I'm a garbage man. And you might find it interesting that I became a garbage man, because I absolutely hate waste. I hope, within the next 10 minutes, to change the way you think about a lot of the stuff in your life. And I'd like to start at the very beginning. Think back when you were just a kid. How did look at the stuff in your life? Perhaps it was like these toddler rules: It's my stuff if I saw it first. The entire pile is my stuff if I'm building something. The more stuff that's mine, the better. And of course, it's your stuff if it's broken.
Ja sam smetlar. I možda će vam biti zanimljivo što sam postao smetlar jer ja zaista mrzim otpad. Nadam se kako ću u idućih 10 minuta, promijeniti način na koji razmišljate o mnogim stvarima u svojem životu. Želio bih početi od samog početka. Sjetite se vremena kad ste bili samo dijete. Kako ste gledali na stvari u svom životu? Možda kroz pravila djece: To su moje stvari ako sam ih vidio prvi. Ova cijela hrpa je moja ako nešto gradim. Što više stvari imam, to bolje. I naravno, ako je polomljeno, tvoje je.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Well after spending about 20 years in the recycling industry, it's become pretty clear to me that we don't necessarily leave these toddler rules behind as we develop into adults. And let me tell you why I have that perspective. Because each and every day at our recycling plants around the world we handle about one million pounds of people's discarded stuff. Now a million pounds a day sounds like a lot of stuff, but it's a tiny drop of the durable goods that are disposed each and every year around the world -- well less than one percent. In fact, the United Nations estimates that there's about 85 billion pounds a year of electronics waste that gets discarded around the world each and every year -- and that's one of the most rapidly growing parts of our waste stream. And if you throw in other durable goods like automobiles and so forth, that number well more than doubles. And of course, the more developed the country, the bigger these mountains.
Nakon gotovo 20 godina provedenih u industriji recikliranja, postalo mi je prilično jasno kako ne napuštamo nužno ta dječja pravila dok odrastamo. Poslušajte zašto to mislim. Zato što baš svaki dan u našim reciklažnim postrojenjima diljem svijeta obrađujemo oko pola milijuna kilograma stvari koje su ljudi odbacili. Pola milijuna kilograma na dan zvuči kao mnogo stvari, ali to je mala kap u moru trajnih dobara koje se odbacuju svake godine diljem svijeta -- manje od jedan posto. Zapravo, Ujedinjeni narodi procjenjuju kako se 50 milijardi kilograma elektroničkog otpada odbacuje diljem svijeta svake godine -- a to je jedan od najbrže rastućih dijelova našeg otpadnog toka. A ako unutra ubacite druga trajna dobra poput automobila i slično, taj se broj i više nego udvostruči. I naravno, što je država razvijenija, to su veće te planine.
Now when you see these mountains, most people think of garbage. We see above-ground mines. And the reason we see mines is because there's a lot of valuable raw materials that went into making all of this stuff in the first place. And it's becoming increasingly important that we figure out how to extract these raw materials from these extremely complicated waste streams. Because as we've heard all week at TED, the world's getting to be a smaller place with more people in it who want more and more stuff. And of course, they want the toys and the tools that many of us take for granted.
Kad vidite te planine, većina ljudi pomišlja na smeće. Mi vidimo nadzemne rudnike. A razlog zašto vidimo rudnike jest činjenica da ima mnogo vrijednih sirovina koje su upotrijebljene za proizvodnju tih stvari. Postaje sve važnije da otkrijemo kako izvući te sirovine iz iznimno kompliciranih otpadnih tokova. Jer kao što smo slušali cijeli tjedan na TED-u, svijet postaje sve manje mjesto na kojem ima sve više ljudi koji žele sve više stvari. I naravno, oni žele igračke i alate koje mnogi od nas uzimaju zdravo za gotovo.
And what goes into making those toys and tools that we use every single day? It's mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals. And the metals, we typically get from ore that we mine in ever widening mines and ever deepening mines around the world. And the plastics, we get from oil, which we go to more remote locations and drill ever deeper wells to extract. And these practices have significant economic and environmental implications that we're already starting to see today.
A što se koristi za proizvodnju tih igračaka i alata koje koristimo svaki dan? Uglavnom su to razne vrste plastike i razne vrste metala. A metale najčešće dobivamo iz rude koju vadimo iz sve većih i sve dubljih rudnika diljem svijeta. A plastiku dobivamo od nafte, za koju odlazimo u sve udaljenije krajeve i bušimo sve dublje kako bismo je izvukli. Ti postupci imaju značajan utjecaj na gospodarstvo i okoliš, koji se već sad počinje vidjeti.
The good news is we are starting to recover materials from our end-of-life stuff and starting to recycle our end-of-life stuff, particularly in regions of the world like here in Europe that have recycling policies in place that require that this stuff be recycled in a responsible manner. Most of what's extracted from our end-of-life stuff, if it makes it to a recycler, are the metals. To put that in perspective -- and I'm using steel as a proxy here for metals, because it's the most common metal -- if your stuff makes it to a recycler, probably over 90 percent of the metals are going to be recovered and reused for another purpose. Plastics are a whole other story: well less than 10 percent are recovered. In fact, it's more like five percent. Most of it's incinerated or landfilled.
Dobra vijest je kako počinjemo dobivati materijale iz stvari kojima je istekao rok trajanja i počinjemo reciklirati stvari kojima je istekao rok trajanja, naročito u dijelovima svijeta kao što je Europa, gdje postoje zakoni o recikliranju koji zahtijevaju da se te stvari recikliraju na odgovoran način. Većina onoga što se dobije od naših stvari kojima je istekao rok trajanja, ukoliko dođe do osobe koja to reciklira, jesu metali. Da stavim to u perspektivu -- ovdje koristim čelik kao predstavnika svih metala, jer je to najčešći metal -- ako vaše stvari dođu do osobe koja reciklira, vjerojatno će više od 90 posto metala biti sačuvano i ponovno korišteno u neku drugu svrhu. Plastika je neka druga priča: sačuva se mnogo manje od 10 posto. Zapravo, više je to oko pet posto. Većina se spaljuje ili odbacuje na odlagalište.
Now most people think that's because plastics are a throw-away material, have very little value. But actually, plastics are several times more valuable than steel. And there's more plastics produced and consumed around the world on a volume basis every year than steel. So why is such a plentiful and valuable material not recovered at anywhere near the rate of the less valuable material? Well it's predominantly because metals are very easy to recycle from other materials and from one another. They have very different densities. They have different electrical and magnetic properties. And they even have different colors. So it's very easy for either humans or machines to separate these metals from one another and from other materials. Plastics have overlapping densities over a very narrow range. They have either identical or very similar electrical and magnetic properties. And any plastic can be any color, as you probably well know. So the traditional ways of separating materials just simply don't work for plastics.
Većina ljudi sada misli da je to zato što je plastika materijal koji bacate, koji ima malu vrijednost. Ali zapravo, plastika je nekoliko puta vrednija od čelika. U svijetu se svake godine proizvodi i troši veći volumen plastike nego čelika. Pa zašto tako obilan i vrijedan materijal nije sačuvan ni u približnoj količini kao što je to slučaj s manje vrijednim materijalom? To je najviše zbog toga što je metale vrlo lako reciklirati i odvojiti od drugih materijala i jedan od drugoga. Imaju vrlo različite gustoće. Imaju različita električna i magnetska svojstva. Čak su različitih boja. Stoga je ljudima ili strojevima vrlo lako razdvojiti te metale jedan od drugoga ili od drugih materijala. Sva plastika ima sličnu gustoću u vrlo uskom spektru. Imaju ili identična ili veoma slična električna i magnetska svojstva. I svaka plastika može biti bilo koje boje, kao što vjerojatno dobro znate. Tradicionalni načini odvajanja materijala jednostavno ne funkcioniraju kod plastike.
Another consequence of metals being so easy to recycle by humans is that a lot of our stuff from the developed world -- and sadly to say, particularly from the United States, where we don't have any recycling policies in place like here in Europe -- finds its way to developing countries for low-cost recycling. People, for as little as a dollar a day, pick through our stuff. They extract what they can, which is mostly the metals -- circuit boards and so forth -- and they leave behind mostly what they can't recover, which is, again, mostly the plastics. Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals in burn houses like you see here. And they extract the metals by hand. Now while this may be the low-economic-cost solution, this is certainly not the low-environmental or human health-and-safety solution. I call this environmental arbitrage. And it's not fair, it's not safe and it's not sustainable.
Još jedna posljedica činjenice da ljudi vrlo lako mogu reciklirati metale jest ta da mnogo naših stvari iz razvijenog svijeta -- i žalosno je to reći, naročito iz Sjedinjenih Država, gdje nemamo zakone o recikliranju poput onih u Europi -- dospije u zemlje u razvoju kako bi ih reciklirali o niskom trošku. Ljudi, za svega dolar na dan, čeprkaju po našim stvarima. Izvuku ono što mogu, što su većinom metali -- dijelovi sklopova i slično -- a ostave uglavnom ono što ne mogu izvući, što je, ponovno, uglavnom plastika. Ili spaljuju plastiku kako bi došli do metala u spalionicama kao što vidite ovdje. I izvlače metale rukama. Iako je to možda rješenje s niskim ekonomskim troškom, to definitivno nije rješenje pogodno za okoliš ni za ljudsko zdravlje i sigurnost. Zovem to arbitražom okoliša. To nije pravedno, i nije sigurno i nije održivo.
Now because the plastics are so plentiful -- and by the way, those other methods don't lead to the recovery of plastics, obviously -- but people do try to recover the plastics. This is just one example. This is a photo I took standing on the rooftops of one of the largest slums in the world in Mumbai, India. They store the plastics on the roofs. They bring them below those roofs into small workshops like these, and people try very hard to separate the plastics, by color, by shape, by feel, by any technique they can. And sometimes they'll resort to what's known as the "burn and sniff" technique where they'll burn the plastic and smell the fumes to try to determine the type of plastic. None of these techniques result in any amount of recycling in any significant way. And by the way, please don't try this technique at home.
Budući da je plastika toliko obilna -- i usput rečeno, te druge metode ne vode do ponovnog dobivanja plastike, očito -- ali ljudi pokušavaju ponovno dobiti plastiku. Ovo je samo jedan primjer. Ovo je fotografija koju sam uslikao stojeći na krovovima jednog od najvećih slamova u Mumbaiju u Indiji. Ondje spremaju plastiku na krovove. Donose je pod te krovove u male radionice poput ovih a ljudi marljivo rade na odvajanju plastike, po boji, po obliku, po dodiru, pomoću svakojakih tehnika. A ponekad će pribjeći tehnici "spali i pomiriši" gdje će spaliti plastiku i udisati pare kako bi odredili vrstu plastike. Ni jednom od tih tehnika ne ostvaruje se značajna količina recikliranja ni na kakav značajan način. I usput rečeno, molim vas, nemojte isprobavati ovu tehniku kod kuće.
So what are we to do about this space-age material, at least what we used to call a space-aged material, these plastics? Well I certainly believe that it's far too valuable and far too abundant to keep putting back in the ground or certainly send up in smoke. So about 20 years ago, I literally started in my garage tinkering around, trying to figure out how to separate these very similar materials from each other, and eventually enlisted a lot of my friends, in the mining world actually, and in the plastics world, and we started going around to mining laboratories around the world. Because after all, we're doing above-ground mining. And we eventually broke the code. This is the last frontier of recycling. It's the last major material to be recovered in any significant amount on the Earth. And we finally figured out how to do it. And in the process, we started recreating how the plastics industry makes plastics.
Dakle, što ćemo napraviti s tim svemirskim materijalom, barem smo ga tako običavali zvati, svemirski materijal, ta plastika? Svakako smatram da je prevrijedna i preobilna da bismo je i dalje zakopavali ili pretvarali u dim. Stoga sam prije 20 godina počeo počeo nešto petljati u svojoj garaži, pokušavao sam otkriti kako odvojiti te veoma slične materijale jedan od drugog i naposljetku sam angažirao mnogo svojih prijatelja koji se zapravo bave rudarstvom, i plastikom, i počeli smo obilaziti rudarske laboratorije diljem svijeta. Jer naposljetku, mi se bavimo nadzemnim rudarenjem. Na kraju smo razbili kod. Ovo je posljednja granica recikliranja. To je posljednji veliki materijal koji ćemo dobiti u značajnoj količini na Zemlji. Napokon smo otkrili kako to učiniti. U procesu, počeli smo ponovno stvarati plastiku kako je industrija plastike proizvodi.
The traditional way to make plastics is with oil or petrochemicals. You breakdown the molecules, you recombine them in very specific ways, to make all the wonderful plastics that we enjoy each and every day. We said, there's got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics. And not just sustainable from an environmental standpoint, sustainable from an economic standpoint as well. Well a good place to start is with waste. It certainly doesn't cost as much as oil, and it's plentiful, as I hope that you've been able to see from the photographs. And because we're not breaking down the plastic into molecules and recombining them, we're using a mining approach to extract the materials.
Tradicionalan način proizvodnje plastike jest od nafte ili petrokemikalija Rastavite molekule, ponovno ih spojite na specifičan način, kako biste dobili svu divnu plastiku u kojoj uživamo svaki dan. Rekli smo, mora postojati održiviji način proizvodnje plastike. I ne samo održiv s ekološkog gledišta, već održiv i s ekonomskog gledišta. Dobro mjesto za početak jest otpad. Svakako je jeftiniji od nafte i ima ga u izobilju, kao što ste mogli vidjeti na fotografijama. Budući da ne rastavljamo plastiku na molekule i ponovno ih spajamo, koristimo rudarski pristup kako bismo izvukli materijale.
We have significantly lower capital costs in our plant equipment. We have enormous energy savings. I don't know how many other projects on the planet right now can save 80 to 90 percent of the energy compared to making something the traditional way. And instead of plopping down several hundred million dollars to build a chemical plant that will only make one type of plastic for its entire life, our plants can make any type of plastic we feed them. And we make a drop-in replacement for that plastic that's made from petrochemicals. Our customers get to enjoy huge CO2 savings. They get to close the loop with their products. And they get to make more sustainable products.
Imamo značajno niže kapitalne troškove za našu tvorničku opremu. Imamo ogromne uštede energije. Ne znam koliko drugih projekata na planetu u ovom trenutku može uštedjeti 80 do 90 posto energije u usporedbi s proizvodnjom nečega na tradicionalan način. I umjesto traćenja nekoliko stotina milijuna dolara za izgradnju kemijske tvornice koja će cijelo vrijeme proizvoditi samo jednu vrstu plastike, naše tvornice mogu proizvesti bilo koju vrstu plastike koju unesemo. A radimo i zamjenu za tu plastiku, izrađenu od petrokemikalija. Naši klijenti uživaju u velikim uštedama CO2. Svojim proizvodima mogu zatvoriti krug. I mogu proizvoditi održivije proizvode.
In the short time period I have, I want to show you a little bit of a sense about how we do this. It starts with metal recyclers who shred our stuff into very small bits. They recover the metals and leave behind what's called shredder residue -- it's their waste -- a very complex mixture of materials, but predominantly plastics. We take out the things that aren't plastics, such as the metals they missed, carpeting, foam, rubber, wood, glass, paper, you name it. Even an occasional dead animal, unfortunately. And it goes in the first part of our process here, which is more like traditional recycling. We're sieving the material, we're using magnets, we're using air classification. It looks like the Willy Wonka factory at this point.
U ovom kratkom vremenskom okviru koji imam, želim vam ukratko dočarati kako mi to radimo. Sve počinje s recikliranjem metala, koji se isjecka na sićušne komadiće. Metali se izvuku, a iza njih ostaje takozvani ostatak sjeckanja -- to je njihov otpad -- vrlo složena mješavina materijala, ali uglavnom plastika. Izvadimo stvari koje nisu plastika, poput metala koje nisu uhvatili, podnih obloga, pjene, gume, drva, stakla, papira, što god. Čak i poneku neku mrtvu životinju, nažalost. To odlazi u prvi dio našeg procesa, koji je sličan tradicionalnom recikliranju. Sijemo materijal, koristimo magnete, koristimo klasifikaciju zraka. U ovoj fazi izgleda kao tvornica Willyja Wonke.
At the end of this process, we have a mixed plastic composite: many different types of plastics and many different grades of plastics. This goes into the more sophisticated part of our process, and the really hard work, multi-step separation process begins. We grind the plastic down to about the size of your small fingernail. We use a very highly automated process to sort those plastics, not only by type, but by grade. And out the end of that part of the process come little flakes of plastic: one type, one grade. We then use optical sorting to color sort this material. We blend it in 50,000-lb. blending silos. We push that material to extruders where we melt it, push it through small die holes, make spaghetti-like plastic strands. And we chop those strands into what are called pellets. And this becomes the currency of the plastics industry. This is the same material that you would get from oil. And today, we're producing it from your old stuff, and it's going right back into your new stuff.
Na kraju ovog procesa imamo kompozit miješane plastike: mnogo različitih vrsta platike i mnogo različitih razreda plastike. To odlazi u sofisticiraniji dio našeg procesa, i doista težak posao, složen proces odvajanja počinje. Meljemo plastiku do veličine vašeg malog nokta. Koristimo visokoautomatizirani proces sortiranja te plastike, ne samo po vrsti, već i po razredu. I na kraju tog dijela procesa dolaze male pahuljice plastike: jedna vrsta, jedan razred. Zatim koristimo optičko sortiranje kako bismo sortirali materijal po boji. Izmiješamo ih u silosima od 23.000 kilograma. Taj materijal odlazi u ekstrudere, gdje ga topimo, gurnemo kroz male rupe za bojanje, izradimo plastične niti nalik na špagete. I nasjeckamo te niti u ono što zovemo kuglice (pellets). A to postaje valuta u industriji plastike. To je jednaki materijal koji biste dobili od nafte. A danas, proizvodimo ga od vaših starih stvari, i od njega se izravno izrađuju vaše nove stvari.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
So now, instead of your stuff ending up on a hillside in a developing country or literally going up in smoke, you can find your old stuff back on top of your desk in new products, in your office, or back at work in your home. And these are just a few examples of companies that are buying our plastic, replacing virgin plastic, to make their new products.
Stoga sada, umjesto da vaše stvari završe na brežuljku u nekoj zemlji u razvoju ili doslovno idu u dim, možete pronaći svoje stare stvari na svojem stolu u novim proizvodima, u svojem uredu, ili na poslu u svojoj kući. A to su samo neki od primjera tvrtki koje kupuju našu plastiku, zamjenjuju izvornu plastiku, kako bi napravili nove proizvode.
So I hope I've changed the way you look at at least some of the stuff in your life. We took our clues from mother nature. Mother nature wastes very little, reuses practically everything. And I hope that you stop looking at yourself as a consumer -- that's a label I've always hated my entire life -- and think of yourself as just using resources in one form, until they can be transformed to another form for another use later in time. And finally, I hope you agree with me to change that last toddler rule just a little bit to: "If it's broken, it's my stuff."
Nadam se da sam promijenio način na koji gledate barem na neke od stvari u svojem životu. Slijedili smo primjer majke prirode. Majka priroda proizvodi jako malo otpada, ponovno koristi praktički sve. Nadam se da ćete prestati gledati na sebe kao na potrošače -- to je oznaka koju mrzim cijelog svog života -- i razmišljate o sebi kao nekome tko koristi resurse u jednom obliku, sve dok ne budu transformirani u drugi oblik za druge svrhe u nekom drugom vremenu. I na kraju, nadam se da se slažete sa mnom da samo malo promijenimo posljednje dječje pravilo u: "Ako je potrgano, to su moje stvari".
Thank you for your time.
Hvala vam na vašem vremenu.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)