I’m four years old and it’s past my
bedtime
I’m hanging on my dad’s arm bugging him
to let me have a soda mom’s out of the
house and he’s playing cards with
friends so I saw this as an easy
opportunity to exploit finally he caves
and sends me off to get it myself
seconds later I’m standing at the
refrigerator clutching this huge bottle
of soda and I hear aren’t you worried
about him breaking that bottle no it’s
one of those new plastic bottles they
say they’re unbreakable impulsively I
let go of the bottle to see if it was
true the bottle bounces safely off the
floor and the room fills with laughter
as someone says looks like they’re right
single-use plastic was now a part of our
life and over the next forty years it
continued to weave its way deep into the
fabric of our lives just like a bad
habit we started to think we couldn’t
live without it actually we’re loving it
right
I mean we’re saving trees with plastic
bags we’re skipping dish duty with
disposable plastic ware and our messy
leftovers are now safely locked away in
waterproof plastic to-go containers life
is good right but in no time we go from
creating just two million tons of
plastic globally per year to over 400
million tons of new plastic created
every year if things stay the same that
number will double in the next 20 years
can you imagine a billion tons of
plastic I’ll tell you who can are
enablers the manufacturers and suppliers
of plastic items they’re doing
everything they can to increase our
reliance on plastic all the while
insisting there’s nothing wrong with
their product why because recycling and
just like that
they’ve shifted the burden of dealing
with
sztyc ways to us we’re told if we can
just get our plastic into the blue bin
everything will be okay but here’s the
tragic truth
when it comes to plastic the recycling
triangle breaks down even with our best
efforts and policies less than nine
percent of all plastic made is recycled
as much as 30 percent of single-use
plastic goes straight into our
environment as litter and ocean debris
and what about that small percent that
is recycled well it usually ends up down
cycled into items with lower recycling
rates that will likely end up as
landfill or in our environment and since
I brought it up just because we put it
into a truck cart it out of our
neighborhood and pile it up somewhere we
can’t see it landfill is still in our
environment so what is single-use
plastic bags to go containers packaging
of all sorts and 20:18 single-use
plastic of the year
straws no matter what form it takes
single-use plastics average use period
is less than six months often less than
six minutes think about that how long
did you use you how long did you use
your coffee stirrer this morning or that
sampling spoon less than six minutes but
it will persist in our environment for
hundreds of years
single-use plastic is responsible for
half of all plastic waste in the world
and contributes to the more than eight
million tons of new plastic and entering
our oceans each year with that the winds
of change are stirring as that face a
plastic pollution is showing itself in
the alarming photos and videos we can’t
ignore the images of decaying albatross
is burdened with plastic bottle caps and
cigarette lighters or who hasn’t seen
that cringe inducing video of a plastic
straw being painfully extracted from a
sea turtles nostril or there’s the
stories and experiences each of us have
in our community of plastic litter on
our streets and beaches these images and
stories are heartbreaking and profoundly
disturbing but the motivation and
awareness they bring is exactly what is
inspiring positive action and a growing
movement to give us hope we are
beginning to see clearly as the side
effects of our plastic habit literally
pile up we are reconnecting with the
waste we create and realizing that it
doesn’t just magically disappear when we
throw it in that blue bin the fact is
recycling is not the solution we must
reduce our our demand for single use
plastic small local organizations are
uniting to demand and support change
responsible businesses are beginning to
act ahead of the trend to reduce and
eliminate single-use plastic from their
processes and bold municipalities are
advancing change by banning single-use
plastic items plastic to-go containers
plastic bags and of course single-use
plastic water bottles our journey out of
this plastic fog of convenient and cheap
is well underway including right here in
the Seacoast community of Maine and New
Hampshire together my wife and I have
founded sustainable seacoast
a nonprofit organization with the
primary goal of eliminating single-use
plastic from our local restaurant
industry we are working with restaurants
to find solutions for single-use
in-house plastic items like cups and
utensils eliminating demand for
thousands of plastic items
we are helping cafes and to go
restaurants increase use of four here
options and bring your own incentives
significantly reducing need for
disposables and we partnered with other
organizations around the Seacoast to
increase adoption of straw on-demand
policies taking more than a half a
million plastic straws off our streets
each year
last spring I was meeting my teenage son
here at the Music Hall to see a
documentary in this historic theater it
was hot I was running late and by the
time we took our seats I was thirsty so
I made my way up to the concession stand
to see what was available for drinks to
my disappointment they’re only offerings
were in single-use plastic containers
although a water fountain is available
on the lower level time was short so I
skipped the plastic and headed back to
my seat my son however returned shortly
after clutching a plastic bottle of soda
he reminds me of me but that was then
right today we are thrilled to have the
Music Hall as sustainable seacoast
members we are working with them on
improving their sustainability and
reducing their impact on the environment
you probably noticed the absence of
plastic bottles here today well I
couldn’t be happier or more honored to
announce for the first time here today
that the Music Hall has eliminated
plastic bottles from their concession
removing more than 22,000 plastic
bottles a year from circulation so what
possible impact could one bottle have
imagine this each of us in here right
now
commits to eliminating just one plastic
bottle per week from our lives together
we’ve just reduced demand for thirty
three thousand eight hundred plastic
bottles per year make this commitment to
reduce and support businesses like the
music-hall doing the same and I
guarantee your efforts will have
exponential impact and maybe in the
not-too-distant future when our
grandchildren come rushing up to us
clutching a soda in their hands we can
tell them a story of how soda used to be
packaged in an environmentally
catastrophic material called plastic
thank you
you [Applause]
bedtime
I’m hanging on my dad’s arm bugging him
to let me have a soda mom’s out of the
house and he’s playing cards with
friends so I saw this as an easy
opportunity to exploit finally he caves
and sends me off to get it myself
seconds later I’m standing at the
refrigerator clutching this huge bottle
of soda and I hear aren’t you worried
about him breaking that bottle no it’s
one of those new plastic bottles they
say they’re unbreakable impulsively I
let go of the bottle to see if it was
true the bottle bounces safely off the
floor and the room fills with laughter
as someone says looks like they’re right
single-use plastic was now a part of our
life and over the next forty years it
continued to weave its way deep into the
fabric of our lives just like a bad
habit we started to think we couldn’t
live without it actually we’re loving it
right
I mean we’re saving trees with plastic
bags we’re skipping dish duty with
disposable plastic ware and our messy
leftovers are now safely locked away in
waterproof plastic to-go containers life
is good right but in no time we go from
creating just two million tons of
plastic globally per year to over 400
million tons of new plastic created
every year if things stay the same that
number will double in the next 20 years
can you imagine a billion tons of
plastic I’ll tell you who can are
enablers the manufacturers and suppliers
of plastic items they’re doing
everything they can to increase our
reliance on plastic all the while
insisting there’s nothing wrong with
their product why because recycling and
just like that
they’ve shifted the burden of dealing
with
sztyc ways to us we’re told if we can
just get our plastic into the blue bin
everything will be okay but here’s the
tragic truth
when it comes to plastic the recycling
triangle breaks down even with our best
efforts and policies less than nine
percent of all plastic made is recycled
as much as 30 percent of single-use
plastic goes straight into our
environment as litter and ocean debris
and what about that small percent that
is recycled well it usually ends up down
cycled into items with lower recycling
rates that will likely end up as
landfill or in our environment and since
I brought it up just because we put it
into a truck cart it out of our
neighborhood and pile it up somewhere we
can’t see it landfill is still in our
environment so what is single-use
plastic bags to go containers packaging
of all sorts and 20:18 single-use
plastic of the year
straws no matter what form it takes
single-use plastics average use period
is less than six months often less than
six minutes think about that how long
did you use you how long did you use
your coffee stirrer this morning or that
sampling spoon less than six minutes but
it will persist in our environment for
hundreds of years
single-use plastic is responsible for
half of all plastic waste in the world
and contributes to the more than eight
million tons of new plastic and entering
our oceans each year with that the winds
of change are stirring as that face a
plastic pollution is showing itself in
the alarming photos and videos we can’t
ignore the images of decaying albatross
is burdened with plastic bottle caps and
cigarette lighters or who hasn’t seen
that cringe inducing video of a plastic
straw being painfully extracted from a
sea turtles nostril or there’s the
stories and experiences each of us have
in our community of plastic litter on
our streets and beaches these images and
stories are heartbreaking and profoundly
disturbing but the motivation and
awareness they bring is exactly what is
inspiring positive action and a growing
movement to give us hope we are
beginning to see clearly as the side
effects of our plastic habit literally
pile up we are reconnecting with the
waste we create and realizing that it
doesn’t just magically disappear when we
throw it in that blue bin the fact is
recycling is not the solution we must
reduce our our demand for single use
plastic small local organizations are
uniting to demand and support change
responsible businesses are beginning to
act ahead of the trend to reduce and
eliminate single-use plastic from their
processes and bold municipalities are
advancing change by banning single-use
plastic items plastic to-go containers
plastic bags and of course single-use
plastic water bottles our journey out of
this plastic fog of convenient and cheap
is well underway including right here in
the Seacoast community of Maine and New
Hampshire together my wife and I have
founded sustainable seacoast
a nonprofit organization with the
primary goal of eliminating single-use
plastic from our local restaurant
industry we are working with restaurants
to find solutions for single-use
in-house plastic items like cups and
utensils eliminating demand for
thousands of plastic items
we are helping cafes and to go
restaurants increase use of four here
options and bring your own incentives
significantly reducing need for
disposables and we partnered with other
organizations around the Seacoast to
increase adoption of straw on-demand
policies taking more than a half a
million plastic straws off our streets
each year
last spring I was meeting my teenage son
here at the Music Hall to see a
documentary in this historic theater it
was hot I was running late and by the
time we took our seats I was thirsty so
I made my way up to the concession stand
to see what was available for drinks to
my disappointment they’re only offerings
were in single-use plastic containers
although a water fountain is available
on the lower level time was short so I
skipped the plastic and headed back to
my seat my son however returned shortly
after clutching a plastic bottle of soda
he reminds me of me but that was then
right today we are thrilled to have the
Music Hall as sustainable seacoast
members we are working with them on
improving their sustainability and
reducing their impact on the environment
you probably noticed the absence of
plastic bottles here today well I
couldn’t be happier or more honored to
announce for the first time here today
that the Music Hall has eliminated
plastic bottles from their concession
removing more than 22,000 plastic
bottles a year from circulation so what
possible impact could one bottle have
imagine this each of us in here right
now
commits to eliminating just one plastic
bottle per week from our lives together
we’ve just reduced demand for thirty
three thousand eight hundred plastic
bottles per year make this commitment to
reduce and support businesses like the
music-hall doing the same and I
guarantee your efforts will have
exponential impact and maybe in the
not-too-distant future when our
grandchildren come rushing up to us
clutching a soda in their hands we can
tell them a story of how soda used to be
packaged in an environmentally
catastrophic material called plastic
thank you
you [Applause]
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