This is the story of three plastic bottles, empty and discarded. Their journeys are about to diverge with outcomes that impact nothing less than the fate of the planet. But they weren't always this way. To understand where these bottles end up, we must first explore their origins.
Ovo je priča o tri plastične flaše, prazne i odbačene. Njihovi putevi će se upravo razići sa posledicama po samu sudbinu planete. Ali nisu uvek bile takve. Kako bismo razumeli gde ove flaše na kraju završe, prvo moramo istražiti
The heroes of our story were conceived in this oil refinery. The plastic in their bodies was formed by chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together to make monomers. In turn, these monomers were bonded into long polymer chains to make plastic in the form of millions of pellets. Those were melted at manufacturing plants and reformed in molds to create the resilient material that makes up the triplets' bodies. Machines filled the bottles with sweet bubbily liquid and they were then wrapped, shipped, bought, opened, consumed and unceremoniously discarded. And now here they lie, poised at the edge of the unknown.
njihovo poreklo. Junaci naše priče su začeti u ovoj rafineriji nafte. Plastika u njihovim telima je izrađena hemijskim spajanjem molekula nafte i gasa kako bi se dobili monomeri. Zauzvrat, ovi monomeri se vežu u duge lance polimera kako bi se dobila plastika u vidu miliona kuglica. One se dalje tope u fabrikama i oblikuju u kalupima kako bi se dobio otporni materijal od kojeg se sastoje tela ove trojke. Mašine pune flaše slatkom mehurastom tečnošću i zatim se pakuju, razvoze, kupuju, otvaraju, konzumiraju i nesvečano odbacuju. I evo ih ovde, lebde na ivici nepoznatog.
Bottle one, like hundreds of millions of tons of his plastic brethren, ends up in a landfill. This huge dump expands each day as more trash comes in and continues to take up space. As plastics sit there being compressed amongst layers of other junk, rainwater flows through the waste and absorbs the water-soluble compounds it contains, and some of those are highly toxic. Together, they create a harmful stew called leachate, which can move into groundwater, soil and streams, poisoning ecosystems and harming wildlife. It can take bottle one an agonizing 1,000 years to decompose.
Prva flaša, kao i stotine miliona tona njenih plastičnih sestara, završava na deponiji. Ovo ogromno smetlište se širi svakog dana jer dolazi sve više smeća i zauzima sve više prostora. Dok se plastika tu sabija među slojevima drugog smeća, kišnica protiče kroz smeće i upija vodorazgradiva jedinjenja iz smeća, od kojih su neka veoma otrovna. Oni zajedno čine štetnu čorbu zvanu procedna voda, koja može završiti u podzemnim vodama, zemljištu i potocima, i na taj način zatrovati ekosisteme i naštetiti divljim životinjama. Prvoj flaši je potrebno 1000 očajničkih godina da se razgradi.
Bottle two's journey is stranger but, unfortunately, no happier. He floats on a trickle that reaches a stream, a stream that flows into a river, and a river that reaches the ocean. After months lost at sea, he's slowly drawn into a massive vortex, where trash accumulates, a place known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Here the ocean's currents have trapped millions of pieces of plastic debris. This is one of five plastic-filled gyres in the world's seas. Places where the pollutants turn the water into a cloudy plastic soup. Some animals, like seabirds, get entangled in the mess. They, and others, mistake the brightly colored plastic bits for food. Plastic makes them feel full when they're not, so they starve to death and pass the toxins from the plastic up the food chain. For example, it's eaten by lanternfish, the lanternfish are eaten by squid, the squid are eaten by tuna, and the tuna are eaten by us. And most plastics don't biodegrade, which means they're destined to break down into smaller and smaller pieces called micro plastics, which might rotate in the sea eternally.
Putovanje druge flaše je neobičnije ali, nažalost, ništa srećnije. Nju struja polako nosi do potoka, potok se uleva u reku, a reka u okean. Nakon nekoliko meseci u okeanu, polako se uvlači u veliki vrtlog gde se skuplja smeće, mesto koje je poznato pod nazivom Veliki pacifički tepih od smeća. Ovde stotine struja u okeanu donesu milione komada plastičnog smeća. To je jedna od pet vijuga punih plastike koje se nalaze u okeanima sveta. To su mesta gde zagađivači vodu pretvaraju u mutnu plastičnu supu. Neke životnje poput galebova zapetljaju se u tom neredu. Poput drugih životinja, oni pomešaju šarenu plastiku sa hranom. Od plastike se osećaju siti kada nisu tako da uginu od gladi i toksine iz plastike šalju dalje niz lanac ishrane. Na primer, jedu ih ribe svetiljke, lignje jedu ribe svetiljke, tune jedu lignje i mi jedemo tune. Većina plastike se ne raspada biološki što znači da joj je suđeno da se raspada na sve manje delove koji se nazivaju mikroplastika, koji mogu da kruže okeanima do u beskonačnost.
But bottle three is spared the cruel purgatories of his brothers. A truck brings him to a plant where he and his companions are squeezed flat and compressed into a block. Okay, this sounds pretty bad, too, but hang in there. It gets better. The blocks are shredded into tiny pieces, which are washed and melted, so they become the raw materials that can be used again. As if by magic, bottle three is now ready to be reborn as something completely new.
Ali treća flaša je spašena okrutnog čistilišta gde odlaze njegova braća. Kamion ga dovozi do fabrike gde njega i njene drugove spljošte i sabiju u blokove. U redu, i ovo zvuči prilično loše, ali stanite malo. Biće bolje. Blokovi se seckaju na sitne komade koji se peru i tope, tako da postaju sirov materijal koji može opet da se koristi. Baš kao uz neku magiju, treća flaša je sada spremna da se preporodi kao nešto potpuno novo.
For this bit of plastic with such humble origins, suddenly the sky is the limit.
Za ovaj komad plastike tako skromnog porekla, odjednom nebo nema granica.