The famous science teacher Bill Nye collaborated with The Coca-Cola Company for some not-so-scientific education. Nye, best known for his TV show, “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” appears in a Coca-Cola stop-motion video posted to YouTube on Tuesday that originally referred to Gizmodo. Nye narrates himself as a cartoon doll with an upside-down plastic bottle for a head and a Coca-Cola label for a bow tie. Bill Nye is famous for his TV show “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. Business Wire “If we can recycle and recycle plastic, not only can we prevent it from becoming rubbish, we can use this plastic over and over again. It’s an amazing material,” says Nye, pulling his head out of a plastic bottle. in one hand and showing a bottle of Coca-Cola in the other. “In addition, when we use recycled material, we also reduce the carbon footprint. What should we not love? So the good people at The Coca-Cola Company are dedicated to tackling the global problem of plastic waste. They know they have a responsibility to help solve it. “and their goal: to create a world without waste.” He then explains how recycling a bottle works, as Coca-Cola performs a cute animation of the process. In fact, recycling does not create a waste-free world. Plastic bottles can only be recycled a few times before they go to landfill or get lost in the ocean. Transforming them into new products simply delays their disposal or incineration. Recycling can reduce the amount of new plastic produced and therefore reduce the amount of carbon emitted during this process, but it does not do so on a very large scale. Because recycled plastic is more expensive and of lower quality than new plastic, experts say it is unlikely to ever surpass plastic production. Plastic pollution abounds – from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Mount Everest – and Coca-Cola is one of the worst offenders. The company produces about 3 million metric tons of plastic packaging each year, according to company reports at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. This equates to 200,000 bottles per minute, making it the top plastic producer out of the 130 companies that report their number to the foundation. Coalition control of the NGO Break Free from Plastic ranked Coca-Cola as the world’s top plastic polluter for four consecutive years. The company is committed to using at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030. Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nye’s representatives did not respond immediately.
Recycling has only taken a small step in the production of plastics
Coca-Cola Bottles in Lagos, Nigeria, November 5, 2019. Temilade Adelaja / Reuters
Less than 10% of the world’s 7 billion metric tons of plastic waste has ever been recycled, according to a 2020 study cited by the UN Environment Program. Even when recycled, it does not prevent this plastic from becoming rubbish or contaminated. Bottles like Coca-Cola’s are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which means they can be recycled more often than other plastics. Some companies claim that PET can be recycled indefinitely. In fact, only 29% of PET bottles and jars were recycled in 2018. Each round of recycling degrades the quality of most plastics, so bottles are often “recycled” into fibers or wood replacements. The purchase of this recycled plastic is limited, as it is often cheaper to make new plastic from oil or gas, according to research by NPR and PBS. This research also investigated the origins of recycling and found that plastics companies spent millions of dollars to make the practice popular. Scientists from the companies themselves, however, told them that recycling would not work on a large scale. “Running recycling was one way to keep their products on the market,” Ron Liesemer, DuPont’s former director who led the industry recycling campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s, told PBS and NPR. the image of the material “. By 2015, the amount of plastic produced each year had increased tenfold since 1971. Plastic production is expected to double by 2040 and triple by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum.
Recycling does not stop microplastic pollution nor does it protect human health
A child drinks bottled water in Reynosa, Mexico, June 9, 2021. Daniel Becerril / Reuters
Even if every plastic product were recycled, it would not prevent plastics from polluting the environment and our body. Years of research show that the plastic products we use every day throw tiny pieces and wash away invisible chemicals. Studies have found microplastics in human food, drinking water, feces, placentas and lungs, being carried by the air we breathe and flowing through the veins of some people. In fact, recycled bottles may add even more chemicals to their drinks than fresh plastic bottles, according to a study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials last month. A 2019 analysis estimated that the average American swallows about 50,000 microplastic particles each year and inhaled about the same amount. Another study from 2021 estimated that the average person swallows plastic worth a credit card each week. The health consequences of this exposure are not entirely clear. Research has linked common chemicals in plastics – such as bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) – to an increased risk of cancer, fertility and growth problems, and hormone disorders. One study suggested that microplastics in the human gut could cause harmful inflammation and initiate cancer-related processes. Another found that the particles altered cell function in human lung cells. No matter how much plastic Coca-Cola recycles, as long as it continues to use PET bottles, it will be part of the problem.
