I'm a visual artist, and I'm also one of the co-founders of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. I've been working with plastic bags, which I cut up and sew back together as my primary material for my artwork for the last 20 years. I turn them into two and three-dimensional pieces and sculptures and installations. Upon working with the plastic, after about the first eight years, some of my work started to fissure and break down into smaller little bits of plastic. And I thought, "Great. It's ephemeral just like us."
Likovna sam umjetnica, i suosnivačica Koalicije protiv onečišćenja plastikom. Radim s plastičnim vrećicama, kao sirovinom za moja umjetnička djela, koje režem i spajam posljednjih 20 godina. Pretvaram ih u dvodimenzionalne i trodimenzionalne radove, skulpture i instalacije. Radeći s plastikom, nakon približno prvih osam godina, neki od mojih radova počeli su pucati i raspadati se u manje komadiće plastike. Pa pomislih, "Sjajno. Pa to je efemerno, prolazno kao i mi."
Upon educating myself a little further about plastics, I actually realized this was a bad thing. It's a bad thing that plastic breaks down into smaller little bits, because it's always still plastic. And what we're finding is that a lot of it is in the marine environment. I then, in the last few years, learned about the Pacific garbage patch and the gyre. And my initial reaction -- and I think this is a lot of people's first reaction to learning about it -- is, "Oh my God! We've got to go out there and clean this thing up." So I actually developed a proposal to go out with a cargo ship and two decommissioned fishing trawlers, a crane, a chipping machine and a cold-molding machine. And my intention was to go out to the gyre, raise awareness about this issue and begin to pick up the plastic, chip it into little bits and cold mold it into bricks that could potentially be used as building materials in underdeveloped communities.
Naučivši nešto više o plastici zapravo sam shvatila da je to loše. Loše je to što se plastika raspada u manje komadiće jer je još uvijek plastika. I vidimo da je mnogo plastike u morskom okružju. I potom sam u posljednjih nekoliko godina saznala za plastičnu juhu u Pacifiku i vrtlog. I moja prva reakcija - a mislim da je to i prva reakcija mnogih ljudi kad saznaju za to - bila je, "O Bože! Moramo otići tamo i to počistiti." Tako sam zapravo razradila prijedlog odlaska teretnim brodom i dvjema rashodovanim ribarskim kočaricama, s dizalicom, strojem za rezanje i strojem za hladno prešanje. Moja je namjera bila otići do vrtloga, podići svijest o tom problemu, i započeti sakupljati plastiku, rezati je na male komade i hladno prešati u opeke koje bi se mogle koristiti kao građevni materijal u nerazvijenim zajednicama.
I began talking with people who actually had been out to the gyre and were studying the plastic problem in the marine environment and upon doing so, I realized actually that cleaning it up would be a very small drop in the bucket relative to how much is being generated every day around the world, and that actually I needed to back up and look at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is: we need to find a way to turn off the faucet. We need to cut the spigot of single-use and disposable plastics, which are entering the marine environment every day on a global scale.
Počela sam razgovarati s ljudima koji su već isplovili do vrtloga i izučavali problem plastike u morskom okružju. Učinivši to, zapravo sam shvatila da bi čišćenje bila tek sićušna kap u moru u odnosu na količinu otpada koja se svakodnevno stvara u svijetu te da se zapravo trebam vratiti i sagledati problem iz šireg kuta. A širi kut je ovo: trebamo pronaći način da zavrnemo slavinu. Trebamo presjeći slavinu plastike za jednokratnu upotrebu koja dospijeva u morsko okružje svakog dana na globalnoj razini.
So in looking at that, I also realized that I was really angry. I wasn't just concerned about plastic that you're trying to imagine out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean -- of which I have learned there are now 11 gyres, potentially, of plastic in five major oceans in the world. It's not just that gyre of plastic that I'm concerned about -- it's the gyre of plastic in the supermarket. I'd go to the supermarket and all of my food is packaged in plastic. All of my beverages are packaged in plastic, even at the health food market. I'm also concerned about the plastic in the refrigerator, and I'm concerned about the plastic and the toxins that leach from plastic into us and into our bodies.
I sagledavajući to tako, shvatila sam da sam vrlo ljuta. Nisam bila samo zabrinuta zbog plastike koju pokušavate zamisliti tamo usred Tihog oceana - za koju sam saznala da sada potencijalno sačinjava 11 vrtloga u pet glavnih svjetskih oceana. Nisam zabrinuta samo zbog tog vrtloga plastike, već zbog vrtloga plastike u trgovinama. Odem u trgovinu i sva hrana koju kupujem zapakirana je u plastiku. Svi moji napitci zapakirani su u plastiku, čak i u trgovini zdrave hrane. Zabrinuta sam zbog plastike u hladnjaku, zbog plastike i toksina koji prodiru iz plastike u nas i naša tijela.
So I came together with a group of other people who were all looking at this issue, and we created the Plastic Pollution Coalition. We have many initiatives that we're working on, but some of them are very basic. One is: if 80 to 90 percent of what we're finding in the ocean -- of the marine debris that we're finding in the ocean -- is plastic, then why don't we call it what it is. It's plastic pollution. Recycling -- everybody kind of ends their books about being sustainable and greening with the idea of recycling. You put something in a bin and you don't have to think about it again. What is the reality of that? In the United States, less than seven percent of our plastics are recycled. And if you really look into it, particularly when it comes to plastic bottles, most of it is only down-cycled, or incinerated, or shipped to China. It is down-cycled and turned into lesser things, while a glass bottle can be a glass bottle again or can be used again -- a plastic bottle can never be a plastic bottle again.
Stoga sam se sastala sa skupinom ljudi koji su razmatrali taj problem i tako smo osnovali Koaliciju protiv onečišćenja plastikom. Radimo na brojnim inicijativama, ali neke od njih su ključne. Jedna od njih: ako plastika čini 80 do 90 posto onoga što nalazimo u oceanu - morskog otpada koji nalazimo u oceanu, zašto to ne nazovemo pravim imenom. To je onečišćenje, zagađenje plastikom. Recikliranje. Svi otprilike završavaju svoju priču o održivosti i ekologiji s idejom recikliranja. Stavite nešto u kantu za otpad i o tome više ne morate razmišljati. A kakva je stvarnost? U SAD-u reciklira se manje od sedam posto plastike. I kad bolje pogledate, osobito kad se radi o plastičnim bocama, većina završava u tzv. "downcyclingu," ili se spaljuje ili otprema u Kinu. "Downcycling," najniži stupanj povrata materijala u manje vrijedne predmete. Dok staklena boca ponovno može biti staklena boca, ili se može ponovno upotrijebiti, plastična boca nikada ne može ponovno biti plastična boca.
So this is a big issue for us. Another thing that we're looking at and asking people to think about is we've added a fourth R onto the front of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," three R's, and that is refuse. Whenever possible, refuse single-use and disposable plastics. Alternatives exist; some of them are very old-school. I myself am now collecting these cool Pyrex containers and using those instead of Glad and Tupperware containers to store food in. And I know that I am doing a service to myself and my family. It's very easy to pick up a stainless-steel bottle or a glass bottle, if you're traveling and you've forgotten to bring your stainless-steel bottle and fill that up with water or filtered water, versus purchasing plastic bottled water.
Stoga to je velik problem za nas. Druga stvar koju razmatramo i za koju navodimo ljude na razmišljanje je to što smo dodali četvrti R na početak slogana Smanji-Ponovno uporabi-Recikliraj, a to je Odbij ("Refuse"). Gdje god je moguće, odbijte plastiku za jednokratnu upotrebu. Alternative postoje. Neke od njih vrlo su tradicionalne. Osobno sada sakupljam staklene posude "Pyrex" i koristim ih umjesto posuda "Glad" i "Tupperware" za čuvanje hrane. I znam da činim uslugu sebi i svojoj obitelji. Vrlo je lako ponijeti termosicu od čelika ili staklenu bocu, ako putujete i zaboravili ste ponijeti termosicu, te je napuniti vodom, ili filtriranom vodom, umjesto kupnje vode u plastičnoj vodi.
I guess what I want to say to everybody here -- and I know that you guys know a lot about this issue -- is that this is a huge problem in the oceans, but this is a problem that we've created as consumers and we can solve. We can solve this by raising awareness of the issue and teaching people to choose alternatives. So whenever possible, to choose alternatives to single-use plastics. We can cut the stem -- tide the stem of this into our oceans and in doing so, save our oceans, save our planet, save ourselves.
Ono što vam svima ovdje želim reći - a znam da svi znate poprilično o problemu - jest da je to ogroman problem u oceanima, no taj smo problem sami stvorili kao potrošači i možemo ga riješiti. Možemo ga riješiti podizanjem svijesti o problemu i podučavanjem ljudi da odaberu alternativu. Stoga gdje god je moguće, birajte alternativu korištenju jednokratne plastike. Možemo prerezati korijen - boriti se protiv struje koja se ulijeva u naše oceane, i čineći tako spasiti naše oceane, spasiti naš planet, spasiti sebe.
Thank you. (Applause)
Hvala vam.