Ted Videos Notes

AP Environmental
TED Video Notes

Notes:
• Styrofoam is one of the most polluting materials we use
• Instead of Styrofoam we can use fungus to create a mycelium matrix which is a suitable, renewable, biodegradable replacement
• In the US we recycle very little of our plastic
• Only about 7%
• Problems blocking the recycling of plastic include: many types, colors, many forms of plastic are of about the same density
• Separating the different types of plastic are very difficult
• In many countries across the globe plastics are burned and incinerated most often to remove the precious metals which can be recycled easier as with computer motherboards
• The pacific garbage patch is one of only many in the five oceans across the globe
• To reduce the growth of this pollution across the globe, we should move to more recyclable containers such as glass and metals
• The plastic containers we use also leach toxic chemicals such as BPA into our food and beverages, which can cause great harm to us
• Plastics to detrimental damage to the poor
• The poor are exposed to fumes and chemicals when they produce the plastic products
• Because they are poor they can only afford to buy the toxic plastic products
• Finally when the plastic is discarded it is the poor in third world countries who burn it and are again exposed to dangerous fumes and chemicals
• Throughout the life of a plastic product from production to use to disposal, it the poor who are detrimentally impacted by the plastic
• Design should encompass not just an objects use today but how it can be remade and remade again in a cycle to limit the refuse our society produces
• Every product should be designed with the intention of it being not recyclable but cycleable, that all the products we use and own are one single ecosystem of reusability one can be made into another etc.

Summary: This assignment was actually quite enjoyable and must preferred to reading a whole book. Short educational videos such as TED videos, are a great learning resource. The videos are usually entertaining sometimes a bit funny while at the same time the information is being shared. I learned a lot while watching these videos. I focused on recycling for about eight of the videos I watched and was amazed by how low the recycle rate of plastic in the United States is, at about seven percent. The use of these videos in educating people is priceless. Free knowledge to anyone who can get access to a computer is great and these videos are a great learning resource for anyone.