Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic

Translator: Klavdija Cernilogar Reviewer: Tilen Pigac - EFZG

I'm a garbage man.

Sem smetar.

And you might find it interesting that I became a garbage man,

In mogoče se vam bo zdelo zanimivo, da sem to postal,

because I absolutely hate waste.

ker absolutno sovražim odpadke.

I hope, within the next 10 minutes,

Upam, da bom v naslednjih desetih minutah

to change the way you think

spremenil vaš pogled

about a lot of the stuff in your life.

na veliko stvari v vašem življenju.

And I'd like to start at the very beginning.

In rad bi začel na začetku.

Think back when you were just a kid.

Pomislite nazaj na svoje otroštvo.

How did look at the stuff in your life?

Kako ste gledali na stvari, ki so vas obkrožale?

Perhaps it was like these toddler rules:

Mogoče po teh pravilih, ki veljajo med malčki:

It's my stuff if I saw it first.

Stvar je moja, če sem jo prvi videl.

The entire pile is my stuff if I'm building something.

Cel kup je moj, če nekaj sestavljam.

The more stuff that's mine, the better.

Več stvari ko je mojih, boljše je.

And of course, it's your stuff if it's broken.

In seveda, tvoje je, če je zlomljeno.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Well after spending about 20 years in the recycling industry,

Po dvajsetih letih v reciklažni industriji

it's become pretty clear to me

mi je postalo jasno,

that we don't necessarily leave these toddler rules behind

da teh otroških pravil ne opustimo vedno,

as we develop into adults.

niti ko odrastemo.

And let me tell you why I have that perspective.

In naj vam povem, zakaj tako mislim.

Because each and every day

Ker čisto vsak dan

at our recycling plants around the world

v naših obratih za reciklažo po vsem svetu

we handle about one million pounds

predelamo okoli 500.000 kilogramov

of people's discarded stuff.

stvari, ki so jih ljudje odvrgli.

Now a million pounds a day sounds like a lot of stuff,

500.000 kg na dan se sliši veliko,

but it's a tiny drop of the durable goods

a gre za kapljico v morje trajnih artiklov,

that are disposed each and every year around the world --

ki jih vsako leto odvržemo po vsem svetu --

well less than one percent.

še manj kot en odstotek.

In fact, the United Nations estimates

Združeni narodi ocenjujejo,

that there's about 85 billion pounds a year

da na leto nastane okoli 42 milijard kilogramov

of electronics waste

odpadne elektronike,

that gets discarded around the world each and every year --

ki jo odvržejo ljudje po svetu --

and that's one of the most rapidly growing parts of our waste stream.

kar je eden najhitreje rastočih delov našega sistema odpadkov.

And if you throw in other durable goods like automobiles and so forth,

In če dodate še drugo trajno blago, kot so avtomobili in podobno,

that number well more than doubles.

se ta številka več kot podvoji.

And of course, the more developed the country,

In seveda, bolj razvita ko je država,

the bigger these mountains.

višje so te gore stvari.

Now when you see these mountains,

In ko vidite te gore,

most people think of garbage.

vas večina pomisli na smeti.

We see above-ground mines.

Mi vidimo rudnike na površju zemlje.

And the reason we see mines is because there's a lot of valuable raw materials

In to zato, ker je v njih veliko vrednih surovin,

that went into making all of this stuff in the first place.

ki so jih porabili za izdelavo vseh teh stvari.

And it's becoming increasingly important

In vse pomembneje postaja,

that we figure out how to extract these raw materials

da ugotovimo, kako surovine spet pridobiti

from these extremely complicated waste streams.

iz teh izjemno zapletenih sistemov odpadkov.

Because as we've heard all week at TED,

Kajti kot smo ves teden poslušali na TED-u,

the world's getting to be a smaller place with more people in it

svet postaja vse manjši, na njem pa je vse več ljudi,

who want more and more stuff.

ki hočejo vedno več stvari.

And of course, they want the toys and the tools

In seveda, hočejo igrače in orodja,

that many of us take for granted.

ki so bila za mnoge od nas nekaj samoumevnega.

And what goes into making those toys and tools

In iz česa nastanejo igrače in orodja,

that we use every single day?

ki jih vsakodnevno uporabljamo?

It's mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals.

Gre predvsem za različne vrste plastike in kovin.

And the metals, we typically get

Kovine ponavadi dobimo

from ore that we mine

iz rude, pridobljene

in ever widening mines

iz vedno večjih

and ever deepening mines around the world.

in vedno globljih rudnikov po svetu.

And the plastics, we get from oil,

Plastiko prdobivamo iz nafte,

which we go to more remote locations

ki se nahaja na vedno bolj oddaljenih lokacijah

and drill ever deeper wells to extract.

in v vedno globljih vrtinah.

And these practices have

Vse to ima pomemben

significant economic and environmental implications

ekonomski in ekološki vpliv,

that we're already starting to see today.

ki je danes že dokaj viden.

The good news is we are starting to recover materials from our end-of-life stuff

Dobra novica je, da začenjamo pridobivati materiale iz predmetov, ki niso več uporabni,

and starting to recycle our end-of-life stuff,

in pričenjamo reciklirati neuporabne stvari,

particularly in regions of the world like here in Europe

posebej v regijah, kakršna je Evropa,

that have recycling policies in place

kjer obstajajo politike na področju reciklaže,

that require that this stuff be recycled

ki predpisujejo, da je stvari treba reciklirati

in a responsible manner.

na odgovoren način.

Most of what's extracted from our end-of-life stuff,

Večina recikliranega materiala iz neuporabnih stvari,

if it makes it to a recycler, are the metals.

če te sploh pridejo v reciklažo, so kovine.

To put that in perspective --

Naj ponazorim --

and I'm using steel as a proxy here for metals,

vzemimo jeklo kot predstavnika kovin,

because it's the most common metal --

saj gre za najbolj uporabljano kovino --

if your stuff makes it to a recycler,

če vaš predmet pride v reciklažo,

probably over 90 percent of the metals

bomo verjetno preko 90 odstotkov kovin

are going to be recovered and reused for another purpose.

pridobili nazaj in uporabili v nov namen.

Plastics are a whole other story:

Pri plastiki je drugače:

well less than 10 percent are recovered.

povrne se veliko manj kot 10 odstotkov.

In fact, it's more like five percent.

Gre bolj za kakih pet odstotkov.

Most of it's incinerated or landfilled.

Večina je zgori ali se jo zakoplje.

Now most people think that's because plastics are a throw-away material,

Večina ljudi misli, da je to zato, ker je plastika odpadni material,

have very little value.

ki nima vrednosti.

But actually, plastics are several times more valuable than steel.

A v resnici je plastika vredna nekajkrat toliko kot jeklo.

And there's more plastics produced and consumed

In po svetu se glede na prostornino

around the world on a volume basis

vsako leto proizvede

every year than steel.

več plastike kot jekla.

So why is such a plentiful and valuable material

Zakaj torej ta razširjen in vreden material

not recovered at anywhere near the rate

ni recikliran niti približno v taki meri

of the less valuable material?

kot manjvredni materiali?

Well it's predominantly because

Predvsem zato,

metals are very easy to recycle

ker je kovine zelo enostavno ločiti

from other materials and from one another.

od drugih materialov in eno od druge.

They have very different densities.

Imajo zelo različno gostoto.

They have different electrical and magnetic properties.

Imajo različne električne in magnetne lastnosti.

And they even have different colors.

Celo različnih barv so.

So it's very easy for either humans or machines

Tako jih človek ali stroj

to separate these metals

enostavno loči

from one another and from other materials.

eno od druge in od drugih materialov.

Plastics have overlapping densities over a very narrow range.

Različne vrste plastike imajo podobno gostoto v zelo ozkem razponu.

They have either identical or very similar

Imajo enake ali zelo podobne

electrical and magnetic properties.

električne in magnetne lastnosti.

And any plastic can be any color,

In plastika je lahko kakršnekoli barve,

as you probably well know.

kot verjetno dobro veste.

So the traditional ways of separating materials

Tako tradicionalni načini ločevanja materialov

just simply don't work for plastics.

pri plastiki enostavno ne delujejo.

Another consequence of metals being so easy to recycle by humans

Še ena posledica tega, da človek brez težav reciklira kovine, je,

is that a lot of our stuff from the developed world --

da veliko blaga iz razvitega sveta --

and sadly to say, particularly from the United States,

in na žalost, predvsem iz ZDA,

where we don't have any recycling policies in place like here in Europe --

kjer ne obstajajo predpisi o reciklaži, za razliko od Evrope --

finds its way to developing countries

gre v države v razvoju

for low-cost recycling.

v poceni reciklažo.

People, for as little as a dollar a day, pick through our stuff.

Ljudje tudi za le dolar na dan brskajo skozi artikle.

They extract what they can, which is mostly the metals --

Ločijo, kar lahko, torej predvsem kovine --

circuit boards and so forth --

vezja in tako naprej --

and they leave behind mostly what they can't recover,

tisto, česar ne morejo ločiti, pa pustijo,

which is, again, mostly the plastics.

pri čemer gre predvsem za plastiko.

Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals

Ali pa plastiko sežgejo, da bi prišli do kovin,

in burn houses like you see here.

kar se dogaja v takih sežigalnicah.

And they extract the metals by hand.

In kovine ločujejo ročno.

Now while this may be the low-economic-cost solution,

To je morda ekonomsko gledano poceni rešitev,

this is certainly not the low-environmental

nikakor pa ni poceni z vidika okolja

or human health-and-safety solution.

ali zdravja in varnosti ljudi.

I call this environmental arbitrage.

Temu pravim okoljska arbitraža.

And it's not fair, it's not safe

Ni poštena, ni varna

and it's not sustainable.

in ni trajnostna.

Now because the plastics are so plentiful --

Ker obstaja tako veliko plastike --

and by the way,

in, seveda,

those other methods don't lead to the recovery of plastics, obviously --

druge metode ne omogočajo pridobitve plastike iz predmetov --

but people do try to recover the plastics.

ampak zato, ker ljudje poskušajo priti do plastike.

This is just one example.

To je samo en primer.

This is a photo I took standing on the rooftops

Tole sliko sem posnel s strehe

of one of the largest slums in the world in Mumbai, India.

enega največjih slumov na svetu, v Mumbaju, v Indiji.

They store the plastics on the roofs.

Plastiko hranijo na strehah.

They bring them below those roofs into small workshops like these,

Potem jo nosijo v majhne delavnice, kakršna je tale,

and people try very hard to separate the plastics,

in ljudje se zelo trudijo ločiti plastiko

by color, by shape, by feel,

po barvi, obliki, na otip,

by any technique they can.

s kakršnokoli možno tehniko.

And sometimes they'll resort to what's known as the "burn and sniff" technique

In včasih se zatečejo k tehniki "zažgi in povohaj",

where they'll burn the plastic and smell the fumes

kjer plastiko žgejo in vohajo hlape,

to try to determine the type of plastic.

da bi ugotovili, za kateri tip gre.

None of these techniques result in any amount of recycling

Nobena od teh tehnik pomembno ne prispeva

in any significant way.

k reciklaži.

And by the way,

In poleg tega

please don't try this technique at home.

te tehnike ne poskušajte doma.

So what are we to do about this space-age material,

Kaj naj torej storimo s tem materialom vesoljske ere,

at least what we used to call a space-aged material, these plastics?

tako smo plastiko pač nekoč imenovali?

Well I certainly believe that it's far too valuable and far too abundant

Verjamem, da je vsekakor preveč vredna in je je preveč,

to keep putting back in the ground

da bi jo zakopavali

or certainly send up in smoke.

ali sežigali.

So about 20 years ago, I literally started in my garage tinkering around,

Pred okoli dvajsetimi leti sem se v svoji garaži začel ubadati s tem,

trying to figure out how to separate

kako naj ločim

these very similar materials from each other,

te med seboj tako podobne materiale

and eventually enlisted a lot of my friends,

in sčasoma sem prepričal veliko prijateljev

in the mining world actually, and in the plastics world,

iz sveta rudarstva in plastike,

and we started going around to mining laboratories around the world.

da smo začeli obiskovati rudnike po svetu.

Because after all, we're doing above-ground mining.

Kajti, konec koncev, ukvarjamo se z rudarjenjem na površju.

And we eventually broke the code.

Končno nam je uspelo razvozlati šifro.

This is the last frontier of recycling.

To je zadnja meja reciklaže.

It's the last major material

Je zadnji pomembni material,

to be recovered in any significant amount on the Earth.

ki ga je na Zemlji mogoče reciklirati v pomembnih količinah.

And we finally figured out how to do it.

In končno smo ugotovili, kako to narediti.

And in the process, we started recreating

V tem postopku smo začeli poustvarjati način,

how the plastics industry makes plastics.

na katerega industrija plastiko proizvaja.

The traditional way to make plastics

Tradicionalni način proizvodnje plastike

is with oil or petrochemicals.

je iz nafte ali naftnih derivatov.

You breakdown the molecules, you recombine them in very specific ways,

Molekule razdrete in jih na novo kombinirate na poseben način,

to make all the wonderful plastics that we enjoy each and every day.

da nastanejo čudovite vrste plastike, v kateri uživamo vsak dan.

We said, there's got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics.

Rekli smo si, da mora obstajati bolj trajen način izdelave plastike.

And not just sustainable from an environmental standpoint,

In to ne samo okoljsko trajen,

sustainable from an economic standpoint as well.

temveč trajen tudi iz ekonomskega vidika.

Well a good place to start is with waste.

Dobro je začeti pri smeteh.

It certainly doesn't cost as much as oil,

Vsekakor ne stanejo toliko kot nafta,

and it's plentiful,

veliko jih je,

as I hope that you've been able to see from the photographs.

kar upam, da ste uspeli videti na fotografijah.

And because we're not breaking down the plastic into molecules

In ker plastike ne razstavljamo na molekule,

and recombining them,

ki bi jih potem spet sestavljali,

we're using a mining approach to extract the materials.

smo uporabili rudarski pristop k pridobivanju surovin.

We have significantly lower capital costs

Naši stroški kapitala so veliko nižji,

in our plant equipment.

ko gre za opremo obrata.

We have enormous energy savings.

Prihranimo ogromno energije.

I don't know how many other projects on the planet right now

Ne vem, koliko drugih projektov na planetu lahko

can save 80 to 90 percent of the energy

v tem trenutku prihrani 80 do 90 odstotkov energije

compared to making something the traditional way.

v primerjavi s tradicionalnim pristopom.

And instead of plopping down several hundred million dollars

In namesto, da bi zapravili več sto milijonov dolarjev

to build a chemical plant

za izgradnjo kemične tovarne,

that will only make one type of plastic for its entire life,

ki bi vseskozi izdelovala en sam tip plastike,

our plants can make any type of plastic we feed them.

naši obrati izdelajo vse tipe plastike, glede na surovine, ki jih uporabimo.

And we make a drop-in replacement

In tako izdelamo nadomestke, enakovredne

for that plastic that's made from petrochemicals.

plastiki iz naftnih derivatov.

Our customers get to enjoy

Naše stranke imajo korist

huge CO2 savings.

od ogromnih prihrankov ogljikovega dioksida.

They get to close the loop with their products.

S svojimi izdelki zaprejo krog.

And they get to make more sustainable products.

In dobijo bolj trajnostno naravnane izdelke.

In the short time period I have,

V kratkem času, ki mi je na voljo,

I want to show you a little bit of a sense about how we do this.

vam želim približati naš pristop k temu delu.

It starts with metal recyclers who shred our stuff into very small bits.

Začne se s kovinskimi reciklatorji, ki material zdrobijo na zelo majhne koščke.

They recover the metals

Ti tudi poberejo kovine

and leave behind what's called shredder residue -- it's their waste --

in pustijo za seboj t.i. ostalino -- smeti --

a very complex mixture of materials,

kar je zelo zapletena mešanica materialov,

but predominantly plastics.

a predvsem gre za plastiko.

We take out the things that aren't plastics,

Izločimo stvari, ki niso plastika,

such as the metals they missed, carpeting, foam, rubber,

denimo ostanke kovin, obloge, peno, gumo,

wood, glass, paper, you name it.

les, steklo, papir, da ne naštevam naprej.

Even an occasional dead animal, unfortunately.

Včasih na žalost celo kakšno poginulo žival.

And it goes in the first part of our process here, which is more like traditional recycling.

To gre v prvi del postopka, ki je bolj podoben tradicionalni reciklaži.

We're sieving the material, we're using magnets,

Material presejemo, uporabljamo magnete,

we're using air classification.

uporabljamo klasifikacijo z zrakom.

It looks like the Willy Wonka factory at this point.

Na tej točki izgleda kot Čarli in tovarna čokolade.

At the end of this process, we have a mixed plastic composite:

Na koncu tega postopka pridemo do skupka mešane plastike:

many different types of plastics

veliko različnih vrst plastike

and many different grades of plastics.

in veliko različnih stopen plastike.

This goes into the more sophisticated part of our process,

Temu sledi bolj prefinjen del postopka

and the really hard work, multi-step separation process begins.

in resnično trdo delo, večstopenjski postopek separacije, se začne.

We grind the plastic down to about the size of your small fingernail.

Platiko zmeljemo na velikost nohta na mezincu.

We use a very highly automated process

Uporabljamo visoko avtomatiziran postopek

to sort those plastics,

sortiranja plastike,

not only by type, but by grade.

ne samo glede na vrsto, pač pa tudi glede na stopnjo.

And out the end of that part of the process

Na koncu postopka pridobimo

come little flakes of plastic:

majhne plastične kosmiče:

one type, one grade.

en tip, ena stopnja.

We then use optical sorting to color sort this material.

Nato material sortiramo z optičnim pristopom.

We blend it in 50,000-lb. blending silos.

Zmešamo ga v 25.000 kilogramskem silosu.

We push that material to extruders where we melt it,

Material potisnemo v tlačilko, kjer ga stalimo,

push it through small die holes,

potisnemo skozi majhne luknje

make spaghetti-like plastic strands.

in napravimo špagetom podobne plastične niti.

And we chop those strands

Nato jih razrežemo

into what are called pellets.

v tako imenovane pelete.

And this becomes the currency of the plastics industry.

In to postane valuta industrije plastike.

This is the same material

To je enak material

that you would get from oil.

kot bi ga dobili iz nafte.

And today,

In danes

we're producing it from your old stuff,

ga proizvajamo iz starih stvari

and it's going right back into your new stuff.

in tako iz njega nastajajo nove.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)

So now, instead of your stuff ending up

Torej, namesto da bi vaši predmeti končali

on a hillside in a developing country

na kakšnem pobočju kake države v razvoju

or literally going up in smoke,

ali pa dobesedno izginili v dimu,

you can find your old stuff

jih lahko najdete

back on top of your desk in new products,

na svoji pisalni mizi v novih izdelkih

in your office,

v svoji pisarni

or back at work in your home.

ali pa pri vas doma.

And these are just a few examples

In to je samo nekaj primerov

of companies that are buying our plastic,

podjetij, ki kupujejo našo plastiko

replacing virgin plastic,

ter nadomeščajo novo plastiko

to make their new products.

pri izdelavi svojih artiklov.

So I hope I've changed the way you look at

Zato upam, da sem spremenil vaš pogled

at least some of the stuff in your life.

na vsaj nekaj stvari v vašem življenju.

We took our clues from mother nature.

Navdih smo vzeli pri materi naravi.

Mother nature wastes very little,

Mati narava vrže stran zelo malo,

reuses practically everything.

temveč praktično vse ponovno uporabi.

And I hope that you stop looking at yourself as a consumer --

In upam, da boste nase nehali gledati kot na potrošnika --

that's a label I've always hated my entire life --

to oznako sem vse svoje življenje sovražil --

and think of yourself as just using resources in one form,

in razmišljali o sebi kot uporabniku virov v določeni obliki,

until they can be transformed to another form

dokler jih ne bo nekdo preoblikoval v drugo obliko,

for another use later in time.

za kasnejšo uporabo.

And finally, I hope you agree with me

In končno upam, da se strinjate,

to change that last toddler rule just a little bit

da malce spremenimo zadnje otroško pravilo,

to: "If it's broken, it's my stuff."

v: "Če je zlomljeno, je moje."

Thank you for your time.

Hvala za vašo pozornost.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)