[Music]
[Applause]
plastic is a fantastic material in fact
not the best way to start an adventure
I’m sure you’d agree especially when I
was getting the license for my bike the
boat the water bike but I was grabbing
hold on to this plastic floats as you
can see here and this plastic floats and
my plastic buoyancy aid actually kept me
on one hand we cannot live without
plastic but on the other hand these are
the headlines of today the ocean’s
deadliest predator plastic is so light
so cheap so convenient and so moldable
that this plastic ring can not only kill
this duck but can continue and kill many
more ducks because once the body
decomposes the plastic ring is free to
go for its next kill and this is not an
image from a remote island but this is
an image from Birmingham right in the UK
on one hand we hate plastic we love
plastic plastic and save lives plastic
and take lives let me share with you why
plastic gets me up in the morning apart
from plastic alarm clock in a crazy
moment a few years ago I signed up to
join a race team to race a 70 foot yacht
from London to Rio de Janeiro
it was a great incentive to learn how to
there I was in the middle of the ocean
helming with just a moon and a sky full
of stars and I could hear the Dolphins
thousands of them all around the boat
jumping around and I could see the
phosphorescence right behind me during
the daytime the the vastness of the
ocean was striking the Sun would come
out and a blue water just stressed in
front of you once in a while a whale
would come up and then you get smacked
on your face by flying fish just to
remind you how far up from land you were
ocean racing actually can take you to
incredible places to the most remote
places and it’s really magical so this
was one of the lucky scenarios actually
when one of our team mates could go and
rescue these Turtles
stuck with fishing nets and plastic
bottles this is in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean this is one of the lucky
scenarios where we could go and rescue
those turtles but there are many more
scenarios where it never had such a
happy ending back in London I picked up
my road bike and I put one float on the
left one foot on the right and I got a
propeller and I rather in the front and
I got the fishiness behind and I cycled
the whole length of the River Thames
collecting plastic and raising awareness
about plastic
the bike was a great conversation
starter people are like what the hell
are you doing the stop took a picture
you cannot escape cyclists not even on
the river but I could also share with
them that the plastic that that that is
killing the marine life in the ocean is
the same plastic that we have here with
us
it was charged with us here in our
backyard in the canals the streams the
rivers the sea and the ocean but there
is more to think about this is the
visible plastic but it is those tiny
micro plastics invisible to the naked
eye that is actually posing an even more
greater concern so micro plastics can
form in the ocean when this larger
plastic debris is breakdown but
effective with the ocean the waves to
smaller pieces less than five millimeter
in size we actually make micro plastics
Corner dose to make all kinds of plastic
objects we also actually add micro
plastics to toothpaste to shampoo and
other cosmetic products and micro
plastics can also be released
accidentally from just general wear and
tear from using our cars the car tires
can actually leak microscopic plastic
fibers into the environment our washing
machine can release up to 1 million
micro fibers on every wash and from
there it goes to the wastewater system
from there to the river from the river
to the sea from the sea to the ocean
it’s pretty simple journey really I was
shocked to hear that the river with the
highest amount of micro plastics
concentration is not in Asia or in
Africa but here in Manchester the River
Thames
in the UK a recent UN report have stated
that there are around 50 1 trillion
micro plastics there is 500 times the
number of stars in our galaxy littering
our seas
so plastics now is everywhere scientists
have found plastics in the water I drink
in the food the fish chicken mussels
salt honey we eat and in the air we
breathe so these days when I go to have
my dinner I wonder if I’m gonna be
eating the strands of someone else’s
underwear I didn’t believe this but I
didn’t have the budget to hire those
expensive lab equipment so I went to
Amazon and got my own microscope for 18
pounds and this is what it will find a
tiny strand of someone else’s underwear
but joking aside this is a small
microscopic plastic fiber or microfibers
it’s very easy you can see for yourself
it’s great fun but let me warn you it’s
very scary as well now you may be
wondering now right okay so these are
very tiny plastic pieces and my body is
gonna get rid of them anyway exactly
that is what I thought before but that
is why I’m here to share with you what I
firstly when I was looking at plastics I
was just seeing one side of the picture
plastic is actually made up of toxic
chemicals on their own BPA and peat
pellets are added to make the plastic
stronger or to make it more flexible and
plastic can actually leak this or leach
these chemicals in the environment and
secondly these micro plastics act like a
magnet and they attract all these toxic
chemicals that it had actually leaked
and also other chemicals like like
pesticides in the environment forming
very very dangerous cocktails of all
kinds of chemicals BPA and other pits
pits a–let’s are endocrine disruptors
that means they can go and interfere
with the hormones the chemical
messengers that keep our body working
properly
these chemicals on their own are known
to cause cancer
decreased fertility in men harm to
reproductive development in boys
diabetes her disease everything fish
exposed to these chemicals can develop
intersex characteristics to put it
really boldly the number of children
born they do not know if their boy or a
girl can be directly related to these
chemicals and you may be wondering okay
how does it get to me then
so this microplastics obviously very
tiny they are in the environment and
they’re eaten by the small tiny species
of animals
the species that form the largest annual
mass in the planet planet the
zooplankton incredible creatures just
one millimeter to two millimeter in size
working really hard at the bottom of the
food chain they eat this micro plastics
and then the bigger fish eat them and it
and then it comes up the food chain to
us on our dinner plate with the toxic
chemicals it’s pretty simple this in
this picture you can see this strand of
someone else’s underwear so microfiber
trying to trap these zooplankton and
once the trap the soup line turns they
become concentrated in one place and a
big fish will go and eat them and it
obviously comes of the food chain the
real impact of this microplastics
combining toxic chemicals on humans are
not known yet we need to do a lot of
scientific study for that which is
happening right now
but scientists are already using bio
plastics
in smaller sizes like micro and nano
sizes to deliver drugs into our body so
once these plastics delivers the drug
into your body the plastic camp capsule
decomposes because their bio plastics
and and the body gets rid of it without
causing any harm if this is happening in
the lab
where scientists are actually inserting
plastics with chemicals
what stuffs is waste plastic the waste
micro plastic with all the toxic
chemicals from entering our cells and
causing unnecessary harm that’s going to
find out I hope there’s a lot of study
going on so I’m pretty positive we will
get there soon if we continue this way
this is the news we’ll be reading in the
next 50 in the next 30 years
2015 it’s not far away the ocean is dead
should we have banned plastic do we want
to read this news in the next 30 years I
know I do not the only way to stop
plastic from entering our soil water and
air is to rethink our relationship with
plastic from the design phase to the
production to the consumption to the
disposal phase around the world a lot of
startups and corporations are working on
a lot of innovative solutions right now
not just products but innovative
business models that are actually
encouraging behavioural change without
compromising profitability and
convenience so why do we need single-use
plastic packaging this startup mooa
is actually helping us refuse plastic
they have removed singles packaging from
the whole supply chain and you can order
products online and you can pick them up
from the stores using reusable
containers cup Club is over 4 cups and
other packaging why do you want to own a
cup when you can rent it and reuse it
and the next one is very interesting I’m
very excited about this like most of the
accidental scientific discoveries
scientists of actually enhance an enzyme
called PTAs that can actually go and
decompose plastic in a matter of days
not hundreds of years that it naturally
needs this can actually revolutionize
recycling and really
sited about this but this is still in a
why does a water bottle need to look
like a water bottle why
by rethinking packaging this bubble of
water is actually made out of seaweed
it’s completely edible it’s fantastic
this was just a few examples but the
whole market now is buzzing it’s buzzing
with innovative ideas solutions and
products but they need our help they
need our help
to generate the market demand and to
help them scale up so that they can go
and compete it is big and large
corporations we are already exercising
the power as consumers you know we’re
turning off plastic straws plastic
bottles plastic cutlery and rethinking
our purchasing habits let us also back
this disruptive ideas up let us be an
early adopter let us go and buy their
products give them feedback recommend
them to their friends and family because
only then these products can become
mainstream and we will be able to stem
this tide of plastic the public opinion
about plastic is really high right now
and we have to hit the iron when it is
hot I know I will be an early backer but
we all but we need all of us to be early
backers because only together we will be
able to stamp this plastic tide for
ourselves for our children and for the
planet let’s do this thank you [Applause]
[Applause]
plastic is a fantastic material in fact
not the best way to start an adventure
I’m sure you’d agree especially when I
was getting the license for my bike the
boat the water bike but I was grabbing
hold on to this plastic floats as you
can see here and this plastic floats and
my plastic buoyancy aid actually kept me
on one hand we cannot live without
plastic but on the other hand these are
the headlines of today the ocean’s
deadliest predator plastic is so light
so cheap so convenient and so moldable
that this plastic ring can not only kill
this duck but can continue and kill many
more ducks because once the body
decomposes the plastic ring is free to
go for its next kill and this is not an
image from a remote island but this is
an image from Birmingham right in the UK
on one hand we hate plastic we love
plastic plastic and save lives plastic
and take lives let me share with you why
plastic gets me up in the morning apart
from plastic alarm clock in a crazy
moment a few years ago I signed up to
join a race team to race a 70 foot yacht
from London to Rio de Janeiro
it was a great incentive to learn how to
there I was in the middle of the ocean
helming with just a moon and a sky full
of stars and I could hear the Dolphins
thousands of them all around the boat
jumping around and I could see the
phosphorescence right behind me during
the daytime the the vastness of the
ocean was striking the Sun would come
out and a blue water just stressed in
front of you once in a while a whale
would come up and then you get smacked
on your face by flying fish just to
remind you how far up from land you were
ocean racing actually can take you to
incredible places to the most remote
places and it’s really magical so this
was one of the lucky scenarios actually
when one of our team mates could go and
rescue these Turtles
stuck with fishing nets and plastic
bottles this is in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean this is one of the lucky
scenarios where we could go and rescue
those turtles but there are many more
scenarios where it never had such a
happy ending back in London I picked up
my road bike and I put one float on the
left one foot on the right and I got a
propeller and I rather in the front and
I got the fishiness behind and I cycled
the whole length of the River Thames
collecting plastic and raising awareness
about plastic
the bike was a great conversation
starter people are like what the hell
are you doing the stop took a picture
you cannot escape cyclists not even on
the river but I could also share with
them that the plastic that that that is
killing the marine life in the ocean is
the same plastic that we have here with
us
it was charged with us here in our
backyard in the canals the streams the
rivers the sea and the ocean but there
is more to think about this is the
visible plastic but it is those tiny
micro plastics invisible to the naked
eye that is actually posing an even more
greater concern so micro plastics can
form in the ocean when this larger
plastic debris is breakdown but
effective with the ocean the waves to
smaller pieces less than five millimeter
in size we actually make micro plastics
Corner dose to make all kinds of plastic
objects we also actually add micro
plastics to toothpaste to shampoo and
other cosmetic products and micro
plastics can also be released
accidentally from just general wear and
tear from using our cars the car tires
can actually leak microscopic plastic
fibers into the environment our washing
machine can release up to 1 million
micro fibers on every wash and from
there it goes to the wastewater system
from there to the river from the river
to the sea from the sea to the ocean
it’s pretty simple journey really I was
shocked to hear that the river with the
highest amount of micro plastics
concentration is not in Asia or in
Africa but here in Manchester the River
Thames
in the UK a recent UN report have stated
that there are around 50 1 trillion
micro plastics there is 500 times the
number of stars in our galaxy littering
our seas
so plastics now is everywhere scientists
have found plastics in the water I drink
in the food the fish chicken mussels
salt honey we eat and in the air we
breathe so these days when I go to have
my dinner I wonder if I’m gonna be
eating the strands of someone else’s
underwear I didn’t believe this but I
didn’t have the budget to hire those
expensive lab equipment so I went to
Amazon and got my own microscope for 18
pounds and this is what it will find a
tiny strand of someone else’s underwear
but joking aside this is a small
microscopic plastic fiber or microfibers
it’s very easy you can see for yourself
it’s great fun but let me warn you it’s
very scary as well now you may be
wondering now right okay so these are
very tiny plastic pieces and my body is
gonna get rid of them anyway exactly
that is what I thought before but that
is why I’m here to share with you what I
firstly when I was looking at plastics I
was just seeing one side of the picture
plastic is actually made up of toxic
chemicals on their own BPA and peat
pellets are added to make the plastic
stronger or to make it more flexible and
plastic can actually leak this or leach
these chemicals in the environment and
secondly these micro plastics act like a
magnet and they attract all these toxic
chemicals that it had actually leaked
and also other chemicals like like
pesticides in the environment forming
very very dangerous cocktails of all
kinds of chemicals BPA and other pits
pits a–let’s are endocrine disruptors
that means they can go and interfere
with the hormones the chemical
messengers that keep our body working
properly
these chemicals on their own are known
to cause cancer
decreased fertility in men harm to
reproductive development in boys
diabetes her disease everything fish
exposed to these chemicals can develop
intersex characteristics to put it
really boldly the number of children
born they do not know if their boy or a
girl can be directly related to these
chemicals and you may be wondering okay
how does it get to me then
so this microplastics obviously very
tiny they are in the environment and
they’re eaten by the small tiny species
of animals
the species that form the largest annual
mass in the planet planet the
zooplankton incredible creatures just
one millimeter to two millimeter in size
working really hard at the bottom of the
food chain they eat this micro plastics
and then the bigger fish eat them and it
and then it comes up the food chain to
us on our dinner plate with the toxic
chemicals it’s pretty simple this in
this picture you can see this strand of
someone else’s underwear so microfiber
trying to trap these zooplankton and
once the trap the soup line turns they
become concentrated in one place and a
big fish will go and eat them and it
obviously comes of the food chain the
real impact of this microplastics
combining toxic chemicals on humans are
not known yet we need to do a lot of
scientific study for that which is
happening right now
but scientists are already using bio
plastics
in smaller sizes like micro and nano
sizes to deliver drugs into our body so
once these plastics delivers the drug
into your body the plastic camp capsule
decomposes because their bio plastics
and and the body gets rid of it without
causing any harm if this is happening in
the lab
where scientists are actually inserting
plastics with chemicals
what stuffs is waste plastic the waste
micro plastic with all the toxic
chemicals from entering our cells and
causing unnecessary harm that’s going to
find out I hope there’s a lot of study
going on so I’m pretty positive we will
get there soon if we continue this way
this is the news we’ll be reading in the
next 50 in the next 30 years
2015 it’s not far away the ocean is dead
should we have banned plastic do we want
to read this news in the next 30 years I
know I do not the only way to stop
plastic from entering our soil water and
air is to rethink our relationship with
plastic from the design phase to the
production to the consumption to the
disposal phase around the world a lot of
startups and corporations are working on
a lot of innovative solutions right now
not just products but innovative
business models that are actually
encouraging behavioural change without
compromising profitability and
convenience so why do we need single-use
plastic packaging this startup mooa
is actually helping us refuse plastic
they have removed singles packaging from
the whole supply chain and you can order
products online and you can pick them up
from the stores using reusable
containers cup Club is over 4 cups and
other packaging why do you want to own a
cup when you can rent it and reuse it
and the next one is very interesting I’m
very excited about this like most of the
accidental scientific discoveries
scientists of actually enhance an enzyme
called PTAs that can actually go and
decompose plastic in a matter of days
not hundreds of years that it naturally
needs this can actually revolutionize
recycling and really
sited about this but this is still in a
why does a water bottle need to look
like a water bottle why
by rethinking packaging this bubble of
water is actually made out of seaweed
it’s completely edible it’s fantastic
this was just a few examples but the
whole market now is buzzing it’s buzzing
with innovative ideas solutions and
products but they need our help they
need our help
to generate the market demand and to
help them scale up so that they can go
and compete it is big and large
corporations we are already exercising
the power as consumers you know we’re
turning off plastic straws plastic
bottles plastic cutlery and rethinking
our purchasing habits let us also back
this disruptive ideas up let us be an
early adopter let us go and buy their
products give them feedback recommend
them to their friends and family because
only then these products can become
mainstream and we will be able to stem
this tide of plastic the public opinion
about plastic is really high right now
and we have to hit the iron when it is
hot I know I will be an early backer but
we all but we need all of us to be early
backers because only together we will be
able to stamp this plastic tide for
ourselves for our children and for the
planet let’s do this thank you [Applause]
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