[footsteps]
[Filmaker] Here we are rolling. Vlog entry three one nine zero.
4:30 in the afternoon,
here on the south side of the island looking for possible specimens.
[Poly] Hey! Hey!
I'm right here, not there, over here.
Yeeees, you found me. Oh my gosh, huh!
Oh my gosh. Watch out. Wrong hole, hey.
[Signals device] Signals synchronising.
Polyethylene terephthalate. Purpose: Temporary receptacle.
Now detecting signals.
Girl, I'm ready for my close up!
[Filmaker] Could we start with your name, please?
Sure.
Hi, my name is Poly and I'm a plastic bottle.
I've been on this beach here now for about 22 years and I've never been recycled.
Originally I carried sugar liquid for my human,
but they just tossed me away in the trash and my entire life was over.
Next thing I know, I'm at the ocean just drifting from beach to beach,
and I don't really get to talk to people that much.
[Signals device] Your subconscious is now ready to broadcast.
Ok, alright, am I all hooked up cos I'm ready to go.
Dial me in!
[Signals device] Welcome to SiGNALS.
An experimental program to listen to the stories of everyday objects.
[machines working]
[music plays]
[Poly] The tragedy with us plastics is that we live forever.
Do you know how lonely that is? Very!
[Mr. Fork] Great. Now breathe into these polymers,
and release.
I see we have a new member joining us today.
Welcome. Why don't you go first?
[Lady Bottle] Hi, everyone. Happy to be here.
I'm just so excited about my new life.
Maybe as like a jacket or like...
a carpet with those cute little tassels or something.
-[Tooth Brush] Oh, honey... -[Floss] No one told her...?
[Tooth Brush] That's... not really how it works.
Ok, or maybe I could be like some bubble wrap or like...
I'm... Like a piece of tape.
[Smoothie Cup] Oh man! Don't you get it?! You're not getting recycled.
Y'all are TRASH. OK? Everyone is TRASH.
OK, let's, let's try not to use the T-word in here.
[Plastic Wrap] I was told I'd go to a better place.
[Yogurt pot] I, I Just, I traveled so far this can't be the end and...
Fishing line? No? A sandwich bag? No no no...
[Plastic Bag] Whyyyyyyyy?
[Used Medicine tablet] Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God.
[Straw] Oh God, I've killed so many turtles.
[music plays]
[frequency tuning]
There's plastic everywhere!
This world is full of plastic!
[Poly] When humans throw us away,
all plastics learn that 90 percent of us will never be recycled.
We just end up twirling around and around for eternity.
Every little single-use bottle cap, twist ties, and plastic forks.
We never really disappear. We just break down into smaller and smaller pieces,
ending up in fishes and eventually even you.
But it's not your fault.
Corporations produce more waste in a single day,
than the average human does in their entire life.
And they don't care because making us is cheaper than inventing something new.
Big plastic spent millions convincing the world that...
plastic is a personal responsibility.
It's not.
It's a corporate responsibility.
[Garbage collector speaking Japanese] Yoisho Yoisho
[Garbage collector 2 speaking Japanese] To the recycling plant!
[Garbage collector speaking Japanese] Yoisho Yoisho
[Garbage collector 2 speaking Japanese] To the recycling plant!
-[ground shaking] -[Garbage collector 2 screaming]
[music plays]
[Man 1 speaking Japanese]
[Petro Monster speaking Japanese]
[Garbage collector 2 speaking Japanese]
[Garbage collector speaking Japanese]
[Petro Monster speaking Japanese]
[Little Girl speaking Japanese]
[ground shaking]
[Mother Earth speaking Japanese]
[Man 1 speaking Japanese]
[Mother Earth speaking Japanese]
[Petro Monster speaking Japanese]
[Garbage collector 2 speaking Japanese]
[Garbage collector speaking Japanese]
[Little Girl speaking Japanese]
[Petro Monster speaking Japanese]
[People Screaming]
[Petro Monster speaking Japanese]
[Mother Earth groaning in pain]
[Girls speaking Japanese]
[Garbage collector 2 speaking Japanese]
[Garbage collector speaking Japanese]
[Mother Earth speaking Japanese]
[Mother Earth] Mother!
[Charlie] Really, the recipe for the future of plastics is already here,
it's already around us.
[Pierre] Nature never creates anything that it cannot recycle infinitely.
If we can do packaging the way nature does fruits and vegetables,
we can actually work in sync with nature.
[Poly] It starts with biopolymers.
The biopolymer is a polymer that is made from a natural resource.
[man1] Orange peel or lemon peel,
-[man2] Starches, -[woman] Sugarcane pulp,
[man3] Mushrooms.
[Sari] We pay for the polymer that's been made by nature,
and then we break it down and transform it.
[Pierre] One of those materials that we're quite excited about is seaweed.
It biodegrades within just a few weeks.
[David] We tried to use the seaweed in Indonesia,
because Indonesia is one of the largest seaweed producers in the world.
So if we were to replace single-use to multi-use packaging,
which usually can be recycled.
[knocking]
[James] So mycelium is the root structure of a mushroom. Is taking that mycelium,
forming together a bunch of wood chip, and then allowing that...
mycelium to grow through that woodchip, binding it together.
And then we're left with,
you know, a material that we can grow and mold into really any shape.
But there's really there's hundreds of different ways,
that polystyrene is being used with this can be replaced.
[Poly] So why aren't we using any of the stuff then?
[James] Because they're old petrochemical based industry whose infrastructure.
There's been decades and decades of investment into it.
Trillions of dollars of infrastructure there.
They are now almost at the peak of their efficiencies.
[Mariko] You know, companies are incentivized to take more...
fossil fuels out of the earth,
and to burn them, and we're paying them to do that.
What we need is an entire kind of shift in that system.
[Kate] Now, I think more than ever, brands are actually listening to what we say.
I'm so positively optimistic about how we are going to innovate ourselves,
out of the problem that we got ourselves into.
[Charlotte] We're at a point where we have the technology,
and decarbonized future is not just a drab,
desaturated version of the present.
It's actually vibrant, beautiful.
And I can tell you right now,
I'm getting phone calls from big companies wanting to transition away from plastic.
This technology is coming as a tidal wave,
that when it hits the environment is going to take over and actually regenerate.
And really all we need to do is just give it a little bit of a chance to do so.
And I'm very confident that we will do that.
Look, I'm just a bottle, a hot one sure, but even I know things need to change.
We don't want to be out here forever, but we didn't get a choice.
But you do.
We have the alternatives. We have our voices.
Let's use them.
Tell corporations that you want zero plastic packaging,
and you want it now.
Let's make the people who make plastic responsible for where it ends up.
And you might be surprised how quickly things change.
Look, I know it can be hard to care all the time,
but if you want to make things better,
you need to give a shit.
♪ There's got to be another way ♪
♪ We can't keep making things we throw away ♪
♪ It's not really up to you and me ♪
♪ To close the loop on this economy ♪
♪ You want to fix the oceans and the air ♪
♪ Then all you corporations... ♪
♪ have to care ♪
♪ I will give a shit ♪
♪ Give a shiiit ♪
♪ I will give a shit ♪
♪ Just a little bit ♪
♪ I will give a shit ♪
♪ There's got to be another way ♪
♪ We can't keep making things ♪
♪ We throw away ♪
♪ Stop messing up our oceans ♪
♪ Stop messing up our air ♪
♪ Use, reuse, share and repair ♪
♪ I will give a shit ♪
♪ Give a shit ♪
♪ I will give a shit ♪
♪ Just a little bit ♪
♪ I will give a shit ♪
It was nice talking to you.
And remember,
take care of this place. It's the only one we've got.
[Poly] See you next time.
[music plays]