WEBVTT 00:00:07.845 --> 00:00:08.995 Andrew Forrest: Plastic. 00:00:09.600 --> 00:00:11.288 Simple as that. 00:00:11.312 --> 00:00:18.305 Our inability to use it for the tremendous energetic commodity that it is, 00:00:18.329 --> 00:00:19.705 and just throw it away. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:28.776 --> 00:00:30.226 AF: That's in the Philippines, 00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:33.155 and you know, there's a lot of rivers, ladies and gentlemen, 00:00:33.180 --> 00:00:34.561 which look exactly like that. 00:00:34.561 --> 00:00:35.894 And that's the Philippines. 00:00:35.919 --> 00:00:37.489 So it's all over Southeast Asia. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:05.349 --> 00:03:06.946 AF: No, we really haven't. 00:03:06.970 --> 00:03:10.194 The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, they're a bunch of good scientists, 00:03:10.218 --> 00:03:12.266 we've been working with them for a while. 00:03:12.291 --> 00:03:14.031 I've completely verified their work. 00:03:14.055 --> 00:03:16.761 They say there will be one ton of plastic, Chris, 00:03:16.785 --> 00:03:19.305 for every three tons of fish by, not 2050 -- 00:03:19.329 --> 00:03:23.934 and I really get impatient with people who talk about 2050 -- by 2025. 00:03:23.958 --> 00:03:25.201 That's around the corner. 00:03:25.225 --> 00:03:27.348 That's just the here and now. 00:03:27.372 --> 00:03:30.631 You don't need one ton of plastic to completely wipe out marine life. 00:03:30.655 --> 00:03:33.717 Less than that is going to do a fine job at it. 00:03:33.741 --> 00:03:38.211 So we have to end it straightaway. We've got no time. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:58.904 --> 00:06:00.884 CA: So that's the fundamental problem, 00:06:00.908 --> 00:06:05.018 the price of recycled plastic is usually more 00:06:05.042 --> 00:06:09.558 than the price of just buying it made fresh from more oil. 00:06:09.582 --> 00:06:11.129 That's the fundamental problem. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:20.689 --> 00:11:21.841 AF: All over the world. 00:11:21.865 --> 00:11:23.913 Because the technology is low-capital cost, 00:11:23.937 --> 00:11:26.974 you can put it in at rubbish dumps, at the bottom of big hotels, 00:11:26.998 --> 00:11:28.300 garbage depots, everywhere, 00:11:28.324 --> 00:11:29.618 turn that waste into resin. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:06.189 --> 00:12:11.071 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:12:11.095 --> 00:12:14.526 You've talked to other companies, like to the Coca-Colas of this world, 00:12:14.550 --> 00:12:17.688 who are willing to do this, they're willing to pay a higher price, 00:12:17.712 --> 00:12:19.539 they would like to pay a higher price, 00:12:19.563 --> 00:12:20.718 so long as it's fair. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:01.111 --> 00:00:03.969 Chris Anderson: So, you've been obsessed with this problem 00:00:03.993 --> 00:00:05.757 for the last few years. 00:00:05.781 --> 00:00:07.821 What is the problem, in your own words? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:20.838 --> 00:00:23.909 CA: And so we see waste everywhere. 00:00:23.933 --> 00:00:26.397 At its extreme, it looks a bit like this. 00:00:26.421 --> 00:00:28.752 I mean, where was this picture taken? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:37.688 --> 00:00:39.669 CA: So plastic is thrown into the rivers, 00:00:39.693 --> 00:00:42.302 and from there, of course, it ends up in the ocean. 00:00:42.994 --> 00:00:46.567 I mean, we obviously see it on the beaches, 00:00:46.591 --> 00:00:49.133 but that's not even your main concern. 00:00:49.157 --> 00:00:52.624 It's what's actually happening to it in the oceans. Talk about that. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:52.648 --> 00:00:55.149 AF: OK, so look. Thank you, Chris. 00:00:55.173 --> 00:00:56.347 About four years ago, 00:00:56.371 --> 00:00:59.690 I thought I'd do something really barking crazy, 00:00:59.714 --> 00:01:04.422 and I committed to do a PhD in marine ecology. 00:01:04.446 --> 00:01:07.663 And the scary part about that was, 00:01:07.687 --> 00:01:09.604 sure, I learned a lot about marine life, 00:01:09.628 --> 00:01:11.848 but it taught me more about marine death 00:01:11.872 --> 00:01:18.032 and the extreme mass ecological fatality of fish, 00:01:18.056 --> 00:01:20.312 of marine life, marine mammals, 00:01:20.336 --> 00:01:22.800 very close biology to us, 00:01:22.824 --> 00:01:27.062 which are dying in the millions if not trillions that we can't count 00:01:27.086 --> 00:01:28.762 at the hands of plastic. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:28.786 --> 00:01:32.627 CA: But people think of plastic as ugly but stable. Right? 00:01:32.652 --> 00:01:36.091 You throw something in the ocean, "Hey, it'll just sit there forever. 00:01:36.115 --> 00:01:37.761 Can't do any damage, right?" NOTE Paragraph 00:01:37.785 --> 00:01:44.552 AF: See, Chris, it's an incredible substance designed for the economy. 00:01:44.576 --> 00:01:49.272 It is the worst substance possible for the environment. 00:01:49.296 --> 00:01:52.483 The worst thing about plastics, as soon as it hits the environment, 00:01:52.507 --> 00:01:55.291 is that it fragments. 00:01:55.315 --> 00:01:57.758 It never stops being plastic. 00:01:57.782 --> 00:02:00.477 It breaks down smaller and smaller and smaller, 00:02:00.501 --> 00:02:03.149 and the breaking science on this, Chris, 00:02:03.173 --> 00:02:05.831 which we've known in marine ecology for a few years now, 00:02:05.855 --> 00:02:07.795 but it's going to hit humans. 00:02:07.918 --> 00:02:11.089 We are aware now that nanoplastic, 00:02:11.113 --> 00:02:15.715 the very, very small particles of plastic, carrying their negative charge, 00:02:15.739 --> 00:02:18.541 can go straight through the pores of your skin. 00:02:19.390 --> 00:02:20.565 That's not the bad news. 00:02:20.589 --> 00:02:25.131 The bad news is that it goes straight through the blood-brain barrier, 00:02:25.155 --> 00:02:28.039 that protective coating which is there to protect your brain. 00:02:28.063 --> 00:02:32.070 Your brain's a little amorphous, wet mass full of little electrical charges. 00:02:32.094 --> 00:02:35.371 You put a negative particle into that, 00:02:35.395 --> 00:02:38.924 particularly a negative particle which can carry pathogens -- 00:02:38.948 --> 00:02:42.532 so you have a negative charge, it attracts positive-charge elements, 00:02:42.556 --> 00:02:44.980 like pathogens, toxins, 00:02:45.004 --> 00:02:46.451 mercury, lead. 00:02:46.595 --> 00:02:49.848 That's the breaking science we're going to see in the next 12 months. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:49.873 --> 00:02:53.428 CA: So already I think you told me that there's like 600 plastic bags or so 00:02:53.453 --> 00:02:57.014 for every fish that size in the ocean, something like that. 00:02:57.388 --> 00:03:00.261 And they're breaking down, 00:03:00.285 --> 00:03:02.324 and there's going to be ever more of them, 00:03:02.348 --> 00:03:05.325 and we haven't even seen the start of the consequences of that. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:38.235 --> 00:03:42.604 CA: OK, so you have an idea for ending it, and you're coming at this 00:03:42.628 --> 00:03:45.319 not as a typical environmental campaigner, I would say, 00:03:45.343 --> 00:03:48.533 but as a businessmen, as an entrepreneur, who has lived -- 00:03:48.557 --> 00:03:52.046 you've spent your whole life thinking about global economic systems 00:03:52.070 --> 00:03:53.723 and how they work. 00:03:53.747 --> 00:03:55.351 And if I understand it right, 00:03:55.375 --> 00:04:01.897 your idea depends on heroes who look something like this. 00:04:01.921 --> 00:04:03.433 What's her profession? NOTE Paragraph 00:04:03.457 --> 00:04:06.666 AF: She, Chris, is a ragpicker, 00:04:06.690 --> 00:04:10.408 and there were 15, 20 million ragpickers like her, 00:04:10.432 --> 00:04:14.688 until China stopped taking everyone's waste. 00:04:14.712 --> 00:04:18.927 And the price of plastic, minuscule that it was, collapsed. 00:04:18.951 --> 00:04:20.737 That led to people like her, 00:04:20.761 --> 00:04:24.979 which, now -- she is a child who is a schoolchild. 00:04:25.003 --> 00:04:26.668 She should be at school. 00:04:26.692 --> 00:04:28.958 That's probably very akin to slavery. 00:04:28.982 --> 00:04:31.953 My daughter Grace and I have met hundreds of people like her. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:31.977 --> 00:04:35.532 CA: And there are many adults as well, literally millions around the world, 00:04:35.556 --> 00:04:36.732 and in some industries, 00:04:36.756 --> 00:04:39.321 they actually account for the fact that, for example, 00:04:39.345 --> 00:04:41.547 we don't see a lot of metal waste in the world. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:41.571 --> 00:04:42.791 AF: That's exactly right. 00:04:42.815 --> 00:04:45.945 That little girl is, in fact, the hero of the environment. 00:04:45.969 --> 00:04:49.576 She's in competition with a great big petrochemical plant 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:50.950 which is just down the road, 00:04:50.974 --> 00:04:53.655 the three-and-a-half-billion-dollar petrochemical plant. 00:04:53.679 --> 00:04:54.838 That's the problem. 00:04:54.862 --> 00:04:59.307 We've got more oil and gas in plastic and landfill 00:04:59.331 --> 00:05:03.100 than we have in the entire oil and gas resources of the United States. 00:05:03.124 --> 00:05:05.147 So she is the hero. 00:05:05.171 --> 00:05:08.137 And that's what that landfill looks like, ladies and gentlemen, 00:05:08.161 --> 00:05:10.579 and it's solid oil and gas. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:10.603 --> 00:05:14.275 CA: So there's huge value potentially locked up in there 00:05:14.299 --> 00:05:18.838 that the world's ragpickers would, if they could, make a living from. 00:05:18.862 --> 00:05:20.462 But why can't they? NOTE Paragraph 00:05:21.303 --> 00:05:24.565 AF: Because we have ingrained in us 00:05:24.589 --> 00:05:28.925 a price of plastic from fossil fuels, 00:05:28.949 --> 00:05:32.520 which sits just under what it takes 00:05:32.544 --> 00:05:37.094 to economically and profitably recycle plastic from plastic. 00:05:37.118 --> 00:05:42.152 See, all plastic is is building blocks from oil and gas. 00:05:42.176 --> 00:05:46.061 Plastic's 100 percent polymer, which is 100 percent oil and gas. 00:05:46.085 --> 00:05:48.484 And you know we've got enough plastic in the world 00:05:48.508 --> 00:05:49.688 for all our needs. 00:05:49.712 --> 00:05:52.232 And when we recycle plastic, 00:05:52.256 --> 00:05:55.521 if we can't recycle it cheaper than fossil fuel plastic, 00:05:55.545 --> 00:05:58.880 then, of course, the world just sticks to fossil fuel plastic. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:11.153 --> 00:06:14.292 AF: A slight tweak of the rules here, Chris. 00:06:14.316 --> 00:06:16.084 I'm a commodity person. 00:06:16.108 --> 00:06:23.107 I understand that we used to have scrap metal and rubbish iron 00:06:23.131 --> 00:06:26.142 and bits of copper lying all round the villages, 00:06:26.166 --> 00:06:27.995 particularly in the developing world. 00:06:28.019 --> 00:06:29.915 And people worked out it's got a value. 00:06:29.939 --> 00:06:33.094 It's actually an article of value, 00:06:33.118 --> 00:06:34.538 not of waste. 00:06:34.562 --> 00:06:37.740 Now the villages and the cities and the streets are clean, 00:06:37.764 --> 00:06:42.302 you don't trip over scrap copper or scrap iron now, 00:06:42.326 --> 00:06:45.681 because it's an article of value, it gets recycled. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:45.705 --> 00:06:51.298 CA: So what's your idea, then, to try to change that in plastics? NOTE Paragraph 00:06:51.322 --> 00:06:52.934 AF: OK, so Chris, 00:06:52.958 --> 00:06:56.917 for most part of that PhD, I've been doing research. 00:06:56.941 --> 00:07:00.212 And the good thing about being a businessperson who's done OK at it 00:07:00.236 --> 00:07:02.097 is that people want to see you. 00:07:02.121 --> 00:07:03.286 Other businesspeople, 00:07:03.310 --> 00:07:07.413 even if you're kind of a bit of a zoo animal species they'd like to check out, 00:07:07.437 --> 00:07:09.923 they'll say, yeah, OK, we'll all meet Twiggy Forrest. 00:07:09.947 --> 00:07:11.816 And so once you're in there, 00:07:11.840 --> 00:07:13.360 you can interrogate them. 00:07:13.384 --> 00:07:19.353 And I've been to most of the oil and gas and fast-moving consumer good companies 00:07:19.377 --> 00:07:20.578 in the world, 00:07:20.602 --> 00:07:23.682 and there is a real will to change. 00:07:23.706 --> 00:07:25.511 I mean, there's a couple of dinosaurs 00:07:25.535 --> 00:07:28.023 who are going to hope for the best and do nothing, 00:07:28.047 --> 00:07:29.997 but there's a real will to change. 00:07:30.021 --> 00:07:31.810 So what I've been discussing is, 00:07:31.834 --> 00:07:35.310 the seven and a half billion people in the world 00:07:35.334 --> 00:07:39.251 don't actually deserve to have their environment smashed by plastic, 00:07:39.275 --> 00:07:44.487 their oceans rendered depauperate or barren of sea life because of plastic. 00:07:44.511 --> 00:07:45.944 So you come down that chain, 00:07:45.968 --> 00:07:50.111 and there's tens of thousands of brands which we all buy heaps of products from, 00:07:50.135 --> 00:07:53.610 but then there's only a hundred major resin producers, 00:07:53.634 --> 00:07:55.770 big petrochemical plants, 00:07:55.794 --> 00:07:58.513 that spew out all the plastic which is single use. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:58.537 --> 00:07:59.920 CA: So one hundred companies 00:07:59.944 --> 00:08:02.445 are right at the base of this food chain, as it were. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:02.469 --> 00:08:03.628 AF: Yeah. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:03.652 --> 00:08:06.597 CA: And so what do you need those one hundred companies to do? NOTE Paragraph 00:08:06.621 --> 00:08:11.170 AF: OK, so we need them to simply raise the value 00:08:11.194 --> 00:08:14.058 of the building blocks of plastic from oil and gas, 00:08:14.082 --> 00:08:16.657 which I call "bad plastic," 00:08:16.681 --> 00:08:17.983 raise the value of that, 00:08:18.007 --> 00:08:21.836 so that when it spreads through the brands and onto us, the customers, 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:26.317 we won't barely even notice an increase in our coffee cup 00:08:26.341 --> 00:08:29.324 or Coke or Pepsi, or anything. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:29.348 --> 00:08:31.112 CA: Like, what, like a cent extra? NOTE Paragraph 00:08:31.136 --> 00:08:33.134 AF: Less. Quarter of a cent, half a cent. 00:08:33.158 --> 00:08:36.348 It'll be absolutely minimal. 00:08:36.372 --> 00:08:37.625 But what it does, 00:08:37.649 --> 00:08:42.341 it makes every bit of plastic all over the world an article of value. 00:08:42.365 --> 00:08:45.842 Where you have the waste worst, 00:08:45.866 --> 00:08:47.750 say Southeast Asia, India, 00:08:47.774 --> 00:08:49.855 that's where the wealth is most. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.332 CA: OK, so it feels like there's two parts to this. 00:08:52.356 --> 00:08:56.354 One is, if they will charge more money 00:08:56.378 --> 00:08:59.561 but carve out that excess 00:08:59.585 --> 00:09:04.055 and pay it -- into what? -- a fund operated by someone 00:09:04.079 --> 00:09:06.844 to tackle this problem of -- what? 00:09:06.868 --> 00:09:10.459 What would that money be used for, that they charge the extra for? NOTE Paragraph 00:09:10.483 --> 00:09:12.943 AF: So when I speak to really big businesses, 00:09:12.967 --> 00:09:16.513 I say, "Look, I need you to change, and I need you to change really fast," 00:09:16.537 --> 00:09:19.253 their eyes are going to peel over in boredom, 00:09:19.277 --> 00:09:21.616 unless I say, "And it's good business." 00:09:21.640 --> 00:09:23.733 "OK, now you've got my attention, Andrew." 00:09:23.757 --> 00:09:26.593 So I say, "Right, I need you to make a contribution 00:09:26.617 --> 00:09:29.153 to an environmental and industry transition fund. 00:09:29.177 --> 00:09:30.612 Over two or three years, 00:09:30.636 --> 00:09:32.833 the entire global plastics industry 00:09:32.857 --> 00:09:36.963 can transition from getting its building blocks from fossil fuel 00:09:36.987 --> 00:09:39.082 to getting its building blocks from plastic. 00:09:39.106 --> 00:09:40.567 The technology is out there. 00:09:40.591 --> 00:09:41.861 It's proven." 00:09:41.885 --> 00:09:45.362 I've taken two multibillion-dollar operations from nothing, 00:09:45.386 --> 00:09:48.205 recognizing that the technology can be scaled. 00:09:48.229 --> 00:09:52.723 I see at least a dozen technologies in plastic to handle all types of plastic. 00:09:52.747 --> 00:09:56.299 So once those technologies have an economic margin, 00:09:56.323 --> 00:09:58.245 which this gives them, 00:09:58.269 --> 00:10:01.533 that's where the global public will get all their plastic from, 00:10:01.557 --> 00:10:03.431 from existing plastic. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:03.455 --> 00:10:07.596 CA: So every sale of virgin plastic contributes money to a fund 00:10:07.620 --> 00:10:10.454 that is used to basically transition the industry 00:10:10.478 --> 00:10:13.321 and start to pay for things like cleanup and other pieces. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:13.345 --> 00:10:14.710 AF: Absolutely. Absolutely. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:14.734 --> 00:10:16.746 CA: And it has the incredible side benefit, 00:10:16.770 --> 00:10:18.551 which is maybe even the main benefit, 00:10:18.575 --> 00:10:19.925 of creating a market. 00:10:19.949 --> 00:10:23.081 It suddenly makes recyclable plastic 00:10:23.105 --> 00:10:27.694 a giant business that can unlock millions of people around the world 00:10:27.718 --> 00:10:29.559 to find a new living collecting it. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:29.583 --> 00:10:30.736 AF: Yeah, exactly. 00:10:30.760 --> 00:10:35.284 So all you do is, you've got fossil fuel plastics at this value 00:10:35.308 --> 00:10:37.365 and recycled plastic at this value. 00:10:37.389 --> 00:10:38.702 You change it. 00:10:38.726 --> 00:10:41.313 So recycled plastic is cheaper. 00:10:41.636 --> 00:10:44.803 What I love about this most, Chris, is that, you know, 00:10:44.827 --> 00:10:50.378 we waste into the environment 300, 350 million tons of plastic. 00:10:50.402 --> 00:10:52.939 On the oil and gas companies own accounts, 00:10:52.963 --> 00:10:54.979 it's going to grow to 500 million tons. 00:10:55.003 --> 00:10:57.431 This is an accelerating problem. 00:10:57.455 --> 00:11:01.205 But every ton of that is polymer. 00:11:01.229 --> 00:11:04.733 Polymer is 1,000 dollars, 1,500 dollars a ton. 00:11:04.757 --> 00:11:08.861 That's half a trillion dollars which could go into business 00:11:08.885 --> 00:11:12.424 and could create jobs and opportunities and wealth right across the world, 00:11:12.448 --> 00:11:14.447 particularly in the most impoverished. 00:11:14.471 --> 00:11:15.728 Yet we throw it away. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:15.752 --> 00:11:19.132 CA: So this would allow the big companies to invest in recycling plants 00:11:19.156 --> 00:11:20.665 literally all over the world -- NOTE Paragraph 00:11:29.642 --> 00:11:31.240 CA: Now, you're a philanthropist, 00:11:31.264 --> 00:11:34.053 and you're ready to commit some of your own wealth to this. 00:11:34.077 --> 00:11:36.375 What is the role of philanthropy in this project? NOTE Paragraph 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:40.233 AF: I think what we have to do is kick in the 40 to 50 million US dollars 00:11:40.257 --> 00:11:41.657 to get it going, 00:11:41.681 --> 00:11:44.150 and then we have to create absolute transparency 00:11:44.174 --> 00:11:47.404 so everyone can see exactly what's going on. 00:11:47.428 --> 00:11:50.688 From the resin producers to the brands to the consumers, 00:11:50.712 --> 00:11:53.236 everyone gets to see who is playing the game, 00:11:53.260 --> 00:11:55.918 who is protecting the Earth, and who doesn't care. 00:11:55.942 --> 00:11:58.273 And that'll cost about a million dollars a week, 00:11:58.297 --> 00:12:00.683 and we're going to underwrite that for five years. 00:12:00.707 --> 00:12:03.537 Total contribution is circa 300 million US dollars. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:03.561 --> 00:12:04.888 CA: Wow. 00:12:04.912 --> 00:12:06.165 Now -- NOTE Paragraph 00:12:20.742 --> 00:12:23.126 AF: Yeah, it's fair. 00:12:23.150 --> 00:12:26.305 So, Coca-Cola wouldn't like Pepsi to play ball 00:12:26.329 --> 00:12:29.126 unless the whole world knew that Pepsi wasn't playing ball. 00:12:29.150 --> 00:12:30.324 Then they don't care. 00:12:30.348 --> 00:12:33.242 So it's that transparency of the market 00:12:33.266 --> 00:12:35.600 where, if people try and cheat the system, 00:12:35.624 --> 00:12:37.985 the market can see it, the consumers can see it. 00:12:38.009 --> 00:12:40.135 The consumers want a role to play in this. 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:41.686 Seven and a half billion of us. 00:12:41.710 --> 00:12:44.320 We don't want our world smashed by a hundred companies. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:44.344 --> 00:12:47.152 CA: Well, so tell us, you've said what the companies can do 00:12:47.176 --> 00:12:48.643 and what you're willing to do. 00:12:48.667 --> 00:12:50.060 What can people listening do? NOTE Paragraph 00:12:50.084 --> 00:12:52.381 AF: OK, so I would like all of us, 00:12:52.405 --> 00:12:53.604 all around the world, 00:12:53.628 --> 00:12:56.712 to go a website called noplasticwaste.org. 00:12:56.736 --> 00:12:58.862 You contact your hundred resin producers 00:12:58.886 --> 00:13:00.326 which are in your region. 00:13:00.350 --> 00:13:02.023 You will have at least one 00:13:02.047 --> 00:13:06.481 within an email or Twitter or a telephone contact from you, 00:13:06.505 --> 00:13:11.940 and let them know that you would like them to make a contribution to a fund 00:13:11.964 --> 00:13:14.591 which industry can manage or the World Bank can manage. 00:13:14.615 --> 00:13:18.309 It raises tens of billions of dollars per year 00:13:18.333 --> 00:13:23.015 so you can transition the industry to getting all its plastic from plastic, 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:24.211 not from fossil fuel. 00:13:24.235 --> 00:13:26.482 We don't need that. That's bad. This is good. 00:13:26.506 --> 00:13:28.518 And it can clean up the environment. 00:13:28.542 --> 00:13:30.095 We've got enough capital there, 00:13:30.119 --> 00:13:33.076 we've got tens of billions of dollars, Chris, per annum 00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:34.532 to clean up the environment. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:34.556 --> 00:13:36.331 CA: You're in the recycling business. 00:13:36.355 --> 00:13:38.361 Isn't this a conflict of interest for you, 00:13:38.385 --> 00:13:40.594 or rather, a huge business opportunity for you? NOTE Paragraph 00:13:40.619 --> 00:13:42.750 AF: Yeah, look, I'm in the iron ore business, 00:13:42.775 --> 00:13:44.984 and I compete against the scrap metal business, 00:13:45.008 --> 00:13:48.443 and that's why you don't have any scrap lying around to trip over, 00:13:48.467 --> 00:13:49.916 and cut your toe on, 00:13:49.940 --> 00:13:51.216 because it gets collected. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:54.534 CA: This isn't your excuse to go into the plastic recycling business. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:54.558 --> 00:13:56.879 AF: No, I am going to cheer for this boom. 00:13:56.903 --> 00:13:59.014 This will be the internet of plastic waste. 00:13:59.038 --> 00:14:02.377 This will be a boom industry which will spread all over the world, 00:14:02.401 --> 00:14:06.460 and particularly where poverty is worst because that's where the rubbish is most, 00:14:06.484 --> 00:14:07.800 and that's the resource. 00:14:07.824 --> 00:14:11.031 So I'm going to cheer for it and stand back. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:11.055 --> 00:14:12.400 CA: Twiggy, we're in an era 00:14:12.424 --> 00:14:17.089 where so many people around the world are craving a new, regenerative economy, 00:14:17.113 --> 00:14:19.742 these big supply chains, these big industries, 00:14:19.766 --> 00:14:21.807 to fundamentally transform. 00:14:21.831 --> 00:14:23.563 It strikes me as a giant idea, 00:14:23.587 --> 00:14:26.647 and you're going to need a lot of people cheering you on your way 00:14:26.671 --> 00:14:27.837 to make it happen. 00:14:27.861 --> 00:14:29.536 Thank you for sharing this with us. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:29.560 --> 00:14:31.584 AF: Thank you very much. Thank you, Chris. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:31.608 --> 00:14:33.100 (Applause)