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