What a load of trash

hello

my name is karsten plitt i am nine years

old

and i live in three different cities

houston texas

london uk and bacchus by jean

they’re all quite big cities located in

different parts of the world

have different climates different

cultures

but one thing they all have in common is

garbage

and i’m talking about a lot of garbage

those three cities combined would

generate over

nine million tons of waste each year

to put that number into perspective 9

million tons

would be the 38th most wasteful country

in the world

bigger than the netherlands which has a

population

of over 17 million people

since i moved away from houston texas

when i was three

please allow me to share a bit more of

my story in bacon

and london about garbage

when i moved from baku to london i

noticed they both had similar garbage

problems

which surprised me considering

in bacoon you don’t see recycling bins

along the streets

when you go to shops you get plastic

bags

and don’t have to pay extra for them

people seem to mostly drink out of their

out of single-use plastic or glass

bottles

and the garbage collection is often

impacted

by high winds so garbage is scattered

everywhere

so it’s common to walk around back home

and sadly see garbage lying around

on the other hand in london where i live

now

there are well-established recycling

programs

bins along the streets to properly

dispose your garbage

people seem to mostly use their own

multi-use fabric shopping bags

and you have to pay extra for a bag if

you don’t think you’re

discouraging the use of single-use

plastic bags

multi-use water balls are common like at

school

garbage is collected multiple times a

week and yet you

still see garbage on the streets and

sadly in the river times

the garbage challenges i saw in baku to

i see in london

made me think why is this happening in a

city

with so many programs to support

proper disposal of garbage

according to a report released by the

department of environment

food and rural affairs london collected

nearly

3.7 million tons of garbage in 2016.

to put that number into perspective 3.7

million tons of garbage

would be equal to over 625

000 elephants that has a lot of garbage

as i walked along the river tapes of my

parents i noticed that many of the bins

were full

and not empty frequently enough so

garbage often overflows

also because the bins are full people

just throw their garbage on the ground

and over time the garbage ends up in the

rivers and oceans

this is a big problem for london and our

planet

as garbage enters rivers and oceans

especially plastic it causes harm to sea

life

as they eat it

right now is estimated that over 1

million plastic water balls are used

every minute globally

and over 90 of them are not recycled

which means there’s a chance for plastic

to enter our rivers

and oceans in fact

over 60 percent of the litter collected

in river tables cleanup projects

are single-use plastic items

since plastic has low density it floats

and collects on top of the water

did you know once plastic enters water

over time it breaks up into tiny tiny

little pieces

called micro plastics micro plastics

are harmful to fish as they eat it

according to big blue ocean cleanup our

river thames

actually some of the highest levels of

microplastics

of any river in the world and over one

third of the fish in the rivertains

contain microplastics

this sounds sad but we can do something

about it

here are some things we can do about it

let’s talk about this problem

and educate everyone about the impact a

small action

of dropping a piece of plastic has on

the environment

the world bank unfortunately expects

global waste

to increase by 70 percent by 2050

if we don’t do anything i’m hopeful that

my talk can be part of that education

process

and make people aware of this global

issue

over the past year we have shown how we

can come together

as a global community and address this

covered

pandemic so we know we can fix our

garbage problems

next think about the garbage think about

the plastic you use

and waste you generate in your home

how about count how many pieces of

plastic you and your family throw away

or recycle in a week can you make some

changes to reduce the number

for example when i go grocery shopping

my dad

we no longer use plastic bags or fruits

and vegetables

another thing you can do is reuse waste

items

as much as possible an example for me is

i like to play lego so i reuse jars

and containers to separate and store my

lego pieces

finally we can all pick up glitter when

we see it

and prevent it from entering our rivers

and oceans

when you see a bin that’s full don’t

throw your garbage next to it

but carry that piece of garbage until

you find an empty bin

these all may seem like small things but

if we all do them

they will add up and make a big

difference thank you for

listening