In the Pacific Ocean,
north of the equator,
there's a growing, "floating island" of trash
that's twice the size of Texas,
and three times the size of France.
It's just another example
of how we're treating our planet
like a dumpster.
Experts say that every year,
we throw away enough plastic
to circle the Earth four times.
At that rate, by the year 2025,
there will be more trash in our oceans
than there are fish.
So how can we stop being so wasteful?
Let's start by looking at the idea
of limiting everyone to one jar of waste per year,
a mason jar, to be precise.
It might sound impossible,
but there's a whole community of people around the world who do this.
They practice zero-waste alternatives like making their meals from scratch,
recycling or reusing all materials,
and only buying sustainably-produced clothing.
Although this is probably unrealistic for some people in the world,
because of the time and money involved,
the ideas behind it could help us become a waste-free planet.
How would a world without waste affect our environment,
our economy,
and even our housing markets?
The main idea behind creating no waste
is a concept that was coined in the 1990s called "cradle to cradle."
It’s a simple concept at the core:
biological products like food,
and items made from natural goods like trees,
are utilized until they cannot be used in their current form.
Then they're broken down in a natural way, like composting, to help make new materials.
For instance, "cradle to cradle" doesn't mean we can't keep using smartphones.
It just means that we have to recycle them when they break,
so their components can be repurposed for new goods.
If we all embraced this idea in our everyday lives,
we'd see a reduction of waste on our planet.
But we'd never get anywhere near our zero-waste goal
if corporations didn't embrace it as well.
Some companies are already taking the initiative.
They're finding creative ways to make more sustainable products,
by recycling and reusing items,
or by devising ways to clean the Earth as they make new products.
For example, Adidas has started to make shoes,
and other goods, from plastics collected from the ocean and recycled.
But our best hope for cleaning up our act might be Mother Nature herself.
Her powers were on full display when the
Spanish National Research Council discovered that
wax worms could eat and digest plastic!
Researchers are still figuring out how this works,
but it could be a breakthrough in helping to get rid of the plastic in the oceans.
Who knows how many other groundbreaking alternatives like this are out there,
just waiting to be discovered?
If more organizations invest in research like this,
we could soon find out.
And each alternative we discover could bring us one step closer to a waste-free society.
Can you picture it?
One vision of a more sustainable future,
proposed by French bio designer Guillian Graves,
involves growing entirely degradable objects like
bandages and chairs from microorganisms.
You can learn more about it, and other innovative waste solutions
in the documentary "Waste of the Future,"
which you can find on CuriosityStream.
We'll get back to the story in a second, but in case you don't know,
Curiosity stream is a video streaming service
with thousands of other award-winning documentaries
and the good news is that, as a what-if viewer
you get the first 30-days completely free.
Yeh that's right, free!
And after the first month, it's just $2.99 a month or just $19.99 a year.
It's pretty amazing, a lot of their videos talk about the same topics we do.
It's a great place to take a deeper dive into the subject matter.
All you have to do is sign up at curiositystream.com/whatif
and use the promo code "whatif" during the sign up process.
If we were able to move into a waste-free future,
the economy would have to change,
as people wouldn’t demand or accept plastic or single-use consumer goods like we currently do.
There would be less of a demand for landfill space,
as less trash would be created,
meaning there would be less waste to dispose of.
Ideally, long-term, we’d have cleaner water, cleaner air, more trees,
and we'd mine fewer metals for use in high-tech items like smartphones.
We’d also have richer gardens thanks to more compost,
as more people would be contributing their household food waste
to community or personal compost bins.
Buying less stuff might even make people happier,
and able to live in smaller houses, which could, on a grander scale,
help to accommodate the population boom
we’re expecting across the globe in the next few decades.
As great as this all sounds, it would be very difficult to achieve.
We would need all the world's nations working together with one unified vision.
Maybe it'd be easier if we all just combined into one country,
but that's a topic for another WHAT IF.