ideas and for an idea to develop you
often need a problem to overcome so
let’s take a problem let’s take the
biggest problem currently facing us
climate change this could lead to mass
extinctions loss of global biodiversity
conflicts and even Wars so for a problem
this big we’re going to need a pretty
big idea to solve it and as a lecturer
at Bangor University I often talk to my
students about some of these ideas ways
to cut greenhouse gas emissions and
geoengineering but a few months ago I
came up with a much simpler idea and it
turns me quite by accident into
something of a somewhat surprising
eco-warrior the idea couldn’t be simpler
bear with me of this the idea is this a
plastic drinking straw not just one of
them though 550 million of them because
that’s how many are used in America and
Britain every single day 550 million of
them and they get thrown away yes they
could or many of them could be recycled
but realistically this doesn’t happen
they’re too small and it’s not
economically viable to do so so they get
thrown away and they join a staggering
number of other single-use plastic items
which are thrown away every single day
plastic cups plastic bottles plastic
bags so many plastic items are thrown
away its plastics affordability its
versatility and its durability which is
ensured that plastic has found its way
into every single element of our life
it’s hard to imagine modern day life
without plastic and some of it is
essential without it advances in
medicine would stop advances in science
would stop advances in the exploration
of our oceans and other planets would
stop it is incredibly important to us
but let’s take a step back for a minutes
a runabout just before the Second World
War
hardly any plastic was being made since
then eight point three billion tons of
plastic has been produced eight point
three billion tons and here’s a sobering
thought
apart from a very small percentage which
has been incinerated or burnt all over
eight point three billion tons of
plastic still exists as plastic so a
plastic drinking straw which you use as
a child to drink your first chocolate
milkshake still exists it’s still out
there somewhere every straw you have
ever used is still out there somewhere
now they may have broken up into smaller
pieces but they don’t break down plastic
doesn’t break down
it doesn’t decompose it doesn’t rot away
like a paper or card word it stays as
plastic scientists are now thinking that
plastic will stick around for so long
that it will become the geological
marker of our time in history so think
about that in millions of years to come
the sign that we were here will be a
layer of fossilized plastic it’s quite a
legacy to leave behind and it’s not just
going to be in the areas of landfill
sites and suchlike where that layer is
going to be because plastic waste has
found its way to the top of our
mountains to the very bottoms of our
oceans and in fact it’s our oceans which
have received some of the worst effects
of this plastic waste epidemic our
oceans have unfortunately often been
seen as the best places to dump our
rubbish out of sight out of mind
and unfortunately this is still the case
twelve point seven million tons of
plastic finds its way is dumped into our
oceans every single year give you some
perspective that’s about a truckload of
rubbish dumps every single minute into
our oceans and once it’s in our oceans
the effects can be devastating I am sure
we have all seen the pictures of
dolphins and whales drowning because
they’ve been wrapped up in nylon ropes
we’ve all seen pictures of turtles
choking on plastic bags which they
mistakenly think a jellyfish of seabird
chicks dying their stomachs full of
plastic when plastic is in the ocean we
know that harmful chemicals can attach
to it and be released from it we also
know that plastic can break down into
smaller and smaller pieces coming
microplastics and that these micro
plastics have affected every single
level of the food chain but really
we’re only just getting our heads around
the full consequences of what all this
plastic in our oceans could mean the
fact that plastic is durable one of the
reasons we like it so much is also the
reason it is causing us such a problem
because plastic does not decompose it
accumulates it accumulates wherever it
is dumped in our oceans this is why it
is a fully fledged environmental
disaster so you may be thinking now that
the plastic waste problem is just a big
an issue as climate change and you’d be
right and the two are connected now this
is my mum my mum reuses everything ship
every back for her is a bag for life she
still uses bags from businesses that
went out that shops that went out of
business 20 years ago she washes and
reuses tin foil even baking paper and
woe betide anyone that rips any
Christmas wrapping paper is that can be
used again the idea of the disposable
throwaway society has not really reached
her in rural structure she is an
accidental eco-warrior without even
realizing it but most of us most of us
have embraced the throwaway disposable
society and here is a link between the
plastic waste problem and climate change
most traditional plastics are oil-based
therefore if we can stop using so many
plastics then we can reduce the amount
of environmentally damaging fossil fuels
and their byproducts in the manufacture
production and transport of plastics
because as I’ve said some plastics are
essential but many aren’t many of them
are used once and thrown away and it’s
these types of plastics which we should
be trying to cut out from our lives and
we can cut them out from our lives
one of the worst culprits is this the
plastic drinking straw we do not need to
use these things and if we do there are
fully compostable ones or reusable ones
we could use instead we do not need to
use the 550 million of these a day which
we currently do and if we didn’t use all
those straws and if we did manage to cut
down some of all those other types of
plastics
then we could be cutting down the amount
of fossil fuels needed we could be
cutting down our greenhouse gas
emissions we’ll have solved climate
change
well no unfortunately not that’s not
really the case as much as I’d like to
say it is that’s not really how I think
this straw can solve climate change
indeed if we cut down on our use of
throw away plastic disposable plastics
we could be reducing greenhouse gas
emissions in certain areas but they
might increase in others and the story
is a lot more complicated than that know
the reason why I think this straw can
solve climate change is for another
reason entirely the problem of climate
change and plastic waste and the plastic
waste issue they’re huge the problems
are huge it’s almost an imaginary huge
and it’s almost impossible to think how
anyone can have any direct effect on on
the problems but how do you eat an
elephant one bite at a time how do you
complete any journey how do you complete
any task one step at a time and it’s
this realization that I wanted to do
something I wanted to make more of a
difference I want to do more than just
put out the weekly recycling and use use
my reusable bags in the supermarket I
wanted to make a difference I want you
to have a go at eating an elephant and
I’ve decided to do this not because I’m
some kind of hardened environmental
campaigner far from it I’ve never done
anything like this before in my life
no the reason I decided to do it and
that’s why by the way I do like to call
myself an accidental eco warrior well
the tongue-in-cheek that’s why I class
myself as well now the reason I decided
to do all this was simply to show my two
young kids that we should all be doing
something to help improve our
environment and we all can and we can
all make it issue a solution to even the
biggest of problems if we put our minds
to it and if we work out where the first
bites of that elephant should be taken
from so it was after surfing on anglesey
one day and I seeing the amount of
plastic waste it was being washed up
onto the beach that I came up with that
first bite I came up with the idea and
launched straw free Chester the aim of
straw free Chester is to make Chester
the first city in the UK to stop using
plastic drinking straws we want to do
this by encouraging all businesses not
to give out a plastic drinking straw
automatically with every drink we want
customers to only request a drink if
they really need one and we want
everybody to consider moving over to
fully compostable or reusable straws but
why straws why not
all plastic why concentrate just on one
thing well that’s just a point I wanted
to concentrate on one small thing the
first bite of the elephant the first
step I wanted to have to solve one
problem one small achievable problem
drinking straws before moving onto the
next as Matt Damon’s character says in
the film the Martian when asked how to
overcome the biggest of problems you
just begin you solve one problem then
you solve the next one and then the next
and if you solve enough problems you get
to come home you get to eat the elephant
and so far that first bite of the
elephant has been a tremendous success
in Chester I’ve had businesses pledging
support from small independence to large
multinationals when I when I organized
the first straw free Chester public
meeting for anyone interested in the
campaign I ordered I booked a small
corner of a pub with a couple of cities
thinking and I’d get four or five people
there if I was lucky we ended up taking
over the pub I had street cleaners
teachers business owners political
parties and fantastic groups like
Friends of the Earth all coming together
to make a difference all brought
together because of a straw this straw
was bringing together a group of people
and a community wanting to make a
difference this straw gave them
something to focus on it gave them
crucially an action which they could
take which they could see a result for
by saying no straw please they could see
that a drink they had in a bar didn’t
have a piece of plastic and that piece
of plastic was therefore not going to
end up in a landfill site or heaven
forbid the oceans or somewhere else it
was giving them an action people like to
see reserved
for their actions it makes what they’re
doing relevant I go walking with my two
girls
Isabella elder in the in the hills and
countryside all the time if I said to
them though right we’re going on a
two-mile hike through this deciduous
woodland and restored wetland complex
they would look at me blankly and have
no interest whatsoever however if I said
to them right we’re going on a treasure
hunt I want everybody to collect as many
fairy
Aipom cups as possible we’re going to
count all the rabbit holes we can find
and I’m gonna have to keep an eye off
the goblins now they’re interested now
the walk is relevant to them we’re still
going to go on the same walk admittedly
it may take us longer and we may get
attacked by goblins however we’re still
going to do it and this time we’re not
going to do it kicking and screaming but
we’re going to do it positively and
happily and the same is true for climate
change if you tell someone right you
have to do something about climate
change what are they going to do
look at you blankly and have no interest
at all save for plastic waste where do
they start
where’s the first bite of that elephant
what’s the first step they’re going to
do the problem is huge what are they
going to do give them a straw to focus
on and they have their first piece of
treasure on the treasure hunt through
the forest they have to start of a path
to the end result the end result is
still the same cut plastic waste combat
climate change but this time they’ve got
a direction to follow
they’ve got somewhere to start and
strophe chester is most certainly the
start of where i’d like to take this
campaign the next step is to work with
the environmental group surfers against
sewage as part of their plastic free
coastlines project we want to make sure
that Chester can be given accreditation
for being a plastic free city
we’ve got people interested we’ve got
them hooked with the straw and now we’re
taking them further and it’s not just
straw free Chester and surfers against
sewage who are campaigning about this
there is a growing groundswell of
support for cutting plastic waste with
more individuals and more campaigns
joining all the time
this support is infectious and powerful
so powerful that it is now changing big
businesses supermarkets are saying that
they are going to be changing their
plastic waste policies and even the
government is now saying that they will
be taking action many of these campaigns
were all started with a straw so what’s
the next step for us well we now need to
move from straws to plastic because
again we have the steps we have the way
forward and in terms of in terms of the
environmental campaigns and
environmental issues I have not seen any
issue grab the public’s attention and
passion as much as the plastic waste
issue we’ve all been told for years that
climate change is a problem we all know
this and we all know we should be doing
something about it
but it’s hard for people to see a result
for their actions
they can’t see the massive carbon that
they could be saving by switching off
the lights or changing to energy-saving
lightbulbs it’s too abstract for them
but the plastic waste issue is different
they can see the problem in front of you
you can see plastic waste problem in
front of you and crucially you can do
something about it you cannot use a
piece of plastic you can go on a litter
pick there is something that you can do
and it’s people are starting to do it
they’re starting to realize you don’t
need to use this plastic drinking straw
every time I get a gin and tonic or a
cocktail or a glass of coke in the pub I
don’t need it and that’s their making I
think what other bits of plastic don’t
they need to use at all this straw has
helped people to start thinking
differently about a throwaway
disposable society and that’s the point
that’s how this straw can help solve
climate change because we’ve now got
people engaged interested and doing
something to improve their environment
now we need to tell them what else they
can do to improve their environment and
make that relevant to them too that’s
the challenge for all of us who
accidentally became eco-warriors because
of a plastic straw that’s how straw
teach Esther and this straw can help
solve climate change one bite of the
elephant at a time
thank you [Applause]