The problem is not plastic | Eleonora de Sabata | TEDxLivorno

Eleonora de Sabata, scientific journalist, founder and managing director of the European project Clean Sea Life, has spent her last ten years investigating the origin of plastic waste in order to understand how to fix it. Eleonora's key point is that we should focus on improving the awareness of the impact that several flawed individual micro-behaviours generate on the ecosystem and spread information on the actual sustainability of many products and consumer goods.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

I’ve spent the last
ten years on the beach.

And before you start to envy me too much,

I actually spent them picking up rubbish

and trying to figure out

what all the plastic
I found on the beach was,

where it came from, and how to stop it.

A lot of things just didn’t add up,
and still don’t add up today:

how did a refrigerator
end up on the beach?

A telephone? A hairdryer?

And what really puzzled me

was why so many people

went to the beach to clean their ears.

I truly couldn’t explain that.

What I did understand, however,

is that only a small proportion
of the plastic we find on the beach

comes from the sea.

Most of it comes
from the coasts and inland,

and a large part,

half of the objects we find on the beach,

are actually everyday disposable items.

They are the sum
of lots of small everyday habits

each of us shares,
multiplied millions of times.

Thankfully, plastic sea pollution

has now finally become a hot topic,

even if it the alarm is seemingly raised

more for the islands
of plastic in the Pacific

than for the ones in our own sea.

So, as Luca rightly said,

one thing we have also understood,
or at least I have understood,

is that plastic is a wonderful material.

We should not demonize it.

Our cars and our airplanes

are extremely light now
and run on very little fuel.

Plastic has saved many animals:

think of tortoises and elephants.

It also saves our own lives.

Plastic is not the real problem,

it’s how we are using plastic,

which is a fantastic, useful,
light and strong material,

and we use it for purposes
with a very short duration.

Plus, it is so cheap

that we forget and do not worry about
or pay attention to how we dispose of it.

So, from this idea

of trying to understand
how to resolve this problem,

we have created an European project

involving a great alliance
between all the sea lovers,

sailors, yachtsmen,
fishermen, sport people,

students, teachers and citizens,

and we are asking them all
to do three very simple things -

pick it up instead of dumping it;

and try to use as little
disposable plastic as possible.

These measures are extremely simple,

perhaps even dull.

However, let’s just see
what “do not dump it” means -

for example, not dumping
means being more careful.

I’m pretty sure,

none of you dumps garbage bags
in the street, right?

But when we go to the beach,

and leave a bag in an overflowing bin,

it is exactly the same thing,

because it only takes a dog, a cat
or a bird to open the bag

and all the rubbish inside

scatters around
and soon ends up in the sea.

In these 18 minutes of chat,

two and half million cigarettes
will be smoked in Italy.

And judging from the floors,

as we see in every town, or the beaches,

many of the cigarettes
end up on the ground.

So, smokers, please be more careful,

because those cigarette stubs

are full of toxic substances,

and it takes really very little

to eliminate some of the most
frequent garbage on beaches -

cigarette stubs and lighters.

These look like harmless,
cheerful, colourful items,

but they are still plastic.

As much as a third
of the typical beach rubbish

comes from people who have gone
to the beach for fun -

so toys, pens, glasses,
sun cream and whatnot,

or snacks.

So again, please take note:
with a bit more consideration,

we can eliminate a large part
of this refuse.

However, attention to the sea cleanliness
must also start from inland.

Balloons are an example:

everything that goes up
sooner or later pops and falls down.

And when they fall into the sea,

balloons assume the same shape and motion
as jellyfish or calamari,

which are the favourite foods
of fish, turtles and birds.

So let's enjoy balloons,
but please don’t let them fly.

Attention for the sea
also begins in our homes.

We should not throw
anything into our toilets,

because these are some of the waste items
we find most often on beaches.

And so we have "solved" the puzzle -

people weren't coming to the beach
cleaning their ears:

they all cleaned their ears

then threw the cotton buds
in the toilet, not the waste bin.

With a little more attention,

we can eliminate
a significant amount of waste.

Every day, a cloud of plastic fragments

goes from our showers down to the sea:

they are called exfoliants.

See from these photographs

how much plastic is contained
in a single bottle.

Thankfully, beginning next year
they will be prohibited,

but we can already stop buying them:

just look at the label,
and if it says “polyethylene”, avoid it.

Rivers are our garbage's favourite way
to end up in the sea,

so we must pay special attention

how close we are to rivers.

This is just to show you
the eternal stream of garbage

that is carried to the sea by rivers

The moment a small plug build up
under the arches of a bridge,

and we can effectively see
how much plastic comes from inland.

And finally, we should also pay attention

in emptying our attics:

are we sure grandma’s swinging chair,
or our nephew’s tricycle,

really ends up at the recycling station

and is not dumped under
the nearest bridge?

Be careful who give our objects to.

Picking up well is fundamental,
because no country in the world

has the economic capacity
to go and clean the oceans.

The best time to clean a beach

is in winter, when there are storms.

And why should we pick up?

Because by now we
have truly infinite proof

of the harm that plastic
can cause to animals

that get inside or get trapped,
eat it or suffocate,

not to mention other things,
like the cleaning costs.

Garbage is truly a danger for shipping.

We focus a lot on the islands
of plastic in the Pacific,

while our Mediterranean Sea

hosts the same concentration
of microplastics

as these well-known islands.

The reason is easy to explain -
our sea is a lake,

everything that ended up in it
is still there,

and if we no longer see it,
it is simply because it is fragmented.

So let’s pick up objects
before they break up,

otherwise, if we leave them on the beach,

the combined action of sun, salt and waves
will inexorably decompose them

until fragments are so small

that it is truly impossible
to recuperate them.

Do not think that these are less harmful,

quite the opposite, they are perhaps
even more insidious and dangerous

because they ultimate get small enough
to be eaten by plankton,

which is the first link
of marine food chain.

So let’s pick up. Pick up by ourselves.

Sergio has just suggested,

“let's take two bags,
when we go for a swim",

and involve our friends.

Luckily, we have involved many divers
in our great project,

because what we have found on the beach,
and what you have seen on the beach

seems horrible;

but actually, most garbage
is deep at the bottom of the sea.

So divers are the only ones

who are able to go and clean the seabed.

If taking care and picking up
are two staple strategies,

the most important thing of all

is to reconsider our
relationship with plastics.

Without being fanatic -
I am probably dressed in plastic -

but half the beach trash
is single use stuff.

I repeat, we are using material
that is virtually eternal

for purposes with a very short duration.

We have become somewhat
inebriated by this material

that is cheerful and comes in
so handy in everyday life.

We must to learn, however, not to use it

but for those purposes

when such a robust material makes sense.

Each of us, in our daily life,
should find the way

to reduce the use of disposable plastic,

and replace it with materials
such as glass, for example.

Please note, though, that bioplastic
is a solution, but not "the" solution.

Bioplastic bags do decompose,
but in industrial composting conditions.

If they end up in the sea,

it takes months,
if not years, to decompose;

and if an animal eats it, in the meantime,
she is just as doomed.

We find on beaches
lots of bottles' bodies and caps,

and this is one kind of refuse
we can most easily eliminate.

Every Italian, each one of us,

consumes an average of 200 litres

of bottled water a year,

in a country like Italy

where water quality
is generally excellent.

There is a very simple answer:
let’s use a flask

and stop buying and using
all this bottled waters.

It’s a very quick way
to reduce our use of disposable plastic.

There are those who ask me,
But what if I recycle my bottle?

Well, the plastic bottle,
the plastic in the water bottle,

will never become, once recycled,

a bottle again;

it will become something else,

even more so if the bottle is coloured.

That plastic will become a shopping bag,

a pile or a bench -

but how many benches do we actually need?

And anyway, eventually
it will be disposed of,

so we are just delaying a bit

the disposal of all this garbage,

Fact is, we're not able
to dispose of all this garbage,

all this trash we're generating.

So reduction is the preferred strategy.

Reduction in packaging, especially:

let's buy as many
unpackaged goods as possible.

Remember when we used bars of soap
instead of liquid soap,

let’s try to avoid
situations such as these,

which are frankly absurd.

It really takes very little,
just a bit of awareness

to reduce our use and abuse of plastic.

These are just some
of the thousands of ideas

that can lead in this direction.

Is this enough to save the sea?

Obviously not,

because such a complex problem
does not have a silver bullet.

The issue of plastic in the sea

comes from ineffective, sometimes illegal,

certainly insufficient waste management.

But as we have seen, much of trash

is generated in our mindless,
everyday behaviour,

and without us,
without a daily effort by our side,

like this for example,
the situation will certainly not improve.

The good news, as you can see,

is that it really takes very little,
just a little awareness.

And so -

over the past two years,
since this project began,

we have involved more than 10.000 people,

who have picked up
more than 10 tons of things.

Imagine what we could achieve,
if we got to 100,000 people.

We are helping the Italian government
and the European Union

to simplify the issue of trash,

and we are helping fishermen

to bring back the garbage
they collect in their nets at sea.

We have met thousands of children
who have made a promise to the sea,

from not launching balloons

to dismiss single use plastic cups.

We have convinced three mayors
to prohibit the launching of balloons,

and thanks to our work,

Italy prohibited the use
of plastic ear buds

early this year,

and next year will prohibit the use
of microplastics in cosmetics.

So is this enough?

No, it’s not, we have to keep it up.

Certainly, had we started 20 years ago,
everything would be much easier now.

However, there is a wonderful
Chinese proverb that says,

“The best time to plant a tree,
and enjoy its shade,

was 20 years ago:

the next best time is now”.

Thank you.

(Applause)