TEDGlobal 2011
Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic
麦克·比德尔：我们可以回收塑料
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只有不到10%的塑料垃圾被回收--金属垃圾却有近90%的回收率--原因塑料存在大量且复杂的回收和分类的问题，鉴于这种浪费的现状，麦克·比德尔发明了一种经济且出色的高效节能工厂，从而可以使得塑料垃圾回收变得可能。
Mike Biddle - Plastics recycler
Discarded plastic, too often, ends up buried or burned, not recycled (it's just too complicated). But Mike Biddle has found a way to close the loop. Full bio
Discarded plastic, too often, ends up buried or burned, not recycled (it's just too complicated). But Mike Biddle has found a way to close the loop. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
I'm a garbage man.
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我是垃圾清洁工
00:18
And you might find it interesting that I became a garbage man,
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你也许会发现这其实非常有趣
00:21
because I absolutely hate waste.
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因为我非常讨厌垃圾
00:23
I hope, within the next 10 minutes,
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我希望在这10分钟内
00:26
to change the way you think
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可以改变大家对于
00:28
about a lot of the stuff in your life.
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生活中很多东西的看法
00:30
And I'd like to start at the very beginning.
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我希望从最开始的时候讲起
00:32
Think back when you were just a kid.
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回想一下你还是个孩子的时候
00:34
How did look at the stuff in your life?
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你怎么看你身边的事物？
00:36
Perhaps it was like these toddler rules:
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也许就像这些儿童法则：
00:40
It's my stuff if I saw it first.
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我第一个发现就是我的
00:43
The entire pile is my stuff if I'm building something.
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如果我在做一个东西，那么它全部都归我
00:47
The more stuff that's mine, the better.
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我的东西越多越好
00:50
And of course, it's your stuff if it's broken.
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当然，如果坏了的话，那就是你的了
00:53
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
00:55
Well after spending about 20 years in the recycling industry,
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在再生资源产业工作了20年后
00:57
it's become pretty clear to me
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我非常清楚一点
00:59
that we don't necessarily leave these toddler rules behind
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那就是当我们成人以后，不一定就要抛弃
01:01
as we develop into adults.
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儿童法则
01:03
And let me tell you why I have that perspective.
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让我来解释一下其中的原因
01:05
Because each and every day
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因为每一天
01:07
at our recycling plants around the world
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全世界的垃圾回收厂
01:09
we handle about one million pounds
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要处理大约一百万磅
01:12
of people's discarded stuff.
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人们废弃的东西
01:14
Now a million pounds a day sounds like a lot of stuff,
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一百万磅听起来好像是很多的东西
01:16
but it's a tiny drop of the durable goods
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但这只是全世界每年
01:19
that are disposed each and every year around the world --
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废弃的耐用品的九牛一毛--
01:21
well less than one percent.
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少于1%
01:23
In fact, the United Nations estimates
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事实上，联合国估计
01:25
that there's about 85 billion pounds a year
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每年大约有八百五十亿磅的
01:27
of electronics waste
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电子垃圾
01:29
that gets discarded around the world each and every year --
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在世界范围上被丢弃--
01:31
and that's one of the most rapidly growing parts of our waste stream.
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这是增长速度最快的垃圾种类之一
01:34
And if you throw in other durable goods like automobiles and so forth,
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如果算上其他的耐用物品比如汽车之类的话
01:37
that number well more than doubles.
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那数量可能会增加一倍多
01:39
And of course, the more developed the country,
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当然，国家越发展
01:41
the bigger these mountains.
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这个数量就越多
01:43
Now when you see these mountains,
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现在当大家看见这些山的时候
01:45
most people think of garbage.
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多数人会认为是垃圾
01:47
We see above-ground mines.
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我们却看见了一个地上矿场
01:49
And the reason we see mines is because there's a lot of valuable raw materials
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我们这么看的原因是，那其中有许多有价值的
01:52
that went into making all of this stuff in the first place.
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可以再造这些东西的原材料
01:55
And it's becoming increasingly important
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这种转化正在变得愈加重要
01:57
that we figure out how to extract these raw materials
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我会阐述是如何把这些彻底的废品
02:00
from these extremely complicated waste streams.
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提炼成这些原材料的
02:03
Because as we've heard all week at TED,
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就像我们在TED听到过的
02:05
the world's getting to be a smaller place with more people in it
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随着人口和人类物欲的增长，
02:08
who want more and more stuff.
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世界正在变得越来越小
02:10
And of course, they want the toys and the tools
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当然 想拥有玩具和工具
02:13
that many of us take for granted.
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多数人觉得是理所应当的
02:15
And what goes into making those toys and tools
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我们每天都在用的工具和玩具
02:18
that we use every single day?
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是用什么做的呢？
02:20
It's mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals.
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主要是各种塑料和金属原料
02:23
And the metals, we typically get
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金属原料，我们一般
02:26
from ore that we mine
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从分布在世界上的
02:28
in ever widening mines
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广阔的矿山
02:30
and ever deepening mines around the world.
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或者是深层矿场所开采的矿石中获取
02:32
And the plastics, we get from oil,
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我们通过石油获得塑料
02:35
which we go to more remote locations
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我们到更加偏僻的地方
02:37
and drill ever deeper wells to extract.
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然后不断加深钻井抽出原油
02:40
And these practices have
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这些工作
02:42
significant economic and environmental implications
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对于经济和环境都有重要的影响
02:45
that we're already starting to see today.
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这种影响我们现在已经开始看到
02:48
The good news is we are starting to recover materials from our end-of-life stuff
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好消息是我们正在开始恢复这些正在枯竭的物质
02:51
and starting to recycle our end-of-life stuff,
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同时正在开始回收利用它们
02:53
particularly in regions of the world like here in Europe
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特别是我们所在的欧洲
02:56
that have recycling policies in place
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已经出台相应的回收政策
02:59
that require that this stuff be recycled
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要求这些物质应当以负责的态度
03:01
in a responsible manner.
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被回收利用
03:03
Most of what's extracted from our end-of-life stuff,
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大多数我们从即将枯竭的资源中所提取的物质
03:05
if it makes it to a recycler, are the metals.
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如果说可被循环使用的，那就是金属
03:08
To put that in perspective --
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为了便于理解--
03:10
and I'm using steel as a proxy here for metals,
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我在这里用钢作代表
03:12
because it's the most common metal --
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因为它是最常用的金属--
03:14
if your stuff makes it to a recycler,
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如果你可以进行回收利用
03:16
probably over 90 percent of the metals
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大约超过90%的金属
03:18
are going to be recovered and reused for another purpose.
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将会被回收利用同时会被用于其它用途
03:21
Plastics are a whole other story:
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塑料制品则完全不同
03:23
well less than 10 percent are recovered.
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仅有不到10%被回收
03:25
In fact, it's more like five percent.
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实际上，只有差不多5%
03:27
Most of it's incinerated or landfilled.
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多数都被焚化或填埋
03:29
Now most people think that's because plastics are a throw-away material,
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如今多数人都认为塑料是废弃的材料
03:31
have very little value.
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没什么用
03:33
But actually, plastics are several times more valuable than steel.
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但事实上，塑料要比钢的价值高出好几倍
03:36
And there's more plastics produced and consumed
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同时，世界范围内塑料的生产和消耗
03:38
around the world on a volume basis
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要比钢在数量上
03:40
every year than steel.
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高的多
03:42
So why is such a plentiful and valuable material
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所以为什么如此大量且有价值的原料
03:45
not recovered at anywhere near the rate
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却不被回收利用，其回收率几近于
03:47
of the less valuable material?
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无价值的原料
03:49
Well it's predominantly because
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一个明显的原因是
03:51
metals are very easy to recycle
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因为金属非常易于
03:53
from other materials and from one another.
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从其它原料或金属中回收
03:55
They have very different densities.
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它们的密度相同
03:57
They have different electrical and magnetic properties.
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有不同的电子特性和磁性
03:59
And they even have different colors.
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甚至颜色也不同
04:01
So it's very easy for either humans or machines
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所以对于人和机器来说都非常容易
04:04
to separate these metals
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把它们从金属中
04:06
from one another and from other materials.
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或从其它材料中分离开
04:08
Plastics have overlapping densities over a very narrow range.
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塑料在一个非常小范围内存在着重叠密度
04:12
They have either identical or very similar
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他们有相同的或是非常相似的
04:14
electrical and magnetic properties.
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电子特性和磁性
04:16
And any plastic can be any color,
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任何塑料都可以是任意颜色
04:18
as you probably well know.
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就像大家了解的那样
04:20
So the traditional ways of separating materials
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因此传统的分离材料的方法
04:22
just simply don't work for plastics.
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不适用于塑料制品
04:26
Another consequence of metals being so easy to recycle by humans
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金属可以被人类如此方便回收的另一个原因是
04:29
is that a lot of our stuff from the developed world --
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许多原料都是来自发达国家--
04:32
and sadly to say, particularly from the United States,
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遗憾的说，大多来自美国
04:35
where we don't have any recycling policies in place like here in Europe --
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我们美国并没有任何像欧洲这边的相关回收政策--
04:38
finds its way to developing countries
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寻求发展中国家的
04:40
for low-cost recycling.
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低成本回收
04:43
People, for as little as a dollar a day, pick through our stuff.
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一天仅仅一美元的人力成本，来捡拾垃圾
04:46
They extract what they can, which is mostly the metals --
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他们挑出他们能挑出来的东西，大多都是金属--
04:48
circuit boards and so forth --
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电路板等等--
04:50
and they leave behind mostly what they can't recover,
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然后留下大部分他们不能回收的
04:52
which is, again, mostly the plastics.
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其中多数还是塑料
04:55
Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals
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或者他们焚烧掉塑料，然后得到金属
04:58
in burn houses like you see here.
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像这样在屋中焚烧
05:00
And they extract the metals by hand.
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他们手工提取金属
05:04
Now while this may be the low-economic-cost solution,
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也许这是低成本的解决方案
05:07
this is certainly not the low-environmental
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但这肯定是不环保
05:09
or human health-and-safety solution.
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或不利于人类健康的解决方案
05:12
I call this environmental arbitrage.
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我称其为环境套利
05:15
And it's not fair, it's not safe
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这是不公平，不安全
05:18
and it's not sustainable.
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不可持续发展的
05:21
Now because the plastics are so plentiful --
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因为当今塑料太多了--
05:23
and by the way,
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同时
05:25
those other methods don't lead to the recovery of plastics, obviously --
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那些其他的方法也明显的不能回收塑料--
05:27
but people do try to recover the plastics.
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但人类确实在尝试着回收塑料
05:29
This is just one example.
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这就是个例子
05:31
This is a photo I took standing on the rooftops
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这张照片是我站在屋顶上拍摄的
05:33
of one of the largest slums in the world in Mumbai, India.
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世界上最大的贫民窟之一，在印度孟买
05:36
They store the plastics on the roofs.
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他们把塑料储存在屋顶
05:38
They bring them below those roofs into small workshops like these,
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屋顶下面是像这样的小作坊
05:41
and people try very hard to separate the plastics,
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人们非常努力地进行塑料分类
05:44
by color, by shape, by feel,
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根据颜色，形状，感觉等
05:46
by any technique they can.
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一切他们掌握的技术
05:48
And sometimes they'll resort to what's known as the "burn and sniff" technique
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有时他们会采取“燃烧和闻”的技术
05:50
where they'll burn the plastic and smell the fumes
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也就是他们点燃塑料然后闻气味
05:52
to try to determine the type of plastic.
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来判定塑料的类型
05:55
None of these techniques result in any amount of recycling
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这些技术对于没有对回收量起到
05:58
in any significant way.
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任何显著的作用
06:00
And by the way,
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顺便提一下
06:02
please don't try this technique at home.
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请不要在家里尝试这种技术
06:04
So what are we to do about this space-age material,
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所以我们如何处理这些航空时代材料
06:07
at least what we used to call a space-aged material, these plastics?
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至少我们以前这么叫，这些塑料？
06:10
Well I certainly believe that it's far too valuable and far too abundant
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我坚信它们实在是数量巨大的宝贵财富
06:13
to keep putting back in the ground
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所以不能让它们闲置在那
06:15
or certainly send up in smoke.
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或是焚烧成一缕黑烟
06:17
So about 20 years ago, I literally started in my garage tinkering around,
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所以大约20年前，我在车库里开始着手
06:20
trying to figure out how to separate
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尝试如何把这些非常相似的材料
06:22
these very similar materials from each other,
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互相分离
06:24
and eventually enlisted a lot of my friends,
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最终我结交了很多朋友
06:27
in the mining world actually, and in the plastics world,
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采矿业的朋友，塑料领域的朋友
06:30
and we started going around to mining laboratories around the world.
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我们开始拜访世界各地的采矿实验室
06:33
Because after all, we're doing above-ground mining.
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因为归根结底，我们做的是地上采矿业
06:36
And we eventually broke the code.
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我们最终解开了难题
06:38
This is the last frontier of recycling.
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这是回收领域最后的空白
06:40
It's the last major material
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这是地球上数量可观的
06:42
to be recovered in any significant amount on the Earth.
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重要原料中，最后被回收利用的
06:44
And we finally figured out how to do it.
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最终我们找到了分类的方法
06:46
And in the process, we started recreating
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在这个过程中，我们开始再现了
06:48
how the plastics industry makes plastics.
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塑料行业生产塑料制品的过程
06:50
The traditional way to make plastics
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传统的方法是
06:52
is with oil or petrochemicals.
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用石油或石油化学产品
06:54
You breakdown the molecules, you recombine them in very specific ways,
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把分子打乱，然后用一种特殊的方式进行重组
06:57
to make all the wonderful plastics that we enjoy each and every day.
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从而创造了我们每天都在享用着的很棒的塑料制品
07:00
We said, there's got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics.
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我们认为，会有一种更可持续性的方式去生产塑料制品
07:03
And not just sustainable from an environmental standpoint,
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这种可持续性不仅仅是站在环保的立场
07:06
sustainable from an economic standpoint as well.
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也是从经济的角度上说的
07:09
Well a good place to start is with waste.
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垃圾是个很好的实验材料
07:11
It certainly doesn't cost as much as oil,
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成本肯定比石油要低得多
07:13
and it's plentiful,
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而且来源很多
07:15
as I hope that you've been able to see from the photographs.
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正如我所希望的，大家已经可以从照片中看到
07:17
And because we're not breaking down the plastic into molecules
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同时因为我们不是把塑料变成分子
07:19
and recombining them,
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然后进行重组
07:21
we're using a mining approach to extract the materials.
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我们所用的是采矿的方法来提炼原料
07:24
We have significantly lower capital costs
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用我们的设备
07:26
in our plant equipment.
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成本非常低
07:28
We have enormous energy savings.
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同时非常节能
07:30
I don't know how many other projects on the planet right now
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我不清楚当今世界上其他项目中有多少
07:32
can save 80 to 90 percent of the energy
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能在与传统生产方式比较中
07:35
compared to making something the traditional way.
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节省80%到90%的能源
07:37
And instead of plopping down several hundred million dollars
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相比起砸下数百万美元
07:39
to build a chemical plant
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去建一个只能生产
07:41
that will only make one type of plastic for its entire life,
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一种类型塑料的化工厂来说
07:44
our plants can make any type of plastic we feed them.
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我们的工厂可以制造各种类型的塑料制品
07:47
And we make a drop-in replacement
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我们为那些原料为石油化学产品
07:49
for that plastic that's made from petrochemicals.
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的塑料找到了替代原料
07:51
Our customers get to enjoy
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我们的客户享受到了
07:53
huge CO2 savings.
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大量二氧化碳节约
07:55
They get to close the loop with their products.
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他们
07:57
And they get to make more sustainable products.
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他们可以生产更可持续性的产品
07:59
In the short time period I have,
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时间很有限
08:01
I want to show you a little bit of a sense about how we do this.
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我想跟大家分享一点我们所作这些事情的感想
08:04
It starts with metal recyclers who shred our stuff into very small bits.
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开始时用金属回收器，它可以把金属碾碎成小单位
08:07
They recover the metals
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然后他们把金属复原
08:09
and leave behind what's called shredder residue -- it's their waste --
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同时把叫做回收余渣的东西丢弃--过程所产生的废物--
08:11
a very complex mixture of materials,
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一种非常复杂的混合物
08:13
but predominantly plastics.
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但主要是塑料
08:15
We take out the things that aren't plastics,
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我们取出非塑料物质
08:17
such as the metals they missed, carpeting, foam, rubber,
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比如他们遗漏的金属，地毯，泡沫塑料，橡胶
08:20
wood, glass, paper, you name it.
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木材，玻璃，纸张，大家来列举
08:23
Even an occasional dead animal, unfortunately.
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甚至是死亡的动物
08:25
And it goes in the first part of our process here, which is more like traditional recycling.
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这就是我们工序的第一部分，看起来和传统回收差不多
08:28
We're sieving the material, we're using magnets,
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我们用磁铁来筛选出金属物质
08:30
we're using air classification.
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我们使用空气分离法
08:32
It looks like the Willy Wonka factory at this point.
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在这点上看起来像是Willy Wonka的工厂
08:34
At the end of this process, we have a mixed plastic composite:
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工序的最后，我们要进行塑料混合
08:37
many different types of plastics
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许多种塑料
08:39
and many different grades of plastics.
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和许多各种等级的塑料
08:41
This goes into the more sophisticated part of our process,
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这是我们所有工序中尖端的步骤
08:43
and the really hard work, multi-step separation process begins.
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和最难的工作，多步分离过程的开始
08:47
We grind the plastic down to about the size of your small fingernail.
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我们把塑料碾碎到小拇指大小
08:50
We use a very highly automated process
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我们采用高度自动化的工序
08:52
to sort those plastics,
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进行塑料分类
08:54
not only by type, but by grade.
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不仅仅依据类型分类还有等级
08:56
And out the end of that part of the process
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最后的工序之后
08:58
come little flakes of plastic:
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会产生小塑料薄片：
09:00
one type, one grade.
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一种类型，一种等级
09:02
We then use optical sorting to color sort this material.
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我们随后用光学分类进行颜色归类
09:05
We blend it in 50,000-lb. blending silos.
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我们把5万磅的混合物放进竖井
09:08
We push that material to extruders where we melt it,
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把这些原料放进挤压机进行溶解
09:11
push it through small die holes,
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使其通过小模孔
09:13
make spaghetti-like plastic strands.
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做成类似意大利面的线状塑料
09:15
And we chop those strands
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然后把其砍断
09:17
into what are called pellets.
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变成我们所说的颗粒
09:19
And this becomes the currency of the plastics industry.
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这就变成了塑料行业中的货币
09:23
This is the same material
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这种原料和用石油制造
09:26
that you would get from oil.
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的完全一样
09:28
And today,
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而如今
09:30
we're producing it from your old stuff,
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我们用旧东西作为原料
09:33
and it's going right back into your new stuff.
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同时马上就可以变旧为新
09:36
(Applause)
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（掌声）
09:45
So now, instead of your stuff ending up
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所以如今，与其让你的废弃物
09:47
on a hillside in a developing country
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成为发展中国家垃圾山的一部分
09:49
or literally going up in smoke,
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或是焚烧成黑烟
09:51
you can find your old stuff
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你可以找出你的旧东西
09:53
back on top of your desk in new products,
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然后变旧为新，重回你的书桌上
09:56
in your office,
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办公室里
09:58
or back at work in your home.
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或回到你的家中
10:00
And these are just a few examples
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这些仅仅是使用我们提供塑料的
10:02
of companies that are buying our plastic,
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公司的一小部分案例
10:04
replacing virgin plastic,
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替换原始塑料
10:06
to make their new products.
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来制造新产品
10:08
So I hope I've changed the way you look at
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所以我希望我已经改变了大家关于事物
10:10
at least some of the stuff in your life.
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的看法，至少是部分事物的看法
10:12
We took our clues from mother nature.
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我们从自然中获得了提示
10:14
Mother nature wastes very little,
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大自然几乎没有什么是废物
10:16
reuses practically everything.
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几乎都可以被重复使用
10:18
And I hope that you stop looking at yourself as a consumer --
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我希望大家不要把自己看成一个消费者--
10:21
that's a label I've always hated my entire life --
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那是我一辈子痛恨的标签--
10:24
and think of yourself as just using resources in one form,
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把我们自己想成只是使用资源的一种形式
10:28
until they can be transformed to another form
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知道它们可以转变成另一种形式
10:30
for another use later in time.
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之后再被其他人使用
10:32
And finally, I hope you agree with me
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最后，希望大家允许我
10:35
to change that last toddler rule just a little bit
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对最后一条儿童法则进行一点点修改
10:38
to: "If it's broken, it's my stuff."
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“如果东西坏了，那就是我（麦克）的东西了”
10:41
Thank you for your time.
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谢谢大家
10:43
(Applause)
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（掌声）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mike Biddle - Plastics recyclerDiscarded plastic, too often, ends up buried or burned, not recycled (it's just too complicated). But Mike Biddle has found a way to close the loop.
Why you should listen
Throwing water bottles into the recycling bin doesn’t begin to address the massive quantity of postconsumer plastic that ends up in landfills and the ocean. Because it’s so difficult to separate the various kinds of plastics – up to 20 kinds per product – that make up our computers, cell phones, cars and home appliances, only a small fraction of plastics from complex waste streams are recycled, while the rest is tossed. In 1992, Mike Biddle, a plastics engineer, set out to find a solution. He set up a lab in his garage in Pittsburg, California, and began experimenting with complex-plastics recycling, borrowing ideas from such industries as mining and grain processing.
Since then, Biddle has developed a patented 30-step plastics recycling system that includes magnetically extracting metals, shredding the plastics, sorting them by polymer type and producing graded pellets to be reused in industry – a process that takes less than a tenth of the energy required to make virgin plastic from crude oil. Today, the company he cofounded, MBA Polymers, has plants in China and Austria, and plans to build more in Europe, where electronics-waste regulation (which doesn’t yet have an equivalent in the US) already ensures a stream of materials to exploit – a process Biddle calls “above-ground mining.”
He says: "I consider myself an environmentalist. I hate to see plastics wasted. I hate to see any natural resource – even human time – wasted.”
Mike Biddle | Speaker | TED.com