Name: Insights: iPod/iPhone Designer on Kicking Plastic Addiction
Uploaded: 2020-01-13
Duration: 6 min 45 s
Description: Tony Fadell is passionate about plastic dependence and what role business plays. (September 2019)

[MUSIC PLAYING] For over a year now, been investigating and learning all about the plastics issues. I want to create some new products. And I'm trying to find the most sustainable way to use plastics. And it has been fascinating to me to understand what's really going on after you scratch the surface and you get through a lot of the greenwashing going on in the petrochemical industry. And so it's been very, very intriguing. So we've all heard about there's tons of plastics in the oceans. There's going to be more plastics in the ocean than fish by 2050. We hear that over and over and over. That's right. It's absolutely true. It's going on. But it's a lot worse than that. Plastic is everywhere. It's in the air. It's in the water we drink. It's in the food we eat. It's in our bodies. It's in every single place. We found it the deepest parts of the ocean. We found the highest parts of the mountains. We found it in air. We found it in bottled water. We found it in our feces. It's everywhere-- microplastics. And people are like, well, the WTO just announced that-- well, we don't know if microplastics are bad. What we do know, though, is microplastics and nano plastics absorb like sponges bioaccumulative toxins that get lodged in our body and in our fat. And it goes from generation to generation. So you might say we don't know if it's going to be harmful. But we can tell you it's in your body. And it's soaking up chemicals now-- toxins-- and they're going in your bloodstream. Coal, right, it's bad? We shouldn't be making more coal plants. Everybody agree, no more coal plants? Well, why the hell are we making even worse coal plants for plastic? Oil to plastic-- coal to energy is three parts CO2 for every one part coal. In plastic minimally five parts to create PET plastic from one part oil. We are actually just in the production of plastics making more CO2 than coal plants. And we're getting rid of coal plants. So why are we making more coal plants? They just happen to be plastic production plants. Look at the emissions. The emissions are growing. And it's staggering. We're looking at over 600 new coal plants for plastic production between now and 2050. Packaging is only for days, weeks, or months. After that it sits in our environment for 500 years. Think about what was going on in the world 500 years ago. If they were using plastics, it would just be being decomposing today. 500 years. So a few months of use for 500 years of trash that goes in our body that's bioaccumulative toxin sponges. Most people won't tell you that when they are recycled, they can only be cycled two, three, or four times because they're mechanically recycled and they go and become trash because those long polymers become shorter and shorter as you just-- they grind them up. And then they try to make more products with it. That's why you have to put it in a road. That's why I have to put it somewhere else. It's not true recycling like aluminum or glass or paper in a lot of ways. It is still only partially recycled. And even then it turns into trash very quickly if it is recycled. Waste. From waste we turn it into plastics. And it needs to be consumer compostable. We can just throw it in a compost pit. The organisms just eat it. We can throw it in the water and in the ocean. And it just dissolves into properly-degradable elements that do not hurt us and do not hurt the things we eat and live on this planet. Bio waste plastics and consumer compostable in a business today. Right now you have to understand many, many countries are banning single use plastics. If you're using them, creating them, single use plastics are getting banned and very, very rapidly. All of Bali in literally three months has totally changed from single use plastics in many different categories. And those single use plastic definitions are growing wider and wider. After that we have to eliminate composite plastics. That means layers of film. They put different types of plastics together. They can't even be recycled. Many of the plastic packages you see that have food in them, they're composites. They can't even be recycled-- definitely not mechanically. Food delivery. Food delivery in Indonesia is starting to get regulated. What can single use-- what packaging can it be in? There's all kinds of regulations coming very soon for food delivery services and what they can use. We have to limit petrochemical infrastructure. We talked about incineration. And of course, we have to make sure the producers of these things don't just leave it to the consumers to have to clean up their mess that they helped to create. One of the things I love about this is it's a designer perspective where you kind of take a designer's sense of empathy and look at the whole system. And you say that things that aren't working don't work for a reason. It's because they're hard to use. And the user experience isn't what it ought to be. And I love your focus on consumers. So my question for you is making this switch that you say is the way to go-- so that it's easy for consumers-- what drives that? How do we get into that World is that the responsibility of designers to come up with some new materials? Is it the responsibility of governments to regulate as you described in Bali? Or does it fall back on consumers again just not to use-- I think it's all three. Look, governments are going to step up because they're seeing and they're really realizing the problem that they're having for their societies. And their constituencies are saying, this can't go on any longer because they're starting to wake up to all of these greenwashing terms that the industry is using, just like they did for oil and gas and tobacco and those kinds of things in the past. So people are waking up. Governments are waking up. Consumers are definitely waking up. And there's a very interesting study that came out about a month ago which said global brands today, when they come out with eco anything, consumers don't trust it. They trust new brands that come from scratch with eco products. They'd much rather go to that than try to go to a global brand that's been screwing up the world for a while. And they don't believe that they're doing actual good. 

Insights: iPod/iPhone Designer on Kicking Plastic Addiction

Uncategorized

Tony Fadell is passionate about plastic dependence.

iPod/iPhone Designer on Kicking Plastic Addiction

Tony Fadell is passionate about plastic dependence and what role business plays. (September 2019)

for over a year now, been investigating and learning all about the plastics issues. I want to create some new product, and I'm trying to find the most sustainable way to use plastic. And it has been fascinating to me toe understand what's really going on after you scratch the surface and you get through a lot of the green washing going on in the petrochemical industry. And so it's been very, very intriguing. So we've all heard about, Oh, there's tons of plastics in the oceans. There's gonna be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. We hear that over and over and over. That's right. It's absolutely true. It's going on, but it's a lot worse than that. Plastic is everywhere. It's in the air. It's in the water. We drink it in the food. We eat it in our bodies. It's in our in our every single place we found in the deepest parts of the ocean we found in the highest parts off the of the mountains. We found it in a row. We found it in bottled water. We found it in our feces. It's everywhere. Micro plastics and people like well the W T. O just announced that. What we don't know if micro plastics are bad. What we do know, though, is micro plastics and Nana Plaza absorb like sponges, bio accumulative toxins that get lodged in our body and in our fat, and it goes from generation to generation. So you might say we don't know if it's going to be harmful, but we can tell you it's in your body and it's soaking up chemicals now. Toxins, and they're going in your bloodstream. Cole, right? It's bad. We shouldn't be making more coal plants, right? Everybody agreed. No more coal plants. Well, why the hell are we making even worse? Coal plants for plastic oil to plastic cold energy of three parts go to for everyone part Cole in plastic, five parts minimally five parts to create a P e T. Plastic from one part oil. We're actually just in the production off plastics, making more co two than coal plant, and we're getting rid of coal plants. So why are we making Mork? Oh, plans? They just happen to plastic production plant. Look at the emissions. The emissions are growing and it's staggering. We're looking at over 600 new coal plants for plastic production between now and 2050. Packaging is only for day, days, weeks or months After that. It fits in our environment for 500 years. Think about what was going on in the world 500 years ago. They were using plastic. It would just be being, ah, composed, decomposing today. All right, 500 years. So a few months of use for 500 years of trash that goes in our body, that bio accumulative toxin sponges. Most people won't tell you that when they are recycled, they can only be cycled to three or four times because they're mechanically recycled and they go and become trash. Because those long polymers become shorter and shorter is you just grind them up and then they try to make more products with it. That's why you have to put it in a road. That's why I have to put it somewhere else. It's not true recycling like aluminum or glass or paper in a lot of ways. It is still on Lee partially recycled, and even then it can. On Lee. It turns into trash very quickly if it is recycled waste from waste. We turn it into plastics and it needs to be consumer compostable. We can just throw it in a compost pit. The organic organisms just eat it. We can throw it in the water and in the ocean, and it just dissolves into properly degradable elements that do not hurt us And do not hurt the things we eat and live on this planet. Bio waste, plastic and consumer compostable In a business today, right now you have to understand many many countries are banning single use plastics if you're in using them, creating them. Single use plastics are getting banned and very, very rapidly. All of Bali in literally three months has totally changed from single use. Plastic in many different categories. And those single use plastic definitions are growing wider and wider. After that, we have to eliminate composite plastic that means layers of film. They put different types of plastic together. They can even be recycled. Many of the plastic packages you see that have food in them. They're composites. They can't even be recycled. Definitely not mechanically. Food delivery Food delivery in Indonesia is starting to get regulated. What single use what packaging commit being There's all kinds of regulations coming very soon for food delivery. Service is on what they can use. We have to limit petrochemical Andhra structure we talked about in incineration. And of course, we have to make sure the producers of these things don't just leave it to the consumers have to clean up the mess that they helped to create. One of the things I love about this is it's a designer perspective where you kind of take a designer sense of empathy and look at the whole system. And you say that things that aren't working don't work for a reason because they're hard to use. And the user experience isn't isn't what it already. Andi, I love your focus on consumers. My question for you is making the switch that you say is the way to go so that it's easy for consumers. What drives that? How do we get into that world that the responsibility of designers to come up with some new material? Is it the responsibility of governments to regulate as you described in Bali? Or is it that they fall back on consumers again just not to use? I think it's all three look, governments are going to step up because they're being, and they're really realizing the problem that they're having before their society and their constituencies are saying This can't go on and younger because they're starting to wake up all of these greenwashing terms that the industry is using, just like they did for oil and gas and tobacco in those kinds of things in the past. So people are waking up. Governments are waking up consumers air definitely waking up. And there's a very interesting study that came out about a month ago, which said Global brands Today, when they come out with Echo anything consumers don't trust they can they trust new brands that come from scratch with Echo echo products. They much rather go to that and try to go to a global brand that's been screwing up the world for a for a while, and they don't believe that they're actually doing doing actual good