The first thing we need to ban is bottled water. It's totally unnecessary and instead there should be drinking water available everywhere and we can carry reusable bottles.
@Medic Engineer no mate it's not a scam. the difference between bottled water and tap water is that in tap water there are chemicals and a lot of lime which is not harmful to the human body but makes it taste different which bottled water doesn't have. it's also great for people that go to contries where the water cleaning is different and might give you bacterial infections and food posioning since you;'re not used to it.
We need to change the way we package everything, specially small pieces of useless plastic that is hard to recycle. One time use plastics should be banned.
I think it will be easier to dump plastic directly into the Ocean, by not sending plastic waste to poor country and dump in their Ocean, at least you save some green house gas.
one time use plastics should be recycled if clean or go to the landfill, and thats it. Everyone seems to believe that plastics is not supposed to be in a landfill, but thats the perfect place for it. it sits there and does nothing to the environment, we cover it up and build a park on it. trying to recycle dirty or exotic plastics is nasty and expensive, we should have just sent it to the landfills or burn it (with ash capture) and very little would have ended up in the ocean
Consumption isn’t as big a problem as production. Consuming the plastic, as long as it’s recycled (both a product made by recycled plastic, and recycled by the consumer), would effectively solve the problem (not perfectly, but substantially). If this was done on a massive scale, the tap would basically be off, though it would almost definitely be a slightly leaky faucet. Ensuring this model is the primary model means that less (new) plastic is being produced, and less plastic is going into the ocean. Idk, if you follow the whole thing through, I think the analogy does actually work. ✌🏼
What you're saying Lincoln is a lot of words with no content. You're a platitude. This TED talk addresses one aspect of the plastic problem with a very good solution. Don't conflate issues.
Lincoln The whole plastic cycle has many aspects of it. Don't throw his idea into the landfill simply because it doesn't address the who plastic cycle. That's just foolish. Many other people, I'm sure, are working furiously on all aspects of the plastic cycle.
the fundamental problem remains the current economic system, as in a monetary-market economy there is no profit in being eco-friendly (in fact taking care of sustainability might even have some extra costs), and in general there's no profit in taking care of health and well-being (on social, environmental and individual levels). if there is no profit in doing something, industries won't do it: either because they can't afford it (due to economic competition with other industries) or because they have become addicted to profit /power (which is an understandable symptom /consequence of living in a unhealthy economic system, which also correlates with the quality /health of society and culture). programmes like the one proposed in this video can alleviate plastic waste and the respective pollution, but if we wanna "turn off the tap", as he said at the beginning of the video, if we wanna address the root cause of the problem (which also happens to be the root cause of many big problems and of much sickness and suffering in our societies) then the "tap" is the current economic system. pollution (like the other problems i mentioned) is not a technical or technological problem: we do have the tools to clean the oceans and to produce goods and in general to live, as societies, in a completely ecologically-sustainable way. the problem is economic. another example is how eco-friendly alternatives are often suppressed by big industries as, otherwise, their profits and possibly their economic survival would be threatened. there are alternatives which would technically be feasible if enough people were willing to stand for them, or which might eventually be taken into consideration by governments anyway as the current system gets closer and closer to collapse, due to ecological crises and technological unemployment (due to automation); if u wanna learn more on this whole topic, the starting point id currently recommend is www.nlrbe.org (which stands for "natural law resource-based economy"), as at the bottom of that page u will also find 2 links that will bring u to the 2 main projects that i know of on this topic; i also recommend their most viewed videos (which are their main documentaries) on their respective youtube channels
Right, agreed. I just want to bring attention that it's not just one person “turning off the tap so the water wouldn't spill“. There's so many of us and not everyone concentrates or is skilled at one type of helping the environment. What this man is doing is from a completely different field than someone who would clean the oceans directly. And what he is doing might be absolutely necessary but it will take years for it to show results. The same goes for cleaning the oceans. But since it requires people from different fields I don't think it is necessary to start with one and finish with another. They should be happening at the same time, working hand in hand.
Your metaphor is flawed. Recycling is not equivalent to turning off the tap. It's more like bailing one side of the overflowing sink into the other side so less water (plastic) hits the floor (ocean). It may slow the rate of plastic entering the ocean, but the core problem remains. Until we ban the creation and distribution of single-use plastic bags, containers, utensils, etc., the plastic "tap" will remain open, and the ocean will remain at risk.
KungFuBlitzKrieg his metaphor connects the main source of plastic in our oceans is impoverished communities who have no choice but to live in squalor- so they are turning off the “tap” of the main source- by turning that trash that has no place but in the streets in those communities into a currency and a way improve their life.
exactly. according to analogy- plastic is the water, production and consumption industry of plastic is the water pressure, and the sink/kitchen is planet earth enter he he sees people with no supplies. He then began talking about how he was going to source the supplies for life to people who didnt have any, as long as they began using eye droppers to clean the overflowing sink in the kithen. droppings are to be collected in a bowl I transform their droppings into bowl of baby jesus tears of infinite value. I give their lives meaning and worth as people pay exorbitant amounts to pick droplets from my jusus tears of infinite value *applause*
Yes good point as well. All part of "The Fix" for the global discarded plastic problem. . . to create alternatives. . .then to choose to only use these alternatives. . . will affect the companys producing the "bad" stuff. . it is market forces. . . and will indeed get to the souce.
Sense PLASTICS are Oil based... It's the Big Oil Corporations that are ruining our FUTURE with Toxic Pollution. Plastic made from plant based cellulose is more Earth Friendly.
We buy it, so they sell it. If we won't give them money, they have to change. But it takes effort and thinking on our parts, and a willingness to deal without certain conveniences. It would be easier for us if they change first. But it's easier for them to just keep doing what makes them money and is easiest on them. Vicious circle.
This sounds intresting...Collect the plastic and feed your family. The homless in my area would thrive from this idea. Making plastic a kind of currency seems like a perfect set up.
@@eclipse5393 and that is why this is not a solution, it would cause gentrification of the third world, which is good, but after that the citizens of the newly third world countries would produce more garbage and they won't need to recycle it.
How about requiring many welfare families to collect a certain amount. I know many able bodied people on welfare who can’t be bothered to work but have time to watch a lot of TV and go to bars.
Was so excited when he started off with "the solution to stopping the flood is turning off the faucet", aka stopping the plastic problem at the source....... but then he just talked about dealing with the end result aka pollution, which won't solve the overall problem.........
Elizabeth Danielle agreed. I think that this needs to happen simultaneously but as he said, when people are that poor it's hard to worry about recycling. So this way they are dealing with one part of the problem. We need to lobby governments around the world to ban single use plastics alongside this initiative.
no one thing solves the overall problem. The "overall" solution is, in fact, a mesh of smaller solutions that have the same goals in mind act on different angles.
It’s easier for them to call bullshit and say it won’t work and go about their tunnel vision lives rather than accept a subtle change in what they buy could possibly slow down the polution of the planet. Thank to denial, they are also immortal!
Yes, making that sort of profit in that sort of business with this sort of "business partners on the collector side IS in deed extremely wrong, but as long as this cynical approach works it's still better than nothing in terms of "closing the tap".
ikr. The only reason the world was so hyped with solar power last year was because they found it got cheaper than coal. "The" coal, the one energy source thats supposed to be dirty but also cheap... and solar beat it in terms of price (at least in the middle east) World doesnt run fueled by goodwill and hippie thoughts. People can hate reality if they want, but reality is that people cannot work for free. Its not even a capitalism thing. Its reality. If you earn nothing, you cant feed yourself, and you cannot top up the energy you spent while doing good deeds, meaning you cannot do the good deeds anymore (because youre dead). Money isnt some kinda "necessary evil". Its a tool. Whether this tool is used for good or evil depends on the user
Now, two years later in 2020, some of those poor countries are refusing to take first world’s recycling garbage and they’re sending it back to whence it came.
What ignorant virtue signaling dribble. Most of the garbage in the ocean comes from 3rd world countries that have major rivers flowing through them. 90% comes from the major rivers flowing through 3rd world countries. Look it up. I’m all for helping those countries provide sanitation services to the poor villages and help those cultures have a shift in habits... as long as it doesn’t involve European or US politicians who will try to make it into a game of “I’m better than this guy. Vote for me to help you feel better about yourself and better than all of the people that vote for my opponent .” That crap gets us no where but to division.
@@ericksonjustinAK Couldn't agree more. They pollute the ocean, so what better an opportunity for them but to clean up their mess whilst making a living out of it? I'd say they should be very thankful, and we should too.
Wow, such simple solutions to clean up our plastic messes and lift up downtrodden people. By the way, I appreciated the speaker's timing and pauses. Gave me more time to contemplate and embed his points.
In the netherlands we already have that system for plastic bottles. You bring them back to the store and get like 0.20 per bottle. You can get money back or pay some of your shoppings. We separate glass, plastic, clothes and greens like vegetables and paper. But we do not get money back for all of it. They do create new products and make energy out of the vegetables. Google it 😃
proud of my mom, she has a campaign to collect and reuse plastic bags that in this country the bill paper comes inside those, and most importantly the ones that help her are her students in their free time, I wish there were more people like her out there
so many underappreciating and misunderstanding comments with many thumbs up below.. it's crazy. I think this is one of the very best things humanity can do against the problem right now, nothing less. great work Sir, God bless you
You CAN NOT be serious !! Pay impoverished island people to litter-pick, and then (sic) pay their pittance in to a 'savings account'............are you for real?? Are you a Mercan or something??
Mr. Katz, I found it very admirable how much you seem to truly care about the ongoing problem of ocean pollution. It is a factor that many people are beginning to become concerned about. There are also many sources that agree with plastic pollution being the leading contributor to ocean pollution, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature stating that plastic makes up 80% of all marine debris, ranging from both surface waters, to deep-sea sediments (International Union for Conservation of Nature). With this being stated, it also contradicts your idea of not cleaning the ocean at all, but instead “turning off the tap”. This is reasonable solution, but has some flaws when regarding all of the plastic that is still left in the ocean. Some continued points that support this suggestion is that while there is at least 14 million tons of plastic that ends up in the ocean every year, there is over 300 million ton of plastic that are produced every year (International Union for Conservation of Nature). More of a reason to “turn off the tap” instead of focusing on just cleaning the ocean. In this scenario the ocean will never truly be cleaned as long as there is still new plastic being produced, which is where the idea of Katz’s Plastic Bank would come in (TedTalk). Commenter Shane McDaniel also makes a good point on the subject by stating “As he said " part of the solution". We are not going to eliminate plastic but we can limit our dependency and put much greater controls how it is controlled. This solution can be scaled up all over the world and make a serious contribution to the problem of plastic in our oceans. Combining this with bans on single use plastic globally we are beginning to solve this huge problem.” (McDaniel) While strong points were made there are multiple others that need to be brought up in concern with the flaws of the plan with the “Plastic Bank.” One of these being made by commenter “I Had A Great Idea For My Name But Then I Forgot it” is bringing the attention to the fact that there is so many people required for this field that it would take a long time to actually show results, and that instead of just sticking with the one solution where we focus on “turning off the tap” that both the Plastic Bank solution and the Ocean Cleanup Project should go hand in hand and work together at the same time in order to show faster, more efficient results (It). This is a strong argument because implementing the plastic bank in countries that are not in states of poverty could take years to take effect and then longer to actually show results. Another concern to look into, one that first came to my mind when I watched this video, is the fundamental problem that remains within our economic system, while it is a healthier way of life, unfortunately there is no profit on being “eco-friendly”, if anything there might even be some extra cost involved. This point could cause lack of appeal to the target audience when trying to expand this solution to other countries. A source that looks further into this idea and helps explain exactly what the issues with our economic system is, is the webpage “Natural Law Resource-Based Economy”. One of their projects, otherwise known as the Zeitgeist Movement, is a advocacy organization that focusing on the majority of the modern world’s social problems, including mounting ecologic crises ( (Natural Law Resource-Based Economy). After reviewing a couple different sources, including ones suggested by commenters, I have to disagree with the idea Katz suggest with completely ignoring ocean cleanup and only focusing on limiting plastic production and recycling old plastics. It would be a more efficient method of both ocean cleanup and “turning off the tap”. If anything, the ocean cleanup can help be a head start while the Plastic Banks try to spread and make their ways into countries who are not in states of poverty.
There used to be drinking fonts in all villages and towns - we need a similar system direct from natural or man made - springs ( filtered, stored spring water ) at £1 per litre slot machine/card machine.
Quite a lot of Southeast Asian countries have been doing this for years actually... I just hope that local communities or cities or countries have a reward programme for collecting trash (not just plastic) and recycling that is sufficient for people to survive
Anybody who says ban plastic all together, please throw away your cell phone, laptop, iPad, and half your items in your office and home! You are being unrealistic!! This guy talks soo slow but I like his project and any doing and creating awareness is crucial. As for the solution I believe to mass shred into basic building materials and sell it back to manufacturers vs them buying new materials to make plastic. It also can be used in road building or you could make complete furniture, pipes, fences, etc. out of it. Possibilities are there, simple and doable. And yes it can become a self-sustaining business or management but for the greedy and profit driven of course not.
germanylicious i think You should ban the platic thats is unnesesary, like bags, bottles, food packaging and so on, you are able to produce that Economycly...
cell phones, laptops and ipads only make up very small ammounts of plastics entering the ocean. the vast majority of plastics littering the ocean is from plastic bags, bottles etc. simple items which are consumed daily an thrown away daily. mostly in poor developing countries. i grew up in indonesia and there was plastic litter everywhere. in the rivers and on the beaches. how many iphones and laptops do you think i saw among that litter?
Jon B oh true. I totally agree but I only named a few or I'd still be writing. I was trying to make a point because if you look around in your office there are tons of plastic items. Your microwave is too. Obviously not single use but that's why I said people that say ALL plastic! should be banned are being unrealistic even if not everything ends up in the ocean. You ban it all you won't even have the long term products. That was my point.
Because it's such a huge problem, the plastic scourge isn't going to be solved with a single approach. The ultimate answer is to eliminate it and replace with something environmentally safe. But that's not going to happen any time soon. In the meantime we need to clean up the mess we've made and continue to make every day. It's going to take a diverse toolkit with many different approaches: Reducing our use. Banning or charging for plastic bags. Cleaning up the gyres. The Plastic Bank is yet another tool in the toolkit.
I must say I appreciate the presenter's slow and measured speaking style and general delivery. i guess the posts who want it speeded up are just too hooked on the modern mania for speed with everything. Spare a thought for the world's slowcoaches! If rushing "hot-foot" everywhere is always such a bright idea then why have we retained the expression "cool your heels"? Think about it next time you're fuming at a red traffic light or at one of the other inevitable delays that seem to be part of daily life. You're W-E-L-C-O-M-E!
Tell that to the Asians, South Americans and Africans. My country has curbed plastic waste to 30% of what it used to be and we're a small country to begin with.
Remember when we were kids, we use to go find soda bottles and return then to Any store and receive$.5 cents for each bottle.. just place a small refund to these items, $,10 for larger and so on, and make it illegal to throw it away.
A very similar system is actually in place in India. Collecting plastic and selling them to companies has created a livelihood for many people. This sort of segregation + collection happens in units called DWCCs(Dry Waste Collection Centres).But a major hindrance is the lack of source segregation, and single use plastics that cannot be recycled end up in landfills. So, as the comments are saying, we should reduce the use of plastic, that is a better solution than recycling. And also, for this sytem to work, each and every one of us must segregate our waste into categories, so that they can be better dealt with and don't end up in landfills.
Some good points, thanks. Yep his idea isn't new, he's just grabbed the title "plastic bank" But the principle, as you have already discovered is real. . . so it will help with the cleaning up. Your pointing out that recycling is not a solution in itself, is the excellent point. . . and reduce, and influence companies to reduce, is also part of "The Fix". . . Global teamwork in different areas are needed to fix this global discarded plastic problem. Thanks for your info.
i love his passion! His desire for a better environment and better planet and in doing so creating an sustainable economy. This is a brilliant idea! And a fantastic working model, whilst he does that we need to come up with solutions to now reduce plastics in products at manufacturing stage.
This one is solvable, just float several platforms out to the pacific garbage patch. and then extract and recycle on location and then ship the recover liquid petroleum product back in tankers. Cleans environment and will generate a profitable reclaimed fuel market.
Where i live, plastic shopping bags are illegal. The province accepted We did this, grocery stores are a mess with plastic I heard England told the grocery stores to get environmentally friendly of be shut I like that idea
It will only starts when the companies starting to minimize using plastic in their products , minimize if companies couldn’t avoid using it in their products and use paper container in manufacturing water bottles if possible. If milk could be stock in paper container , does drinking water could to? .. it may be possible. Since some people couldn’t stop throwing away their plastic bottles on our ocean ,if it’s in paper container, it could be much easy to fold into small parts then put inside their backpack or bags then throw away on their garbage bin when they returned home. But surely manufacturing companies were already finding their ways on how to minimize the plastic pollution now a days in ocean and on land. We know how wide our ocean is , so only focusing on cleaning it will do little to save it. Using unnecessary products could help too, but yes it’s not easy to accomplish.Just a thought.
This is a great first step and a necessary one. We do need to reduce the amount of plastic entering our environment, but cleaning up will take time and offers prosperity too.
Good idea, only, besides recycling, the oceans and land needs to be cleaned up as rapidly as possible and a moratorium should be placed on commercial fishing fleets to allow the oceans fish populations to recover from over fishing. Humans populations must be allowed to use and farm any an all vacant lands in cities and communities. People must start becoming self sufficient..local farming!!
11:09 "That alone will put hundreds of millions of dolars..." Nope, sorry it's only 50Million $. You told us 50cents per kg. We can make that calculation :D
Some corporate leaders dont like drinking water in their diners as utensils such as the drinking glass are not properly cleansed thus triggers dismay for hygienic reasons. They want bottled water as money is not an object so they buy as many as they want just to make sure they drink clean water.
Social plastic is an important cleanup effort, and his effort is great. But for him not to emphasis the importance of ENDING plastic production is irresponsible. Plastic production is the source of flow that needs to be stopped.
Turning off the faucet would be ceasing to produce plastic. Shell, Exon, Henkel ARE that problem. In 50 years they will probably use this system as an excuse to keep making plastic.
Amy C. The strategy is to instead of recycling two times, the plastic material will never leave the circle, so once we have plastic it will never have to be disposed. I know this is just appealing to the ear, his whole speech. But we has a point, since we now have plastic packs, we need to use them in an infinite circle. One thing is true, we don't need to be producing more plastic, the plastic available right now is even more than the one we need to provide all of the consumable goods.
There will be a time, when supermarkets become more of an urban farm than product warehouse. They will have the space to grow everything, vertically. The chicken coop will be a lush garden in the rooftop. The fish and shellfish will actually be in very nice ponds and streams, where the water will recirculate to fertilize the plants, like your average aquaponic system but smarter and massive. The red meat fridge area will practically dissappear, unless you go buy it directly at a farm when available and limited. There will be products grown elsewhere too, like grains and legumes and specialty items. But seasonal fruits, vegetables, eggs and fish will be as local as it gets. Plastic containers won't even be a thing.
This isn't a solution. The basic idea is good, but it doesn't replace cleanup, it complements it. 1. There is already plastic in the oceans. It won't be collected by these people. 2. The plastic they collect is being recycled. A percentage of that will end up in the oceans, adding to the plastic that is already there and ISN'T being cleaned up. Or to use his overflowing sink example, He's not turning the tap off completely, AND he doesn't get a bucket or mop, because he's decided that turning down the tap just a bit is good enough.
Dimetropteryx He didn't say don't clean up the ocean, he said do that last. This is not a replacement for ALL plastic waste scenarios, but it is a very smart solution that will help! If plastic is turned into currency, you might see some of the pirates off the coasts of poor countries doing some ocean clean up instead of high risk robbery. Try injecting a little imagination to improve ideas instead of rejecting ideas that you don't find perfect.
He did say don't clean up the ocean. That's what doing it last means. "Don't do it when it's critical to do it." As for "injecting a little imagination to improve ideas", that's what I just did. As for the idea not being perfect, that's not a matter of opinion. As for rejecting the idea, read the second sentence.
Dimetropteryx Your first sentence is a categorical statement rejecting this solution, ”This is not a solution." Also last, doesn't mean not at all. You have an interesting use of language that I can't follow. Good luck with future communications.
Wrong. The first sentence rejects the framing of this as a solution, in direct contradiction of his claim that it is one. As I already explained, last does mean at all and that has nothing to do with language, and everything to do with the fact that there will never be a "last" to do this in. I have a feeling you are very eager to opine and less eager to communicate.
He is right that we need to close the faucet. I dont think he said this 'progrum' will close the faucet entirely. This 'progrum' will close the faucet partially. I approve.
plastic is good. But we've gone overboard. Recycling doesn't help all that much. 80% of plastic comes from poor countries? Maybe we all( even us first world countries) need to place value in reusing things. For example, we use canvas bags for groceries in my house and use plastic as little as possible. we have a 5-gallon plastic water jug we refill at the store. My current biggest pet peeve is the plastic bags ( sometimes grocery or take out) we out the trash in. Our apartment complex requires garbage to be put in plastic bags tied shut before tossing them in the compactor. I think there must be a better way. In fact, I think the majority of our plastic garbage is the plastic bags out trash goes in...
This is a great idea because most of the plastic is coming from places that dont even have access to a screen where they can watch this video. That is why it's a better idea than an alternative. He is improving lives in more than one way. 2 birds with one stone.
Thank you!!! I can not think of a better way to solve our big big plastic problem. I hope in Mexico we join this Social Plastic Project too.... blessings
only people in western countries would claim such naive statements to 'ban plastic altogether'. plastic is CHEAP and a source of income. maybe in the US or Europe such approaches are possible but its gonna take decades before the entire world reaches that stage. in the meantime this is an amazing alternative. hope to see it implemented all over asia soon, especially indonesia and india where plastic AND poverty are in abundance.
I think that's a good idea, it won't solve everything, but is so much more helpful than some other recycling projects and not futile since it helps getting ride of poverty ! I encourage it! Nice talk!
This is brilliant - incentivising people not to chuck plastic in rivers etc ... I just hope that when it gets recycled it doesn't somehow find its way back into the oceans. We need more of this kind of thing and it gives me hope that the environment can be gradually saved. But overall we need to figure out ways of having less plastic packaging. Also, I don't think cleaning up the oceans is waste of time - it needs to be done in parallel with great efforts by the likes of David Katz.
btw that online saving account: because people won't take it all out simultaniously, this guy can use some of the money as he likes. if it is a bank account than the bank does it but he never mentioned banks
Of course his only goal is to you the peoples money, of course it is just all about money and of course he is a bad guy. How could you trust him? How could you really belive that he just wants to save our planet and help poor people? No, of course it is ALL about money. Please. Just stop thinkin that way. Money is just a byproduct, money is not evil.
Nope, he's just saying that everybody has some greed in them (who doesn't) and recycling plastic can help at the low cost of just reaching down and picking the pieces of plastic up
Yeah this whole thing has me scratching my head. I want to know numbers. What is the cost in dollars for labor? It’s hard to see this working at current prices of plastic
Sorry, i don't percive this speech as a solution to plastic in the oceans. We have to riduce the quantity of plastic produced globally and his solutions has to keep the actual production of plastic the same if not increase it. there will never be enough cleaners specially for those places that are unreachable. nice thought tho.
That is really cleaver. Encouraging people in poverty to collect plastics for a living, potentially giving them a better life than without this system. Solving poverty and the plastics problem in oceans. An excellent example of 2 birds with one stone
Make no mistake about it-- David Katz fails to live up to his analogy of "turning off the tap". This does not, however, disqualify his idea which would incentivize the cleaning up of discarded plastic. What this does is makes his solution incomplete, because it doesn't discriminate between previously discarded plastics and new plastics. This means for regions where new plastic is easier to come by then discarded plastic, people will naturally choose to go that route. By offering this as a complete solution, Katz ignores the need to address the over-production of plastic. Pretty much, it says we don't need to turn off the faucet now, because I installed a drain :). Still a great solution because of the poverty aspect of it, but I'd like to see what he does to address this loophole.
Excellent presentation; why, because it sparks a debate. Ocean plastic is a "thing." Not producing plastic is not economically viable, clearly, although an ideal solution. I am not saying I agree with his methods but let's think and talk about it and come up with a solution that works on all levels, which, we currently do not have.
The first thing we need to ban is bottled water. It's totally unnecessary and instead there should be drinking water available everywhere and we can carry reusable bottles.
I strongly fucking agree.
R yeah too bad a lot of people are just lazy
Nope because bottled water makes more profit so that automatically means we should continue down that path and destroy the planet
@Medic Engineer no mate it's not a scam. the difference between bottled water and tap water is that in tap water there are chemicals and a lot of lime which is not harmful to the human body but makes it taste different which bottled water doesn't have. it's also great for people that go to contries where the water cleaning is different and might give you bacterial infections and food posioning since you;'re not used to it.
I live downhill from a landfill. No, I'm not drinking my tap water.
We need to change the way we package everything, specially small pieces of useless plastic that is hard to recycle. One time use plastics should be banned.
I think it will be easier to dump plastic directly into the Ocean, by not sending plastic waste to poor country and dump in their Ocean, at least you save some green house gas.
@@springrollwang4441 that's a TERRIBLE idea omygosh
evolunter, you might want to rethink that. It's common knowledge that reused plastic water bottles harbor bacteria.
That's for sure.
First of all.
one time use plastics should be recycled if clean or go to the landfill, and thats it. Everyone seems to believe that plastics is not supposed to be in a landfill, but thats the perfect place for it. it sits there and does nothing to the environment, we cover it up and build a park on it. trying to recycle dirty or exotic plastics is nasty and expensive, we should have just sent it to the landfills or burn it (with ash capture) and very little would have ended up in the ocean
His analogy is "turn off the tap before cleaning up"
His solution is to clean up the plastic, but didn't mention reducing plastic consumption 🤔
recycling or stop using plastic
Consumption isn’t as big a problem as production. Consuming the plastic, as long as it’s recycled (both a product made by recycled plastic, and recycled by the consumer), would effectively solve the problem (not perfectly, but substantially). If this was done on a massive scale, the tap would basically be off, though it would almost definitely be a slightly leaky faucet. Ensuring this model is the primary model means that less (new) plastic is being produced, and less plastic is going into the ocean. Idk, if you follow the whole thing through, I think the analogy does actually work. ✌🏼
What you're saying Lincoln is a lot of words with no content. You're a platitude. This TED talk addresses one aspect of the plastic problem with a very good solution. Don't conflate issues.
Lincoln The whole plastic cycle has many aspects of it. Don't throw his idea into the landfill simply because it doesn't address the who plastic cycle. That's just foolish. Many other people, I'm sure, are working furiously on all aspects of the plastic cycle.
I think his analogy of “turn of the tap” means stop plastics from going to the ocean by recycling. He offers one solution.
very interesting speech. And thank you, for seaking slowly, so I had understand better, because I'm not english motherlanguage. Thank you
the fundamental problem remains the current economic system, as in a monetary-market economy there is no profit in being eco-friendly (in fact taking care of sustainability might even have some extra costs), and in general there's no profit in taking care of health and well-being (on social, environmental and individual levels). if there is no profit in doing something, industries won't do it: either because they can't afford it (due to economic competition with other industries) or because they have become addicted to profit /power (which is an understandable symptom /consequence of living in a unhealthy economic system, which also correlates with the quality /health of society and culture).
programmes like the one proposed in this video can alleviate plastic waste and the respective pollution, but if we wanna "turn off the tap", as he said at the beginning of the video, if we wanna address the root cause of the problem (which also happens to be the root cause of many big problems and of much sickness and suffering in our societies) then the "tap" is the current economic system.
pollution (like the other problems i mentioned) is not a technical or technological problem: we do have the tools to clean the oceans and to produce goods and in general to live, as societies, in a completely ecologically-sustainable way. the problem is economic. another example is how eco-friendly alternatives are often suppressed by big industries as, otherwise, their profits and possibly their economic survival would be threatened.
there are alternatives which would technically be feasible if enough people were willing to stand for them, or which might eventually be taken into consideration by governments anyway as the current system gets closer and closer to collapse, due to ecological crises and technological unemployment (due to automation);
if u wanna learn more on this whole topic, the starting point id currently recommend is www.nlrbe.org (which stands for "natural law resource-based economy"), as at the bottom of that page u will also find 2 links that will bring u to the 2 main projects that i know of on this topic; i also recommend their most viewed videos (which are their main documentaries) on their respective youtube channels
Right, agreed.
I just want to bring attention that it's not just one person “turning off the tap so the water wouldn't spill“. There's so many of us and not everyone concentrates or is skilled at one type of helping the environment. What this man is doing is from a completely different field than someone who would clean the oceans directly. And what he is doing might be absolutely necessary but it will take years for it to show results. The same goes for cleaning the oceans. But since it requires people from different fields I don't think it is necessary to start with one and finish with another. They should be happening at the same time, working hand in hand.
Your metaphor is flawed. Recycling is not equivalent to turning off the tap. It's more like bailing one side of the overflowing sink into the other side so less water (plastic) hits the floor (ocean). It may slow the rate of plastic entering the ocean, but the core problem remains. Until we ban the creation and distribution of single-use plastic bags, containers, utensils, etc., the plastic "tap" will remain open, and the ocean will remain at risk.
KungFuBlitzKrieg his metaphor connects the main source of plastic in our oceans is impoverished communities who have no choice but to live in squalor- so they are turning off the “tap” of the main source- by turning that trash that has no place but in the streets in those communities into a currency and a way improve their life.
Time to give the elderly jobs. Put them in the sweat shops croaqueing grocery bags. That will help a portion..
exactly. according to analogy- plastic is the water, production and consumption industry of plastic is the water pressure, and the sink/kitchen is planet earth
enter he
he sees people with no supplies.
He then began talking about how he was going to source the supplies for life to people who didnt have any, as long as they began using eye droppers to clean the overflowing sink in the kithen.
droppings are to be collected in a bowl
I transform their droppings into bowl of baby jesus tears of infinite value.
I give their lives meaning and worth as people pay exorbitant amounts to pick droplets from my jusus tears of infinite value
*applause*
no way solves the problem, and wastes time and energy toiling with the spoil
kungfu and bytheunknown both very right - combined; now need to look at getting it out of the seas and stopping it getting there in the first place.
Manufacturing companies. They are the SOURCE of the plastic. We're not putting pressure on them.
Amen 🙌
I feel the same way about oil companies. We need to limit them, as they are the SOURCE.
Yes good point as well. All part of "The Fix" for the global discarded plastic problem. . . to create alternatives. . .then to choose to only use these alternatives. . . will affect the companys producing the "bad" stuff. . it is market forces. . . and will indeed get to the souce.
Sense PLASTICS are Oil based...
It's the Big Oil Corporations that are ruining our FUTURE with Toxic Pollution.
Plastic made from plant based cellulose is more Earth Friendly.
We buy it, so they sell it. If we won't give them money, they have to change. But it takes effort and thinking on our parts, and a willingness to deal without certain conveniences. It would be easier for us if they change first. But it's easier for them to just keep doing what makes them money and is easiest on them. Vicious circle.
This sounds intresting...Collect the plastic and feed your family. The homless in my area would thrive from this idea. Making plastic a kind of currency seems like a perfect set up.
Plenty of homeless people already do this. It doesn't work in 1st world countries where the cost of living is higher.
@@eclipse5393 and that is why this is not a solution, it would cause gentrification of the third world, which is good, but after that the citizens of the newly third world countries would produce more garbage and they won't need to recycle it.
How about requiring many welfare families to collect a certain amount. I know many able bodied people on welfare who can’t be bothered to work but have time to watch a lot of TV and go to bars.
Lot of potential in India...how can I be apart of this ?
Drop and give me ten!
Send a toilet to India
@@davidjames666 can you send back what they take during colonization.after that we will send a golden toilet
@@davidjames666 we have the best democratic system so any indian will not worry about corruptive qov. Will not last.
dream travel as an Indian, I can say that the ind govt is corrupt af
Was so excited when he started off with "the solution to stopping the flood is turning off the faucet", aka stopping the plastic problem at the source....... but then he just talked about dealing with the end result aka pollution, which won't solve the overall problem.........
Elizabeth Danielle agreed. I think that this needs to happen simultaneously but as he said, when people are that poor it's hard to worry about recycling. So this way they are dealing with one part of the problem. We need to lobby governments around the world to ban single use plastics alongside this initiative.
no one thing solves the overall problem. The "overall" solution is, in fact, a mesh of smaller solutions that have the same goals in mind act on different angles.
His plan is literally a bucket and mop🤣
I can't believe all of you totally missed what he said.
80% of plastic in oceans comes from poor countries. This is turning off the tap.
@@mcstinkle Yes! Exactly. No one thing will fix the problem. It must be hit from every angle.
all you pessimists here, it's not perfect but it's far better than doing nothing.Sure there is profit to be made, is that so wrong?
It’s easier for them to call bullshit and say it won’t work and go about their tunnel vision lives rather than accept a subtle change in what they buy could possibly slow down the polution of the planet. Thank to denial, they are also immortal!
Yes, making that sort of profit in that sort of business with this sort of "business partners on the collector side IS in deed extremely wrong, but as long as this cynical approach works it's still better than nothing in terms of "closing the tap".
ikr. The only reason the world was so hyped with solar power last year was because they found it got cheaper than coal. "The" coal, the one energy source thats supposed to be dirty but also cheap... and solar beat it in terms of price (at least in the middle east)
World doesnt run fueled by goodwill and hippie thoughts. People can hate reality if they want, but reality is that people cannot work for free. Its not even a capitalism thing. Its reality. If you earn nothing, you cant feed yourself, and you cannot top up the energy you spent while doing good deeds, meaning you cannot do the good deeds anymore (because youre dead). Money isnt some kinda "necessary evil". Its a tool. Whether this tool is used for good or evil depends on the user
Someone who says "why dont we stop producing plastic..." is not pessimistic 😂
This is not a profitable enterprise by any stretch of the imagination and relies on dead end funding. Love the idea but this is a pipe dream.
It seems to be a good idea, but to make poor people clean up the mess we first world people make is questionable!
Totally agree
But I love to see Sea Bird suffocating.
Now, two years later in 2020, some of those poor countries are refusing to take first world’s recycling garbage and they’re sending it back to whence it came.
What ignorant virtue signaling dribble. Most of the garbage in the ocean comes from 3rd world countries that have major rivers flowing through them. 90% comes from the major rivers flowing through 3rd world countries. Look it up. I’m all for helping those countries provide sanitation services to the poor villages and help those cultures have a shift in habits... as long as it doesn’t involve European or US politicians who will try to make it into a game of “I’m better than this guy. Vote for me to help you feel better about yourself and better than all of the people that vote for my opponent .” That crap gets us no where but to division.
@@ericksonjustinAK Couldn't agree more. They pollute the ocean, so what better an opportunity for them but to clean up their mess whilst making a living out of it? I'd say they should be very thankful, and we should too.
This is the *good* David Katz.
Wow, such simple solutions to clean up our plastic messes and lift up downtrodden people.
By the way, I appreciated the speaker's timing and pauses. Gave me more time to contemplate and embed his points.
Am I the only one who likes how he paces himself in his speech?
Most underrated TED talk.
God bless you and your work !!Such a great thing!!!!
Nothing short of brilliant. Keep up the great job.
GREAT PLAN!!! We have to start somewhere!!!
actually they have
In the netherlands we already have that system for plastic bottles. You bring them back to the store and get like 0.20 per bottle. You can get money back or pay some of your shoppings.
We separate glass, plastic, clothes and greens like vegetables and paper. But we do not get money back for all of it.
They do create new products and make energy out of the vegetables. Google it 😃
I love Netherlands and the Dutch people
proud of my mom, she has a campaign to collect and reuse plastic bags that in this country the bill paper comes inside those, and most importantly the ones that help her are her students in their free time, I wish there were more people like her out there
so many underappreciating and misunderstanding comments with many thumbs up below.. it's crazy.
I think this is one of the very best things humanity can do against the problem right now, nothing less.
great work Sir, God bless you
the long pauses aside: great talk!
youre not watching at normal speed still are u ?
You CAN NOT be serious !! Pay impoverished island people to litter-pick, and then (sic) pay their pittance in to a 'savings account'............are you for real?? Are you a Mercan or something??
Mr. Katz, I found it very admirable how much you seem to truly care about the ongoing problem of ocean pollution. It is a factor that many people are beginning to become concerned about. There are also many sources that agree with plastic pollution being the leading contributor to ocean pollution, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature stating that plastic makes up 80% of all marine debris, ranging from both surface waters, to deep-sea sediments (International Union for Conservation of Nature). With this being stated, it also contradicts your idea of not cleaning the ocean at all, but instead “turning off the tap”. This is reasonable solution, but has some flaws when regarding all of the plastic that is still left in the ocean.
Some continued points that support this suggestion is that while there is at least 14 million tons of plastic that ends up in the ocean every year, there is over 300 million ton of plastic that are produced every year (International Union for Conservation of Nature). More of a reason to “turn off the tap” instead of focusing on just cleaning the ocean. In this scenario the ocean will never truly be cleaned as long as there is still new plastic being produced, which is where the idea of Katz’s Plastic Bank would come in (TedTalk). Commenter Shane McDaniel also makes a good point on the subject by stating “As he said " part of the solution". We are not going to eliminate plastic but we can limit our dependency and put much greater controls how it is controlled. This solution can be scaled up all over the world and make a serious contribution to the problem of plastic in our oceans. Combining this with bans on single use plastic globally we are beginning to solve this huge problem.” (McDaniel)
While strong points were made there are multiple others that need to be brought up in concern with the flaws of the plan with the “Plastic Bank.” One of these being made by commenter “I Had A Great Idea For My Name But Then I Forgot it” is bringing the attention to the fact that there is so many people required for this field that it would take a long time to actually show results, and that instead of just sticking with the one solution where we focus on “turning off the tap” that both the Plastic Bank solution and the Ocean Cleanup Project should go hand in hand and work together at the same time in order to show faster, more efficient results (It). This is a strong argument because implementing the plastic bank in countries that are not in states of poverty could take years to take effect and then longer to actually show results. Another concern to look into, one that first came to my mind when I watched this video, is the fundamental problem that remains within our economic system, while it is a healthier way of life, unfortunately there is no profit on being “eco-friendly”, if anything there might even be some extra cost involved. This point could cause lack of appeal to the target audience when trying to expand this solution to other countries. A source that looks further into this idea and helps explain exactly what the issues with our economic system is, is the webpage “Natural Law Resource-Based Economy”. One of their projects, otherwise known as the Zeitgeist Movement, is a advocacy organization that focusing on the majority of the modern world’s social problems, including mounting ecologic crises ( (Natural Law Resource-Based Economy).
After reviewing a couple different sources, including ones suggested by commenters, I have to disagree with the idea Katz suggest with completely ignoring ocean cleanup and only focusing on limiting plastic production and recycling old plastics. It would be a more efficient method of both ocean cleanup and “turning off the tap”. If anything, the ocean cleanup can help be a head start while the Plastic Banks try to spread and make their ways into countries who are not in states of poverty.
This is amazing.. just great! Best ted talk I've heard in a while..
Awesome! Would love to see this help solve the plastic problem in Australia. Along with so many other countries..
We can avoid plastic bags and other single use plastics. But what about packaged products because most of these are in plastics. Heartwrenching
There used to be drinking fonts in all villages and towns - we need a similar system direct from natural or man made - springs ( filtered, stored spring water ) at £1 per litre slot machine/card machine.
Quite a lot of Southeast Asian countries have been doing this for years actually... I just hope that local communities or cities or countries have a reward programme for collecting trash (not just plastic) and recycling that is sufficient for people to survive
This is brilliant. Now, if only we could see this replicated on a massive scale. It would, no doubt, change the world. ✌🏼
I sort of skimmed through this.
Did he address how we can greatly reduce our need for plastic?
That's where it all comes from. We think we need it.
Anybody who says ban plastic all together, please throw away your cell phone, laptop, iPad, and half your items in your office and home!
You are being unrealistic!!
This guy talks soo slow but I like his project and any doing and creating awareness is crucial.
As for the solution I believe to mass shred into basic building materials and sell it back to manufacturers vs them buying new materials to make plastic. It also can be used in road building or you could make complete furniture, pipes, fences, etc. out of it. Possibilities are there, simple and doable. And yes it can become a self-sustaining business or management but for the greedy and profit driven of course not.
germanylicious i think You should ban the platic thats is unnesesary, like bags, bottles, food packaging and so on, you are able to produce that Economycly...
VanzonHD oh of course. But I don't think people realize how much of our daily items are of or contain plastic.
cell phones, laptops and ipads only make up very small ammounts of plastics entering the ocean. the vast majority of plastics littering the ocean is from plastic bags, bottles etc. simple items which are consumed daily an thrown away daily. mostly in poor developing countries. i grew up in indonesia and there was plastic litter everywhere. in the rivers and on the beaches. how many iphones and laptops do you think i saw among that litter?
Jon B oh true. I totally agree but I only named a few or I'd still be writing. I was trying to make a point because if you look around in your office there are tons of plastic items. Your microwave is too. Obviously not single use but that's why I said people that say ALL plastic! should be banned are being unrealistic even if not everything ends up in the ocean. You ban it all you won't even have the long term products. That was my point.
the packaging is mostly the place that plastic lies though; if you have a steel cooking oven etc... the plastic isn't necessary
Because it's such a huge problem, the plastic scourge isn't going to be solved with a single approach. The ultimate answer is to eliminate it and replace with something environmentally safe. But that's not going to happen any time soon. In the meantime we need to clean up the mess we've made and continue to make every day. It's going to take a diverse toolkit with many different approaches: Reducing our use. Banning or charging for plastic bags. Cleaning up the gyres. The Plastic Bank is yet another tool in the toolkit.
“social plastic” Who created that word? Amazing
I must say I appreciate the presenter's slow and measured speaking style and general delivery. i guess the posts who want it speeded up are just too hooked on the modern mania for speed with everything. Spare a thought for the world's slowcoaches! If rushing "hot-foot" everywhere is always such a bright idea then why have we retained the expression "cool your heels"? Think about it next time you're fuming at a red traffic light or at one of the other inevitable delays that seem to be part of daily life. You're W-E-L-C-O-M-E!
Tell that to the Asians, South Americans and Africans. My country has curbed plastic waste to 30% of what it used to be and we're a small country to begin with.
one of the best ted talks i have seen ever!
Social plastic trade? Simply called it Green trading! Tin cans and cardboard also could go in. Bravo!
boyan slat started ocean cleanups... his river cleaning 'interceptors' are capturing tons of plastic and other waste with booms and conveyor barges
Remember when we were kids, we use to go find soda bottles and return then to Any store and receive$.5 cents for each bottle.. just place a small refund to these items, $,10 for larger and so on, and make it illegal to throw it away.
Well done, I like the Plastic Bank initiative as it can help with prevention and environmental sustainability
fix his weird long pauses between his speech by putting the speed on 1.25
David Katz, your way of thought is brilliant, keep it up!
We need to start adopting this ideas!
Cleaning the ocean could be the humanity richest opportunity.
This guy is making a business with plastic. He did not turn off the tap, he is cleaning up the water and selling it again.
More like scooping it up from the sink before it spills onto the floor.
supply & demand
no
This is a great place to start, A lot of arm chair referees have terrible things to say but I don't see them coming up with a solution.
God Bless You and you effort! I will contribute! Wow! So powerful!
What an amazing project I feel so inspired
Alejandra Maria Palomo Santos same here ^^
Yo tambien
Good talk! We need to stop or reduce the use of plastics by switching to plastic alternatives.
A very similar system is actually in place in India. Collecting plastic and selling them to companies has created a livelihood for many people. This sort of segregation + collection happens in units called DWCCs(Dry Waste Collection Centres).But a major hindrance is the lack of source segregation, and single use plastics that cannot be recycled end up in landfills. So, as the comments are saying, we should reduce the use of plastic, that is a better solution than recycling. And also, for this sytem to work, each and every one of us must segregate our waste into categories, so that they can be better dealt with and don't end up in landfills.
Some good points, thanks. Yep his idea isn't new, he's just grabbed the title "plastic bank" But the principle, as you have already discovered is real. . . so it will help with the cleaning up. Your pointing out that recycling is not a solution in itself, is the excellent point. . . and reduce, and influence companies to reduce, is also part of "The Fix". . . Global teamwork in different areas are needed to fix this global discarded plastic problem.
Thanks for your info.
i love his passion! His desire for a better environment and better planet and in doing so creating an sustainable economy. This is a brilliant idea! And a fantastic working model, whilst he does that we need to come up with solutions to now reduce plastics in products at manufacturing stage.
this isn’t the murderer
This is absolutely beautiful.
I hope this program reaches all parts of the world
This one is solvable, just float several platforms out to the pacific garbage patch. and then extract and recycle on location and then ship the recover liquid petroleum product back in tankers. Cleans environment and will generate a profitable reclaimed fuel market.
Este hombre es un genio y realmente inspira ese nivel por hacer el bien.
This dude takes a 10 min break between every group of words
Where i live, plastic shopping bags are illegal. The province accepted
We did this, grocery stores are a mess with plastic
I heard England told the grocery stores to get environmentally friendly of be shut
I like that idea
The real problem is oil giant company like Shell, Exxon 🌬️☄️♻️🐾🕊️🐝🍃🎑🎋🎏
It will only starts when the companies starting to minimize using plastic in their products , minimize if companies couldn’t avoid using it in their products and use paper container in manufacturing water bottles if possible. If milk could be stock in paper container , does drinking water could to? .. it may be possible. Since some people couldn’t stop throwing away their plastic bottles on our ocean ,if it’s in paper container, it could be much easy to fold into small parts then put inside their backpack or bags then throw away on their garbage bin when they returned home. But surely manufacturing companies were already finding their ways on how to minimize the plastic pollution now a days in ocean and on land. We know how wide our ocean is , so only focusing on cleaning it will do little to save it. Using unnecessary products could help too, but yes it’s not easy to accomplish.Just a thought.
Applying the market to solve an environmental problem...brilliant!
This is a great first step and a necessary one. We do need to reduce the amount of plastic entering our environment, but cleaning up will take time and offers prosperity too.
Good idea, only, besides recycling, the oceans and land needs to be cleaned up as rapidly as possible and a moratorium should be placed on commercial fishing fleets to allow the oceans fish populations to recover from over fishing. Humans populations must be allowed to use and farm any an all vacant lands in cities and communities. People must start becoming self sufficient..local farming!!
No one cares if there is no big monetary incentive for the elites in it.
This would be a 3 minute video without all the dramatic pauses...
I kid.. Great thing he's doing here.
11:09 "That alone will put hundreds of millions of dolars..." Nope, sorry it's only 50Million $. You told us 50cents per kg. We can make that calculation :D
Some corporate leaders dont like drinking water in their diners as utensils such as the drinking glass are not properly cleansed thus triggers dismay for hygienic reasons. They want bottled water as money is not an object so they buy as many as they want just to make sure they drink clean water.
Social plastic is an important cleanup effort, and his effort is great.
But for him not to emphasis the importance of ENDING plastic production is irresponsible.
Plastic production is the source of flow that needs to be stopped.
Thats not his business model ;]
ted talks need that thing that shortens silences and pauses. playing it fast is an imperfect solution to the way everyone talks on those stages.
Turning off the faucet would be ceasing to produce plastic. Shell, Exon, Henkel ARE that problem. In 50 years they will probably use this system as an excuse to keep making plastic.
Amy C. The strategy is to instead of recycling two times, the plastic material will never leave the circle, so once we have plastic it will never have to be disposed. I know this is just appealing to the ear, his whole speech. But we has a point, since we now have plastic packs, we need to use them in an infinite circle. One thing is true, we don't need to be producing more plastic, the plastic available right now is even more than the one we need to provide all of the consumable goods.
So when will this be implemented?
Amazing idea. I really hope it works out all over the world.
There will be a time, when supermarkets become more of an urban farm than product warehouse. They will have the space to grow everything, vertically. The chicken coop will be a lush garden in the rooftop. The fish and shellfish will actually be in very nice ponds and streams, where the water will recirculate to fertilize the plants, like your average aquaponic system but smarter and massive. The red meat fridge area will practically dissappear, unless you go buy it directly at a farm when available and limited. There will be products grown elsewhere too, like grains and legumes and specialty items. But seasonal fruits, vegetables, eggs and fish will be as local as it gets. Plastic containers won't even be a thing.
Great news great idea and an amazing achievement. Superb!
This isn't a solution. The basic idea is good, but it doesn't replace cleanup, it complements it.
1. There is already plastic in the oceans. It won't be collected by these people.
2. The plastic they collect is being recycled. A percentage of that will end up in the oceans, adding to the plastic that is already there and ISN'T being cleaned up.
Or to use his overflowing sink example, He's not turning the tap off completely, AND he doesn't get a bucket or mop, because he's decided that turning down the tap just a bit is good enough.
Dimetropteryx He didn't say don't clean up the ocean, he said do that last. This is not a replacement for ALL plastic waste scenarios, but it is a very smart solution that will help! If plastic is turned into currency, you might see some of the pirates off the coasts of poor countries doing some ocean clean up instead of high risk robbery. Try injecting a little imagination to improve ideas instead of rejecting ideas that you don't find perfect.
He did say don't clean up the ocean. That's what doing it last means. "Don't do it when it's critical to do it."
As for "injecting a little imagination to improve ideas", that's what I just did.
As for the idea not being perfect, that's not a matter of opinion.
As for rejecting the idea, read the second sentence.
Dimetropteryx Your first sentence is a categorical statement rejecting this solution, ”This is not a solution." Also last, doesn't mean not at all. You have an interesting use of language that I can't follow. Good luck with future communications.
Wrong. The first sentence rejects the framing of this as a solution, in direct contradiction of his claim that it is one. As I already explained, last does mean at all and that has nothing to do with language, and everything to do with the fact that there will never be a "last" to do this in.
I have a feeling you are very eager to opine and less eager to communicate.
The value of plastic wouldn't be high enough to replace the potential reward of robbery.
He is right that we need to close the faucet. I dont think he said this 'progrum' will close the faucet entirely. This 'progrum' will close the faucet partially. I approve.
plastic is good. But we've gone overboard. Recycling doesn't help all that much. 80% of plastic comes from poor countries? Maybe we all( even us first world countries) need to place value in reusing things. For example, we use canvas bags for groceries in my house and use plastic as little as possible. we have a 5-gallon plastic water jug we refill at the store.
My current biggest pet peeve is the plastic bags ( sometimes grocery or take out) we out the trash in. Our apartment complex requires garbage to be put in plastic bags tied shut before tossing them in the compactor. I think there must be a better way. In fact, I think the majority of our plastic garbage is the plastic bags out trash goes in...
This is a great idea because most of the plastic is coming from places that dont even have access to a screen where they can watch this video. That is why it's a better idea than an alternative. He is improving lives in more than one way. 2 birds with one stone.
Social plastic--> Alleviation of poverty-->Environmental protection
Brilliant idea. I'm joining in now.
Thank you!!! I can not think of a better way to solve our big big plastic problem. I hope in Mexico we join this Social Plastic Project too.... blessings
This is so amazing 😄
only people in western countries would claim such naive statements to 'ban plastic altogether'. plastic is CHEAP and a source of income. maybe in the US or Europe such approaches are possible but its gonna take decades before the entire world reaches that stage. in the meantime this is an amazing alternative. hope to see it implemented all over asia soon, especially indonesia and india where plastic AND poverty are in abundance.
I think that's a good idea, it won't solve everything, but is so much more helpful than some other recycling projects and not futile since it helps getting ride of poverty ! I encourage it! Nice talk!
This is brilliant - incentivising people not to chuck plastic in rivers etc ... I just hope that when it gets recycled it doesn't somehow find its way back into the oceans. We need more of this kind of thing and it gives me hope that the environment can be gradually saved. But overall we need to figure out ways of having less plastic packaging. Also, I don't think cleaning up the oceans is waste of time - it needs to be done in parallel with great efforts by the likes of David Katz.
btw that online saving account: because people won't take it all out simultaniously, this guy can use some of the money as he likes. if it is a bank account than the bank does it but he never mentioned banks
...apart from calling it "the plastic bank" (2:55)? ^^
Of course his only goal is to you the peoples money, of course it is just all about money and of course he is a bad guy. How could you trust him? How could you really belive that he just wants to save our planet and help poor people? No, of course it is ALL about money.
Please. Just stop thinkin that way. Money is just a byproduct, money is not evil.
Nope, he's just saying that everybody has some greed in them (who doesn't) and recycling plastic can help at the low cost of just reaching down and picking the pieces of plastic up
you are right Serpent, but i meant a bank that is independent from him. He creates a plastic bank is the same stuff, he can use the money.
Yeah this whole thing has me scratching my head. I want to know numbers. What is the cost in dollars for labor? It’s hard to see this working at current prices of plastic
how is the sale of reclaimed plastic going today
Sorry, i don't percive this speech as a solution to plastic in the oceans. We have to riduce the quantity of plastic produced globally and his solutions has to keep the actual production of plastic the same if not increase it. there will never be enough cleaners specially for those places that are unreachable. nice thought tho.
That is really cleaver. Encouraging people in poverty to collect plastics for a living, potentially giving them a better life than without this system. Solving poverty and the plastics problem in oceans. An excellent example of 2 birds with one stone
Thank you..........we are killing our own planet, the only ONE we have to live on!
we can live on mars in 20+ years XDD
Make no mistake about it-- David Katz fails to live up to his analogy of "turning off the tap". This does not, however, disqualify his idea which would incentivize the cleaning up of discarded plastic. What this does is makes his solution incomplete, because it doesn't discriminate between previously discarded plastics and new plastics. This means for regions where new plastic is easier to come by then discarded plastic, people will naturally choose to go that route. By offering this as a complete solution, Katz ignores the need to address the over-production of plastic. Pretty much, it says we don't need to turn off the faucet now, because I installed a drain :). Still a great solution because of the poverty aspect of it, but I'd like to see what he does to address this loophole.
Wow I love it!!! This is genius! Good stuff!
Great idea
dweilen met de kraan open is dutch saying meaning moping when the tap is stil on
Excellent presentation; why, because it sparks a debate. Ocean plastic is a "thing." Not producing plastic is not economically viable, clearly, although an ideal solution. I am not saying I agree with his methods but let's think and talk about it and come up with a solution that works on all levels, which, we currently do not have.
Why not both? The big patch in the pacific has to be dealt with. But this idea of socialplastic is quite good.
Why so many people not liking this information? this is gold!!!!
This guys is high if he thinks collecting trash is going to fix poverty.
TheVigilante2000 it wont, but it isnt a bad first step.
powerful presentation. this guy means business.
In a few years there will be another continent made out of plastic