plastic is one of the most significant
inventions of the 20th century its rise
to prominence in the 1950s allowed us to
keep food fresh longer manufacture
lightweight and malleable products
design new fashions create more unique
packaging and store things like never
before in the 60s its production
increased 400% by 1979 more plastic was
being created than steel and in 2014 100
billion plastic bags were used in the US
which is almost one per person per day
but while it's convenience and
versatility has revolutionized our world
it's left us with trillions of pieces of
trash thrown into landfills and the
ocean in fact in the last 60 years we
produced 9.1 billion tons of plastic so
we thought we'd create a little
experiment for ourselves every single
piece of plastic that we use in the next
week we are going to have to wear on our
bodies we are gonna have to find a way
to attach it to ourselves and continue
on with our week in public uninterrupted
because the truth is we do a pretty good
job of hiding it from ourselves putting
it in bags and bins behind covered doors
are closed with lids and ultimately out
of our houses and into trucks to go
somewhere far far away we're gonna be
following our normal consumption habits
so that we can actually see how much
plastic we're using or wasting I'm
honestly a bit nervous to find out how
much it actually is and how it's gonna
like smell on my body let alone how
people in public are gonna be staring at
us I'm freaking out already so let's
just start the challenge one of my first
pieces of plastic what's going on here I
buy so much humus is so much plastic
this way so it seconds as a jockstrap
don't judge us RuPaul's Drag Race but
we're gonna use a glue bat bow in the
truth Oh feels like a weird place to
start now it really looks like testicles
I always get this one gonna just rip it
off and then it is throw it out oh is
this double raft it is double haha so I
have these two pieces of plastic oh so
warm
so you can like make a little rose out
of it yeah that's a definite look like a
road plastics are made of polymers which
are molecules that have many repeated
parts over and over for example
ethylene has two carbon and four
hydrogen atoms whereas polyethylene is
many of them strung together and makes
the most popular plastic in the world
like your grocery bag right now 99% of
all plastic is made from fossil fuels
these fuels are taken out of the ground
refined into crude oil and then broken
down into simple monomers these monomers
then go through a process called
polymerization to stick them all
together and it's at this stage that
different chemicals are added to change
the characteristics of the plastic
whether it will be flexible or stiff
colorful or clear and finally this
polymerized liquid is cooled and chopped
into millions of tiny pieces called
nurdles which are shipped all over the
world and ultimately heated and molded
into whatever shape a manufacturer
desires these final plastics fit into
two categories thermoplastics which
turns soft when heated like a shampoo
bottle and thermo sets which are
incredibly hard after they're molded
like a milk crate or parts in a plane
it's day two day two I happened to
finish a few bags of rice and veggies
this is my brooch of shame okay I had
Halloween candy sue me this have Mayo
garlic in it so I'm just worried about
what it's gonna smell like I have to
wear this t-shirt every day not only is
it gonna smell of food it's gonna smell
of Bo it's so easy to throw it out out
of sight out of mind this is the
opposite of out of sight out of mind
pretty soon we're gonna have to go into
public I'm a very shy insecure person in
the first place like Gregor's
rambunctious and loud Oh
but if he's like comfortable being
noticeable in spaces why is it this
thick I'm gonna be so embarrassed and
it's probably what I needed for a good
reason we definitely do need to grocery
shop the grocery store a place full of
plastic this trip was going to be a big
factor in what we would be wearing for
the rest of the week but I actually like
can't even focus because
I like thrive on it actually I walked in
it was like God what do you think don't
even judge man I wish I could show you
people's faces people are they looking
at us with disgust like maybe it's fair
cuz like we're wearing garbage yeah we
would usually buy these so we're going
to right now with this um honey I'm
mortified that I'm gonna define it I
love quinoa but I don't know if you can
get it when it's not packaged like this
at least not at this bursary store my
favorite thing is Hamas also known as
hummus no to that we do know - oh my god
I'm so sorry you have to buy that we're
gonna buy yacek which like in some sense
does make sense it's so much lighter
like it makes sense that businesses opt
for plastic but when you're here it's
everything and not to use the buzzword
but this is not sustainable oh we're
done like an average store shop and now
we need to get out of here cuz
everyone's staring whenever I packaged
it and workplaces watch me do it they're
like no as the week went on the plastic
continued to pile up and we wanted to
understand more about the impact of
plastic both good and bad so we sat down
with Rachel salt author of the plastic
problem to find out I am sitting here
covered in crinkly plastic so I'm gonna
hopefully not be too loud in this
interview in your opinion how big is
this plastic problem well I would say
plastic in of itself isn't an evil
material but if every single person on
the planet right now stepped on the
scale the weight of the plastic we've
made is 26 times the weight of every
person on earth a human we use at one
time and then we throw it away and it
takes forever in the environment to
break down in a landfill that could take
1,000 years currently only about 9% of
all plastic ever is recycled it's unlike
aluminum and glass which if you recycle
an aluminum can you can turn that can
right back into an alumina
yeah but if you take a plastic water
bottle and recycle it
those long polymer chains which make up
all plastic gets shortened and shortened
and shortened each time you recycle it
so the grade of the plastic becomes
reduced and then a lot of that waste
actually escapes into the environment
particularly the ocean about a dumptruck
worth of plastic a minute
Andrew the ocean it's not literally a
dump truck dumping em no they're not
doing that what kind of impact does this
sheer amount of plastic have on our
planet on animals plastic in the ocean
has huge repercussions especially to the
amazing animals that lived there so by
2050 they actually estimate that there's
going to be more plastic in the ocean
than fish so how do they do that kind of
number it's a biomass number biomass of
fish and this plastic is ending up in
the stomach's of seabirds whales
turtles fish and causing them to starve
and often die with stomachs full of
plastic even filter feeders like mussels
are found with micro plastics in them
this information was devastating for us
especially on day four when things got
really bad so we had a camera that was
broken by accident by yours truly behind
the camera when I opened it this is like
what it Hill
feels like the timing everything's so
funny like of course I mean it's worth
doing it right now it's great that it
happened doing this video because then
you think about it Wow
do you feel like this is my fault and
one thing in my life is that I try to be
conscious but I am reckless and I break
things cuz I 5 headphones a lot I'm
ashamed
we're splitting this and in fact you
should be wearing most of it one thing I
just realized is when I ordered this
camera it's from a store in Toronto I
could have gone to it but I thought it's
free delivery either I'm gonna drive
there or they're gonna drive here it's
the same like carbon emission but now I
realized when you get something deliver
it it has to be wrapped in so much more
packaging if I had just gone to the
store I would have got it in a box from
the manufacturer but not in another box
filled with all this stuff listen learn
if you can pick something up it's
probably gonna have less packaging
should we just be banning plastic should
everyone stop using it immediately or
what do we do so this shirt that I'm
wearing it's made of linen right so
that's a natural fiber thousands of
liters more water to make this shirt
than it would to make a polyester one
which is made of plastic I was recently
in a hospital and they used a lot of
different plastic instruments and it was
really important because it was sterile
and it was cheaper for them so that they
could serve more people and keep things
clean and also plastic is really
lightweight so if you were shipping
bottles of coca-cola the amount of
emissions I would take by weight to ship
plastic bottles of coca-cola would be
significantly less than that of glass
those are just some variables right so
it's not saying that in this case
plastic is a hundred percent better it's
just different metrics that you need to
consider to get a whole picture
knowing the complexity and nuance of the
issue didn't stop the stares as we
continued our normal life covered in
plastic now that we have so much more
people feel confident to be like what
are you doing remember there
I'm just gonna get one of those spinach
sometimes wearing the plastic was a
logistical issue for example when it
came to working out at the gym how many
pounds you pump finally I found a place
where I belong taking everything in my
body to not go and get a Cinnabon mm-hmm
a lot of people are like what are you
doing but I'm like I'm gay it's just
fashion like relax
it truly is shameful that it just keeps
piling up and we need to figure out a
way that we can minimize our plastic so
that's what I'm more interested in now
what can we do so as an individual you
can really consider something called the
six R's reduce trying to reduce the
amount of plastic you use in your
day-to-day life reuse instead of going
to your favorite coffee shop and getting
you know they're single-use coffee cup
bring your own cup rethink people can
get really creative can you turn a pop
bottle into a plant container some
people are turning plastic into art
repair I got a trip in my jeans
they can help you and learn how to sew
or if you don't have that in your
community you can go to youtube and
there's so many tutorials of amazing
people refuse you're at your favorite
restaurant they bring your drink and a
plastic straw in a paper wrap you can
just say oh no thank you and recycle so
I left that to the end often this at the
beginning of the list but I put it at
the bottom of the list because as we
said earlier recycling is an important
piece but it's not a perfect solution
you can listen to our full conversation
with Rachel on our podcast sidenote but
in the meantime day 7 finally came and
it was time for our final walk of shame
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we look like Nicki Minaj or Lady Gaga
five years ago otally fashion do you
think this is a lot I think it's a lot
yeah I actually do I think on a day to
day basis I was looking at it and I was
like oh we don't have that much but then
seeing it all together on you this is
only a week it's definitely a lot I'm
curious what you guys think about this
trash are we complete trash one big
takeaway for me is that I need to be
prepared before I leave the house look
into my bag do I have Tupperware do I
have my reusable mug so that I can
refuse plastic I'm gonna be so much more
aware of plastic packaging and if
there's an alternative with less I'll
try and choose that it's exciting it's
honestly like a game how do you minimize
your food and that's gonna be my new
game alert it's not what happens and
honestly I think you guys should
participate kids high school kids and
university kids I used to be a high
school science teacher if any of my
students did this challenge as a project
I would be very impress you can have the
idea so you need to get Rachel's book
the plastic problem because it is full
of all the information they need to know
about plastics but most importantly it
is full of solutions if you do take on
the challenge make sure you send us your
photos on social media we will
absolutely share them even if you do it
for just a day or two we'd love to see
it
so as you can see we have changed the
format and style and our channel and we
want to know what you guys are thinking
we're having a lot of fun what they were
trying to figure out how to talk about
climate change and environmental issues
in a fun ridiculous way they look insane
and if you have any ideas for us let us
know because clearly we are shameless
and we will do whatever the heck you
want us to so we will see you next time
for a new video thank you so much for
watching our little like documentary I
guess I'll talk to you guys on the
comments see yes