[Music]
my name is Taylor bridges currently I’m
a senior at the University of Arkansas
studying psychology and sustainability
I didn’t realize six years ago as I sat
in an AP environmental science class
drinking out of a plastic water bottle
eating pretzels from a ziploc bag and
dipping them in a one-time-use
cream-cheese container that I’d be
standing here before you today as
someone who notices and admittedly is
sometimes deeply conflicted by every
single piece of trash she sees it is my
plan to devote all of my energy
educating aiding convincing and
inspiring everyone to take better care
of this magical place that we call home
I want to make it clear that I’m not
saying we’re hateful people deliberately
walking around cursing and destroying
nature but passively that’s exactly what
we’re doing we’re spending our natural
capital like it’s burning a hole in our
pockets
it’s expendable we can’t print more when
we run out nature hasn’t been given the
time it needs to replenish itself due to
our never ceasing rapid consumption the
psychology major in me asked why it is
that we act so irresponsibly and through
my observations I’ve come to three major
conclusions the first is that we’ve been
conditioned to consume in such a way
that in return
we’ve been detached from the negative
consequences of our actions the second
is that we’re busy people we’ve got a
lot going on from families to take care
of schoolwork deadlines to meet bills to
pay meals to cook and so on the third is
what I personally think is the biggest
factor we think oh I’m just one in seven
billion people what difference could I
possibly make imagine if the whole seven
billion of us reverse this mindset I’m
here to empower you I’m here on this
stage of day to tell you that everything
you do matters adds up and makes a
difference the more people that take on
the responsibility of this mindset the
sooner the world can change for the
better every move we make matters
it’s up to you it’s up to me and it’s up
to all of us and we all have the power
every day to make a difference I think
it’s safe to say considering the natural
disasters occurring all around the world
that mother nature is crying out to us
in pain our planet is undoubtedly
warming a year ago our carbon dioxide
levels reached over 400 parts per
billion carbon dioxide is a greenhouse
gas that traps heat within our
atmosphere since the Industrial
Revolution co2 emissions have increased
by a third in a 2015 report the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change a group comprised of 1,300
independent scientists claimed that they
are fairly certain that meaning 95%
certain the climactic changes are
induced by anthropogenic attributes
those dang monkeys just kidding that
means it’s our fault the warming and
degradation of this shared space
warrants weather extremes failing crop
yields ocean acidification sea level
stresses biodiversity loss and so on we
are currently experiencing this planet 6
mass extinction
meaning we are in the midst of losing
about 75% of our world’s biodiversity
America in its current consumption
patterns is responsible for an
incredible amount of environmental decay
our current population is 327 million
out of 7.5 billion meaning we make up a
small 4 percent of the entire world’s
population our diminutive percentage
consumes an immense amount of world
energy resources 24 percent our
consumption of energy Intel’s
consumption of goods and this
coincidentally creates waste if everyone
in the world of like the United States
it would take 5 Earth’s to sustain our
way of life we have won Arkansas itself
generated 6,000 tons of waste in 2016
while only recycling about 47% of that
now let’s go back in time for just a
second
a Wisconsin senator named Gaylord Nelson
initiated the environmental movement
after he started the first Earth Day in
1970 the heart of this movement was
education it sparked the phrase reduce
reuse recycle the order of these 3 R’s
is extremely crucial now more than ever
just because you’re recycle doesn’t mean
you create less trash honoring the
arrangement of these 3 R’s has the power
to salvage our current state of
sustainability amongst us in this planet
we wouldn’t pile up trash in the houses
that we live in so what makes it ok to
bury it within the floor of our home
landfills affect the delicate balance of
our biosphere the biggest challenge of
trash is the time space separation
between our actions and their negative
consequences it may just be a snack a
soda once a go meal for lunch but as
innocent as the act may seem consuming
trash and throwing it away it
contributes to the heating of our
atmosphere so we must bridge the gap in
our minds through educational awareness
in the words of my dear friend sherry
witty there is no way what a powerful
set of words right just because you
consume something throw it in the trash
and someone else drives it out of your
sight doesn’t mean it vanished it’s got
to go somewhere and more times than not
that somewhere is a huge mass of land
dedicated to that which no longer serves
us these landfills are massive these are
flyover pictures of our Taneytown
landfill it is 60 acres wide and 10 to
12 stories tall and that’s just the
closed portion there are about 3,000 of
these stumps scattered all throughout
the United States I strongly agree with
the notion that trash is a human design
flaw it’s detrimental to the survival of
us on this planet a couple months ago my
boyfriend and I stopped at Schlotzsky’s
it was a very rare and unsustainable
moment of my life
I asked the cashier not to put our food
in the bag because we have hands and
then I asked her no silverware cuz I had
my own in the truck he proceeded to tell
me that that was the most hipster thing
that he’d ever heard in his life
and then offered to serve my soup in my
hands this funny story segues into
sharing some startling statistics with
the help of some friends I was able to
account that make the amount of
disposable cups plates and utensils
found on three shelves of a major
retailers store there were 44,000
disposable products on three shelves
this is one aisle there are 6000 336 of
these stores throughout the whole world
think multiplication you can buy 50
plastic disposable cups for under $5
because of our lack of full cost pricing
if the environmental costs were factored
into these prices we wouldn’t be able to
afford conveniently consuming them
monetarily we may be able to
environmentally we cannot fixing this
issue is as simple as having your own
cup plate utensils with you in your car
backpack or purse ready to go any time
you might need them according to the FAO
1.3 billion tons of edible food is
wasted every year
this results in 3.3 billion tons of
greenhouse gases and 28% of our
agricultural area is used to produce
this wasted food composting is a very
beneficial tool in diverting the
greenhouse gases of food landfill at
first I was intimidated by composting
what are bone and blood meal anyways
this was until my dear friend Mady twigs
introduced to me the art of simple
composting all that’s required is a
spotter earth and a shovel if you don’t
have a yard to compost in you can
purchase a porch composter if you live
in an apartment perhaps you and some
neighbors because with the cost of one
and compost together not only does
composting significantly reduce
greenhouse gases
it also gives way for
rich soil that’s very beneficial for
gardening it’s a win-win situation
if you eat organic locally grown food
you get extra gold stars on your
sustainable chart did you know that
there’s a dead zone in the Gulf of
Mexico caused by agricultural runoff of
phosphorous and nitrogen that made their
way down the Mississippi River from its
surrounding farming states eating
organic food does not entail the use of
such fertilizer that contributes to this
dead zone have you ever considered the
carbon foot the footprint of a single
three-course meal more times than not
that food traveled far and wide just to
be distributed to your plate an average
of a thousand and five hundred miles
what I personally find the most baffling
about commercial food is them someone
sitting in an office is getting paid
significantly more than the person doing
the hard work growing it if you buy
local food you’re able to give your
money directly to the hands that grew it
and furthermore you’re significantly
reducing your personal footprint because
it didn’t have to travel far and wide
just to reach your plate according to
the earth Policy Institute currently 100
billion plastic bags circle through the
hands of US consumers every year almost
one bag per person each day late into
end they could circle our equator 1330
times I personally watched people walk
out of store with items placed in a bag
that they could have easily carried
themselves we’ve become so conditioned
to be reliant on these disposable bags
that we’ve forgotten that were
able-bodied creatures fixing this issue
is as easy as keeping your own reusable
bags in your car ready to go anytime you
need them to go into a store how many of
you purchase to go to go coffee this
past week come on don’t be shy raise
your hands now how many of you brought
your own reusable cup to this said
coffee purchase see I set you up a local
coffee shop named our sega’s averaged
the total amount of disposable
cups it’s for stores used they found
that they average 20,000 plastic to-go
cups with a plastic lid and 40,000 paper
to-go cups with a plastic clip these
numbers only represent four coffee shops
in Fayetteville Arkansas now multiply
that by all the coffee shops in Arkansas
then multiply it by all the coffee shops
in the United States and then multiply
it by all the coffee shops in the world
the plastic from these disposable cups
is going to be here about ten times
longer than the average person’s
lifespan man our coffee consumption is
not sustainable but it easily could be
imagine the positive impact if we all
took our own cups every time we had a
purchase the United States consumed 59
point 1 billion plastic water bottles in
2015 alone can you imagine 59 point 1
billion of anything plastic water bottle
sales have been on the rise ever since
they emerged in 1993 simply utilizing
your own reusable water bottle can
significantly reduce your footprint now
if you’re sitting there thinking well I
recycle every plastic bottle I use so
I’m in the clear
I’m just gonna come out and say it
you’re wrong and I’ll tell you why
plastic is a huge problem
we rely on plastic today as if it were
oxygen we’re currently producing 300
million tons of plastic a year and half
of that is for single use about 8
million tons of plastic is dumped into
our oceans each year the 5 gyres
Institute found that five point to five
trillion plastic particles are currently
at float in the sea conditional
convenient consumption that is
detrimental to the survival of us on
this planet has infiltrated our everyday
lives plastic is everywhere we look we
use it for one-time purposes and then
dispose of it without thinking twice
it takes about a thousand years to break
down and contributes to the heating of
our atmosphere as it sits in our
landfills furthermore plastic is
comprised of crude oil and natural gases
making an environmental problem before
ever even consumed now for that
recycling plastic problem each time
plastic is recycled it is actually down
cycled this means that eventually we’re
left with a product that can’t be made
into anything and a substance that’s
here to stay for far longer than its
welcome this makes plastic the least
sustainable packaging option even though
we should first reduce and then reuse
recycling is incredibly beneficial
because it allows us not to use raw
materials when we’re making goods some
statistics from the University of
Southern Indiana indicate that each ton
of recycled paper saves 17 trees 380
gallons of oil 4,000 kilowatts of energy
7,000 gallons of water and then 3 cubic
yards of landfill space those 17 trees
saved can pull 250 pounds of carbon
dioxide from the air each year also
according to the University of Southern
Indiana recycling glasses glass is
beneficial because it causes 20% less
air pollution and 50% less water
pollution
if recycled glass is substituted for
half of the raw materials waste can be
cut by about 80 percent and there’s no
limit to the number of times that glass
can be recycled according to the
recycling coalition of Utah recycling
aluminum takes 95 percent less energy
than creating it from raw materials
recycling one aluminum can can save
enough energy to power a TV for three
hours an aluminum can be recycled
indefinitely
since glass and aluminum can both be
recycled indefinitely purchasing items
specifically because they are packaged
in these materials can reduce your
personnel’s consider your personal
consumptions footprint significantly
I would like to quote my personal hero
and woman I must thank for teaching me
to talk trash lewis man a local activist
a woman with a PhD in trash and the
director of waste reduction resources
calm and say recycling is not the
solution we the consumers are if we can
rely heavily on steps one and two
reducing and then reusing we can make
the biggest positive impact that being
said it’s important to note the
unquestionable positive impact recycling
has in terms of saving raw materials and
energy once you start to incorporate
self-reliant practices you’ll find the
switch to serious sustainable living is
easier than first imagined just start
small and work your way up the positive
possibilities are vast everything is
connected we are responsible for every
move we make it is our responsibility to
seek and share education about this
catastrophic unintentional consequence
potential we don’t have time or reason
to wait on governments and policies to
take care of these issues we must demand
more of ourselves businesses and
regulations by being an educated and
involved social democracy your every
dollar every move and every piece of
trash is your vote so what kind of world
are you creating more over the big
picture isn’t even about reduce reusing
recycling it’s about taking care of the
one thing that provides us life the
environment is our life source our
pranayama we are and have nothing
without it with all that’s at stake the
plethora of positive alternatives and
the power that lies within the people I
leave one question at your feet today
why waste
[Applause]
you
my name is Taylor bridges currently I’m
a senior at the University of Arkansas
studying psychology and sustainability
I didn’t realize six years ago as I sat
in an AP environmental science class
drinking out of a plastic water bottle
eating pretzels from a ziploc bag and
dipping them in a one-time-use
cream-cheese container that I’d be
standing here before you today as
someone who notices and admittedly is
sometimes deeply conflicted by every
single piece of trash she sees it is my
plan to devote all of my energy
educating aiding convincing and
inspiring everyone to take better care
of this magical place that we call home
I want to make it clear that I’m not
saying we’re hateful people deliberately
walking around cursing and destroying
nature but passively that’s exactly what
we’re doing we’re spending our natural
capital like it’s burning a hole in our
pockets
it’s expendable we can’t print more when
we run out nature hasn’t been given the
time it needs to replenish itself due to
our never ceasing rapid consumption the
psychology major in me asked why it is
that we act so irresponsibly and through
my observations I’ve come to three major
conclusions the first is that we’ve been
conditioned to consume in such a way
that in return
we’ve been detached from the negative
consequences of our actions the second
is that we’re busy people we’ve got a
lot going on from families to take care
of schoolwork deadlines to meet bills to
pay meals to cook and so on the third is
what I personally think is the biggest
factor we think oh I’m just one in seven
billion people what difference could I
possibly make imagine if the whole seven
billion of us reverse this mindset I’m
here to empower you I’m here on this
stage of day to tell you that everything
you do matters adds up and makes a
difference the more people that take on
the responsibility of this mindset the
sooner the world can change for the
better every move we make matters
it’s up to you it’s up to me and it’s up
to all of us and we all have the power
every day to make a difference I think
it’s safe to say considering the natural
disasters occurring all around the world
that mother nature is crying out to us
in pain our planet is undoubtedly
warming a year ago our carbon dioxide
levels reached over 400 parts per
billion carbon dioxide is a greenhouse
gas that traps heat within our
atmosphere since the Industrial
Revolution co2 emissions have increased
by a third in a 2015 report the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change a group comprised of 1,300
independent scientists claimed that they
are fairly certain that meaning 95%
certain the climactic changes are
induced by anthropogenic attributes
those dang monkeys just kidding that
means it’s our fault the warming and
degradation of this shared space
warrants weather extremes failing crop
yields ocean acidification sea level
stresses biodiversity loss and so on we
are currently experiencing this planet 6
mass extinction
meaning we are in the midst of losing
about 75% of our world’s biodiversity
America in its current consumption
patterns is responsible for an
incredible amount of environmental decay
our current population is 327 million
out of 7.5 billion meaning we make up a
small 4 percent of the entire world’s
population our diminutive percentage
consumes an immense amount of world
energy resources 24 percent our
consumption of energy Intel’s
consumption of goods and this
coincidentally creates waste if everyone
in the world of like the United States
it would take 5 Earth’s to sustain our
way of life we have won Arkansas itself
generated 6,000 tons of waste in 2016
while only recycling about 47% of that
now let’s go back in time for just a
second
a Wisconsin senator named Gaylord Nelson
initiated the environmental movement
after he started the first Earth Day in
1970 the heart of this movement was
education it sparked the phrase reduce
reuse recycle the order of these 3 R’s
is extremely crucial now more than ever
just because you’re recycle doesn’t mean
you create less trash honoring the
arrangement of these 3 R’s has the power
to salvage our current state of
sustainability amongst us in this planet
we wouldn’t pile up trash in the houses
that we live in so what makes it ok to
bury it within the floor of our home
landfills affect the delicate balance of
our biosphere the biggest challenge of
trash is the time space separation
between our actions and their negative
consequences it may just be a snack a
soda once a go meal for lunch but as
innocent as the act may seem consuming
trash and throwing it away it
contributes to the heating of our
atmosphere so we must bridge the gap in
our minds through educational awareness
in the words of my dear friend sherry
witty there is no way what a powerful
set of words right just because you
consume something throw it in the trash
and someone else drives it out of your
sight doesn’t mean it vanished it’s got
to go somewhere and more times than not
that somewhere is a huge mass of land
dedicated to that which no longer serves
us these landfills are massive these are
flyover pictures of our Taneytown
landfill it is 60 acres wide and 10 to
12 stories tall and that’s just the
closed portion there are about 3,000 of
these stumps scattered all throughout
the United States I strongly agree with
the notion that trash is a human design
flaw it’s detrimental to the survival of
us on this planet a couple months ago my
boyfriend and I stopped at Schlotzsky’s
it was a very rare and unsustainable
moment of my life
I asked the cashier not to put our food
in the bag because we have hands and
then I asked her no silverware cuz I had
my own in the truck he proceeded to tell
me that that was the most hipster thing
that he’d ever heard in his life
and then offered to serve my soup in my
hands this funny story segues into
sharing some startling statistics with
the help of some friends I was able to
account that make the amount of
disposable cups plates and utensils
found on three shelves of a major
retailers store there were 44,000
disposable products on three shelves
this is one aisle there are 6000 336 of
these stores throughout the whole world
think multiplication you can buy 50
plastic disposable cups for under $5
because of our lack of full cost pricing
if the environmental costs were factored
into these prices we wouldn’t be able to
afford conveniently consuming them
monetarily we may be able to
environmentally we cannot fixing this
issue is as simple as having your own
cup plate utensils with you in your car
backpack or purse ready to go any time
you might need them according to the FAO
1.3 billion tons of edible food is
wasted every year
this results in 3.3 billion tons of
greenhouse gases and 28% of our
agricultural area is used to produce
this wasted food composting is a very
beneficial tool in diverting the
greenhouse gases of food landfill at
first I was intimidated by composting
what are bone and blood meal anyways
this was until my dear friend Mady twigs
introduced to me the art of simple
composting all that’s required is a
spotter earth and a shovel if you don’t
have a yard to compost in you can
purchase a porch composter if you live
in an apartment perhaps you and some
neighbors because with the cost of one
and compost together not only does
composting significantly reduce
greenhouse gases
it also gives way for
rich soil that’s very beneficial for
gardening it’s a win-win situation
if you eat organic locally grown food
you get extra gold stars on your
sustainable chart did you know that
there’s a dead zone in the Gulf of
Mexico caused by agricultural runoff of
phosphorous and nitrogen that made their
way down the Mississippi River from its
surrounding farming states eating
organic food does not entail the use of
such fertilizer that contributes to this
dead zone have you ever considered the
carbon foot the footprint of a single
three-course meal more times than not
that food traveled far and wide just to
be distributed to your plate an average
of a thousand and five hundred miles
what I personally find the most baffling
about commercial food is them someone
sitting in an office is getting paid
significantly more than the person doing
the hard work growing it if you buy
local food you’re able to give your
money directly to the hands that grew it
and furthermore you’re significantly
reducing your personal footprint because
it didn’t have to travel far and wide
just to reach your plate according to
the earth Policy Institute currently 100
billion plastic bags circle through the
hands of US consumers every year almost
one bag per person each day late into
end they could circle our equator 1330
times I personally watched people walk
out of store with items placed in a bag
that they could have easily carried
themselves we’ve become so conditioned
to be reliant on these disposable bags
that we’ve forgotten that were
able-bodied creatures fixing this issue
is as easy as keeping your own reusable
bags in your car ready to go anytime you
need them to go into a store how many of
you purchase to go to go coffee this
past week come on don’t be shy raise
your hands now how many of you brought
your own reusable cup to this said
coffee purchase see I set you up a local
coffee shop named our sega’s averaged
the total amount of disposable
cups it’s for stores used they found
that they average 20,000 plastic to-go
cups with a plastic lid and 40,000 paper
to-go cups with a plastic clip these
numbers only represent four coffee shops
in Fayetteville Arkansas now multiply
that by all the coffee shops in Arkansas
then multiply it by all the coffee shops
in the United States and then multiply
it by all the coffee shops in the world
the plastic from these disposable cups
is going to be here about ten times
longer than the average person’s
lifespan man our coffee consumption is
not sustainable but it easily could be
imagine the positive impact if we all
took our own cups every time we had a
purchase the United States consumed 59
point 1 billion plastic water bottles in
2015 alone can you imagine 59 point 1
billion of anything plastic water bottle
sales have been on the rise ever since
they emerged in 1993 simply utilizing
your own reusable water bottle can
significantly reduce your footprint now
if you’re sitting there thinking well I
recycle every plastic bottle I use so
I’m in the clear
I’m just gonna come out and say it
you’re wrong and I’ll tell you why
plastic is a huge problem
we rely on plastic today as if it were
oxygen we’re currently producing 300
million tons of plastic a year and half
of that is for single use about 8
million tons of plastic is dumped into
our oceans each year the 5 gyres
Institute found that five point to five
trillion plastic particles are currently
at float in the sea conditional
convenient consumption that is
detrimental to the survival of us on
this planet has infiltrated our everyday
lives plastic is everywhere we look we
use it for one-time purposes and then
dispose of it without thinking twice
it takes about a thousand years to break
down and contributes to the heating of
our atmosphere as it sits in our
landfills furthermore plastic is
comprised of crude oil and natural gases
making an environmental problem before
ever even consumed now for that
recycling plastic problem each time
plastic is recycled it is actually down
cycled this means that eventually we’re
left with a product that can’t be made
into anything and a substance that’s
here to stay for far longer than its
welcome this makes plastic the least
sustainable packaging option even though
we should first reduce and then reuse
recycling is incredibly beneficial
because it allows us not to use raw
materials when we’re making goods some
statistics from the University of
Southern Indiana indicate that each ton
of recycled paper saves 17 trees 380
gallons of oil 4,000 kilowatts of energy
7,000 gallons of water and then 3 cubic
yards of landfill space those 17 trees
saved can pull 250 pounds of carbon
dioxide from the air each year also
according to the University of Southern
Indiana recycling glasses glass is
beneficial because it causes 20% less
air pollution and 50% less water
pollution
if recycled glass is substituted for
half of the raw materials waste can be
cut by about 80 percent and there’s no
limit to the number of times that glass
can be recycled according to the
recycling coalition of Utah recycling
aluminum takes 95 percent less energy
than creating it from raw materials
recycling one aluminum can can save
enough energy to power a TV for three
hours an aluminum can be recycled
indefinitely
since glass and aluminum can both be
recycled indefinitely purchasing items
specifically because they are packaged
in these materials can reduce your
personnel’s consider your personal
consumptions footprint significantly
I would like to quote my personal hero
and woman I must thank for teaching me
to talk trash lewis man a local activist
a woman with a PhD in trash and the
director of waste reduction resources
calm and say recycling is not the
solution we the consumers are if we can
rely heavily on steps one and two
reducing and then reusing we can make
the biggest positive impact that being
said it’s important to note the
unquestionable positive impact recycling
has in terms of saving raw materials and
energy once you start to incorporate
self-reliant practices you’ll find the
switch to serious sustainable living is
easier than first imagined just start
small and work your way up the positive
possibilities are vast everything is
connected we are responsible for every
move we make it is our responsibility to
seek and share education about this
catastrophic unintentional consequence
potential we don’t have time or reason
to wait on governments and policies to
take care of these issues we must demand
more of ourselves businesses and
regulations by being an educated and
involved social democracy your every
dollar every move and every piece of
trash is your vote so what kind of world
are you creating more over the big
picture isn’t even about reduce reusing
recycling it’s about taking care of the
one thing that provides us life the
environment is our life source our
pranayama we are and have nothing
without it with all that’s at stake the
plethora of positive alternatives and
the power that lies within the people I
leave one question at your feet today
why waste
[Applause]
you
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