We’re addicted to plastic

[@LouisFoglia]

An estimated 4 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year, but only 1% of them are recycled. The average American uses 307 plastic bags a year.

Great video, nice narrative, hope everybody will spread the word. Thanks for the initiative! I lived in Canada 🍁 for a couple of years, Lou, and recycling ♻ was part of their routine. I always used my own bag, never forgot to separate reciclables, although once I moved back to my "in development" country, things changed. It's also a cultural pattern that increases the problem. This particular problem is also bigger than one's initiative, because if I separate things up here at my appartement, the public administration will mix everything's down there at the street level. It's sad 😔 to face how asynchronous behaviors are in countries like ours, or even with less formally educated people. If we had shared education more evenly around the globe, we could change this more efficiently as well. Again, great video, Lou

[@SenatorGuapo]

...you're plastic....

[@Sequaloid]

Louis Foglia I reuse mine as trash bags unfortunately

[@JROtoons]

A few months ago I decided to separate all the plastic from my trash and recycle it, my garage is now filled with the stuff. My reg garbage was reduced weekly from 4 bags to 2 bags. I need more recycle bins.

[@watchingponies]

Yeah let's start there. It's so dumb.

[@xWood4000]

All big plastic bags cost around 50 cents in Finland and in the Nordics there are recyclable bottle bounties.

[@officer_baitlyn]

same goes for germany different country different problems

[@LordDark102]

xWood4000 in Poland big "enviroment friendly" plastic bags are for 15 cents. But you have to adjust for wage which is around 1000 euros do probably 2-3 times less than in Finland.

[@LordDark102]

xWood4000 but we all have a long way to go to be full on Eco

[@baashaalbaashaal6427]

SUOMI PERKELE but yeah its true and thats why we re-use our bags

[@xWood4000]

Baashaal Baashaal Yeah, we reuse them atleast one more time.

[@CallieMasters5000]

Remember: glass is the only surface that doesn't soak up anything from the liquids it contains. Get a glass bottle to be safe. It's also great for smashing over somebody's head if needed. :)

[@JoeyHoogendoorn]

Lawmakers can play a large role in this. Lots of packaging is unnecessary but I bet there is a big packaging lobby group. That industry must be enormous.

[@robertkettmann4986]

The problem is not a single plastic bag if every single item in your shopping basket is packed in plastic. Law makers have the responsibility to force manufactures to use recyclable or better biodegradable packing materials. If you wanna solve the issue, ban plastic.

[@MeryInTheWorld]

Yes, I agree with you. However, while it is not banned, we can make an effort to try to consume less of it. And also, if people don't buy it companies will not sell it

[@dstblj5222]

See, i suspect that is mostly a consumer problem, i know from personal experience packing good is expensive and as a company i don't want to spend the money if i dont have to

[@starejhujer1764]

In Czechia we pay small fee for plastic bags, for example in grocery stores. I am trying to use bags more than once.

[@ZEL0D]

In Switzerland, we're pretty used to take our own bags. They are much stronger, and bigger that these shitty plastic bags, and way more ecological.

[@MachSoWeiter]

same in Germany. I can't remember the last time I bought a plastic bag at the supermarket.

[@eveline9418]

since the plastic bags cost 5 cents, consumption has fallen by 85%.

[@lmfaoxLEAH]

DC also implemented a 5 cents tax and ever since I moved here I always use reusable, and get really mad if I forget mine (but if you do they use paper here, not plastic). In the small US city I grew up in though I never really thought to use reusable, and since you drove it didn't really matter that the plastic bags sucked.

[@dvlpr]

Yessss! You guys pick the best topics!

[@StephenMcManus1]

You guys are doing a great job handling serious issues in a way that may help get the message through to many that may otherwise not understand the seriousness of the situation, keep it up.

[@LouisFoglia]

Thanks Stephen.

[@khalildaterra9228]

There is also a company named vessel. This is a startup that is basically almost like a dockless electric vehicle in the way the system works. They are have a system that you get the cup from the place that you buy the drink and when you are done they are dropped off at dropoints or another restruant or cafe that accepts them. They are then washed and used again. They are based in New York. You should check them out. They aim to reduce the amount of waste from one use cups.

[@zoyai]

Belgium is the champion of recycling, 89% of the trash is ! I have 5 trash bins in my apartment, the one that goes to incineration is the smallest and lightest. As for plastic straws, cardboard aren't any better. chopping off trees is no better solution. I use stainless steel straws. they cost 1€ a piece but will last a looooong time.

[@cejota378]

The 21. century should become better than this. I encourage everyone to make a change! Its so important! NO PLASTIC! 🤙

[@Baconomics101]

Can confirm. First thing I did this morning was snort a line microplastics and smoke a plastic bag blunt

[@Lumencraft-]

Putting a deposit on every one of those bottles would get a tremendous amount of them to a recycling center. Growing up in Oregon as a kid if you had a sack full of pop cans you had a free trip to the candy store!

[@EduardoEscarez]

Here in Chile both main soft drink companies (CCU with Pepsi brand, and Coca-Chile Chile) give you the option to buy with disposable or reusable bottles. In the case of reusable ones, you pay only a initial cost (something like 50 USD cents) + the cost of the soft drink; then you can go to the supermarket with the empty bottle and buy another one with a coupon for the cost of that bottle. The general cost of buying the soda in that format is sometimes cheaper that with a disposable bottle; and some supermarket chains allows to buy a Coca-Cola with a Pepsi reusable bottle and vice-versa. Also a few days ago Congress passed unanimously a new law that will ban all supermarket plastic bags in all the country.

[@CodeCely]

In Mumbai the plastic bags were banned for a month and everyone used cloth/paperbags but after a month guess what it's back in some stalls.

[@MeryInTheWorld]

So is it forbidden now? It would be amazing that a country like India (huge) started with this kind of policies.

[@CodeCely]

Mery In The World nope....everyone's using them except some official shops. Idk what is the problem with the Indian government.....slow as hell. I agree with you.

[@AlexanderBrowne]

This is a really interesting video and something I feel strongly about. It is also extremely Western-centric, go to India with a population of 1.3 billion and see how much plastic is discarded, used, not recycled, burnt and dumped - it is shocking. Although what the USA and Europe are doing to reduce plastics, it is just a tiny tiny drop in the ocean fully of microplastics.

[@nathanrice3890]

The top 8 of 10 of polluters are Asian rivers. The other 2 are in the Middle East and Africa. The problem is aforementioned. We can do something, but the major problem is clear. Asian culture.

[@lordofduct]

This reminded me of a incident years ago... most conversations about plastic tend to remind me of this story. When I was like 19 or so, I went to the local grocery store to buy something. This was back when they still asked you 'paper or plastic'. I get rung up and the girl behind the register asks me which I'd like and I ask for paper. She tries to convince me to get plastic so as to "save a tree" to which I was bewildered. When I refused to take plastic she started scolding me about recycling. And I was just like "Plastic is from petroleum which takes millions of years to form under ground... paper is from a tree, I can grow one of those in a matter of a decade... yeah, I'll take paper." This is one of the things I really hate about rhetoric and the sort. People tend not to consider what the actual necessity being discussed is, but rather the talking point. Phrases like "save a tree" don't lead to "why am I saving a tree?" instead it leads to "Oh, any behaviour I partake in that saves a tree must be good."

[@aditawks]

Awesome Video Lou and Beme Team.

[@ren.pfa.99]

the small fee for the plastic bag was just done in greece a few months ago, they now cost 0.04 euros. the only place where i still see them used for free is the street market.

[@DylanTaylor]

this was really eye opening

[@amaurygantet555]

Here in France not reusable plastic bags are banned from supermarket

[@TommyCallaway]

Good work Lou. Really enjoyed this one.

[@ImChrisLuke]

starting July 1, Hawaii is forcing businesses to charge at least 15 cents for ANY bag we provide, even if it complies with the already-in-place plastic ban bag.

[@rowantheboatadair]

Funnily enough the plastic bag levy started its life in the Northern Ireland Assembly - it's affect in NI was noticeably huge. Disposable plastic bags aren't even available in some shops in NI, like Tesco. They only seem to sell "Bags for life".

[@alexvolpicello6086]

Fantastic and well-researched.

[@Clownacho]

here in chile are going to banned plastic bags from supermarkets (like líder, jumbo, etc they are same as walmarket on the us), nice video :D

[@hempev]

I guest Dustin Hoffman listened to that one word...

[@MotívameToday]

In Long island it's $0.05 per plastic bag at stores

[@Treesuss]

I live outside of Boston and we all have to recycle and compost. Also the neighboring town banned plastic bags.

[@shantanukulkarni8883]

My city in India has started an act to reduce the use of plastic. We don't get to buy any sort of straw or plastic cups etc. from ANYWHERE in the entire city because no shop now get's a refill of the products from the companies themselves ! We don't even get straws at McDonalds or anything with our drinks. We would have to pay a fine or something if we use a plastic bag (I have just heard about the fine).

[@antonsiberian]

I'm from Siberia and I wish our authorities will think more about environment. Our region is rich for natural resources and government/people think that resources will never end, they don't care about nature in most cases. So Siberia has already many ecological problems.

[@stephankrue1975]

Actually the figures about recycling have to be read as following: Germany is the world champion in collecting plastic for recycling. But they are not the world champion in recycling. Half of their recycling was made in China. The world Champion in recycling was until last year China which received half of the worlds plastic scrap. Saying that it was simply burned is stupid. Only the import cost around 200 USD and Chinese customers paid for the plastic they received from abroad. But yes, the handling of reject plastic was problematic, as it is now even more in countries like Vietnam and Malaysia.

[@EduardoEscarez]

Well, a few days ago Congress here in Chile approved a law with support of all political sectors to ban supermarket plastic bags.

[@danuliek]

hands down the most underrated channel on KZbin. I love this show so muchhhhh!!!

[@LouisFoglia]

Thanks!

[@Hayley-kp6wt]

This was really great, keep up the environmental content!

[@MrRishik123]

at home, i use glass bottles and stuff, instead of plastics because of its ease of steralisation (i am very sickly cos of my cystic fibrosis) Tap water isnt that reccomended to drink, so i only drink filtered water(those gravity filter things from Brita) and the bottles i use are able to be boiled to kill most of the bacteria in them. I can't steralise plastic bottles as easily. Also if i want a new bottle, i know that glass is essentially infinately recyclable, but plastics break down a little bit after each recycling so new fresh plastic must be mixed in with the old to keep the strength of the product up to spec. That is why you rarely see 100% recycled plastic bottles, because they arent as strong. Most of the time you will see "made from 60-90% recycled plastic" written on them. So i think its slightly more sustainable to switch over to glass. Similarly i do the same with lunchboxes as well. Instead of those plastic ones, i use glass ones. (i dont go outside much so weight is rarely an issue for me).

[@Lumencraft-]

Great video Beme Team!!

[@FabianAhorner]

The single use plastic bottle on his table seemed a bit hypocritical 😉

[@jeremymaillet5713]

One of the best story tellers on youtube

[@robertdownes8223]

NOOOOOOO LOU! WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO ME?!?! I COME FOR THE CUSE MUG, WHERE IS THE CUSE MUG?!?!?!?! This week you get a thumbs down. I'm sorry, I didn't want to do this. You've made me do this.

[@SaidinRage]

Here in Oregon everyone has a boner for recycling and most of the bigger cities make you pay for plastic bags too. Recently I visited my uncle in Washington and I was looking around for a recycling bin so i asked him about it and he said they don't recycle in Washington. I felt dirty throwing the plastic in the garbage lol, can't believe that's a thing.

[@OoTom94oO]

That small charge for bags in the UK has actually worked pretty well for me at least. Even though it's only 5p something just stops me buying one if I have only bought one item. Where as before they would just put my one item in a bag. I also try to remember to take me own bag or use a bag for life now. Before bags where worthless but now they have value. Although small it does seem to have an affect.

[@markolson8928]

At some point, there will be a mining of sea plastic to make new plastic. Someday...

[@dawso2o2]

Finally here in New South Wales Australia supermarkets have stopped using one use plastic bag

[@vivenx]

You guys are incredible. just hitting the right tone with contemporary issues. however, my 2 cents, Louis is incredible ;), but I think the channel would thrive with a more diverse set of people taking turns to host a segment :-).

[@butter_la]

This video seems unusually dark compared to previous videos... new lighting setup, wrong camera settings, or unfinished color correction? Love the content but highlights didn’t feel like they were bright enough and reaching the full dynamic range on this one.

[@gainesminton]

Butter TV agreed! Seems kinda dark

[@ObjectiveMediaDoesntExist]

Yeah it looks to me like they are just lacking any distinction between the background and foreground, likely because they have the same light setup to illuminate both. If they use 2 different setups, one for the background and the other for him it would probably look better.

[@JJs_playground]

Great video as always. An alternative to paper straws are pasta straws they're more durable. And you don't don't have to cut trees to make them. I for one stopped using straws and I ask my servers not to give me a drink with a straw. I still forget from time to time, but working on it.

[@VeronicaNewton]

Brilliant! Another great video. Thanks, Beme!

[@waelouf]

The city of (Kirkland, Washington) completely banned plastic bags from all grocery stores since 2016 and forced them to use paper bags or each one brings his own reusable - environment friendly bag

[@teuton8363]

I usually use the single use bags a second time as garbage bags. If they are banning them it just mean I have to buy garbage bags, which I use only once....and therefore, nothing saved.

[@c0pyimitati0n]

As an American, this is embarrassing. Businesses need to own up and make changes.

[@dr_serious]

that's the flag of Belgium not Germany...

[@LouisFoglia]

Yes. Belgium and Austria....

[@LouisFoglia]

Ah, I can see how that's confusing.... Belgium is a leader in recycling though, too. zerowasteeurope.eu/2015/03/and-the-european-waste-champion-is-belgium/

[@ramiolsen]

Hey Lou, check out evocative and mycoworks. They do amazing things with mushroom mycelium that are super cheap to maufacture and actually benefit the environment. I'd love to see a video about them in the future!

[@petarpopadic]

being conscientious is hard ,it takes mental energy (which we already have little of) so the best way to get people to do something isn't to make them(people) have to work hard for it , but to make it as simple and easy as possible , people (like most things in nature) tend to take the path of least resistance, especially when it's something minor as bringing groceries home form the store .The answer isn't to make the consumer responsible for everything , the solution is to change the system (make it so that the easiest thing to do is the best thing (or the ting that you want people to do).

[@PeeJayBrownJr]

Maybe we should stop drinking bottled water. How many of those do you see floating in water bodies as well as on streets.

[@arethouready]

PeeJay Brown Jr let’s just stop drinking water so we all die so we don’t have to deal with this plastic problem

[@TheJordan75]

PeeJay Brown Jr The problem isn't only plastic bottles. We use plastic for A LOT of things, and many of those things are completly unnecesary or can be replaces with other, more enviormentaly friendly materials. However, the sheer scale of production that we have "sustained" for the past 200 years needs to change.

[@majesticgoatgaming5608]

Packaging vegetables and fruits with plastic makes no sense.

[@cejota378]

THANK YOU!

[@KillGui007]

Wait, so you are not even talking about the 'Ocean Clean Up Project' ? Its probably the nr. 1 group dealing with the great garbage batch problem.

[@Gilotopia]

Single use plastics still have the problem of accidental littering. No matter how careful you are some plastic bags or straws or bottle caps will just fly away from you ending up in nature.

[@franklinfrancis8234]

Well a state in India just banned plastics...and it's creating a havoc here

[@franklinfrancis8234]

Just imagine.....going to McDonald's and you get no straws to drink ur coke

[@LadyAster]

This was a really good video

[@Brunkoh]

im from England and i have never heard anyone call plastic bags carrier bags

[@marcobacchella]

my boi what's the name of the font you used at 0:45

[@forgeth3r]

Every classroom in my school has a recycling bin so I recycle daily

[@rafaeldidis1431]

"Awareness with the planet!!!!"

[@remybuitenhuis2433]

i take my backpack to the stores everytime i buy stuff. also where i live,plastic, tetrapaks and metal are recycled

[@KatieBuonpane]

I would love if you guys did a second video about how the answer to this problem already has a solution and the answer is paper. Paper is biodegradable. Paper is renewable. We can always grow more trees. I would love to talk to you guys about this if you need more information. I am a paper engineer and I have been in the paper industry for 8 years. We are often forgotten. But if the shift goes in the direction of paper we could really make some great changes to our planet.

[@maxmurden3063]

7:00 Also sucked-up a fish by the looks of things...

[@graham1034]

I think government nudges and bans are the best way for these changes to occur in the short term. Education is great too, but it's effects are slow and limited.

[@LiveInSydney]

Australia features very prominently in the world globe there Lou! Good to see your sleeves are now elastic! Bernie in sydney

[@dedsi8848]

You guys need to fix the bottom black void under the clips of Lou

[@frankfeder3008]

caveat: Germany is calculating its recycling rate as a collection rate, not as percentage of actual reuse of material.

[@mattmccarthy6878]

damn that jellyfish tank is sick

[@avykh99]

Charge 25¢ per bag. Watch them simply disappear. Also, I like that floating garbage collector contraption.

[@cicci0salsicci0]

I think the responsibility should not be thrown on customers. Most of the time you have no choice and you have to buy products in plastic. Think at food and drinks.

[@eveline9418]

i just stared at the plastic bottle on the desk....

[@RC_Cola2020]

Thanks for making this video.

[@MrMinermation]

Lou is so cool

[@TravelNomad]

Great job, Beme team!

[@MrFindX]

Yes

[@parker6614]

In California we have reusable plastic bags that are stronger, if we want to buy something from the super market we can either just bring are bags or pay for new ones

[@HURLEY7130]

Unfortunately, a lot of people just don't care. No matter how much you try to educate them, or warn them, they are too self-centered and selfish to give a poop. It's the "I'm not impacted by these issues, so why do I care?" mentality. I honestly don't know if this can be solved... humanly.

[@davidurdahl6656]

Jesus... I see why Casey gave up on beme. Love you Lou but you need to leave too.

[@mathiasop7900]

Thanks for another good and informative video!

[@xWood4000]

Some plasrics are actually biodegradable. Most aren't though and those that are are very sensitive.

[@cicci0salsicci0]

I think the plastics you are referring to, are compostable, not biodegradable. That means that without a specific process you are going to pollute anyway.

[@TheJordan75]

cicci0salsicci0 Exactly. And those processes sometimes require a lot of energy, and that energy mostly comes from non-renewable sources, so in the long run, they can do more harm than good. Also, there's some development on bioplastics (starch and corn-based plastics) but the technology is new and expensive.

[@xWood4000]

TheJordan75 I am pretty sure that there are commercial biodegradable plastics that don't just create microplastics.

[@TheJordan75]

xWood4000 Yeah there are some. However, we can't replace every kind of plastic (PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS), right now at least, because each one has their unique properties. And some biodegradable plasics tend to be more expensive than traditional ones, that's why there's still some resistance to switch.

[@xWood4000]

TheJordan75 Yeah, most of the biodegradable ones are not durable. Trash bags don't need to be hard.

[@MindFloodMedia]

What about garbage bags? Plastic that is designed to be garbage not recycled. What are we doing about that?

[@sampeters3126]

Great video!!!! I reuse my plastic bags as little garbage bags. I don’t know if that helps, I reckon not cuz it’s still getting thrown away but, at least it’s getting a second use.

[@elizabethblanford8569]

You guys should look into the zero waste movement

[@PentaYOOO]

Yay for the Austrian flag

[@jokehu7115]

and the Belgian one for some reason

[@PeeJayBrownJr]

So you're telling me that we can put a man on the moon and self driving cars but can't come up with a degradable replacement to plastics?

[@Sequaloid]

PeeJay Brown Jr Yup priorities

[@Baconomics101]

We have already created a biodegradable "plastic" that can be used to replace our single use plastic items. It is just still a lot more expensive to produce than plastic. From a quick google comparison of small plastic cups, it looks like it is 5x more expensive. Sources: Good platic - www.goodstartpackaging.com/3-oz-pla-cups-compostable-plastic-cold-cups-2-500-count/ Bad Plastic - www.webstaurantstore.com/search/3-oz-plastic-cups.html

[@KatBurnsKASHKA]

I think this all the time.

[@KatieBuonpane]

We can. We already have it. The answer is paper.

[@Sophialwang]

Katie Buonpane okay, but deforestation of natural habitats and emissions of GHGs from the production of paper and growing trees is also a problem

[@martinicc67]

I reuse plastic bags as much as I can and then use it as a trash bag

[@26hastings]

Why compare the plastic patch to France and the cost of a single use plastic bag to UK and the pence? Wouldn't it be better to use American comparisons?

[@ARTone]

I still don't get how this company was worth 25 million

[@ZachAltose]

I'm surprised he didn't mention Vancouver's recently approved zero-waste action plan

[@Black_Corey]

To be honest i couldn't care less about plastic.

[@Tomzothegreat]

sounds so similar to unbox therapy, love it

[@r.wilson8095]

Isn’t plastic a petroleum based product? I’ve read in the past that many places in the United States had banned the use of plastic grocery bags only to have the courts overturn the ban by lawyers working for the petroleum industry. Something to look into.

[@naufrage0]

If you don't want to read my full comment here's the tl:dr: Stop blaming consumers and investing money in recycling campaigns (reallocate it to education) and cut this problem off at the source: Food and beverage companies and whomever else creates products that use single use plastics. I hate that the brunt of responsibility is on the consumers. Levy higher taxes and fines on companies that don't get rid of these plastics. Regardless of where we toss it once we're done it's still being manufactured and will end up somewhere. Why are average people blamed for pollution and trash when it's on the companies to invest adequate r&d into fixing the problem THEY created. Why haven't we gone back to the glass bottle return system utilized by Coca Cola in their early days?? These companies wine and dine with government officials that's why. They can do what ever they want. That's why Tex Rillerson was in the White House preaching global warming was a hoax. In fact companies that don't give a damn about the environment are the only reason some politicians claim to not believe in global warming. Their campaigns get money from these creeps. But capitalism is a blessing yo. Yeah right. Stop investing money in recycling campaigns and give it to lobbyists and activists who will work to cut this problem off at the source!

[@kenzer1614]

I live in a place where environmentalism is very important and could be argued as a major part of our state identity, with this in mind, recycling programs are easily accessible and widely used. However I don't think he really covered the fact that recycling programs are not always available in some areas and without them the problem of plastics and pollution is made worse because there is no system in place to deal with these materials in an Eco-friendly way.

[@MaxLamdin]

just curious, is that a bust of Jeff Bridges?

[@LouisFoglia]

Yes, yes it is.