Here's how plastic bags impact the environment — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02[Music]
2. 0:06paper or plastic a simple choice that
3. 0:10has important environmental consequences
4. 0:13can be hard to know for sure which one
5. 0:15has a smaller impact because plastic
6. 0:19bags are such a presence in everyday
7. 0:21life can be easy to overlook the damage
8. 0:24they caused today we're going to look at
9. 0:27the environmental impact of plastic bags
10. 0:29as well as the alternatives in order to
11. 0:32understand what kind of choices we have
12. 0:34as consumers in an environmentally
13. 0:37unethical system the first plastic
14. 0:40bakelite was originally invented in 1907
15. 0:43but it wasn't until the 1960s that
16. 0:47plastics specifically polyethylene
17. 0:49became cheap and efficient to make
18. 0:59plastics soon after the 1960s plastic
19. 1:03bags exploded in popularity because it
20. 1:06was marketed and made as a single-use
21. 1:08product they're cheap manufacturing
22. 1:11costs allowed them to become the default
23. 1:13choice at supermarket checkout counters
24. 1:16but the problem is the cheap price
25. 1:18doesn't account for the environmental
26. 1:20costs of using plastic bags according to
27. 1:23a study conducted by the English
28. 1:25Environment Agency resource extraction
29. 1:27and raw material production account for
30. 1:2960% of the environmental footprint of
31. 1:33plastic bags in other words 60% of the
32. 1:36bags environmental impact happens before
33. 1:39we even put our groceries in them and
34. 1:41although post use impact accounts for
35. 1:44less than half of a bags total
36. 1:47environmental impact it is also the part
37. 1:50of the bags life that consumers can most
38. 1:52easily control it's estimated that the
39. 1:55US alone throws away 100 billion plastic
40. 1:59bags annually only a fraction of which
41. 2:01gets recycled in general most of these
42. 2:04bags make their way into waterways and
43. 2:06float along ocean currents until they
44. 2:09make it to the five oceanic gyres that
45. 2:11are created by circular currents and
46. 2:13these plastic bags could take well over
47. 2:16500 year
48. 2:17to degrade the bags don't maintain their
49. 2:20original shape however instead they
50. 2:23slowly break down via Sun water and
51. 2:26microbial erosion to smaller bits called
52. 2:29micro plastics which can be fatal to
53. 2:32marine life considering the adverse
54. 2:35effects of plastic bags it would make
55. 2:38sense then to buy a cloth reusable bag
56. 2:41or opt for the paper bag right well the
57. 2:45answer isn't so simple in the same study
58. 2:48by the English Environment Agency they
59. 2:50found that the real environmental cost
60. 2:52of a bag whether plastic paper or cloth
61. 2:55is heavily rooted in the production side
62. 2:58of the product plastic actually has the
63. 3:01smallest environmental impact out of
64. 3:03those three materials so in order for
65. 3:06the quote unquote longer life bags to
66. 3:09have a smaller environmental impact they
67. 3:11need to be used multiple times for paper
68. 3:14the study claims that it needs to be
69. 3:16used three times in order to equate a
70. 3:18single use of a plastic bag and for
71. 3:21cloth that number skyrockets to 131 uses
72. 3:26this definitely shouldn't be taken to
73. 3:29mean that single-use plastic bags are
74. 3:31the best option when possible we should
75. 3:34avoid using them but for those of us who
76. 3:37already have a drawer full of plastic
77. 3:39bags in our home we're using is key for
78. 3:42mitigating the negative effects of that
79. 3:44plastic there is no need to go out and
80. 3:47buy a brand new reusable tote if you
81. 3:50already have usable plastic bags at home
82. 3:52buying new reusable bags every time you
83. 3:55go out to the store just perpetuates the
84. 3:58problem reducing the use of plastic bags
85. 4:01has rightfully been a focus of
86. 4:04environmental initiatives but if we zoom
87. 4:06out they are a small part in a much
88. 4:09larger environmental picture for example
89. 4:11it takes 40 times more energy to make a
90. 4:14hamburger than it does to make a plastic
91. 4:17bag and even more frustrating only 100
92. 4:20companies are responsible for 71 percent
93. 4:24of all carbon emissions since 1988 our
94. 4:27choices as consumers are important
95. 4:30but we also face imperfect options based
96. 4:32on production side decisions so reducing
97. 4:36your plastic bags shouldn't be viewed as
98. 4:38your sole contribution to climate change
99. 4:40mitigation it's a small alteration that
100. 4:43needs to go hand in hand with other
101. 4:44actions like reexamining how much food
102. 4:47you're buying from that very same
103. 4:48grocery store so you don't end up
104. 4:50throwing away five pounds of vegetables
105. 4:52at the end of the week in short the bag
106. 4:55you choose matters but not as much as
107. 4:58how it came to be there what you put in
108. 5:01it and how you use it thank you so much
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