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.
Une merrem me plehrat. Mund t'ju duket interesante qe u bera plehraxhi, sepse i urrej mbeturinat. Shpresoj, qe ne 10 minutat qe vijne, t'ju nderroj mendjen per nje shumice gjerash ne jeten tuaj. Dëshiroj të filloj nga fillimi. Mendoni kur ju ishit vetëm nje fëmi. Si i shikoni gjërat në jetën tuaj? Ndoshta ishte si këto rregullat e te vegjëlve: Është e imja nëse unë e pashë atë i pari. I tërë grumbulli është i imi në se unë po ndërtoj diçka. Më shumë gjëra të mijat aq më mirë. Dhe natyrisht, gjerat tuaja nëse janë te prishura.
(Laughter)
(Te qeshura)
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.
E pra pasi shpenzova rreth 20 vjet në industrinë e riciklimit, mu be shume e qarte qe nuk i leme pas medoemos keto rregulla femijesh kur rritemi. Dhe më lejoni t'ju them se pse e kam këtë perspektivë. Sepse cdo dite e me teper në fabrikat tona te riciklimit në mbarë botën ne trajtojmë rreth 450 ton gjëra të hedhura. Tani 450 ton në ditë tingëllon si shumë, por ajo është një pikë e vogël e mallrave që hidhen çdo vit në botë - dhe më pak se një përqind. Në fakt, Kombet e Bashkuara vlerëson qe ka mbi 40 milion ton ne vit mbeturina elektronike që hidhen poshtë çdo vit në botë dhe kjo është një nga pjesët me rritje më të shpejtë të rrymës së mbeturinave. Dhe nëse ju hidhni mallra të tjera të qëndrueshme si makina etj, ky numer dyfishohet. Pa dyshim, sa me i zhvilluar vendi, aq me i madh malli i plehrave.
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.
Kur i sheh keto male, me e shumta e njerezve i shohin si plehra Ne i shohim si miniera mbi toke. Dhe arsyeja qe ne i shohim si miniera eshte se ka plot lende te pare te vlefshme që perdoren për t'i prodhuar këto gjera. Dhe po bëhet gjithnjë e më e rëndësishme të gjejme se si të nxjerrim këto lëndë të para nga rrjedhat shumë të komplikuara të mbeturinave. Sepse sic e degjuam gjithe javen ne TED, bota po behet nje vend me i vogel me me shume njerez ne te qe duan gjithnje e me shume gjera. Dhe pa dyshim, ata duan lodrat dhe mjetet qe shume nga ne i marrim si te mireqena.
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.
Dhe cfare duhet qe te behen keto lodra dhe mjete qe perdorim cdo dite? Kryesisht disa lloje plastikash dhe disa lloje metalesh. Metalet i perftojme nga mineralet qe nxjerrim duke hapur miniera e duke thelluar edhe me minierat rreth botes. Plastiken e bejme nga nafta, per te cilen shkojme edhe me larg dhe shpojme puse edhe me te thelle qe ta nxjerrim. Keto praktika kane pasoja te rendesishme ekonomike dhe ambientale qe kemi filluar t'i shikojme tashme.
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.
Nje lajm i mire eshte qe kemi filluar ti rimarrim materialet nga gjerat qe hedhim dhe te riciklojme gjerat qe hedhim, vecanerisht ne pjese te botes si ketu ne Evrope te cilat kane ne fuqi politika te riciklimit qe kerkojne qe keto gjera te riciklohen ne menyre te pergjegjshme. Shumica e asaj që eshte nxjerre nga hedhurinat, nese arrijne ta riciklojme, jane metalet. Për t'a vënë atë në perspektivë-- po përdor çelikun këtu si perfaqesues për metalet, sepse eshte metali me i zakonshem -- nese gjerat arrijne te riciklohen, mbase mbi 90 përqind të metaleve do te rikuperohen dhe riperdoren per dicka tjeter. Plastikat jane histori tjeter: me pak se 10 perqind rikuperohet. Ne fakt, kjo eshte me shume si 5 perqind. Shumica digjet ose shkarkohet.
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.
Shumica e njerezve besojne se kjo ndodh ngaqe plastika eshte material i hedhshem, ka vlere shume te vogel. Por ne fakt, plastikat jane 3-4 here me te vlefshme se celiku. Dhe prodhohet e konsumohet me teper plastike per nga volumi ne bote cdo vit, sesa celik. Pra, pse nje material kaq i vlefshem dhe i bollshem nuk rikuperohet aspak prane nivelit te nje materiali me pak te vlefshem? Eshte kryesisht sepse metalet jane te kollajshem te riciklohen nga materialet e tjera dhe nga njera-tjetra. Ato kane dendesi te ndryshme. Ata kane vecori te ndryshme elektrike dhe magnetike. Kane ngjyra te ndryshme. Keshtu qe eshte shume e lehte qofte per njerezit apo makinat ti ndajne keto metale nga njeri tjetri dhe nga materialet e tjera. Dendesite e plastikave variojne shume pak nga njera tjetra. Ato kane veti te njejta ose shume te ngjashme elektrike dhe magnetike. Plastika mund te jete ne cdo njgjyre ju e dini shume mire. Keshtu metodat tradicionale te ndarjes se materialeve nuk funksionojne per plastikat.
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.
Nje pasoje tjeter e faktit qe metalet jane te lehta per riciklim eshte se shume nga gjerat nga bota e zhvilluar dhe e them me keqardhje, vecanerisht nga Sh.B.A, ku nuk jane ne fuqi procedurat e riciklimit si ketu ne Evrope-- perfundojne ne vendet ne zhvillim per riciklim me kosto te ulet. Njerezit, per me pak se nje dollar ne dite, germojne ne grumbullin tone. Ata nxjerrin cfare te mundin, kryesisht metalet-- qarqet e stampuara e keshtu me radhe-- dhe lene mbrapa ato qe s'arrijne ti marrin, qe jane, prape, kryesisht plastikat. Ose i djegin plastikat te nxjerrin metalet ne shtepite e djegura si keto qe shihni. Dhe i nxjerrin metalet me duar. Ndersa kjo mund te jete zgjidhja me kosto te ulet, kjo pa dyshim nuk eshte zgjidhja me impakt me te ulet ambjental apo ndaj shendetit dhe sigurise se njerezve. Une kesaj i them, te besh pazar me ambjentin. Kjo nuk eshte e drejte, eshte e pasigurt dhe nuk eshte e qendrueshme.
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.
Ngaqe plastikat jane me bollek-- dhe meqe ra fjala, eshte e qarte qe, ato metodat e tjera nuk ndihmojne per rikuperimin e plastikave, por njerezit perpiqen ti rikuperojne plastikat. Ky eshte vetem nje shembull. Kjo eshte nje foto qe bera kur qendroja ne maje te cative te njeres nga lagjet e varfra me te medha ne bote ne Mumbai, Indi. Ata e magazinojne plastiken mbi cati. I sjellin ne keto punishtet si keto, dhe njerezit perpiqen shume ti vecojne plastikat, nga ngjyra, forma, ndjesia, me cdo teknike qe munden. Dhe, ndonjehere ata do t'i drejtohen teknikes "digj e nuhat" ku e djegin plastiken dhe nuhasin tymin per te percaktuar llojin. Asnje nga keto teknika nuk rezulton ne ndonje sasi riciklimi ne menyre te konsiderueshme. Dhe, meqe ra fjala, ju lutem mos e provoni kete teknike ne shtepi.
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.
Pra, c'te bejme me kete material te epokes kozmike, te pakten ate qe quanim material te epokes kozmike, keto plastika? Une jam i bindur qe eshte tejet i vlefshem dhe tejet i bollshem per te vazhduar ta groposim apo ta djegim. Keshtu para 20 vjetesh, une fillova te eksperimentoja ne garazhin tim, per te kuptuar se si te ndaja keto materiale shume te ngjashme nga njera-tjetra, dhe me kohe rekrutova shume nga miqte e mi, te sektoreve te minierave dhe plastikave, dhe filluam te shkojme ne laboratoret e minierave ne te gjithe boten. Sepse në fund të fundit, ne po shfrytezonim minierat mbi toke. Me ne fund ne zbuluam kodin. Kjo eshte zona e pashkelur e fundit e riciklimit. Eshte materiali i fundit i rendesishem per t'u rikuperuar ne sasi te konsiderueshme mbi Toke. Me ne fund ne e kuptuam si behet. Dhe ne proces, ne filluam te rikrijojme si industria e plastikes prodhon plastiken.
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.
Menyra tradicionale e prodhimit te plastikes perdor nafte ose produkte petrokimike. I shperben molekulave, i rikombinon ato ne menyra shume specifike, per te prodhuar gjithe keto plastika te mrekullueshme qe gezojme cdo dite. Ne thame, duhet te kete nje menyre me te qendrueshme per te prodhuar plastikat. Dhe te qendrueshme jo vetem nga pikpamja ambjentale, te qendrueshme nga pikpamja ekonomike po ashtu. Nje vend i mire per te filluar jane mbeturinat Pa dyshim nuk kushton aq shume sa nafta, dhe ka me bollek, sic arritet te shihni, shpresoj Dhe meqe nuk i shperbejme plastikat ne molekula dhe t'i rikombinojme, ne perdorim metoden e minieres per te mbledhur materialet.
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.
Ne kemi kosto kapitale shume me te ulet ne pajisjet e fabrikes. Kemi kursim energjie te pamase. Nuk e di se sa projekte te tjera ne planet ne kete kohe mund te kursejne 80 deri 90 perqind te energjise krahasuar me metoden tradicionale te prodhimit. Dhe në vend të harxhojme qindra milionë dollarë për të ndërtuar një fabrikë kimike që do të prodhojë vetëm një lloj plastike në jetën e saj fabrika jonë mund të prodhojë çdo lloj plastike me te cilen e furnizojme ate. Dhe kalimthi kemi bërë zëvendësimin per plastikën që bëhet nga produktet petrokimike. Konsumatorët tanë përfitojnë kursime të mëdha te CO2. Ata mund të mbyllin ciklin me prodhimet e tyre. Dhe ata marrin për të bërë produktet më të qëndrueshme.
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.
Ne keto pak minuta qe kam ne dispozicion dua t'ju jap nje ide se si e bejme kete Fillon me ricikluesit e metalit qe grijne gjerat ne copa shume te vogla. Ata rikuperojne metalet dhe lene mbrapa ate qe quhet mbetje e grimcuar- mbeturinat e tyre- nje perzierje mjaft komplekse materialesh, por e mbizoteruar nga plastikat. Ne heqim ato qe s'jane plastika, si metale te mbetura, mokete, sfungjer, gome, dru, qelq, leter, lloj lloj gjerash. Bile edhe ndonje kafshe te ngordhur, per fat te keq. Dhe kjo shkon në pjesën e parë të procesit tonë këtu, e cila ngjan me riciklimin tradicional. Ne seleksionojme materialin, perdorim magnetet, perdorim ndares me ajer. Kjo ne kete pike duket si fabrika Willy Wonka.
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.
Ne fund te procesit ne perfitojme nje kompozite: plastike te tipeve shume te ndryshme dhe te gradeve shume te ndryshme. Tashme kjo shkon drejt pjeses me te sofistikuar te procesit, dhe puna me e veshtire, fillon procesi i ndarjes ne shume faza. E grijme plastiken ne copa sa thoi i gishtit te vogel. Perdorim nje proces shume te automatizuar per ti ndare keto plastika, jo vetem nga lloji, por dhe nga grada. Dhe ne fund te kesaj pjese te procesit dalin copeza te vogla plastike: te nje tipi, nje grade. Me pas perdorim seleksionim optik per ngjyrat. E perziejme ne kulla perzierese 25 toneshe. E kalojme kete material ne furra ku e shkrijme, e kalojme neper vrima te vogla, ku behet si fije spageti plastike. I presim keto fije ne ato qe quhen fisheke. Dhe kjo bëhet monedha e industrisë së plastikës. Ky eshte i njejti material qe mund te merret nga nafta. Dhe sot, ne e prodhojme nga sendet e vjetra, dhe shkon drejtperdrejt tek gjerat e reja.
(Applause)
(Duartrokitje)
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.
Pra, ne vend qe gjerat te perfundojne ne mallin e plehrave ne vendet ne zhvillim, apo tu vihet zjarri, ti e gjen gjene e vjeter perseri mbi tavoline tek sendet e reja, ne zyre, apo ne shtepi. Keta jane vetem pak shembuj te kompanive qe blejne plastiken tone, duke zevendesuar plastiken e paperdorur, per te bere produktet e tyre.
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."
Shpresoj qe kam ndryshuar menyren se si i shikoni te pakten disa nga gjerat ne jeten tuaj. Ne i morem idete nga mema natyre. Ajo shperdoron shume pak, riperdor praktikisht cdo gje. Shpresoj qe ju s'do ta shihni me veten si konsumator- kjo eshte nje etikete qe e kam urryer gjithe jeten- dhe te mendoni se si mund t'i perdorni burimet ne nje forme derisa ato te mund te transformohen ne nje forme tjeter per perdorim te mevonshem. Ne fund, shpresoj qe ju jeni dakort te ndryshojme pak ate rregullen e fundit te femijeve ne: "Nese eshte e prishur, eshte e imja."
Thank you for your time.
Faleminderit per kohen tuaj.
(Applause)
(Duartrokitje)