TEDGlobal 2011
Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic
麥克·比德爾 : 我們能回收塑膠
Filmed:
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1,175,569 views
與金屬百分之九十的回收率相比，塑膠的回收率只有百分之十。其中的原因在於塑膠種類的判別與分類相當複雜。對材料浪費的無奈，促使麥克·比德爾博士發展出既經濟又大量節能的工廠，確實地做到各種塑膠的回收。
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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我的工作是清潔垃圾
00:18
And you might find it interesting that I became a garbage man,
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原因還蠻有趣的，我之所以選擇這個行業
00:21
because I absolutely hate waste.
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正因為我極度厭惡垃圾
00:23
I hope, within the next 10 minutes,
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接下來十分鐘的演講
00:26
to change the way you think
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我希望能改變大家
00:28
about a lot of the stuff in your life.
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對生活周遭物品的看法
00:30
And I'd like to start at the very beginning.
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就從最早的時期開始講起
00:32
Think back when you were just a kid.
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回想一下小時候
00:34
How did look at the stuff in your life?
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你怎麼看待生活中的東西?
00:36
Perhaps it was like these toddler rules:
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可能像一般小朋友心中的這套規則一樣
00:40
It's my stuff if I saw it first.
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我先看到的東西都是我的
00:43
The entire pile is my stuff if I'm building something.
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我在堆東西時成堆都是我的
00:47
The more stuff that's mine, the better.
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我的東西愈多愈好
00:50
And of course, it's your stuff if it's broken.
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當然壞掉的都算是別人的
00:53
(Laughter)
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(笑聲)
00:55
Well after spending about 20 years in the recycling industry,
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從事回收產業二十年後
00:57
it's become pretty clear to me
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我更清楚地體認到
00:59
that we don't necessarily leave these toddler rules behind
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這些幼兒時期的規則
01:01
as we develop into adults.
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並沒有隨著我們長大而全部消失
01:03
And let me tell you why I have that perspective.
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讓我來說明這一點
01:05
Because each and every day
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每天，每一天
01:07
at our recycling plants around the world
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全世界的廢棄物回收場
01:09
we handle about one million pounds
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處理著上百萬磅
01:12
of people's discarded stuff.
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人類製造的廢棄物
01:14
Now a million pounds a day sounds like a lot of stuff,
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一天一百萬磅，聽起來似乎是很龐大的數量
01:16
but it's a tiny drop of the durable goods
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但是這只佔每年全世界
01:19
that are disposed each and every year around the world --
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被丟棄的耐用品的一小部分
01:21
well less than one percent.
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低於比百分之一
01:23
In fact, the United Nations estimates
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事實上聯合國估計
01:25
that there's about 85 billion pounds a year
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每年大約有八百五十億磅的
01:27
of electronics waste
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電子廢棄物
01:29
that gets discarded around the world each and every year --
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被棄置在全世界
01:31
and that's one of the most rapidly growing parts of our waste stream.
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這類垃圾正快速成長中
01:34
And if you throw in other durable goods like automobiles and so forth,
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如果加上其它被丟棄的耐用品，像是車子之類的
01:37
that number well more than doubles.
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總數還會增加到兩倍以上
01:39
And of course, the more developed the country,
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當然一個國家的發展程度愈高
01:41
the bigger these mountains.
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堆積的垃圾山就愈大
01:43
Now when you see these mountains,
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看到垃圾山時
01:45
most people think of garbage.
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多數人只想到垃圾
01:47
We see above-ground mines.
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我們卻看到地上的礦山
01:49
And the reason we see mines is because there's a lot of valuable raw materials
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我們認定它是礦山，是因為這些被丟棄的物品
01:52
that went into making all of this stuff in the first place.
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當初都是由許多貴重的稀有金屬原料製成的
01:55
And it's becoming increasingly important
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在極度錯綜複雜的垃圾堆中
01:57
that we figure out how to extract these raw materials
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提煉出原料的技術
02:00
from these extremely complicated waste streams.
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變得愈來愈重要
02:03
Because as we've heard all week at TED,
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一整周的TED演講都傳達一個訊息
02:05
the world's getting to be a smaller place with more people in it
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隨著人口不斷增長，世界變得愈來愈小
02:08
who want more and more stuff.
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每個人都想要更多的東西
02:10
And of course, they want the toys and the tools
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當然，他們會想擁有這些
02:13
that many of us take for granted.
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我們大部份人早已擁有的玩具跟工具
02:15
And what goes into making those toys and tools
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我們每天所用的玩具跟工具
02:18
that we use every single day?
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是用什麼材料製造的
02:20
It's mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals.
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主要是各種的塑膠和金屬
02:23
And the metals, we typically get
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金屬原料
02:26
from ore that we mine
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通常採自世界各地
02:28
in ever widening mines
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不斷擴大的礦坑
02:30
and ever deepening mines around the world.
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或是更深層的礦坑
02:32
And the plastics, we get from oil,
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而塑膠，則是來自石油
02:35
which we go to more remote locations
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油田開採愈來愈偏遠
02:37
and drill ever deeper wells to extract.
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也愈來愈深
02:40
And these practices have
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兩者背後
02:42
significant economic and environmental implications
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所牽扯的巨大的經濟和環境問題
02:45
that we're already starting to see today.
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直到今日，才逐漸浮現出來
02:48
The good news is we are starting to recover materials from our end-of-life stuff
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好消息是我們開始在使用過的物品中找回有用的材料
02:51
and starting to recycle our end-of-life stuff,
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並且開始回收這類物品
02:53
particularly in regions of the world like here in Europe
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世界上有些地區，例如歐洲
02:56
that have recycling policies in place
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回收政策已經落實
02:59
that require that this stuff be recycled
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並明確要求人們
03:01
in a responsible manner.
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必須盡責地回收物品
03:03
Most of what's extracted from our end-of-life stuff,
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這些用過的物品，交給回收公司後
03:05
if it makes it to a recycler, are the metals.
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所提煉出來的成份主要是金屬
03:08
To put that in perspective --
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為了讓大家更清楚了解
03:10
and I'm using steel as a proxy here for metals,
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我用鋼來說明整個金屬回收的情況
03:12
because it's the most common metal --
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因為鋼是最普遍的金屬
03:14
if your stuff makes it to a recycler,
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當你把東西交給回收公司
03:16
probably over 90 percent of the metals
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幾乎百分之九十的金屬
03:18
are going to be recovered and reused for another purpose.
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將會被找到而且重新使用
03:21
Plastics are a whole other story:
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塑膠就完全不同了
03:23
well less than 10 percent are recovered.
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不到百分之十的塑膠被回收
03:25
In fact, it's more like five percent.
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實際上的數據是大約百分之五左右
03:27
Most of it's incinerated or landfilled.
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其餘都被焚化或是用於填埋
03:29
Now most people think that's because plastics are a throw-away material,
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多數人的觀念裡，塑膠本來就是用完即丟
03:31
have very little value.
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沒有什麼價值
03:33
But actually, plastics are several times more valuable than steel.
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但實際上，塑膠要比鋼貴上數倍
03:36
And there's more plastics produced and consumed
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以容積來比的話
03:38
around the world on a volume basis
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全世界每年的塑膠生產與消耗量
03:40
every year than steel.
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也比起金屬更多
03:42
So why is such a plentiful and valuable material
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塑膠不僅數量龐大又值錢
03:45
not recovered at anywhere near the rate
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為什麼它被回收利用的比例
03:47
of the less valuable material?
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卻不如那些價格較低的材料呢
03:49
Well it's predominantly because
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主要原因在於
03:51
metals are very easy to recycle
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從其他材料與其他金屬中
03:53
from other materials and from one another.
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重新提煉金屬較為容易
03:55
They have very different densities.
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金屬的密度彼此相異
03:57
They have different electrical and magnetic properties.
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電性跟磁性等特性都不同
03:59
And they even have different colors.
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外觀顏色也不同
04:01
So it's very easy for either humans or machines
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因此無論是倚賴人力或是機器
04:04
to separate these metals
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都能在多種金屬或其他材料中
04:06
from one another and from other materials.
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分離出金屬
04:08
Plastics have overlapping densities over a very narrow range.
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不同類別的塑膠卻有相近甚至相同的密度
04:12
They have either identical or very similar
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電性與磁性
04:14
electrical and magnetic properties.
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也是近似或完全相同
04:16
And any plastic can be any color,
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塑膠可以有各種顏色
04:18
as you probably well know.
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這一點大家大多知道
04:20
So the traditional ways of separating materials
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所以傳統的材料分離法
04:22
just simply don't work for plastics.
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不適用在塑膠上
04:26
Another consequence of metals being so easy to recycle by humans
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金屬比較容易被回收還有另一個因素
04:29
is that a lot of our stuff from the developed world --
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大多數的廢棄物是來自已開發國家
04:32
and sadly to say, particularly from the United States,
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很遺憾地說，特別是像美國這樣的國家
04:35
where we don't have any recycling policies in place like here in Europe --
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欠缺歐洲早已實施的回收政策又有許多廢棄物
04:38
finds its way to developing countries
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他們便將開發中國家
04:40
for low-cost recycling.
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當作是廉價回收廢棄物的管道
04:43
People, for as little as a dollar a day, pick through our stuff.
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那裡的人僅以一天一美金的低價去撿拾我們的廢棄物
04:46
They extract what they can, which is mostly the metals --
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並竭盡所能地提取出有用的物質
04:48
circuit boards and so forth --
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大多是金屬類或電路板等
04:50
and they leave behind mostly what they can't recover,
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然後丟棄無法回收的物質
04:52
which is, again, mostly the plastics.
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這些大部分都是塑膠類
04:55
Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals
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或是在這樣的焚燒場中
04:58
in burn houses like you see here.
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燃燒塑膠以取出內含的金屬成分
05:00
And they extract the metals by hand.
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他們以手工具提煉金屬
05:04
Now while this may be the low-economic-cost solution,
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這也許是低經濟成本的解決之道
05:07
this is certainly not the low-environmental
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但絕非低環境成本的策略
05:09
or human health-and-safety solution.
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也違反人類健康安全的考量
05:12
I call this environmental arbitrage.
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我稱之為環境套利交易
05:15
And it's not fair, it's not safe
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這不公平，不安全
05:18
and it's not sustainable.
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而且無法永續發展
05:21
Now because the plastics are so plentiful --
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塑膠製品大量出現
05:23
and by the way,
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順便一提
05:25
those other methods don't lead to the recovery of plastics, obviously --
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有些方法顯然並不能真正地回收塑膠
05:27
but people do try to recover the plastics.
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但人們確實努力嘗試這麼做
05:29
This is just one example.
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這裡有個例子
05:31
This is a photo I took standing on the rooftops
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這張照片是我站在印度孟買一個貧民窟的屋頂拍的
05:33
of one of the largest slums in the world in Mumbai, India.
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它是世界上最大的貧民窟之一
05:36
They store the plastics on the roofs.
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他們把塑膠存放於屋頂
05:38
They bring them below those roofs into small workshops like these,
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之後，拿進屋內像這樣的小型工作坊
05:41
and people try very hard to separate the plastics,
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他們努力的將塑膠分類
05:44
by color, by shape, by feel,
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用顏色，形狀，觸感
05:46
by any technique they can.
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以及任何派得上用場的技巧
05:48
And sometimes they'll resort to what's known as the "burn and sniff" technique
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有時候採取所謂的「燃燒嗅聞法」
05:50
where they'll burn the plastic and smell the fumes
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就是將塑膠燃燒後
05:52
to try to determine the type of plastic.
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以產生的煙味來判斷分辨塑膠的種類
05:55
None of these techniques result in any amount of recycling
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這些技巧無法大量地
05:58
in any significant way.
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運用在塑膠回收
06:00
And by the way,
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提醒大家
06:02
please don't try this technique at home.
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切勿在家嘗試這類技巧
06:04
So what are we to do about this space-age material,
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我們該怎麼處理這些太空時代的材料
06:07
at least what we used to call a space-aged material, these plastics?
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我們以前還宣稱塑膠是太空時代的材料呢
06:10
Well I certainly believe that it's far too valuable and far too abundant
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我承認塑膠太過珍貴，數量也太過龐大
06:13
to keep putting back in the ground
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不該被埋回地裡
06:15
or certainly send up in smoke.
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或燒成煙霧
06:17
So about 20 years ago, I literally started in my garage tinkering around,
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大約二十年前，我開始在車庫裡東試西試
06:20
trying to figure out how to separate
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嘗試去分離
06:22
these very similar materials from each other,
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這些特質相似的物質
06:24
and eventually enlisted a lot of my friends,
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還拉了許多朋友一起幫忙
06:27
in the mining world actually, and in the plastics world,
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特別是在礦業界跟在塑膠業界的朋友
06:30
and we started going around to mining laboratories around the world.
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我們拜訪世界各地的礦物分析實驗室
06:33
Because after all, we're doing above-ground mining.
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畢竟我們正在做的是地上礦物的開採
06:36
And we eventually broke the code.
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終於我們破解了其中的奧秘
06:38
This is the last frontier of recycling.
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這是回收領域的最新發展
06:40
It's the last major material
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也是地球上的重要材料中
06:42
to be recovered in any significant amount on the Earth.
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最後一種被大量回收的
06:44
And we finally figured out how to do it.
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我們終於知道方法了
06:46
And in the process, we started recreating
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我們重新創造出
06:48
how the plastics industry makes plastics.
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塑膠業界製造塑膠的程序
06:50
The traditional way to make plastics
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傳統塑膠製造的方法
06:52
is with oil or petrochemicals.
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是使用石油或是石化原料
06:54
You breakdown the molecules, you recombine them in very specific ways,
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將分子分解後，以非常特殊的方法重新組合
06:57
to make all the wonderful plastics that we enjoy each and every day.
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去製造各種我們每天都在使用的美好塑膠製品
07:00
We said, there's got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics.
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而我們認為一定有一套永續的塑膠製造法
07:03
And not just sustainable from an environmental standpoint,
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它不僅僅要確保環境上的永續發展
07:06
sustainable from an economic standpoint as well.
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也能促進經濟的常久發展
07:09
Well a good place to start is with waste.
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從垃圾做起是個不錯的想法
07:11
It certainly doesn't cost as much as oil,
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它不會像石油那麼昂貴
07:13
and it's plentiful,
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而且數量龐大
07:15
as I hope that you've been able to see from the photographs.
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如同你在圖片中看到的一樣
07:17
And because we're not breaking down the plastic into molecules
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我們未採用傳統先分解成分子
07:19
and recombining them,
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再重新組合的方式
07:21
we're using a mining approach to extract the materials.
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而是以採礦的方式提煉材料
07:24
We have significantly lower capital costs
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工廠設備只需
07:26
in our plant equipment.
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相當低的資本
07:28
We have enormous energy savings.
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能源消耗也節省了許多
07:30
I don't know how many other projects on the planet right now
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我不知道這個地球上有多少專案像我們一樣
07:32
can save 80 to 90 percent of the energy
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在能源的使用上
07:35
compared to making something the traditional way.
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比起傳統方法節省了百分之八十到九十
07:37
And instead of plopping down several hundred million dollars
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與其投入上億的資產
07:39
to build a chemical plant
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去建座化學工廠
07:41
that will only make one type of plastic for its entire life,
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卻僅能生產單一種類的塑膠
07:44
our plants can make any type of plastic we feed them.
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我們的工廠 ，提供任何塑膠，即可產出同種類的塑膠
07:47
And we make a drop-in replacement
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我們提供的替代塑膠
07:49
for that plastic that's made from petrochemicals.
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取代了一般石化廠的製品
07:51
Our customers get to enjoy
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我們個客戶很滿意
07:53
huge CO2 savings.
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省下了大量的二氧化碳排放
07:55
They get to close the loop with their products.
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他們得以致力於產品改善
07:57
And they get to make more sustainable products.
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並製造更多永續性的產品
07:59
In the short time period I have,
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在這簡短的演講中
08:01
I want to show you a little bit of a sense about how we do this.
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我想讓大家對我們的作業流程有些概念
08:04
It starts with metal recyclers who shred our stuff into very small bits.
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第一個步驟是金屬回收機，他們將回收品切成小碎塊
08:07
They recover the metals
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從中挑出金屬
08:09
and leave behind what's called shredder residue -- it's their waste --
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剩下的就叫粉碎殘餘物，是金屬回收的垃圾
08:11
a very complex mixture of materials,
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非常複雜的混合物
08:13
but predominantly plastics.
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主要成分是塑膠
08:15
We take out the things that aren't plastics,
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我們取出非塑膠類的成份
08:17
such as the metals they missed, carpeting, foam, rubber,
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像是被忽略掉的金屬、地毯料、泡沬橡皮、合成橡膠
08:20
wood, glass, paper, you name it.
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木材、玻璃、紙、舉凡你能想到的都有
08:23
Even an occasional dead animal, unfortunately.
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不幸地有時會發現動物屍體
08:25
And it goes in the first part of our process here, which is more like traditional recycling.
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這些是作業流程的第一步驟，與傳統回收作業相似
08:28
We're sieving the material, we're using magnets,
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篩選材料的方法，有時使用磁鐵
08:30
we're using air classification.
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或空氣分級法
08:32
It looks like the Willy Wonka factory at this point.
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有點像是電影巧克力冒險工廠電影裡威利‧旺卡的工廠
08:34
At the end of this process, we have a mixed plastic composite:
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這個步驟完成後，會得到塑膠混合物
08:37
many different types of plastics
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包含許多種類
08:39
and many different grades of plastics.
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以及各種等級的塑膠
08:41
This goes into the more sophisticated part of our process,
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接著進行比較精密複雜
08:43
and the really hard work, multi-step separation process begins.
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也是是真正困難的部分，就是多階段的分離程序
08:47
We grind the plastic down to about the size of your small fingernail.
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我們把這些塑膠碾成小指指甲般大小
08:50
We use a very highly automated process
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使用高度自動化設備
08:52
to sort those plastics,
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進行挑選分類
08:54
not only by type, but by grade.
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依類型和等級
08:56
And out the end of that part of the process
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這個步驟最後
08:58
come little flakes of plastic:
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會得到小塑膠薄片
09:00
one type, one grade.
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有不同種類，不同等級
09:02
We then use optical sorting to color sort this material.
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然後用光學方法進行顏色分類
09:05
We blend it in 50,000-lb. blending silos.
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在50000磅的儲存槽中混合後
09:08
We push that material to extruders where we melt it,
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把材料擠入押出機，在機器中熔化後
09:11
push it through small die holes,
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擠過模孔
09:13
make spaghetti-like plastic strands.
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形成像義大利麵形狀的塑膠條
09:15
And we chop those strands
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然後將長條切成顆粒
09:17
into what are called pellets.
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這就是塑膠粒
09:19
And this becomes the currency of the plastics industry.
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這就是塑膠業界的基本原物料
09:23
This is the same material
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和以石油中製造成的塑膠粒
09:26
that you would get from oil.
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完全相同
09:28
And today,
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而今天
09:30
we're producing it from your old stuff,
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我們是從你的廢棄舊物中製造出來
09:33
and it's going right back into your new stuff.
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它將成為新物品，重回到我們的生活
09:36
(Applause)
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(鼓掌)
09:45
So now, instead of your stuff ending up
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如今，你的舊物不再堆放在
09:47
on a hillside in a developing country
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開發中國家的垃圾山裡
09:49
or literally going up in smoke,
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也不會被焚化成煙
09:51
you can find your old stuff
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你的舊物
09:53
back on top of your desk in new products,
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將以新產品的樣貌重回你的書桌上
09:56
in your office,
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回到你的辦公室
09:58
or back at work in your home.
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回到你的家裡繼續發揮效能
10:00
And these are just a few examples
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這些只是我們下游廠商的部分產品
10:02
of companies that are buying our plastic,
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他們以我們的塑膠
10:04
replacing virgin plastic,
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取代以往由原料製成的塑膠
10:06
to make their new products.
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並以回收塑膠製造新產品
10:08
So I hope I've changed the way you look at
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我希望我已經改變
10:10
at least some of the stuff in your life.
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大家對一些生活用品的看法
10:12
We took our clues from mother nature.
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大自然給了我們啟示
10:14
Mother nature wastes very little,
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大自然幾乎不浪費任何東西
10:16
reuses practically everything.
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它重複使用每一項資源
10:18
And I hope that you stop looking at yourself as a consumer --
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我希望你不再將自己視為一名消費者
10:21
that's a label I've always hated my entire life --
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我這輩子都厭惡這個名稱
10:24
and think of yourself as just using resources in one form,
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設想你自己只是以某種形式在使用資源
10:28
until they can be transformed to another form
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有一天，這資源會以另一個樣貌
10:30
for another use later in time.
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另一項功能出現
10:32
And finally, I hope you agree with me
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最後，我希望大家同意我
10:35
to change that last toddler rule just a little bit
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稍微修改「小朋友守則」的最後一條
10:38
to: "If it's broken, it's my stuff."
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新守則是：所有壞掉的東西都是我的
10:41
Thank you for your time.
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感謝你的聆聽
10:43
(Applause)
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(鼓掌)
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