The conversation 3

That’s such a huge topic...

That’s a massive topic.

...isn’t it? But actually it’s an area − we’ve got to be plastic free ultimately.

 We've certainly, if we don’t, if we’re not plastic free, we need to find an alternative, don’t we?

I think, um, businesses particularly − perhaps in the food and beverages industry − are already starting. I noticed in a pub the other day, they’ve changed the straws from plastic to cardboard − sorry, to, to paper − which is a step in the right direction...

It’s a step, it’s a step.

It’s a small step, but it’s a step, but at least they’re taking notice and doing things like that.

Yeah, agreed. I think it’s got to be customer-led though, don’t you?

We consumers have got to push it.

Because if we don’t demand paper straws and we keep saying actually no we have to have plastic...

Yeah absolutely.

...they’re going to keep producing plastic.

I mean, I don’t know about you, but I recycle, it seems like a bag a week of plastic − I can’t believe how much plastic there is.

I know, mmm. It’s really awful actually.

Sy Yeah. And it’s very hard to be plastic free.

It is actually.

It is.

I mean, if you try really hard − and I do try hard − um, if you go and you shop in supermarkets, it’s incredibly hard to...

...buy organic in non-plastic.

Everything is wrapped.

S I think there are some businesses now that you can take your plastic items with you to the shop and fill up with goods rather than taking plastic away from − I think that’s a good start, but it’s such a small thing. It needs to be much bigger.

But that’d be very difficult on a large scale, I believe.

It would be a lot − it would be difficult because mass consumers wouldn’t want to do that.

Especially...

Yeah, no, but if you think about it, eight billion people, three meals a day...yeah, so, food and beverages would be...

I was reading a story the other day − apparently, we sent some plastic to China and they’ve now sent it back to us in containers saying ‘Actually, we’re not recycling your plastic, you need to, you need to do it where you are rather than sending it to us.’

Yes, and that gets us onto the other topic: it’s not just stopping using new plastic, it’s recycling what’s already out there, because the the, amount that’s out there at the moment is just scary. 

And the amount that’s killing whales or getting caught in whales or, or dolphins or fish is just...

Turtles, yeah.

Oh my goodness and did you see, the, you know the Mariana Trench?

The deepest place on the planet...

It’s full of plastic.

...and they found plastic. I mean, that’s just so depressing, isn’t it?

It’s depressing. So...

I think, I think the awareness is there now and that’s got to be positive, right?

Sy Yeah!

So plastic free, I think there has to be some sort of − if you said plastic free five years, that’s never going to happen, if you said ten years, that’s probably not gonna happen, but if you said maybe twenty years, potentially it could happen, but there has to be new ways of recycling plastic − and then not just not using it, that’s the hardest thing I suppose.

Sy I’m sure, I’m sure you guys have heard the fact that there’s more plastic in the sea by weight than there are fish.

Yes, isn’t that awful?

Yeah, it’s very scary!

Actually, it’s the time frame, I think, is quite significant as well. That actually this has happened really since my grandmother was a child − she never had plastic.

Sy Yeah, we’re talking past century.

Yeah! Really, less. More like a half-century. I can’t remember the exact date, but something like that − it’s a reasonably short time, and we’ve really got

less than that, a lot less than that to turn it around, so we have to come up with alternatives. But surely we can do that!

Sy I have some positive news for you.

Go on.

So they have found bacteria that have evolved to digest nylon plastic...

Yes, I knew about that.

...just naturally. That’s amazing!

So we could get there.

So plastic munchers that can munch plastic − is that what you’re saying?

Yes.

And you can get plastic bottles − I read you can get plastic bottles now − that are on sale somewhere in London, one of the museums I think − plastic bottles that actually you can then eat the plastic.

Oh wow. OK.

Really?

I think that’s just so amazing.

That sounds pretty, that sounds pretty cool.

So yes, we think we could be plastic free, it’s possible, but...

But it’d take a lot of work.

I think it will. Cool.