Why we will never have a plastic-free world - with Mike Shaver

  Рет қаралды 9,664

The Royal Institution

The Royal Institution

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 44
@JusticeAlways
@JusticeAlways 12 күн бұрын
Outstanding presentation. This is the best explanation on what the issue comes down to...describing plastics materials in exacting detail..and how we should better manage our use of them. I have 30+ years experience in plastics molding & recycling. An issue not covered..car tire "dust particles"...leaching into our water supplies & ocean sealife such as fish...that we eat...leading to dust particles getting into our bodies. Not sure if we'll ever overcome this issue. Happiness & peace to all you Brits over there...I'm living in a country that may be going down into the shttr. 🇺🇸👍
@Mandragara
@Mandragara 12 күн бұрын
Plastic is already so integrated into healthcare that it'll never be removed. Entire workflows and clinic throughput are reliant on plastic
@cgold88
@cgold88 12 күн бұрын
Did you watch this?
@ThatTimeTheThingHappened
@ThatTimeTheThingHappened 4 күн бұрын
Grr change…and the world should never change and we should never seek alternatives through research and development
@VagueHandWaving
@VagueHandWaving 12 күн бұрын
Long story short: Because it's easy to make and energy efficient. Remaining issues: Pollution and Microplastics. Possible solution: Make more recyclable plastics and Make recycling better. (Does not address microplastics) Conclusion: They developed some methods to make some recycling better, but it's complex. Some companies are making more recyclable products, but it's complex. No statement on whether doing more recycling is more or less energy efficient than making new plastics.
@RumorsOfPie
@RumorsOfPie 11 күн бұрын
Why people are so inclined to condense a lecture? The point of the question is not to be the single topic, but as an entrypoint to a discussion about the logistics of materiel science & materiel usage. By condensing, a LOT of very interesting information & elements of deep learning are lost
@John-v3f6j
@John-v3f6j 6 күн бұрын
Professor Shaver, that ranks as one of the most information-rich eye-opening lectures I recall on this channel. The fact you can get industries to collaborate at scale is remarkable. Targetting by mass as well as value, and being able to verify outcomes, both matter greatly. I'll get people to come and watch, it's full of surprises.
@AlG214
@AlG214 12 күн бұрын
The story of the UK's plastic bag ban gives me little hope for the future. Unlike many countries, that just straight up banned them, some as early as 2002 (Bangladesh), we introduced a 5p charge in 2015. The media was up in arms.;There were sob stories in right-wing newspapers about how tough shopping was going to be now. After 6 years, it went up to 10p. Still not banned. We have had enough time now to each amass a good store of those tote bags that every company gave away as its promotional item for a while! Even today, every corner shop I go into just gives me a plastic bag for free and looks surprised when I say I've brought my own bag. I admit, we have made the good progress against the carrier bag, however pretty much everything inside it comes wrapped in plastic. So while we have only stemmed the use of one plastic item, overall it is nothing compared with the mound of packaging you get from every supermarket trip. It feels like everyone cared for about 6 months after that David Attenborough doco with the choking seagulls and now they couldn't care less.
@chemquests
@chemquests 5 күн бұрын
I’m excited my employer (chemical company) has commercial scale molecular recycling of plastics. We make plastic from plastic now, but have been making plastic for over 100 years. Being the first to do this large scale is changing the industry and I’m proud to be part of it.
@andycordy5190
@andycordy5190 6 күн бұрын
Brilliant presentation. The holistic view illustrated here is so encouraging. The interconnectedness of all things in a shrinking world is so obvious but so rarely promoted in economically driven technologies. Expertise across traditionally separated fields, in order to understand key outcomes / consequences of all of our processes in detail, in relation to one another. Oh sorry! That's not my job.
@Siderite
@Siderite 8 күн бұрын
I really liked the presentation, especially the start, where actual data has been used to show what and how much actually hurts the system. We need more of those. I have to say that I disliked the conclusion. As an engineer I know that the chances of a system breaking increase exponentially with the number of dependencies you add. The ending of the presentation (spoiler alert) says that scientists and sociologists and economists and basically everybody needs to work together to make this system work. Such a conclusion makes me very skeptic that it will ever work. Try to create an automatic sorting/separation mechanism that is independent on the source of the garbage and optimize that. Let other components worry about what to make with it.
@elinope4745
@elinope4745 11 күн бұрын
I've used that ceramic cup well over five hundred times. I wash it every few weeks. It does have coffee residue on it. I hand wash it with a rag, that I also have used a lot. No soap needed
@BradKwfc
@BradKwfc 12 күн бұрын
Seems like the most efficient way to recycle plastic may be to combine it all, shred it, and instead of recycling it to remake the same products, create a new product that won't require it to be clean and sorted etc. I've seen people use recycled plastic for building materials. Perhaps somewhere in the economy there is room for a new product that can consume all the plastic? Either way it sounds like a difficult problem to solve. I'm glad people are working on it.
@JusticeAlways
@JusticeAlways 12 күн бұрын
I have 25+ years experience in plastics recycling. A German designed/built plant I worked at attempted the "all co-mingled" plastics idea...had too many problems. We did have success in blending roughly 35% hardwood fibers with a blend of PP /LDPE /PE...compression molding 30" to 42" cable reel flanges. We also compression molded 48" x 48" sheets using only 100% LDPE material from shredded shopping bags. We were hard pressed selling them...I was given many of them...10mm thickness. I built my wellpump house with them..and several outdoor work tabletops of them. The sheets still look nice & dandy 20+ years later...😊
@BradKwfc
@BradKwfc 12 күн бұрын
@JusticeAlways Very cool.
@JusticeAlways
@JusticeAlways 11 күн бұрын
@@BradKwfc 👍
@JK-dv3qe
@JK-dv3qe 12 күн бұрын
what i have always thought about when i was at McDonalds (don't go there anymore) but when i used to go, and i was sucking on those cardboard straws that they were providing for my beverage: i thought -> 'how many baby turtles does this save by me sucking on this cardboard straw that is disintegrating?' the answer is: most likely 0
@AlG214
@AlG214 12 күн бұрын
We won minor victories against plastic bags and drinking straws, but when literally everything else comes in an absolute mound of platic packaging, it feels like the war was defo lost.
@simeonbaker3046
@simeonbaker3046 12 күн бұрын
Where is the link for the video mentioned at 18:26 ? I think its this kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnLRemqJnMl-i5o
@celtic2000
@celtic2000 12 күн бұрын
Thanks!
@dragons10000
@dragons10000 12 күн бұрын
tahnk you dude
@SubtleAsAGun
@SubtleAsAGun 11 күн бұрын
Very insightful
@lucansanchez5129
@lucansanchez5129 4 күн бұрын
Never be without plastic, but we now have new paper straws and bags.
@johnjakson444
@johnjakson444 8 күн бұрын
At 6:03, 583GJ of energy is not actually meaningless, the avg American uses 300GJ every yr, so plastics save the world 2 Americans worth of energy a yr, if this number above is correct.
@Kim_Jong-un1356
@Kim_Jong-un1356 12 күн бұрын
This was a really intersting lecture! It's a breath of fresh air to not be subjected to the same old "plastic BAD" narrative.
@rossentownsend4936
@rossentownsend4936 10 күн бұрын
Microplastics cross the blood brain barrier.
@mchparity
@mchparity 8 күн бұрын
19:49 Where’s government’s role in this picture? Who’s funding this collaboration lecture with the RI? Although I’m confident these are true statements in the video, what unfair narrative they can be spinned to?
@dohduhdah
@dohduhdah 12 күн бұрын
Why aren't we using proteins instead of plastics?
@mahdilamb
@mahdilamb 17 сағат бұрын
What a misdirection. So much in-depth description of the environmental cost of creating ceramics when comparing it to plastics... the source material being products from refining oil. I see we're already living in an ethics-free world
@evarlast
@evarlast 12 күн бұрын
NEVER?!?! seems short sighted.
@dragons10000
@dragons10000 12 күн бұрын
exactly, incredibly naive. i would say 100-200 years the world and technology should change drastically, many new materials will be invented and material science can only grow from here. Not to mention we are in exponential technological growth so I wont be surprised if we discover something better in next 50 years. 100-200 years is a blink in human history, if that...
@mjkluck
@mjkluck 12 күн бұрын
The plastics industry thanks you.
@cgold88
@cgold88 12 күн бұрын
He definitely said that plastics taxes should be used to remake the municipal waste processing and that policy should limit the diversity of products they produce. There’s economic cost here for them for sure, definitely not an advocation for business as usual…
@quill444
@quill444 9 күн бұрын
_Nothing shall outlast the Royal Institution Wooden Desk!_ 💳 - j q t -
@LionSandwich
@LionSandwich 12 күн бұрын
Didn't know someone could say nothing for over 45 minutes. Impressive.
@JusticeAlways
@JusticeAlways 12 күн бұрын
That's Ok...we understand.
@robertnewhart3547
@robertnewhart3547 12 күн бұрын
Right? Right? Right?
@johncarter1150
@johncarter1150 12 күн бұрын
Brought to. you by the plastics council... not lol. Catch word, "demonization"
@hungryanimal5112
@hungryanimal5112 12 күн бұрын
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