bloques tritúranse en pequenos anacos,

which are washed and melted,

que se lavan, fúndense,

so they become the raw materials that can be used again.

e convértense en materia prima que se pode reutilizar.

As if by magic, bottle three is now ready to be reborn

Como por encantamento, a botella tres está lista para renacer

as something completely new.

como algo completamente novo.

For this bit of plastic with such humble origins,

Para este anaco de plástico de orixe tan humilde,

suddenly the sky is the limit.

de súpeto, o ceo é o límite.