Transcriber: Ethan Norris Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
Hi, everyone. It’s an honor to be a part of this event stand here talk to you guys.
Today I want to get started with something that you and I, we both care about,
and it’s our lifestyle.
In the past few years,
so many things have happened that have actually reshaped our lifestyle.
And by our lifestyle, I mean in Vietnamese lifestyle.
Let’s take a look at our home country, Vietnam.
We’ve been witnessing a rapid rise in trekking tours,
camping or even water sports on lakes and river.
The trend even continued stronger after COVID hit
because now everyone want to avoid crowded areas
and enjoy the beautiful scenery for themselves.
Our need for nature is bigger than ever,
as we've seen breathtaking photos of sites on Instagram.
We’ve watched lots on YouTube about how stunning the mountains are.
And we have scrolled through countless clips on Tik Tok
about how much fun you can have while kayaking or paddling.
But what if I told you that our needs are in danger and cannot be fulfilled?
How would you feel? Sad? Annoyed because you can’t do what you want to do?
Or even jealous of others, because many have been able to experience that?
Well, let me tell you a story of mine and then I’ll tell you
how I feel about this particular situation.
In 2019, my family went for a hike at Thi Vai mountain.
The mountain is divided into two parts.
From the bottom to the middle it has rock stairs,
and the upper half only has troughs.
My family wanted to get to the top,
so we decided to continue with the troughs.
So, periodically, there’s a direction that you need to follow
in order to go on the right path.
You need to look at the arrows on the rocks
or even the ropes that are tied on the branches.
At one point we got quite confused by the directions
and my mom asked me whether we were going on the right path.
I stood there for a few seconds to look around and then I literally said,
“Hey, ma, look, there’s a lot of trash along the way, it must be right!”
It was supposed to be a joke for a moment,
but then I realized that it is all that trash
that is setting a big barrier between me and nature.
Originally, natural areas are just so clean
I would just want to take a seat anywhere.
But now trash is so common that we just unconsciously consider it
as a normal thing and we’ll just sit with it.
However, we feel uncomfortable.
We feel uncomfortable
because sitting on trash is never the same as sitting on grass.
And I feel hurt.
I feel hurt because of the amount of trash we are putting out to the environment.
I feel hurt because natural scenery can never be the same as it used to be.
And I feel hurt because we Generation Z,
might never be able to know the beauty of nature.
Well, I’ve made my decision: rather than sitting around trash,
I’ve decided to sit on trash.
The chair I’m sitting on
is made from recycled milk cartons and just from milk cartons.
There are no extra components to it: no wood, no steel.
It doesn’t even have an ounce of glue on it.
Not only that, every day I go to school with a pen,
decorated with recycled plastic.
Well, the question is, why do I love trash and recycle products this much?
Well, I love products that are made from trash
because of the stories behind them.
Just like an artist standing in front of blank wall,
he or she needs to brainstorm all the ideas to draw
and then decide: this color needs to be put up there.
Each artwork has a unique story behind it, and so do recycle products,
I look at them as a masterpiece because of their impact
and the effort that is put into them.
Collecting trash is obviously the first stage of a process.
It is fair to say that tras is now an infinite resource,
and this process helps both overloaded landfills and the environment.
Then all the collected trash needs to be cleaned
before entering the actual recycling process.
And here comes the scientific part.
Depending on which type of product that you want to make,
you need to choose how to make up your own recycling method,
that cannot emit toxic pollutants or harm the environment.
After all that, is turning the raw result
that you have from the recycling proces into an actual and usable product.
And this is the hidden 9/10.
This is the part that many people, including myself,
do not know about recycling.
I used to think that recycling was just something very easy.
You just need to put different things together, and you're good to go.
But I was deeply wrong.
Recycling is something that requires
a tremendous amount of research, time and effort.
We started off with a board of recycled material that's made from milk cartons
to make a table, and it had so many issues with it.
The surface was rough, the joints were loose,
and the structure was not sturdy enough.
The next time, we tried another design, and this time we failed even bigger.
Even though it has somewhat a stylish look to it,
the material was just too soft
that it made the result could not load anything.
After those trials, we started to understand the material,
and even though the table is still in development,
we’ve been able to create this chair, the chair I’ve been talking about.
It's made from recycled milk cartons.
It's very engaged and it works just like a normal chair.
But our journey doesn’t stop at maximizing
the potential of available materials,
as we want to create our very own recycling method.
And now things are about to get hard.
This is my result after spending nearly a day trying to recycle medical masks.
It didn't work out like what we expected, but we'll continue on developing it.
This pen, however, is somewhat a temporary success.
Does it look beautiful? Yeah, I would like to say so.
It has somewhat an interesting and mysterious look to it.
Does it contain trash? Yes. Yes, it does.
It’s actually made from a toilet cleaner bottle.
But the question is, is it sustainable?
The answer is no.
It is not sustainable at all because it’s only single use
and we're still trying to find a way to make it reusable.
You see, recycling is not a simple task at all.
Recycling, to make a good-looking and usable product
is a combination of art and science.
Not only does it require us to go through the product development process,
but it also demands recyclers to satisfy all the sustainability criteria.
I, as a teenager and a part of Generation Z,
believe that we all should look at recycled products with respect
and appreciation, because the beauty of recycled products
saves the beauty of nature.
The world does not need many advanced recyclers.
The world needs everyone to love and to start recycling.
Thank you.