Follows San Francisco's innovative efforts towards achieving zero waste,…
Reinventing Recycling
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Reinventing Recycling is a feature documentary that peels back the layers of the waste problem and shares the stories of those innovating to solve it. From breakthroughs in recycling technologies to public policy - these are the people working to transition the linear economy of today to the circular economy of tomorrow.
Citation
Main credits
Windland, Jay (film director)
Windland, Jay (screenwriter)
Windland, Jay (narrator)
Vester, Carly (creator)
Jones, Bow (creator)
Distributor subjects
Environment,Environmental Design, Environmental Law,Environmental HistoryKeywords
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- [Narrator] Have you ever wondered
00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.613
why you can put this in your
recycling bin, but not this?
00:00:06.840 --> 00:00:09.120
Why can this be made into new products,
00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:10.770
but this will go into a landfill?
00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:12.873
And what about these?
00:00:14.370 --> 00:00:16.080
Why is it that you can recycle this
00:00:16.080 --> 00:00:17.913
if you live in one of these places,
00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:20.640
but not if you live in one of these?
00:00:23.430 --> 00:00:24.650
One reason is that there are nearly
00:00:24.650 --> 00:00:28.620
10,000 separate recycling
systems in the United States.
00:00:28.620 --> 00:00:30.840
Each makes their own rules.
00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:33.120
And while a majority of
Americans support the idea
00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:35.610
of a uniform standard for recycling,
00:00:35.610 --> 00:00:37.203
no such standards exist.
00:00:38.220 --> 00:00:41.940
As a result, curbside
recycling is a bit of a mess.
00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:45.330
In a 2019 survey by the
Consumer Brands Association,
00:00:45.330 --> 00:00:47.790
Americans ranked recycling
as more confusing
00:00:47.790 --> 00:00:51.810
than assembling IKEA furniture
or doing their taxes.
00:00:51.810 --> 00:00:53.670
And recovery rates show it.
00:00:53.670 --> 00:00:56.730
With nearly 62% of
American household waste
00:00:56.730 --> 00:00:59.193
being sent to landfills or incinerators.
00:01:00.150 --> 00:01:01.560
So how did we get here?
00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:04.110
And more importantly, how
do we turn things around?
00:01:07.126 --> 00:01:09.876
(rhythmic music)
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Confusion around recycling
isn't entirely an accident
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and its most fundamental element
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may have been looming
in plain sight all along
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in the form of this symbol.
00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:31.680
The chasing arrows graphic
was the winning entry
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of a design competition
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for the very first Earth Day in 1970.
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The concept was to
represent paper recycling.
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And because of the nature
of the competition,
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the design remained in the public domain,
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unable to be trademarked or regulated.
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By the late 1980s, the symbol
was universally associated
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with recycling of all types,
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and the Plastics Industry Association
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issued a new set of symbols
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with a suspiciously similar design.
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The resin identification codes
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combine the chasing arrows
design with a number,
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indicating one of seven
common types of plastic.
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And while widely considered
to be a recycling code,
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the symbol itself makes no
guarantee of recyclability.
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Today there are nearly
a hundred variations
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of the symbol in use,
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along with dozens of other
vaguely environmental messages,
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like the fact that the
manufacturer contributes money
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to recycling programs, or
simply discourages littering.
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- Consumer brands know
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people want do right by the environment.
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And so they're now putting lots more
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messaging on their products
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to make the product
feel more eco-friendly.
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There is very little standardization
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associated with claims that are made.
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There were some things
like the recycling symbol
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that people were using
that there were no rules.
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- [Narrator] California
State Senator Ben Allen
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authored the Truth in Labeling Bill
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prohibiting manufacturers from using
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the chasing arrow symbol
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on products that can't
factually be recycled.
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And for California,
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that doesn't mean in just a
few specialized facilities,
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it means in curbside pickup
bins anywhere in the state.
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- And we know what's going on, right?
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They're trying to associate their product
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with the feel-good aspect
of environmentalism,
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and yet they're actually acting
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in a grotesquely irresponsible way
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by putting that recycling
symbol on their item.
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What it does is it encourages people
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to feel good about the product
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and then put that item
in the recycling bin.
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And if anything, by having
'em in the recycling bin,
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they're actually contaminating the system.
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You're throwing a lot of
extraneous material in there
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that makes it harder
for the system to work.
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It means that you have to have
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a whole infrastructure in
place to sort out those items
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that are truly recyclable
from those that are not.
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So anything we can do to ensure
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that we have a cleaner stream of materials
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going through the recycling system,
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it actually gives our recycling system
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a fighting chance of doing its job.
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It's a basic question
of truth in advertising.
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And so our bill said
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we're not gonna let you
use the recycling symbol
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if your items aren't recyclable.
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But we haven't fixed the problem.
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This is a good bill,
I'm proud of this bill,
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but all it does is ensure
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that people aren't
being actively deceived.
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There's a much bigger problem
here than we need to address.
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- America is in the middle
of a recycling crisis.
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- The price of new virgin
plastic is actually cheaper
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than buying recycled plastic right now.
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- Processing costs have gone up
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and the price you can
sell the commodities for
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on the backend has gone down.
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- [Reporter] Most recycling
programs across America
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are upside down economically.
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- [Narrator] Recycling
changed forever In 2018.
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Prior to this, the vast
majority of American waste
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was exported to China for recycling.
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But the reality of the situation
was far more complicated.
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- [Senator Allen] We
were all living a lie.
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We were basically just
exporting our problem.
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It was cheap to do because
ships would come from China
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filled with plastic
products and cheap goods,
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and then these ships would
have to go back to China
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and they'd have all these
empty shipping containers.
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What are you gonna fill 'em with?
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So a lot of this trash ended up
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in these shipping containers
sent back to China.
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Bales would show up of
supposedly recyclable material.
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The little ships would take 'em up rivers
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and villagers would come out
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and they'd get a bale and
they'd sort them themselves,
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and they'd basically sort
out whatever they could sell,
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and the rest of the material
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was getting thrown into the
river, it was getting burned,
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it was creating a lot
of ecological problems.
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So the Chinese said enough is enough.
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This stuff is too contaminated.
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We are bringing down the National Sword,
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that was the name of this policy,
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and stopping the import
of all of this trash.
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And that created a major
crisis on our side.
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- Markets changed immediately
overnight here in the US.
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This is not just a valve that
you can turn on and turn off.
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Prices plummeted to record lows
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and it ultimately trickled
down to communities
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that began to either contract
what they were collecting
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or stopped collecting
recyclables altogether.
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- [Narrator] Kim Holmes
is one of the many experts
00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:07.020
who helped US companies
navigate the collapse
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of the domestic recycling market.
00:06:09.210 --> 00:06:11.010
But her work is far from over
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as the repercussions of
China's National Sword policy
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are still being felt around the world.
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- It shined a light on our
domestic recycling infrastructure
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that frankly it wasn't adequate
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and there became this larger question
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of whether it was worth it.
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It really kind of shook
the faith and foundation
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in recycling.
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It felt like recycling was failing
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but we couldn't let that happen.
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- [Narrator] And thus began
the race to rescue recycling.
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If the system was to survive it all,
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the linear economy model
of take, make and waste
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would have to be re-envisioned
in a fully circular way.
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- What is the goal of
the circular economy?
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It is truly to find the pathways
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to keep all of the resources
that we have at our disposal,
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that we have in play,
and keep them in play.
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Could we build everything that we need
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from the things that we already have today
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by matching the right innovation
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with the right materials that we have?
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So that means we are no
longer extracting and wasting.
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What if we had enough
technologies at our disposal
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that we could find value
00:07:32.490 --> 00:07:35.580
in all of the plastic
items that we use today
00:07:35.580 --> 00:07:38.820
and there was a future where
00:07:38.820 --> 00:07:41.580
all the plastics we use
goes into our recycling bin
00:07:41.580 --> 00:07:44.880
and we have the technologies
and the opportunities
00:07:44.880 --> 00:07:46.860
to recover the value from that
00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:49.680
rather than sending
those valuable resources
00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:50.673
to the landfill.
00:07:53.310 --> 00:07:55.530
- [Narrator] Yet the main
barrier to achieving this goal
00:07:55.530 --> 00:07:59.490
is the same as it was
in 2018, contamination.
00:07:59.490 --> 00:08:01.800
But not just the obvious
types of contamination
00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:04.530
like hazardous waste or rotting food,
00:08:04.530 --> 00:08:06.120
it's contamination as a result
00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:08.340
of having more material
types on the market
00:08:08.340 --> 00:08:10.860
than can feasibly be kept separated.
00:08:10.860 --> 00:08:11.910
Over the last decade,
00:08:11.910 --> 00:08:15.180
manufacturers have increasingly
adopted composite packaging
00:08:15.180 --> 00:08:17.700
made of multiple layers
of different material.
00:08:17.700 --> 00:08:21.150
Paper coated with plastic,
plastic lined with aluminum,
00:08:21.150 --> 00:08:22.980
countless combinations,
00:08:22.980 --> 00:08:25.860
each difficult or impossible to separate.
00:08:25.860 --> 00:08:27.840
As composite packaging multiplied,
00:08:27.840 --> 00:08:29.790
the task of sorting each product type
00:08:29.790 --> 00:08:31.740
was no longer humanly possible.
00:08:31.740 --> 00:08:34.440
So engineers began working
on a different problem,
00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:36.663
how to take humans out of the equation.
00:08:38.163 --> 00:08:40.996
(whimsical music)
00:08:48.217 --> 00:08:51.884
(whimsical music continues)
00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:55.800
- So the way a typical
recycling facility is built,
00:08:55.800 --> 00:08:57.690
they use what are effectively large pieces
00:08:57.690 --> 00:09:00.000
of mining equipment to try to separate out
00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:01.050
different commodities,
00:09:01.050 --> 00:09:03.120
but unfortunately they're
not very accurate.
00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:04.920
Plastic bottles are in with the paper,
00:09:04.920 --> 00:09:07.470
aluminum cans are in
with the plastic bottles.
00:09:07.470 --> 00:09:09.150
So what the recycling
facilities have to do
00:09:09.150 --> 00:09:11.520
is they surround this
equipment with people
00:09:11.520 --> 00:09:13.230
to basically correct the mistakes
00:09:13.230 --> 00:09:14.790
that those pieces of machinery make.
00:09:14.790 --> 00:09:17.040
You might see 20, sometimes even 30 people
00:09:17.040 --> 00:09:19.440
working per shift, sorting stuff by hand.
00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.750
People put all sorts of
nasty stuff in the recycling.
00:09:21.750 --> 00:09:23.850
Rotting food is an obvious one,
00:09:23.850 --> 00:09:26.565
but also hypodermic
needles, knives, diapers,
00:09:26.565 --> 00:09:27.900
this sort of thing.
00:09:27.900 --> 00:09:31.860
The result is it's a pretty
tough job and has high turnover,
00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:33.863
and that's where our
robots come in to help.
00:09:35.310 --> 00:09:36.780
- [Narrator] Matanya
Horowitz is the founder
00:09:36.780 --> 00:09:39.420
of Denver, Colorado's AMP Robotics.
00:09:39.420 --> 00:09:42.780
His vision is for AI to shift
the economics of recycling
00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:43.923
on a global scale.
00:09:45.390 --> 00:09:46.980
- [Matanya] We aren't the
first to see the potential
00:09:46.980 --> 00:09:49.380
for robotics in the recycling industry.
00:09:49.380 --> 00:09:52.290
In fact, the robots we use
have been around for a while.
00:09:52.290 --> 00:09:56.100
Really the missing ingredient
has been a vision system
00:09:56.100 --> 00:09:58.740
that can identify this material
and say that's a bottle,
00:09:58.740 --> 00:09:59.670
that's a can.
00:09:59.670 --> 00:10:02.490
We have created a vision
system that can do that
00:10:02.490 --> 00:10:04.860
built on artificial intelligence.
00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:07.710
It can learn to identify
pretty much anything you or me
00:10:07.710 --> 00:10:08.543
can be taught to identify,
00:10:08.543 --> 00:10:10.800
which is something as
specific as a Starbucks cup
00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:12.630
or a Captain Crunch cereal.
00:10:12.630 --> 00:10:15.480
The system can actually learn
to identify those things.
00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:18.030
What it allows us to
do is sort the material
00:10:18.030 --> 00:10:19.860
the recycling industry sorts today,
00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:21.930
but we can go a lot further.
00:10:21.930 --> 00:10:23.220
If we can identify something
00:10:23.220 --> 00:10:25.920
as say a cottage cheese container,
we can start to do things
00:10:25.920 --> 00:10:28.290
like separate out nothing but
the cottage cheese containers
00:10:28.290 --> 00:10:29.760
or nothing but the coffee pots.
00:10:29.760 --> 00:10:32.040
The reason that's interesting
is that this packaging
00:10:32.040 --> 00:10:34.470
tends to have a more consistent chemistry
00:10:34.470 --> 00:10:36.180
if it has a common use.
00:10:36.180 --> 00:10:38.670
And if you can deliver materials
with a common chemistry,
00:10:38.670 --> 00:10:41.430
it ends up having
significantly more value.
00:10:41.430 --> 00:10:42.540
And the more value there is,
00:10:42.540 --> 00:10:44.430
the more people will want
to go after that material
00:10:44.430 --> 00:10:45.780
and not let it get into the oceans
00:10:45.780 --> 00:10:47.280
and not let it get into a landfill.
00:10:47.280 --> 00:10:50.460
And it ends up AI opens that up
00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:53.460
because it can identify things
at this very precise level,
00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:55.140
which is much the same way as you or me
00:10:55.140 --> 00:10:56.990
would learn to identify these things.
00:11:00.560 --> 00:11:02.700
When new packaging gets introduced,
00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:04.500
it gets incorporated into the data set
00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:07.140
and we push an update
out to the whole fleet
00:11:07.140 --> 00:11:08.610
and they all learn from that.
00:11:08.610 --> 00:11:11.340
So the result is that our
robots here in the states,
00:11:11.340 --> 00:11:14.100
they're learning from
the packaging in Japan,
00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:16.140
and those are learning from
the packaging in Europe.
00:11:16.140 --> 00:11:18.780
It's gonna be this huge task
but over the next couple years,
00:11:18.780 --> 00:11:20.610
we're gonna continue to basically learn
00:11:20.610 --> 00:11:22.910
every form of packaging
there is in the world.
00:11:26.141 --> 00:11:28.891
(trash rustling)
00:11:31.708 --> 00:11:35.610
What we're all about is improving
the fundamental economics
00:11:35.610 --> 00:11:36.990
of the recycling process.
00:11:36.990 --> 00:11:38.700
There's a tremendous amount of value,
00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:41.160
hundreds of billions of
dollars worth of material
00:11:41.160 --> 00:11:43.110
that's being thrown away each year
00:11:43.110 --> 00:11:45.570
because it costs over hundreds
of billions of dollars
00:11:45.570 --> 00:11:46.500
to extract it all.
00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:47.970
If we can reduce that cost,
00:11:47.970 --> 00:11:49.770
people are naturally gonna go after it.
00:11:49.770 --> 00:11:52.650
If we can do that and make it
in particular more lucrative
00:11:52.650 --> 00:11:55.020
than landfilling it or incinerating it,
00:11:55.020 --> 00:11:56.430
there is a natural economic incentive
00:11:56.430 --> 00:11:57.840
for people to build businesses
00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.480
around extracting all
of this material value.
00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.430
And that's ultimately what
we want to be able to do
00:12:02.430 --> 00:12:06.480
is help the world divert 80%,
85% of the material stream.
00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.480
You know, you contrast that
with the reality today,
00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:12.630
under 10% of the plastics
the world produces
00:12:12.630 --> 00:12:14.100
are actually recycled each year.
00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:16.385
If you can bring that number up to 80%
00:12:16.385 --> 00:12:18.450
and in particular when you look at
00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:20.520
what the carbon implications of that are,
00:12:20.520 --> 00:12:21.630
it's actually massive.
00:12:21.630 --> 00:12:23.550
You know, you're talking about
the same order of magnitude
00:12:23.550 --> 00:12:26.610
as something like the
electrification of transportation
00:12:26.610 --> 00:12:28.710
as the impact of
diverting that much stuff.
00:12:28.710 --> 00:12:31.200
And we really think that's possible
00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.363
if you set up the incentives right.
00:12:35.700 --> 00:12:38.040
- [Narrator] But even if all
waste sorting was automated,
00:12:38.040 --> 00:12:40.050
how close would we come
to closing the loop
00:12:40.050 --> 00:12:42.150
and achieving true circularity?
00:12:42.150 --> 00:12:45.390
According to experts, not close enough.
00:12:45.390 --> 00:12:47.760
The reason is that conventional
mechanical recycling
00:12:47.760 --> 00:12:51.150
still lacks the ability to
handle many types of plastics.
00:12:51.150 --> 00:12:52.440
And the types it can handle
00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:54.780
degrade in each successive generation
00:12:54.780 --> 00:12:56.733
until the only option is the landfill.
00:12:57.990 --> 00:12:59.250
To delay the inevitable,
00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:01.860
manufacturers simply
blend recycled plastic
00:13:01.860 --> 00:13:04.350
with a steady stream
of new virgin plastic,
00:13:04.350 --> 00:13:07.200
produced from freshly
extracted oil and gas.
00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:09.420
To break free from fossil fuels for good,
00:13:09.420 --> 00:13:11.730
recycling itself needs an upgrade.
00:13:11.730 --> 00:13:14.520
And that's exactly what's
taking place a few miles away
00:13:14.520 --> 00:13:17.343
at Boulder, Colorado's
National Renewable Energy Lab.
00:13:22.530 --> 00:13:25.230
- The absolute magnitude of
plastics that are made today
00:13:25.230 --> 00:13:27.870
that cannot be recycled
through mechanical recycling
00:13:27.870 --> 00:13:31.287
is vast, including carpet, clothing,
00:13:31.287 --> 00:13:33.240
and all kinds of other things.
00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:36.330
And that's where advanced
recycling technologies
00:13:36.330 --> 00:13:38.823
have a massive potential role to play.
00:13:40.890 --> 00:13:42.330
- [Narrator] Gregg Beckham and Kat Knauer
00:13:42.330 --> 00:13:43.740
are two of the leading researchers
00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:46.170
at the US Department
of Energy's Consortium
00:13:46.170 --> 00:13:47.940
on Bio-Optimized Technologies
00:13:47.940 --> 00:13:51.270
to keep Thermoplastics out of
Landfills and the Environment,
00:13:51.270 --> 00:13:53.133
otherwise known as BOTTLE.
00:13:53.970 --> 00:13:56.190
Their work takes aim at
the longstanding challenge
00:13:56.190 --> 00:13:57.930
that the plastics we use today
00:13:57.930 --> 00:14:00.280
simply weren't designed
with recycling in mind.
00:14:02.160 --> 00:14:03.990
- [Kat] With mechanical recycling,
00:14:03.990 --> 00:14:08.610
your plastic water bottle is
just chopped up, melted down,
00:14:08.610 --> 00:14:11.640
and reformed into potentially
another plastic water bottle
00:14:11.640 --> 00:14:13.470
or perhaps something different.
00:14:13.470 --> 00:14:17.013
And structurally, nothing
changes in the material.
00:14:18.090 --> 00:14:21.060
This type of recycling is
also very, very, very limited
00:14:21.060 --> 00:14:23.190
by any kind of contamination.
00:14:23.190 --> 00:14:25.860
So even your residual
milk in your milk jugs
00:14:25.860 --> 00:14:30.120
can cause contamination and
smell and odor and color.
00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:32.550
And unfortunately, what
you get usually at the end
00:14:32.550 --> 00:14:35.070
is usually of lower value
than what it started from
00:14:35.070 --> 00:14:36.930
because of this limitation
00:14:36.930 --> 00:14:40.260
that you're just melting
everything down together.
00:14:40.260 --> 00:14:43.230
In chemical recycling
and biological recycling,
00:14:43.230 --> 00:14:46.500
they're utilizing technologies
that break the bonds
00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:50.340
to much easier to
process smaller molecules
00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:53.370
that can then be separated
and purified out,
00:14:53.370 --> 00:14:56.040
overcoming the food contamination,
00:14:56.040 --> 00:14:58.440
the color, the adhesives, the dyes,
00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:00.790
all these things that
are in our waste streams.
00:15:02.550 --> 00:15:04.710
- [Narrator] Among the range
of techniques under development
00:15:04.710 --> 00:15:06.540
are methods of breaking plastics down
00:15:06.540 --> 00:15:09.360
by naturally occurring
enzymes and bacteria,
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:10.533
as well as simple heat.
00:15:12.390 --> 00:15:14.820
Each method has its own
strengths and weaknesses,
00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:16.890
and understanding how
each can best be used
00:15:16.890 --> 00:15:20.013
requires consideration of
what plastic itself is.
00:15:21.900 --> 00:15:24.660
- Plastics are comprised
of what's called polymers.
00:15:24.660 --> 00:15:26.430
They're a series of molecules
00:15:26.430 --> 00:15:28.230
all covalently attached to each other
00:15:28.230 --> 00:15:32.070
so they make these super
long macromolecular chains.
00:15:32.070 --> 00:15:34.200
And when those chains
are all existing together
00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:35.700
like a bowl of spaghetti,
00:15:35.700 --> 00:15:39.240
they provide really strong
mechanical reinforcement to them
00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:42.483
while still being super
flexible and really lightweight.
00:15:44.700 --> 00:15:45.690
So when they were discovered,
00:15:45.690 --> 00:15:47.716
they were one of the most
remarkable discoveries
00:15:47.716 --> 00:15:48.870
of all time.
00:15:48.870 --> 00:15:51.780
No one had ever seen something
like a piece of plastic,
00:15:51.780 --> 00:15:53.910
and that's why they entered into our world
00:15:53.910 --> 00:15:56.940
in such a rapid fashion and
became very, very cheaply made
00:15:56.940 --> 00:15:59.700
and easily disposed of, and
life seemed to get better.
00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:02.930
But that being said, we
now are in this crisis
00:16:02.930 --> 00:16:06.300
in that we produced and used
in such an alarming rate
00:16:06.300 --> 00:16:08.820
that we're now completely
inundated with this material
00:16:08.820 --> 00:16:11.070
that we're deriving from petroleum oil.
00:16:11.070 --> 00:16:12.870
Most of our fossil fuel consumption
00:16:12.870 --> 00:16:16.020
is actually coming from the
production of these plastics,
00:16:16.020 --> 00:16:18.420
which is why it's
becoming an energy crisis
00:16:18.420 --> 00:16:20.283
and not just this waste crisis.
00:16:22.140 --> 00:16:24.180
- [Narrator] But if plastic
plays such a large role
00:16:24.180 --> 00:16:27.033
in environmental harm, why
not simply eliminate it?
00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:30.060
- More and more cities across the country
00:16:30.060 --> 00:16:31.770
are banning plastic straws.
00:16:31.770 --> 00:16:35.340
- A ban on single-use
plastics such as straws,
00:16:35.340 --> 00:16:36.840
cups, and plates.
00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:39.270
- A new plan to ban plastics.
00:16:39.270 --> 00:16:41.103
- Ban those products forever.
00:16:43.500 --> 00:16:45.240
- [Narrator] To calculate
the environmental impacts
00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:46.620
of any material,
00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:49.920
experts use a system called
lifecycle assessment.
00:16:49.920 --> 00:16:51.600
And when applied to plastics,
00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:53.403
the results may come as a surprise.
00:16:55.020 --> 00:16:57.090
- A PET water bottle has about a third
00:16:57.090 --> 00:16:59.370
of the carbon footprint
of a glass container
00:16:59.370 --> 00:17:01.170
and about half the carbon footprint
00:17:01.170 --> 00:17:02.520
of an aluminum container.
00:17:02.520 --> 00:17:06.240
So if we were to eliminate
all plastic water bottles
00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:09.420
and replace them with
an alternate material,
00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:12.120
we are looking at larger
environmental impacts
00:17:12.120 --> 00:17:13.230
in other areas.
00:17:13.230 --> 00:17:15.720
And this is where
lifecycle thinking comes in
00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:18.270
in our environmental decision making.
00:17:18.270 --> 00:17:20.310
We aren't gonna ban our way out of this.
00:17:20.310 --> 00:17:24.000
We need to be employing new technologies,
00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.820
creating new pathways for manufacturing
00:17:26.820 --> 00:17:29.133
in order to solve this.
00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:32.130
- I think it's important
for us all to keep in mind
00:17:32.130 --> 00:17:33.960
that plastics are not evil.
00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:35.310
From an environmental perspective,
00:17:35.310 --> 00:17:37.410
plastics are extremely lightweight
00:17:37.410 --> 00:17:40.110
when we compare it to
things like steel and glass.
00:17:40.110 --> 00:17:42.030
And that makes traveling in an airplane
00:17:42.030 --> 00:17:43.890
the same as in a car,
the same as in a truck,
00:17:43.890 --> 00:17:45.510
to be much more fuel efficient.
00:17:45.510 --> 00:17:47.460
They also make our food last much longer,
00:17:47.460 --> 00:17:48.780
which food waste itself
00:17:48.780 --> 00:17:51.030
is a massive environmental
challenge as well.
00:17:52.020 --> 00:17:54.060
- And while there is a
very negative connotation
00:17:54.060 --> 00:17:56.850
associated with plastics currently,
00:17:56.850 --> 00:17:58.830
I think we need to
remember what they've done
00:17:58.830 --> 00:18:01.980
in terms of hospital
acquired infectious diseases.
00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:03.330
So now when you enter a hospital,
00:18:03.330 --> 00:18:06.060
everything is very sterilized
rather than metal tools
00:18:06.060 --> 00:18:08.130
that did not have the same capabilities.
00:18:08.130 --> 00:18:11.040
Our homes are more durable
and energy efficient,
00:18:11.040 --> 00:18:14.250
and I think that this mentality
that we need to shift away
00:18:14.250 --> 00:18:16.590
that buying yogurt in a glass container
00:18:16.590 --> 00:18:18.690
is somehow gonna be better
00:18:18.690 --> 00:18:20.130
doesn't really make a lot of sense
00:18:20.130 --> 00:18:21.840
when you consider that glass container,
00:18:21.840 --> 00:18:23.880
it goes into the same recycling bin
00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:27.390
and most states in the
US do not recycle glass.
00:18:27.390 --> 00:18:28.380
And when it is recycled,
00:18:28.380 --> 00:18:30.630
it's usually ground down
and placed into concrete.
00:18:30.630 --> 00:18:33.150
You're kind of in that
same circle that you're in
00:18:33.150 --> 00:18:35.760
with plastics recycling,
it's the same conundrums.
00:18:35.760 --> 00:18:37.620
Is this true circularity?
00:18:37.620 --> 00:18:39.840
Plastics are making things better
00:18:39.840 --> 00:18:42.030
on an environmental and social impact,
00:18:42.030 --> 00:18:45.210
but it's the pollution and
energy that's used to make them
00:18:45.210 --> 00:18:47.883
that is the problem
we're trying to address.
00:18:54.061 --> 00:18:56.644
(serene music)
00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:05.970
- So what we're doing here today
00:19:05.970 --> 00:19:08.760
is looking at several different enzymes
00:19:08.760 --> 00:19:10.080
that haven't been tested before,
00:19:10.080 --> 00:19:12.120
and we're trying to find
out if they're active
00:19:12.120 --> 00:19:15.540
at degrading or hydrolyzing PET plastic.
00:19:15.540 --> 00:19:18.090
And so the way we find out
whether there's success or not
00:19:18.090 --> 00:19:20.700
is we're looking for the monomers
00:19:20.700 --> 00:19:22.800
that are broken off of the polymer.
00:19:22.800 --> 00:19:24.120
And these enzymes, what they're gonna do
00:19:24.120 --> 00:19:25.950
is they're gonna start
breaking those bonds
00:19:25.950 --> 00:19:27.900
and releasing the smaller fragments
00:19:27.900 --> 00:19:29.520
and we can quantitate that amount
00:19:29.520 --> 00:19:31.620
and then it gives us a comparison as well.
00:19:31.620 --> 00:19:34.110
And so these are really small.
00:19:34.110 --> 00:19:35.580
This isn't gonna get us very far
00:19:35.580 --> 00:19:38.970
trying to tackle the global
plastic waste problem,
00:19:38.970 --> 00:19:40.980
but this gives us baseline data.
00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:41.910
And then the next step would be
00:19:41.910 --> 00:19:44.220
to scale up to at least a liter.
00:19:44.220 --> 00:19:45.840
And that starts to look a lot more
00:19:45.840 --> 00:19:49.170
like what an industrial or a
commercial recycling facility
00:19:49.170 --> 00:19:50.003
would look like.
00:19:52.140 --> 00:19:55.500
- There's a large
community of researchers,
00:19:55.500 --> 00:19:57.720
scientists, engineers in the world today
00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:00.000
who are thinking about
how do we start over
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:01.470
on plastics design.
00:20:01.470 --> 00:20:03.240
In the BOTTLE Consortium
what we're trying to do
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:06.900
is marry that concept of starting over,
00:20:06.900 --> 00:20:09.450
making polymers that are
inherently recyclable
00:20:09.450 --> 00:20:11.640
with advanced recycling
of today's plastics
00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:13.380
where we can take mixed plastic waste,
00:20:13.380 --> 00:20:16.380
we can use chemistry to break those down
00:20:16.380 --> 00:20:17.940
with a figurative hammer
00:20:17.940 --> 00:20:21.750
and then use biology through
a microbial cell factory
00:20:21.750 --> 00:20:24.150
and make building blocks for polymers
00:20:24.150 --> 00:20:26.200
that are inherently recyclable by design.
00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:30.480
- [Narrator] In practice,
this means that mixed
00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:31.770
and degraded plastic waste
00:20:31.770 --> 00:20:34.110
can be transformed into new polymers,
00:20:34.110 --> 00:20:36.690
like polyhydroxyalkanoates,
00:20:36.690 --> 00:20:40.620
commonly known as PHAs or bioplastics.
00:20:40.620 --> 00:20:42.420
PHAs have the benefit of being both
00:20:42.420 --> 00:20:44.580
compostable and recyclable,
00:20:44.580 --> 00:20:47.610
and in some cases even marine degradable.
00:20:47.610 --> 00:20:49.380
So if it were to end up in the ocean,
00:20:49.380 --> 00:20:51.720
it would dissolve into
harmless organic materials
00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:53.730
in a matter of months or years
00:20:53.730 --> 00:20:55.533
rather than centuries or millennia.
00:20:56.730 --> 00:20:58.650
The downside to bioplastics?
00:20:58.650 --> 00:21:02.130
They're typically made from
plants like corn or wheat.
00:21:02.130 --> 00:21:03.810
To scale this up for mass production
00:21:03.810 --> 00:21:05.640
would require diverting a massive amount
00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:07.650
of agricultural resources
00:21:07.650 --> 00:21:10.320
from an already strained
food supply chain.
00:21:10.320 --> 00:21:12.270
But what if this could
instead be accomplished
00:21:12.270 --> 00:21:14.013
using today's waste plastic?
00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:17.730
- Circularity can be redefined
00:21:17.730 --> 00:21:19.650
and circularity doesn't need to be
00:21:19.650 --> 00:21:21.540
polyethylene to polyethylene.
00:21:21.540 --> 00:21:26.160
It can be polyethylene
to 35 different products.
00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:28.290
We've even looked into technologies
00:21:28.290 --> 00:21:32.370
of how to digest some of these structures
00:21:32.370 --> 00:21:36.330
into vitamins and health
supplements and animal feed.
00:21:36.330 --> 00:21:39.060
And I know that sounds
kind of like sci-fi future
00:21:39.060 --> 00:21:41.280
that we'd be eating plastics
and that might scare people,
00:21:41.280 --> 00:21:45.510
but the reality is they are
the same carbons and structures
00:21:45.510 --> 00:21:47.850
that you're putting into your body a lot.
00:21:47.850 --> 00:21:50.640
And so this is a very, very
futuristic way of thinking
00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:52.740
that maybe one day plastics become food
00:21:52.740 --> 00:21:55.020
and not the microplastics in your fish
00:21:55.020 --> 00:21:56.100
that we're all eating.
00:21:56.100 --> 00:21:59.910
I mean that it can actually
become real proteins
00:21:59.910 --> 00:22:01.590
that can enrich our diets
00:22:01.590 --> 00:22:04.410
and have this now food
source available to us
00:22:04.410 --> 00:22:07.290
in a world where food is
starting to become a crisis.
00:22:07.290 --> 00:22:09.840
And so it's a novel way
of thinking about it,
00:22:09.840 --> 00:22:13.290
and that's kind of how I
picture a world for recycling
00:22:13.290 --> 00:22:18.000
that there's tons of pathways
for these carbons to go into
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:21.093
and we don't need to just
limit them to plastics.
00:22:23.970 --> 00:22:25.080
- [Narrator] But while these technologies
00:22:25.080 --> 00:22:26.970
form a roadmap for the future,
00:22:26.970 --> 00:22:30.390
advanced recycling is taking
a foothold in the present.
00:22:30.390 --> 00:22:32.820
And among the first to
reach industrial scale
00:22:32.820 --> 00:22:34.593
is San Francisco's Brightmark.
00:22:36.690 --> 00:22:39.840
- Consuming less single
use plastics is essential.
00:22:39.840 --> 00:22:43.200
However, many of the uses of plastics
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:46.200
are either difficult or irreplaceable.
00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:49.584
In fact, two thirds of
the overlooked plastics
00:22:49.584 --> 00:22:54.584
that are created are in areas
like healthcare, textiles,
00:22:54.900 --> 00:22:57.960
electronics, and the automobile industry.
00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:02.190
There are not any really
good alternatives for those.
00:23:02.190 --> 00:23:03.900
So for the first time ever,
00:23:03.900 --> 00:23:06.870
we can take those necessary plastics,
00:23:06.870 --> 00:23:11.160
particularly the hard to
recycle 3 through 7 plastics
00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:14.073
and convert them back
into useful products.
00:23:16.110 --> 00:23:18.090
- [Narrator] Brightmark's
plastic renewal technology
00:23:18.090 --> 00:23:21.630
is based on pyrolysis, a process
of breaking chemical bonds
00:23:21.630 --> 00:23:24.570
by applying heat in the absence of oxygen.
00:23:24.570 --> 00:23:27.180
It's a technique that's been
known for over a thousand years
00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:30.180
and is the basis of
producing charcoal from wood.
00:23:30.180 --> 00:23:31.560
But when applied to plastic,
00:23:31.560 --> 00:23:33.990
an entirely different result is achieved.
00:23:33.990 --> 00:23:36.030
It turns back into the original petroleum
00:23:36.030 --> 00:23:37.530
it was created from.
00:23:37.530 --> 00:23:38.850
Whether that's used for fuel
00:23:38.850 --> 00:23:40.590
or to produce new plastic products
00:23:40.590 --> 00:23:42.496
is a question of market demand.
00:23:42.496 --> 00:23:44.550
And it's a question that
will begin to be answered
00:23:44.550 --> 00:23:45.780
in rural Indiana
00:23:45.780 --> 00:23:48.393
as Brightmark's first major
facility comes online.
00:23:50.014 --> 00:23:52.597
(bright music)
00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:00.450
- [Bob] What's really amazing
about us nearing completion
00:24:00.450 --> 00:24:04.590
in Ashley, Indiana is for
the first time possible,
00:24:04.590 --> 00:24:06.990
this process known as pyrolysis,
00:24:06.990 --> 00:24:10.170
which has had a lot of hope for the future
00:24:10.170 --> 00:24:13.260
will finally be demonstrated
00:24:13.260 --> 00:24:15.600
at a scale that can work globally.
00:24:15.600 --> 00:24:19.290
A hundred thousand tons of
plastics a year is an awful lot.
00:24:19.290 --> 00:24:22.980
It's very scalable so as
we complete that project,
00:24:22.980 --> 00:24:27.180
we're at a moment where
the world can finally see
00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:29.670
there is a viable solution
00:24:29.670 --> 00:24:32.073
to all the plastics we have out there.
00:24:38.970 --> 00:24:41.070
- [Jay] We're located
here in Ashley, Indiana,
00:24:41.070 --> 00:24:44.370
which is roughly halfway
between Chicago and Cleveland.
00:24:44.370 --> 00:24:48.960
Within about 170 miles of
here is a pool of material
00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:51.060
that's right now heading to the landfills.
00:24:52.320 --> 00:24:54.780
You can see here this is where we store
00:24:54.780 --> 00:24:57.840
roughly three days supply of feedstock,
00:24:57.840 --> 00:25:01.230
which is around 900 tons of material.
00:25:01.230 --> 00:25:03.660
And we get it generally
from recycling centers
00:25:03.660 --> 00:25:06.120
where they'll pull out
the valuable materials
00:25:06.120 --> 00:25:09.180
and this is the stream
that they can't handle.
00:25:09.180 --> 00:25:13.740
These are general recycling
bales where you have containers,
00:25:13.740 --> 00:25:18.740
film, bottles, different plastic parts.
00:25:19.110 --> 00:25:21.300
So pretty much everything you see
00:25:21.300 --> 00:25:23.883
is a candidate for our process.
00:25:26.550 --> 00:25:28.560
And they'll bring the material down
00:25:28.560 --> 00:25:30.210
into our processing system
00:25:30.210 --> 00:25:33.090
where we have two separate mirrored lines
00:25:33.090 --> 00:25:35.210
where we can process roughly
00:25:35.210 --> 00:25:39.120
12,000 pounds an hour on each line,
00:25:39.120 --> 00:25:42.063
and then it can be pelletized
into a dense pellet.
00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:46.440
The pellets then come up this conveyor
00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:48.750
and they drop into a
hopper where they can feed
00:25:48.750 --> 00:25:51.753
right outside to the
plastic conversion units.
00:25:55.260 --> 00:25:59.963
And then we have a fully
enclosed oxygen starved vessel
00:26:00.810 --> 00:26:04.740
where we thermally break
apart the plastic components
00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:06.450
into smaller pieces.
00:26:06.450 --> 00:26:08.430
And then we capture that vapor
00:26:08.430 --> 00:26:10.170
and condense it down into a liquid,
00:26:10.170 --> 00:26:12.900
which is a light sweet crude oil.
00:26:12.900 --> 00:26:16.710
This large column is a
a distillation column.
00:26:16.710 --> 00:26:18.780
So the heavy stuff comes off the bottom,
00:26:18.780 --> 00:26:20.280
the middle stuff comes off the middle
00:26:20.280 --> 00:26:21.990
and the light stuff comes off the top
00:26:21.990 --> 00:26:25.950
so it's just old school
chemistry basically
00:26:25.950 --> 00:26:28.563
that we're doing at an industrial scale.
00:26:31.140 --> 00:26:33.360
- [Narrator] Pyrolysis isn't
the most sophisticated form
00:26:33.360 --> 00:26:34.920
of advanced recycling.
00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:36.570
Compared to emerging technologies
00:26:36.570 --> 00:26:38.970
like enzyme or biological recycling,
00:26:38.970 --> 00:26:41.490
it's significantly less energy efficient,
00:26:41.490 --> 00:26:43.470
but it is available today.
00:26:43.470 --> 00:26:46.140
And more importantly, it
presents a viable market
00:26:46.140 --> 00:26:49.020
for taking plastic waste
out of the environment.
00:26:49.020 --> 00:26:50.970
While critics contend that turning plastic
00:26:50.970 --> 00:26:54.210
into gasoline or diesel
fuel isn't true recycling,
00:26:54.210 --> 00:26:55.770
it's impossible to overlook the fact
00:26:55.770 --> 00:26:58.623
that fossil fuels will still
be in use for years to come.
00:26:59.460 --> 00:27:02.790
Pyrolyzed fuels offset the
need to extract crude oil,
00:27:02.790 --> 00:27:04.710
and that could be exactly
what industries need
00:27:04.710 --> 00:27:06.710
while transitioning to renewable energy.
00:27:07.950 --> 00:27:09.780
- We are creating value
00:27:09.780 --> 00:27:13.230
so that plastics don't end up in landfills
00:27:13.230 --> 00:27:15.720
and in waterways and in oceans.
00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:20.010
Is the end state creating
transportation fuels what I want?
00:27:20.010 --> 00:27:21.060
Absolutely not.
00:27:21.060 --> 00:27:25.080
Our goal is to have zero
combustible products
00:27:25.080 --> 00:27:26.190
that we produce.
00:27:26.190 --> 00:27:27.450
It's a journey though.
00:27:27.450 --> 00:27:32.100
If it is in people's interest economically
00:27:32.100 --> 00:27:34.980
to recycle plastics or anything,
00:27:34.980 --> 00:27:38.340
and it creates a better
environmental outcome,
00:27:38.340 --> 00:27:42.420
I think you end up with
long-term economic sustainability
00:27:42.420 --> 00:27:44.313
for sustainable solutions.
00:27:47.340 --> 00:27:49.530
- [Narrator] But regardless
of which method is used,
00:27:49.530 --> 00:27:51.240
mixed and degraded plastic waste
00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:54.300
has no future without advanced recycling.
00:27:54.300 --> 00:27:57.183
And nowhere is more of it to
be found than in our oceans.
00:27:58.290 --> 00:28:00.210
Organizations working on ocean cleanup
00:28:00.210 --> 00:28:01.713
are often met with skepticism.
00:28:02.610 --> 00:28:05.130
Critics point to the need
for global policy changes
00:28:05.130 --> 00:28:07.320
and industry regulation to stop plastics
00:28:07.320 --> 00:28:09.360
from ending up in waterways.
00:28:09.360 --> 00:28:11.310
But that's only half the equation.
00:28:11.310 --> 00:28:14.430
Because even if all plastic
pollution ended today,
00:28:14.430 --> 00:28:17.610
the 5 trillion individual
pieces of plastic in our oceans
00:28:17.610 --> 00:28:19.143
would continue to multiply.
00:28:20.100 --> 00:28:23.010
Why? Because they're fragmenting.
00:28:23.010 --> 00:28:24.450
And while many types of marine debris
00:28:24.450 --> 00:28:25.710
will float on the surface
00:28:25.710 --> 00:28:27.720
and eventually be carried to shore,
00:28:27.720 --> 00:28:31.470
fragmented microplastics spread
throughout the water column
00:28:31.470 --> 00:28:34.440
poisoning marine life and
disrupting the food web,
00:28:34.440 --> 00:28:37.240
in addition to being difficult
or impossible to recover.
00:28:39.780 --> 00:28:40.980
- [Scott] At this time,
00:28:40.980 --> 00:28:43.770
a lot of the plastics we
find are still intact.
00:28:43.770 --> 00:28:44.700
We can pick 'em up.
00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:46.890
So if you pick up a five gallon bucket
00:28:46.890 --> 00:28:47.760
that weighs two pounds,
00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:50.400
you're removing two pounds of
plastic in about two seconds.
00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:53.040
If you wait 10 years or 20 years,
00:28:53.040 --> 00:28:55.620
that plastic bucket is
now thousands of fragments
00:28:55.620 --> 00:28:58.050
and it's nearly impossible
to clean up at that point.
00:28:58.050 --> 00:29:01.380
And so we've got a limited
amount of time to work with
00:29:01.380 --> 00:29:03.180
before these materials degrade
00:29:03.180 --> 00:29:05.070
and really become a much higher hazard.
00:29:05.070 --> 00:29:06.720
So we feel like we're in a race
00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:09.563
to get this material off the
beaches and out of the ocean.
00:29:14.040 --> 00:29:15.480
- [Narrator] Scott Farling is a co-founder
00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:18.270
of the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project.
00:29:18.270 --> 00:29:20.370
His team is leading a
series of expeditions
00:29:20.370 --> 00:29:21.600
to recover marine debris
00:29:21.600 --> 00:29:23.583
from the remote wilderness of Alaska.
00:29:24.870 --> 00:29:26.130
- [Scott] This is Katmai National Park
00:29:26.130 --> 00:29:28.140
and it's a pretty spectacular place
00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:29.730
and it's been heavily
impacted by plastics.
00:29:29.730 --> 00:29:30.672
There are no people here,
00:29:30.672 --> 00:29:32.880
but the plastics make it here.
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:34.740
They come up through
across the North Pacific,
00:29:34.740 --> 00:29:37.680
through the Gulf of Alaska and
get trapped on the beaches.
00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:40.320
And so our goal is to clean this park.
00:29:40.320 --> 00:29:42.090
We've been working at
it for two years now.
00:29:42.090 --> 00:29:44.070
This is our final expedition to the park.
00:29:44.070 --> 00:29:46.800
We expect to collect about
50,000 pounds of material
00:29:46.800 --> 00:29:47.760
off the beaches.
00:29:47.760 --> 00:29:49.860
And then we've partnered
with a number of recyclers
00:29:49.860 --> 00:29:51.750
from mechanical recyclers,
chemical recyclers,
00:29:51.750 --> 00:29:53.460
conversion technologies
00:29:53.460 --> 00:29:56.410
to take those materials and
get them back into the economy.
00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:01.800
- [Andy] Cleaned up all this already.
00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:03.990
- Yeah.
- Cleaned up all this already.
00:30:03.990 --> 00:30:05.610
There's a large piece of marine debris
00:30:05.610 --> 00:30:08.070
that I just want to get my eyes on
00:30:08.070 --> 00:30:11.283
hopefully through a drone
flight right around there.
00:30:12.300 --> 00:30:13.740
It might be too big for us to handle,
00:30:13.740 --> 00:30:15.810
it might need to be cut
into smaller pieces,
00:30:15.810 --> 00:30:19.443
but I think the first thing
to do is get eyes on it.
00:30:23.700 --> 00:30:25.440
- [Narrator] After decades
as a chemical engineer
00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:27.060
in the recycling industry,
00:30:27.060 --> 00:30:30.630
Scott and his team are moving
beyond simple beach cleanups.
00:30:30.630 --> 00:30:32.700
They're creating a
blueprint for organizations
00:30:32.700 --> 00:30:36.270
and governments around the
world to process marine debris.
00:30:36.270 --> 00:30:39.120
How to effectively recycle
degraded ocean plastics
00:30:39.120 --> 00:30:41.520
is not an easy problem to solve.
00:30:41.520 --> 00:30:43.920
But in doing so, there's
a massive potential
00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.830
for an entire field of
emerging technologies
00:30:46.830 --> 00:30:49.683
and an entire generation of
young minds to develop them.
00:30:52.020 --> 00:30:55.140
- We're really hoping to
educate the future generation
00:30:55.140 --> 00:30:56.730
to really provide the workforce
00:30:56.730 --> 00:30:58.920
to build out our recycling
infrastructure in the US.
00:30:58.920 --> 00:30:59.753
We don't have that,
00:30:59.753 --> 00:31:02.670
it's not a formal education
program right now for recycling,
00:31:02.670 --> 00:31:04.973
and we're really trying
to build that component.
00:31:06.090 --> 00:31:06.923
On this trip,
00:31:06.923 --> 00:31:09.180
we've got students from
Western Washington University
00:31:09.180 --> 00:31:10.980
and Oregon State University.
00:31:10.980 --> 00:31:12.180
One of our team members here
00:31:12.180 --> 00:31:15.240
has led their group to redesign
their pyrolysis reactor,
00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:17.370
and we're getting much
better performance now
00:31:17.370 --> 00:31:18.203
and so we're ready
00:31:18.203 --> 00:31:19.920
to start running ocean
plastics through it.
00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:22.200
They'll be taking our
degraded polyethylene
00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:23.910
and polypropylene materials
00:31:23.910 --> 00:31:25.773
and converting that to diesel fuel.
00:31:27.150 --> 00:31:29.008
And then we also bring
industry professionals.
00:31:29.008 --> 00:31:31.170
On this trip we have a marine biologist,
00:31:31.170 --> 00:31:33.600
we have a researcher from
University of Berkeley.
00:31:33.600 --> 00:31:34.680
We've got a scientist
00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:37.020
that's helped develop
some sensing technology
00:31:37.020 --> 00:31:38.850
for determining what types of plastics are
00:31:38.850 --> 00:31:40.140
using a handheld device.
00:31:40.140 --> 00:31:40.980
It's really important for us
00:31:40.980 --> 00:31:42.750
to bring all those people together
00:31:42.750 --> 00:31:45.350
to do this work together
and learn from one another.
00:31:52.312 --> 00:31:55.395
(plastic cup clacks)
00:31:59.163 --> 00:32:01.770
(crane whirring)
00:32:01.770 --> 00:32:06.187
(indistinct background conversation)
00:32:11.573 --> 00:32:14.906
(plastic bags rustling)
00:32:18.265 --> 00:32:21.323
- Oh yeah.
- Cool. Perfect.
00:32:23.333 --> 00:32:26.833
(indistinct conversation)
00:32:33.106 --> 00:32:36.023
(plastic rustling)
00:32:39.537 --> 00:32:42.000
- And so it's really
cool to see the chemists
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:45.390
and the biologists and
the chemical engineers
00:32:45.390 --> 00:32:48.120
and the polymer composite
engineers all come together.
00:32:48.120 --> 00:32:51.750
These are some of the toughest,
strongest, smartest women.
00:32:51.750 --> 00:32:55.440
And there is so much
diversity in backgrounds
00:32:55.440 --> 00:32:58.110
and methodology and knowledge here.
00:32:58.110 --> 00:33:02.610
And so it's been a lot of
sharing of that knowledge.
00:33:02.610 --> 00:33:04.680
- [Ani] When we first
pulled into Hallo Bay,
00:33:04.680 --> 00:33:07.770
like our first stop, it
was absolutely beautiful.
00:33:07.770 --> 00:33:11.220
You could see this perfect
glacier in the background,
00:33:11.220 --> 00:33:14.100
these nice tall, waving mountains.
00:33:14.100 --> 00:33:16.140
You could see bears just on the coast.
00:33:16.140 --> 00:33:18.150
But when we actually got onto the skiff
00:33:18.150 --> 00:33:20.670
and got onto the coast,
there were giant lines,
00:33:20.670 --> 00:33:22.200
lots of nets,
00:33:22.200 --> 00:33:25.800
and there was just tons
of actual rigid plastics
00:33:25.800 --> 00:33:27.600
and I remember one of the
ones that really stuck out
00:33:27.600 --> 00:33:30.390
was this very, very brittle palette
00:33:30.390 --> 00:33:33.330
that we literally had to
excavate out of the ground.
00:33:33.330 --> 00:33:35.220
But as we were trying to excavate it,
00:33:35.220 --> 00:33:38.280
it just kept breaking into
smaller and smaller pieces.
00:33:38.280 --> 00:33:39.630
It's a very sobering experience
00:33:39.630 --> 00:33:42.360
seeing such a beautiful
place kind of tarnished
00:33:42.360 --> 00:33:47.013
by our inability to control
a problem that we created.
00:33:49.950 --> 00:33:51.240
- [Narrator] Given the scope and impact
00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:53.490
of plastic pollution on the environment,
00:33:53.490 --> 00:33:56.280
is it unreasonable to be optimistic?
00:33:56.280 --> 00:33:58.560
Is it too late for recycling?
00:33:58.560 --> 00:34:02.550
For those working to solve these
problems, the answer is no.
00:34:02.550 --> 00:34:04.833
Now is the time to reinvent recycling.
00:34:06.840 --> 00:34:09.300
- People really shouldn't
look at the solutions
00:34:09.300 --> 00:34:11.190
for recycling in terms of the technology
00:34:11.190 --> 00:34:13.230
that was available 10 or 20 years ago,
00:34:13.230 --> 00:34:15.510
they really need to be focused
on the technology of today.
00:34:15.510 --> 00:34:17.160
- We're seeing this huge boom
00:34:17.160 --> 00:34:20.940
of just ingenious ideas coming
out to sort plastics better,
00:34:20.940 --> 00:34:23.790
to clean them better,
to lower water usage.
00:34:23.790 --> 00:34:26.400
And so innovation I
think is really driving
00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:29.520
so much in this space, probably more so
00:34:29.520 --> 00:34:32.400
than thinking about how
to get rid of plastic,
00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:36.720
it's really how do we manage
this forever moving forward?
00:34:36.720 --> 00:34:40.334
- Big problems require persistent optimism
00:34:40.334 --> 00:34:42.570
on a long-term basis.
00:34:42.570 --> 00:34:44.520
We've got a long way to go,
00:34:44.520 --> 00:34:47.010
but I'm optimistic we'll get there.
00:34:47.010 --> 00:34:51.060
- I think we very much can win this race.
00:34:51.060 --> 00:34:54.690
- No one organization, company,
00:34:54.690 --> 00:34:56.820
research institution or university
00:34:56.820 --> 00:34:58.770
is gonna solve this problem alone.
00:34:58.770 --> 00:35:01.350
We'll require many disciplines,
00:35:01.350 --> 00:35:05.160
not only science and
engineering, but policy,
00:35:05.160 --> 00:35:08.700
social science, education
all at the table together.
00:35:08.700 --> 00:35:10.260
- The good news is that there are
00:35:10.260 --> 00:35:13.020
a lot of technological answers
00:35:13.020 --> 00:35:16.380
to these big environmental
problems that we have right now.
00:35:16.380 --> 00:35:20.130
The question is, do we have
the will and the courage
00:35:20.130 --> 00:35:23.220
to break through the inertia to transition
00:35:23.220 --> 00:35:26.973
toward those more environmentally
friendly technologies?
00:35:29.700 --> 00:35:31.560
- [Narrator] Back at
Oregon State University,
00:35:31.560 --> 00:35:32.910
Ani and Maddie prepare to test
00:35:32.910 --> 00:35:34.650
the first batch of marine debris
00:35:34.650 --> 00:35:36.900
in their newly designed reactor.
00:35:36.900 --> 00:35:38.160
The results will help determine
00:35:38.160 --> 00:35:40.380
whether advanced recycling
of ocean plastics
00:35:40.380 --> 00:35:43.773
will remain a theoretical
hope or a practical future.
00:35:44.698 --> 00:35:47.615
(machine whirring)
00:35:51.078 --> 00:35:53.757
(bright music)
00:35:53.757 --> 00:35:54.590
- 150.
00:35:59.850 --> 00:36:01.110
- [Maddie] With marine debris,
00:36:01.110 --> 00:36:04.320
we think a lot about rural
and island communities.
00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:07.230
The places where plastic washes
up are gonna be the places
00:36:07.230 --> 00:36:09.660
with the least amount of infrastructure
00:36:09.660 --> 00:36:11.700
to handle that plastics problem,
00:36:11.700 --> 00:36:13.830
which is why we work so hard
00:36:13.830 --> 00:36:16.200
to make our reactor really simple to use.
00:36:16.200 --> 00:36:19.380
And because it's so
much easier to reproduce
00:36:19.380 --> 00:36:21.090
our new version of the reactor,
00:36:21.090 --> 00:36:24.720
we do a lot of proof of
concept of what about plastics
00:36:24.720 --> 00:36:26.490
that are washing up from the ocean.
00:36:26.490 --> 00:36:29.340
Could that go to a rural
or island community?
00:36:29.340 --> 00:36:31.170
And so we are testing things
00:36:31.170 --> 00:36:33.780
like what happens when we
have barnacles on our plastic,
00:36:33.780 --> 00:36:35.790
what happens when we have
salt water on our plastic,
00:36:35.790 --> 00:36:38.310
what happens when we have
seaweed in our plastic?
00:36:38.310 --> 00:36:41.070
And all of those things
we will work to test
00:36:41.070 --> 00:36:43.710
both with plastics from this trip
00:36:43.710 --> 00:36:47.548
and other sources of waste plastic.
00:36:47.548 --> 00:36:50.965
(bright music continues)
00:36:56.790 --> 00:36:58.860
- [Narrator] The tests are a success,
00:36:58.860 --> 00:37:01.740
but it's only one step
in a very long journey.
00:37:01.740 --> 00:37:02.760
And it may very well be
00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:05.130
that the scientists who complete this work
00:37:05.130 --> 00:37:06.273
have yet to be born.
00:37:07.710 --> 00:37:10.618
- The younger generation is eager to help.
00:37:10.618 --> 00:37:15.000
I work with elementary and
middle school kids all the time,
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:18.037
and the number of questions
they have when you say,
00:37:18.037 --> 00:37:21.660
"Oh, I turn plastic into
diesel," it's like magic.
00:37:21.660 --> 00:37:25.470
Their eyes light up. They
have endless questions.
00:37:25.470 --> 00:37:27.870
So while I may not be able
00:37:27.870 --> 00:37:30.300
to pick up all the plastic in the world,
00:37:30.300 --> 00:37:35.130
if I can excite five
more kids once a year,
00:37:35.130 --> 00:37:38.310
that there are people
working on this problem
00:37:38.310 --> 00:37:43.310
so keep your hopes up, that
will be a good day for me.
00:37:44.048 --> 00:37:47.131
(bright music fades)
00:37:52.166 --> 00:37:54.916
(rhythmic music)
00:38:02.068 --> 00:38:05.651
(rhythmic music continues)
00:38:12.149 --> 00:38:15.732
(rhythmic music continues)
00:38:22.206 --> 00:38:25.789
(rhythmic music continues)
00:38:32.140 --> 00:38:35.723
(rhythmic music continues)
00:38:42.096 --> 00:38:45.679
(rhythmic music continues)
00:38:52.043 --> 00:38:55.626
(rhythmic music continues)
00:39:02.080 --> 00:39:04.330
(no audio)
Distributor: Collective Eye Films
Length: 39 minutes
Date: 2023
Genre: Expository
Language: English / English subtitles
Grade: 10-12, College, Adults
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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