1
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,000
[electronic beeping]

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00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:10,600
[static fizzling]

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[indistinct chattering]

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[female narrator] Disneyland, 1957.

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An intriguing house of the future
opens its doors to the public.

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[man] A work surface that includes
a combination supersonic dishwasher

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and storage unit.

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A family food center
to store atomically irradiated food.

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[narrator] What's really futuristic
is that the whole place is plastic.

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[man] A four-wing plastic shell
makes a snug and solid five-room dwelling,

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designed for a family of four.

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[narrator] In the ten years it's open,

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20 million visitors
take a peek at the future.

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But when it comes to taking it down,

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the house proves
almost impossible to demolish.

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They have to use demolition cables
to break it into tiny pieces,

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an early omen of the challenge
plastics will become.

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The thing is,

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almost every piece of plastic
ever made still exists today.

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[squawking]

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In 2015, the world produces
322 million tons of plastic,

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enough to fill
every skyscraper in New York City.

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But consider this: in the 60 years
since mass production began,

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we've produced
7.8 billion tons of plastic waste.

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That's every New York skyscraper
23 times over.

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Yet without plastics,
there is no modern world.

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No medicine, no computers,
communications, or travel.

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We can't live without them.
Can we live with them?

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This jet necklace, madam,
is Bakelite resinoid.

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We consider it equal, if not better,
than the natural mineral.

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It's beautiful! And how light.

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And so smooth and warm to the touch.

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[narrator] Bakelite, the first 
fully-synthetic man-made plastic.

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It doesn't just look good.
It's super light, super strong,

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heat resistant,
and doesn't conduct electricity.

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So a great insulator

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that can be molded
into just about anything.

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During the first half of the 20th century,

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most radios, telephones,
household gadgets, plates,

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and saucers, even textiles,
all contain Bakelite.

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It really is a game changer.

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It's so strong that a seven-passenger car 
can be hung on a one-inch rod of it.

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-An engineer told me that.
-Hmm.

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[narrator] It's all thanks 
to the American inventor Leo Baekeland.

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He came up with the word "plastics,"
from a Greek word, "plastikós,"

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meaning "to mold or shape."

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In 1907, he mixes the chemical phenol,
from petroleum,

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with formaldehyde, an alcohol.

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He adds some fillers, heats it up,
and voilà,

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big breakthrough with plastics,
Bakelite.

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A weird word. But way easier
to say than the scientific name,

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polyoxybenzylmethylengylcolanhydride.

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It's like a fine piece of amber.

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[narrator] An easy mistake to make.

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Baekeland had been inspired
by the plastics that occur in nature...

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such as amber.

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So what is plastic, exactly?

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All plastics are made of molecules
called "monomers" containing carbon.

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Using chemical reactions or additives,
the monomers are linked together,

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a bit like a bike chain,
and they become polymers,

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different plastics.

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There's two types:

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thermoplastics, which soften when heated
and can be recycled,

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like carpets, clothes, and furniture,

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and thermosets, which,
once molded and rigid, stay that way,

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like electrical fittings,
work surfaces, or car bodies.

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We've been using
nature's plastics for millennia.

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Latex from rubber trees
has been used since ancient times

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to make baskets and clothes waterproof.

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Tortoiseshell and rhino horn,
yes, they're actually plastic,

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have been used for centuries
in making jewelry and weapons.

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The difference 
with man-made plastics like Bakelite

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is that they're largely
based on fossil fuels like oil

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and manufactured chemically in a lab.

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As plastic technology
evolves in the early 1900s,

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new industries like car manufacturers
make the most of this new material.

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They use it everywhere,

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as insulation for electric wires,
spark plug caps, and light fittings,

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all of which make the cars much safer.

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[man] But the old-fashioned glass
treated under this new invention

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only gives you an old-fashioned headache.

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[narrator] Plastics become
so important in cars,

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pioneer Henry Ford even comes up
with a new way of making the stuff.

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He turns to natural oil
from soybeans and corn.

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In 1941, he shows off a new prototype car

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made mostly of soybean-based plastic.

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Twenty-five percent lighter than metal,
it's stunningly fuel efficient.

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But Ford can't pursue the project,
because history steps in.

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The world faces more pressing priorities.

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World War II speeds up
the progress of plastic.

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The Allies need it to make
fighting machines more efficient.

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Metal, steel, copper, aluminum,
and zinc are all in short supply.

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There's not much natural rubber, either.

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Southeast Asia
is occupied by the Japanese.

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So plastics become a substitute
for traditional manufacturing materials.

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To cope with the demands of wartime,

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petrochemical companies
build massive new plants,

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turning crude oil into plastic.

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It's used in planes and tanks

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to make gearwheels,
synthetic rubber tires,

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parachutes, and ropes,
all made from nylon.

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[man] This paratrooper,
floating down to welcome Mother Earth,

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is depending on plastics
to get him there safely.

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[narrator] Plastic plays a huge part
in helping the Allies win the war.

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[big band music playing]

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With the Nazis beaten,

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the United States
is now in a great position

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to take the lead in plastics production.

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It owns two-thirds 
of the world's manufacturing capacity.

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The plastics industry comes of age,

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turning from war to peace,
from fighting to fun.

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[man] Here's a pair being tried on
during office hours.

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Men will of course be observing
the lack of wrinkles round the foot.

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[narrator] Plastics are 
about to conquer the world.

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It's the dawn of a consumer explosion.

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[rock 'n' roll music playing]

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In 1945, most people
had never heard of a television.

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But, by 1949,
as plastic makes TVs cheaper,

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Americans buy 100,000 a week.

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Between 1955 and 1965,

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42% of Americans
rely on condoms for birth control.

122
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And in 1965,
the symbol of everything plastic

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also arrives: the plastic bag.

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Today, the world uses
about 500 billion plastic bags a year,

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a million a minute.

126
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[jazz music playing]

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Through the '40s, '50s, and '60s,
the plastic revolution begins.

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[man 1] Ann has her own system
when she prepares salads and other foods.

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She just covers them
with clear plastic film.

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[man 2] Every record is made
with the same high-fidelity standards.

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[man 3] In the world of tomorrow,
plastics will certainly call the tune.

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[classical piano music playing]

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[narrator] These postwar decades
are when plastic becomes a lifestyle.

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[woman] The one way to buy Tupperware
is a fun way: at a Tupperware home party.

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[man] Nowadays, everything
can be made in plastic,

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turning a huge sheet of plastic
into a boat in nine minutes flat.

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The extras are optional.

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And there's no need to worry about running
on the rocks. This new boat will take it.

139
00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:06,720
[narrator] By the end of the '60s,
plastic even makes it off-planet.

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00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:10,840
That flag Neil Armstrong
plants on the moon, nylon.

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00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,640
Here's where plastic
really goes through the roof.

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[man] Beautiful,  just beautiful.

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00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:22,520
[narrator] In 1950, the world produces
1.5 million tons of plastic,

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00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:24,640
about 60 oil tankers.

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00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:27,280
By the middle of the 1960s,

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00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,320
production has rocketed
to about 25 million tons,

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00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:33,600
around 1,000 oil tankers.

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00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:38,360
In the 1970s, it doubles,
reaching about 50 million tons,

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nearly 2,000 oil tankers.

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Roughly the same weight 
as the Empire State Building

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140 times over.

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[man] Coca-Cola has the taste
you never get tired of.

153
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Always refreshing.

154
00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:57,880
[narrator] In 1975,

155
00:09:57,960 --> 00:09:59,680
when Coke and Pepsi decide

156
00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:02,280
it's time to replace
their famous glass bottles

157
00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:04,800
with something a little cheaper...

158
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chemists come up with the answer...

159
00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:12,200
the PET soda bottle.

160
00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:14,680
Nothing to do with cute animals.

161
00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,760
PET is short for
polyethylene terephthalate.

162
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,760
It's strong enough
to hold pressurized drinks.

163
00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:27,200
But more importantly, it can be recycled,

164
00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:30,560
used again and again
to make more bottles cheaply.

165
00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:35,800
It swiftly becomes 
the most popular form of packaging.

166
00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,120
-[zapping]
-[beeping]

167
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:41,760
It isn't until the start of the 1980s

168
00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:45,440
that the world wakes up
to the big problem with plastics.

169
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:51,400
Our addiction to the stuff
has created an environmental catastrophe.

170
00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:56,560
How do we get rid of something
that's virtually indestructible...

171
00:10:57,680 --> 00:10:59,880
and yet so cheap, we just throw it away?

172
00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:06,000
Scientists estimate
it takes around 450 years

173
00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:08,640
for one plastic bottle
to break down naturally.

174
00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:12,200
But that's only a guess.
We don't actually know.

175
00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:15,400
Plastic doesn't degrade
like other materials,

176
00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:17,400
because it's man-made.

177
00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:21,680
It comes from monomers of propylene,

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00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:25,360
linked together
by extremely strong carbon-carbon bonds.

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00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:28,920
There is nothing like that in nature,

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00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,800
so nature has no idea
of how to break it down.

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00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:35,240
As a result, plastic pollution

182
00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:38,600
is one of the biggest 
environmental threats we face.

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00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:41,920
[squawking]

184
00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:50,000
To confront the growing problem,
toward the end of the 1980s,

185
00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:52,200
recycling begins to take off,

186
00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:56,600
as manufacturers come up
with better ways to dispose of the stuff.

187
00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:02,800
Those three recycling plastic arrows
first appear in 1988.

188
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,840
And recycling changes
how we look at plastic.

189
00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:11,960
Just one plastic bottle
saves enough energy

190
00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:14,760
to power a 60-watt light bulb
for three hours.

191
00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:15,800
[dinging]

192
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:21,120
Nineteen PET plastic bottles

193
00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:24,360
saves enough fiber
to make one big T-shirt.

194
00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:29,520
Recycling one ton of plastic
saves over 1,000 gallons of gas.

195
00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:32,360
And it creates jobs.

196
00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:37,000
In the US, over 700,000 people
work in the recycling business.

197
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,560
But one of the biggest
benefits of recycling:

198
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,840
it takes 88% less energy
to make plastics this way

199
00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:45,640
than using raw materials.

200
00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:50,400
But the truth is,

201
00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:52,640
recycling is a long way from working.

202
00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:58,680
Globally, only 19.9%
of all plastic thrown away is recycled.

203
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,560
Still, plastic is an addiction
we just cannot kick.

204
00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:09,400
As we enter the 1990s,

205
00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,880
our whole lives are shaped by plastic.

206
00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:15,440
Your home only exists thanks to plastic.

207
00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:17,800
The plumbing, the furniture,

208
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:21,000
the lighting systems, all plastic.

209
00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:25,440
It's the same for your TV,
sound system, and kitchen gadgets.

210
00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:28,600
Your health also depends on plastic.

211
00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:31,920
Surgeons in modern operating rooms

212
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:34,160
perform more effectively
thanks to plastic.

213
00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:39,800
Plastic artificial joints,
pioneered in the 1960s,

214
00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:43,480
get even better in the 1990s
as tougher polymers become available.

215
00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:48,200
By replacing
that damaged articular cartilage

216
00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:53,480
with artificial materials, such as metal 
or plastic, reduces the pain.

217
00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:55,680
[narrator] Most medical research,

218
00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:58,520
whether creating life 
or defeating disease,

219
00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:00,960
couldn't happen without plastic.

220
00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:03,880
It literally saves our lives.

221
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:07,840
[beeping]

222
00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,840
Every year, 600,000 people live longer

223
00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:14,280
thanks to pacemakers
insulated with plastic.

224
00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:20,560
Car seat belts with plastic webbing
cut the risk of being killed by 45%.

225
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:26,400
Each year, defibrillators, delivering
high-energy electric shocks to the heart,

226
00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,560
save 30,000 lives in the UK alone.

227
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,800
Globally, more than 10 million people

228
00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:36,120
benefit from 3D-printed
plastic hearing aids.

229
00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:39,640
And worldwide,

230
00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,760
around 35 million diabetics are kept alive

231
00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,120
thanks to disposable plastic syringes.

232
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,720
Plastics also protect our heroes.

233
00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,800
Since the 1980s,
Nomex and Kevlar-treated clothing

234
00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:01,840
help firefighters
and search and rescue teams save lives

235
00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:03,520
and stay alive themselves.

236
00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:04,560
[indistinct chattering]

237
00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:08,440
And since 1987,
body armor made from Kevlar,

238
00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:10,480
one of the toughest plastics ever made,

239
00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:15,440
has saved the lives
of 3,100 American police officers.

240
00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:16,600
[indistinct shouting]

241
00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:20,400
It helps our sports heroes perform better.

242
00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:25,000
Check out this 2007 ski suit.

243
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:26,720
It absorbs all the impact energy

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through the rate-sensitive 
intelligent molecules,

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which are in the suit.

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[narrator] Plastic has an impact 
on everything we do,

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making our lives much better.

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But our failure to dispose
of used plastic is killing the planet.

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So how do we solve this dilemma?

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We're not just burying plastics
in landfills, which is bad enough.

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We're swamping our oceans with it.

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Between 8 to 12 million tons of plastic
are dumped into the sea each year,

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roughly a garbage truck every minute.

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There are five massive areas in the oceans

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where tides and currents have created
giant, floating plastic garbage dumps.

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The largest,
called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,

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is twice the size of Texas.

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There might be 80,000 to 100,000 tons 
of plastic in this area alone.

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And it's not just ugly. It's deadly.

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Every year, plastic kills
over 100,000 marine animals

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and a million sea birds.

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Some see the plastic as food and eat it.

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They're poisoned
as toxins build up in their bodies.

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But there's so much plastic in the sea,
they can't escape it.

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At the rate we're going,

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by 2050, there will be
more plastics in our oceans than fish.

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In an ominous development,
even we are becoming plastic.

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Research in 2018 shows microplastics
have been found in human waste.

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How it gets there is unclear.

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It might be from packaging,
clothes, furniture, or carpets.

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Whether it's medically dangerous,
it's too soon to say.

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But plastic pollution is so widespread,

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we might all be ingesting
a credit card's worth of plastic a week.

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Solutions are needed,
and they're starting to come.

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Giant companies like Adidas

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are moving towards using
100% recyclable plastic in their sneakers.

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A host of smaller firms

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are making handbags and clothes
out of recycled plastics.

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Even more radical solutions
are in the pipeline.

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What about chemicals or enzymes
that could actually eat plastic?

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[man] Discovery of the enzyme is amazing.

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Something that can eat plastic,
that normally takes 400 years to degrade,

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the bacteria are starting to eat this
in a matter of days.

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[whirring]

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[narrator] Today, most plastics
are still based on petroleum,

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which is why they're not biodegradable.

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So they don't break down in the earth.

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But perhaps there are different,
friendlier ways plastics can be made.

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As Henry Ford
first tried to show us in 1941,

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you can make plastics
out of natural plant oils,

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00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,480
and those plastics
do decay back into the Earth.

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Recently, scientists have begun working 
along similar lines,

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experimenting with algae to develop
a new type of biodegradable plastic.

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These microorganisms
create a bioplastics polymer

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that's much less toxic
and that degrades more quickly

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than synthetic plastics.

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They're also looking at plants,
like switchgrass, oilseed,

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and sugarcane,
to produce natural polymers.

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These could all
be part of future solutions.

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[squawking]

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The miracle of plastic
comes at a high price.

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Our lives depend on it,

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but how we dispose of it
threatens the planet.

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00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,880
If we can wean ourselves off plastic
that is not essential

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00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:45,640
and use biodegradable versions
where we can,

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00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:50,600
we might just find a way to have 
the best of all worlds...

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or at least save this one.

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[electronic music playing]