TEDGlobal 2011
Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic
Mike Biddle: O plástico pódese reciclar
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Readability: 3.9
1,175,569 views
Recíclase menos do 10% dos residuos plásticos (comparado co case 90% dos metais) a causa do moi complicado problema de atopar e clasificar os diferentes tipos. Frustrado por este desperdicio, Mike Biddle desenvolveu unha planta económica e enerxeticamente eficiente que pode reciclar calquer tipo de plástico.
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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Son o home do lixo.
00:18
And you might find it interesting that I became a garbage man,
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Ao mellor atopades interesante que me convertise nun home do lixo,
00:21
because I absolutely hate waste.
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porque aborrezo profundamente o refugallo.
00:23
I hope, within the next 10 minutes,
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Espero que, nos próximos 10 minutos,
00:26
to change the way you think
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mudedes a vosa maneira de pensar
00:28
about a lot of the stuff in your life.
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sobre moitos materiais da vosa vida.
00:30
And I'd like to start at the very beginning.
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Gustaríame comezar polo principio.
00:32
Think back when you were just a kid.
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Recordade cando erades uns cativos.
00:34
How did look at the stuff in your life?
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Como viades as cousas da vosa vida?
00:36
Perhaps it was like these toddler rules:
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Se cadra fose coma unha desas regras de cativos:
00:40
It's my stuff if I saw it first.
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Isto é meu porque o vin primeiro.
00:43
The entire pile is my stuff if I'm building something.
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O pila enteira é miña se estou a construir algo.
00:47
The more stuff that's mine, the better.
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Cantas mais cousas teña, mellor.
00:50
And of course, it's your stuff if it's broken.
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E, por suposto, se está roto, é teu.
00:53
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
00:55
Well after spending about 20 years in the recycling industry,
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Despois de pasar uns 20 anos na industria da reciclaxe,
00:57
it's become pretty clear to me
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cheguei á conclusión
00:59
that we don't necessarily leave these toddler rules behind
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de que casualmente non deixamos atrás estas regras infantís
01:01
as we develop into adults.
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cando nos volvemos adultos.
01:03
And let me tell you why I have that perspective.
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Deixádeme dicirvos por que teño esta visión.
01:05
Because each and every day
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Porque cada día,
01:07
at our recycling plants around the world
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nas nosas plantas de reciclaxe de todo o mundo,
01:09
we handle about one million pounds
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tratamos cunhas 500 toneladas
01:12
of people's discarded stuff.
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de refugallo que a xente crea.
01:14
Now a million pounds a day sounds like a lot of stuff,
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Agora, unhas 500 toneladas ao día parece moito,
01:16
but it's a tiny drop of the durable goods
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pero é unha minúscula cantidade dos bens duradeiros
01:19
that are disposed each and every year around the world --
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que se tiran cada ano no mundo...
01:21
well less than one percent.
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Menos do un por cento.
01:23
In fact, the United Nations estimates
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De feito, as Nacións Unidas estiman
01:25
that there's about 85 billion pounds a year
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que se producen uns 43 millóns de toneladas ao ano
01:27
of electronics waste
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de residuos electrónicos
01:29
that gets discarded around the world each and every year --
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que se tiran en todo o mundo todos os anos...
01:31
and that's one of the most rapidly growing parts of our waste stream.
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Esta é unha das partes que máis axiña medran da nosa corrente de residuos.
01:34
And if you throw in other durable goods like automobiles and so forth,
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E se incluimos outros bens duradeiros coma automóbiles e demais,
01:37
that number well more than doubles.
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o número ben pode duplicarse.
01:39
And of course, the more developed the country,
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E, obviamente, canto máis desenvolvido sexa o país,
01:41
the bigger these mountains.
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maiores serán estas montañas.
01:43
Now when you see these mountains,
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Cando se ven estas montañas,
01:45
most people think of garbage.
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a maioría da xente pensa en lixo.
01:47
We see above-ground mines.
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Nós vemos minas sobre o chan.
01:49
And the reason we see mines is because there's a lot of valuable raw materials
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E a razón pola que vemos minas é porque hai moitas materias primas valiosas
01:52
that went into making all of this stuff in the first place.
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que formaron parte destes produtos na súa fabricación.
01:55
And it's becoming increasingly important
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Cada vez resulta máis importante
01:57
that we figure out how to extract these raw materials
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descubrir como extraer esas materias primas
02:00
from these extremely complicated waste streams.
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desas extremadamente complicadas correntes de residuos.
02:03
Because as we've heard all week at TED,
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Porque, como escoitamos toda a semana en TED,
02:05
the world's getting to be a smaller place with more people in it
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o mundo estase facendo pequeno ó haber mais xente nel
02:08
who want more and more stuff.
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que quere mais e mais obxectos.
02:10
And of course, they want the toys and the tools
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E, claro, esa xente quere os xoguetes e ferramentas
02:13
that many of us take for granted.
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que moitos de nós menospreciamos.
02:15
And what goes into making those toys and tools
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E de que están feitos estos xoguetes e ferramentas
02:18
that we use every single day?
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que usamos cada día?
02:20
It's mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals.
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Son, maioritariamente, varios tipos de plásticos e metais.
02:23
And the metals, we typically get
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Os metais normalmente sácanse
02:26
from ore that we mine
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dos minerais que extraemos
02:28
in ever widening mines
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nas minas mais amplias
02:30
and ever deepening mines around the world.
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e profundas do mundo.
02:32
And the plastics, we get from oil,
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Os plásticos sácanse do petróleo,
02:35
which we go to more remote locations
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polo que imos aos lugares máis remotos
02:37
and drill ever deeper wells to extract.
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e perforamos pozos máis profundos para extraelo.
02:40
And these practices have
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Estas prácticas teñen
02:42
significant economic and environmental implications
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repercusións medioambientais e económicas significativas
02:45
that we're already starting to see today.
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que xa estamos comezando a ver hoxe.
02:48
The good news is we are starting to recover materials from our end-of-life stuff
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O bo é que comezamos a recuperar materiais dos productos que xa non empregamos
02:51
and starting to recycle our end-of-life stuff,
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comezamos a reciclalos,
02:53
particularly in regions of the world like here in Europe
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particularmente en rexións do mundo como aquí en Europa
02:56
that have recycling policies in place
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onde se poñen en práctica políticas de reciclaxe
02:59
that require that this stuff be recycled
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que obrigan a reciclar estes productos
03:01
in a responsible manner.
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de forma responsable.
03:03
Most of what's extracted from our end-of-life stuff,
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A maioría do que se extrae dos productos inútiles,
03:05
if it makes it to a recycler, are the metals.
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en caso de que se reciclen, son metais.
03:08
To put that in perspective --
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Para poñelo en perspectiva...
03:10
and I'm using steel as a proxy here for metals,
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Emprego o aceiro como representante dos metais
03:12
because it's the most common metal --
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porque é o metal mais común...
03:14
if your stuff makes it to a recycler,
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En caso de que os productos se reciclen,
03:16
probably over 90 percent of the metals
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probablemente un 90 por cento dos metais
03:18
are going to be recovered and reused for another purpose.
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recuperaranse e reutilizaranse para outras fins.
03:21
Plastics are a whole other story:
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Os plásticos son outra historia:
03:23
well less than 10 percent are recovered.
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recupérase menos do 10 por cento.
03:25
In fact, it's more like five percent.
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De feito, achégase máis ao 5 por cento.
03:27
Most of it's incinerated or landfilled.
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A maioría incinérase ou lévase ao vertedeiro.
03:29
Now most people think that's because plastics are a throw-away material,
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Agora a maioría da xente pensa que é porque os plásticos son material de refugallo,
03:31
have very little value.
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con moi pouco valor.
03:33
But actually, plastics are several times more valuable than steel.
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Pero, de feito, os plásticos son moito mais valiosos que o aceiro.
03:36
And there's more plastics produced and consumed
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E prodúcese e consúmese mais volume
03:38
around the world on a volume basis
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de plásticos ca de aceiro
03:40
every year than steel.
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cada ano no mundo.
03:42
So why is such a plentiful and valuable material
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Entón, por que non ten a mesma taxa de recuperación
03:45
not recovered at anywhere near the rate
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o material abundante e valioso
03:47
of the less valuable material?
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ca o menos valioso?
03:49
Well it's predominantly because
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É basicamente porque
03:51
metals are very easy to recycle
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é moi sinxelo reciclar metais
03:53
from other materials and from one another.
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a partires doutros materiais e duns a outros.
03:55
They have very different densities.
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Teñen densidades moi diferentes.
03:57
They have different electrical and magnetic properties.
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Teñen propiedades eléctricas e magnéticas distintas.
03:59
And they even have different colors.
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E incluso teñen diferentes cores.
04:01
So it's very easy for either humans or machines
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Así que para humanos e máquinas resulta sinxelo
04:04
to separate these metals
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separar estes metais
04:06
from one another and from other materials.
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entre eles e doutros materiais.
04:08
Plastics have overlapping densities over a very narrow range.
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Os plásticos teñen densidades solapadas nun rango moi limitado.
04:12
They have either identical or very similar
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Teñen propiedades eléctricas e magnéticas
04:14
electrical and magnetic properties.
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moi similares, se non idénticas.
04:16
And any plastic can be any color,
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E calquera plástico pode ter calquera cor,
04:18
as you probably well know.
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como seguramente xa saibades.
04:20
So the traditional ways of separating materials
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Por iso as formas tradicionais de separar materiais
04:22
just simply don't work for plastics.
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simplemente non funcionan cos plásticos.
04:26
Another consequence of metals being so easy to recycle by humans
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Outra consecuencia de que os humanos reciclen tan facilmente os metais
04:29
is that a lot of our stuff from the developed world --
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é que moitos produtos do mundo desenvolvido,
04:32
and sadly to say, particularly from the United States,
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e tristemente, sobre todo dos Estados Unidos,
04:35
where we don't have any recycling policies in place like here in Europe --
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onde non hai políticas de reciclaxe en funcionamento como en Europa,
04:38
finds its way to developing countries
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acaban nos países en desenvolvemento
04:40
for low-cost recycling.
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para unha reciclaxe de baixo custo.
04:43
People, for as little as a dollar a day, pick through our stuff.
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A xente selecciona os nosos produtos por un só dólar ó día.
04:46
They extract what they can, which is mostly the metals --
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Extraen o que poden, básicamente os metais:
04:48
circuit boards and so forth --
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placas base e demais,
04:50
and they leave behind mostly what they can't recover,
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e deixan atrás o que non poden recuperar,
04:52
which is, again, mostly the plastics.
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maioritariamente os plásticos.
04:55
Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals
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Ou queiman os plásticos para chegar aos metais
04:58
in burn houses like you see here.
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en incineradoras como estas.
05:00
And they extract the metals by hand.
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E logo extraen os metais a man.
05:04
Now while this may be the low-economic-cost solution,
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Por iso, ainda que esta é a solución económica,
05:07
this is certainly not the low-environmental
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non é a solución máis segura para a saúde humana
05:09
or human health-and-safety solution.
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nin para o medioambiente.
05:12
I call this environmental arbitrage.
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A isto chámolle arbitraxe medioambiental.
05:15
And it's not fair, it's not safe
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Non é xusto, non é seguro
05:18
and it's not sustainable.
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e non é sostible.
05:21
Now because the plastics are so plentiful --
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Os plásticos son moi abundantes...
05:23
and by the way,
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e, por certo,
05:25
those other methods don't lead to the recovery of plastics, obviously --
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aqueles outros métodos non levan á recuperación dos plásticos, obviamente...
05:27
but people do try to recover the plastics.
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pero a xente intenta recuperar os plásticos.
05:29
This is just one example.
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Este é un exemplo.
05:31
This is a photo I took standing on the rooftops
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Esta é unha foto que fixen dende os tellados
05:33
of one of the largest slums in the world in Mumbai, India.
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dun dos barrios máis grandes do mundo, en Mumbai, India.
05:36
They store the plastics on the roofs.
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Almacenan os plásticos nos tellados.
05:38
They bring them below those roofs into small workshops like these,
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Dspois báixanos e lévanos a pequenos obradoiros coma este,
05:41
and people try very hard to separate the plastics,
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e a xente esfórzase en separar os plásticos,
05:44
by color, by shape, by feel,
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por cor, forma, tacto...
05:46
by any technique they can.
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calquera técnica que poidan.
05:48
And sometimes they'll resort to what's known as the "burn and sniff" technique
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Ás veces recorren á que chaman técnica de "queimar e ulir"
05:50
where they'll burn the plastic and smell the fumes
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onde queiman o plástico e ulen o fume
05:52
to try to determine the type of plastic.
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para intentar determinar de qué tipo é.
05:55
None of these techniques result in any amount of recycling
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Ningunha destas técnicas resulta nunha reciclaxe
05:58
in any significant way.
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realmente significativa.
06:00
And by the way,
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E, por certo,
06:02
please don't try this technique at home.
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non probedes esta técnica na casa, por favor.
06:04
So what are we to do about this space-age material,
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Que facemos entón con este material espacial,
06:07
at least what we used to call a space-aged material, these plastics?
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o que polo menos nós chamabamos material espacial, estes plásticos?
06:10
Well I certainly believe that it's far too valuable and far too abundant
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Eu penso que é demasiado valioso e abundante para
06:13
to keep putting back in the ground
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seguir soterrándoo no chan
06:15
or certainly send up in smoke.
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ou botalo en forma de fume.
06:17
So about 20 years ago, I literally started in my garage tinkering around,
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Fai uns 20 anos, empezei literalmente a xogar no meu garaxe,
06:20
trying to figure out how to separate
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intentando averiguar como separar
06:22
these very similar materials from each other,
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estes materiais tan parecidos entre eles,
06:24
and eventually enlisted a lot of my friends,
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e ao final recrutei a moitos amigos,
06:27
in the mining world actually, and in the plastics world,
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do mundo mineiro, de feito, e do dos plásticos,
06:30
and we started going around to mining laboratories around the world.
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e comezamos a ir a laboratorios de minería por todo o mundo.
06:33
Because after all, we're doing above-ground mining.
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Porque, despois de todo, estamos a facer minería descuberta.
06:36
And we eventually broke the code.
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E finalmente atopamos a clave.
06:38
This is the last frontier of recycling.
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Esta é a derradeira fronteira da reciclaxe.
06:40
It's the last major material
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É o material mais importante
06:42
to be recovered in any significant amount on the Earth.
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que hai que recuperar nunha cantidade significativa na Terra.
06:44
And we finally figured out how to do it.
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E ao final averiguamos como facelo.
06:46
And in the process, we started recreating
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Durante o proceso, comezamos recreando
06:48
how the plastics industry makes plastics.
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como fai plásticos a industria do plástico.
06:50
The traditional way to make plastics
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A forma tradicional de facer plásticos
06:52
is with oil or petrochemicals.
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é con petróleo ou petroquímicos.
06:54
You breakdown the molecules, you recombine them in very specific ways,
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Rómpense as moléculas e recombínanse de xeito específico
06:57
to make all the wonderful plastics that we enjoy each and every day.
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para facer os incribles plásticos dos que gozamos cada día.
07:00
We said, there's got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics.
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Pensamos que tiña que haber unha forma máis sostible de facer plásticos.
07:03
And not just sustainable from an environmental standpoint,
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E non só sostible desde un punto de vista medioambiental,
07:06
sustainable from an economic standpoint as well.
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senón tamén económico.
07:09
Well a good place to start is with waste.
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Unha boa maneira de comezar é co refugallo.
07:11
It certainly doesn't cost as much as oil,
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Desde logo, non custa tanto coma o petróleo,
07:13
and it's plentiful,
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e é abundante,
07:15
as I hope that you've been able to see from the photographs.
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como ben poidestes ver nas fotografías.
07:17
And because we're not breaking down the plastic into molecules
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E dado que non imos descompoñer o plástico en moléculas
07:19
and recombining them,
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e recombinalas,
07:21
we're using a mining approach to extract the materials.
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usamos un enfoque mineiro para extraer os materiais.
07:24
We have significantly lower capital costs
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Temos costes capitais moi baixos
07:26
in our plant equipment.
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no noso equipo de planta.
07:28
We have enormous energy savings.
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Temos enormes aforros enerxéticos.
07:30
I don't know how many other projects on the planet right now
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Non sei cantos proxectos no planeta poden aforrar agora mesmo
07:32
can save 80 to 90 percent of the energy
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entre un 80 e un 90 por cento da enerxía
07:35
compared to making something the traditional way.
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en comparación con facer algo dunha forma tradicional.
07:37
And instead of plopping down several hundred million dollars
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En lugar de tirar varios centos de millóns de dólares
07:39
to build a chemical plant
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para construir unha planta química
07:41
that will only make one type of plastic for its entire life,
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que só fará un tipo de plástico durante toda a súa vida,
07:44
our plants can make any type of plastic we feed them.
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as nosas plantas poden facer calquer tipo de plástico que lle deamos.
07:47
And we make a drop-in replacement
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Facemos unha substitución
07:49
for that plastic that's made from petrochemicals.
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para ese plástico feito a partir de petroquímicos.
07:51
Our customers get to enjoy
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Os nosos clientes gozan
07:53
huge CO2 savings.
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de aforros inxentes de CO2.
07:55
They get to close the loop with their products.
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Conseguen pechar o circuito cos seus produtos
07:57
And they get to make more sustainable products.
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e fan produtos máis sostibles.
07:59
In the short time period I have,
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No pouco tempo que teño,
08:01
I want to show you a little bit of a sense about how we do this.
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quero mostrarvos un pouquiño como facemos isto.
08:04
It starts with metal recyclers who shred our stuff into very small bits.
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Empeza con recicladores de metais que descompoñen o material en pequenas pezas.
08:07
They recover the metals
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Recuperan os metais
08:09
and leave behind what's called shredder residue -- it's their waste --
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e deixan atrás o que chamamos residuos da trituradora, os restos,
08:11
a very complex mixture of materials,
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unha complexa mistura de materiais,
08:13
but predominantly plastics.
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pero sobre todo, plásticos.
08:15
We take out the things that aren't plastics,
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Sacamos as cousas que non son plásticos,
08:17
such as the metals they missed, carpeting, foam, rubber,
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como os metais que quedaron, moqueta, escuma, caucho,
08:20
wood, glass, paper, you name it.
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madeira, vidro, papel...
08:23
Even an occasional dead animal, unfortunately.
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Incluso, ás veces, algún animal morto, por desgracia.
08:25
And it goes in the first part of our process here, which is more like traditional recycling.
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Isto vai na primeira parte do noso proceso, que se parece mais á reciclaxe tradicional.
08:28
We're sieving the material, we're using magnets,
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Peneiramos o material, usamos imáns
08:30
we're using air classification.
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e utilizamos unha clasificación aérea.
08:32
It looks like the Willy Wonka factory at this point.
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Agora parécese á fábrica de Willy Wonka.
08:34
At the end of this process, we have a mixed plastic composite:
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Ao final deste proceso, temos un composto de plástico mixto:
08:37
many different types of plastics
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moitos tipos de plásticos diferentes
08:39
and many different grades of plastics.
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e moitas calidades de plásticos diferentes.
08:41
This goes into the more sophisticated part of our process,
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Isto lévanos á parte máis sofisticada do noso proceso,
08:43
and the really hard work, multi-step separation process begins.
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ao traballo realmente duro. Comeza o proceso de separación de varias fases.
08:47
We grind the plastic down to about the size of your small fingernail.
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Trituramos o plástico ata o tamaño da nosa unlla máis pequena.
08:50
We use a very highly automated process
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Usamos un proceso altamente automatizado
08:52
to sort those plastics,
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para clasificar eses plásticos,
08:54
not only by type, but by grade.
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non só por tipo, tamén por calidade.
08:56
And out the end of that part of the process
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Ao final desa parte do proceso
08:58
come little flakes of plastic:
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quedan pequenas escamas de plástico:
09:00
one type, one grade.
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un tipo, unha calidade.
09:02
We then use optical sorting to color sort this material.
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Logo usamos un parámetro óptico para clasificar este material pola súa cor.
09:05
We blend it in 50,000-lb. blending silos.
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Combinámolos nuns silos mesturadores dunhas 23 t.
09:08
We push that material to extruders where we melt it,
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Metemos ese material en extrusoras onde se funde,
09:11
push it through small die holes,
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empurrámolo por pequenos buracos
09:13
make spaghetti-like plastic strands.
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facendo filamentos de plástico coma espaguetis.
09:15
And we chop those strands
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Cortamos estes filamentos
09:17
into what are called pellets.
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no que chamamos perdigóns.
09:19
And this becomes the currency of the plastics industry.
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E isto convértese na moeda da industria dos plásticos.
09:23
This is the same material
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Este é o mesmo material
09:26
that you would get from oil.
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que extraeriades do petróleo.
09:28
And today,
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E hoxe,
09:30
we're producing it from your old stuff,
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producímolo a partir dos vosos productos vellos,
09:33
and it's going right back into your new stuff.
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e volve a converterse nos vosos novos produtos.
09:36
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
09:45
So now, instead of your stuff ending up
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Así, agora, en vez de deixar que os vosos productos
09:47
on a hillside in a developing country
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terminen nunha ladeira nun país en desenvolvemento
09:49
or literally going up in smoke,
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ou que, literalmente, se fagan fume,
09:51
you can find your old stuff
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podedes atopar os vosos produtos vellos
09:53
back on top of your desk in new products,
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de novo nos vosos escritorios como produtos novos,
09:56
in your office,
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na vosa oficina,
09:58
or back at work in your home.
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ou de volta a funcionar nas casas.
10:00
And these are just a few examples
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Estes só son algúns exemplos
10:02
of companies that are buying our plastic,
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de empresas que mercan o noso plástico
10:04
replacing virgin plastic,
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e substitúen o plástico virxe
10:06
to make their new products.
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para facer os novos produtos.
10:08
So I hope I've changed the way you look at
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Así que espero ter cambiado a vosa forma de mirar
10:10
at least some of the stuff in your life.
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polo menos algúns dos produtos na vosa vida.
10:12
We took our clues from mother nature.
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Nós collemos as nosas pistas da nai natureza.
10:14
Mother nature wastes very little,
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A nai natureza desperdicia moi pouco,
10:16
reuses practically everything.
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reutiliza practicamente todo.
10:18
And I hope that you stop looking at yourself as a consumer --
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E espero que deixedes de considerarvos consumidores.
10:21
that's a label I've always hated my entire life --
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Esa é unha etiqueta que odiei toda a miña vida.
10:24
and think of yourself as just using resources in one form,
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Só pensade que usades uns recursos nunha forma,
10:28
until they can be transformed to another form
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ata que se poden transformar noutra cousa
10:30
for another use later in time.
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para outro uso máis adiante.
10:32
And finally, I hope you agree with me
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Para rematar, espero que esteades de acordo comigo
10:35
to change that last toddler rule just a little bit
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en cambiar aquela derradeira norma dos cativos a:
10:38
to: "If it's broken, it's my stuff."
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"Se está roto, é o meu problema".
10:41
Thank you for your time.
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Gracias polo voso tempo.
10:43
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
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