Is Plastic Killing the Earth? (Environmental Documentary) — Real Stories

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Our blue planet is facing one of the biggest threats in human history. [00:00:21] Liz Bonnen: Trillions of pieces of plastic are choking the very lifeblood of our Earth. And every marine animal, from the smallest plankton to the planet's largest creatures, is facing this new and growing threat. [00:00:39] Speaker 1: But how much do we really know about this plastic tide? [00:00:43] Speaker 3: Nick, very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Permission to come aboard. [00:00:47] Liz Bonnen: I'm Liz Bonnen, a wildlife biologist. I'm tracking down the scientists who are trying to uncover the scale of the plastic problem and what it means for life in our oceans. I'll be joining expeditions across the globe in some of the most remote and inhospitable places. To discover what's happening in our oceans right now. My God, look at it! I'll work with rescue missions attempting to save some of the worst affected animals. [00:01:22] Speaker 1: Oh God, the damage is unbelievable. [00:01:26] Liz Bonnen: And meet the engineers racing to design radical solutions. The world has been shaken by the plastic crisis. But can we turn the tide before it's too late? This is the story of plastic in our oceans. I'm beginning my mission with a group of animals that scientists believe are the key indicators for the health of our oceans. I'm going to work with the sea birds. Seabirds spend much of their life around plastic. They fly across the world, living on both the open ocean and the shorelines. They hunt on the surface of the sea where some plastic floats. And beneath the waves where smaller fragments are suspended in the water. And many eat almost anything they can find, including plastic. And one seabird has recently been discovered to eat more plastic relative to their size than any other animal in the ocean. The flesh-footed shearwater. 400 miles off the coast of Australia, in the Tasman Sea, is Lord Howe Island. This six-mile stretch of rock is home to the largest colony of flesh-footed shearwaters on the planet. 40,000 of them migrate here every autumn to the safety of the island's pristine rainforest. Where they lay their eggs in burrows. [00:03:40] Speaker 4: It's just gone eight o'clock here on Lord Howe Island, in the middle of the Tasman Sea. And I'm about to join a team of scientists and volunteers who have been gathering here every single year for the past 12 years. [00:03:57] Speaker 5: The team is led by marine biologist Dr Jennifer Lavers. The team is led by marine biologist Dr Jennifer Lavers. [00:04:07] Speaker 4: For over a decade, she's been investigating how plastic is affecting the shearwaters. [00:04:15] Liz Bonnen: She believes that these birds hold the key to understanding how plastic could be harming all marine life. All right, these are for self-protection. The birds have quite sharp beaks and also very sharp claws, so those will come in very handy. [00:04:38] Speaker 6: Okay, okay, perfect. [00:04:41] Speaker 5: They're everywhere, they're scurrying everywhere, and they're so dark. They just sort of appear out of nowhere, a little bit too late for comfort for me. [00:04:50] Liz Bonnen: Tonight, for the first time in their young lives, the shearwater chicks emerge from their burrows. From the moment they were born, they should have been fed a nutritious diet of fish and squid. But when their parents go hunting, they often mistake plastic for food. We hand over the chicks to Lord Howe Islander Ian Hutton and Dr Alex Bond, who carry out a delicate procedure. [00:05:31] Speaker 5: Okay, so what exactly are you doing now? [00:05:34] Speaker 7: Well, we've measured this one and weighed him, and now we're doing the final step, which is lavashing, which is basically gently pumping a bit of water into the stomach and getting him to vomit into the basin. So if you'd like to hold him open, Alex, we'll see if we can get this down the throat. [00:05:54] Speaker 4: Easy fella. [00:05:57] Speaker 7: Okay, so that's gone into the stomach there. [00:05:59] Speaker 4: Very nicely done, very smooth. [00:06:01] Speaker 7: Right, pumping. [00:06:01] Speaker 1: And look at that, stomach full of plastic. One, two, three, four, five, six. [00:06:11] Speaker 7: Oh, look at that, yeah, the size of that piece. Sharp too. Oh, my God. So the parents had to vomit that up to feed the chick, and then the chicks had that in the stomach, and now just coughed it up. [00:06:23] Speaker 5: So they're gradually, with all the best intentions, feeding their chicks to death, potentially. [00:06:30] Speaker 4: Filling their stomachs with big pieces of plastic. [00:06:34] Speaker 7: Rubbish. [00:06:35] Speaker 4: That, or... [00:06:36] Speaker 7: Got plastic on the way down there. Just now I can feel it, as the tube was going in, I could feel plastic scraping. [00:06:41] Speaker 4: I can't believe how much is coming out. [00:06:46] Speaker 7: Oh, look at that, man. [00:06:47] Speaker 4: Oh, my gosh, this is ridiculous. [00:06:50] Speaker 7: I think that was blocking the throat, so he's having trouble getting it all out. And now that we've got rid of that big bit, we might be able to remove it all. Amazing, isn't it? [00:07:03] Speaker 4: I can't believe just... Is this, on average, what you find? [00:07:08] Speaker 5: About 20 pieces? How much do you normally find? [00:07:11] Speaker 7: I think the record's about 260. That's a really bad bird. [00:07:15] Speaker 5: In a chick? [00:07:16] Speaker 7: In a chick, yeah. [00:07:18] Speaker 5: I'm in shock. I mean, I knew there was a plastic problem. It's just when you see... [00:07:21] Speaker 7: You see it firsthand, yeah. [00:07:25] Speaker 3: My head's spinning already, and it's our first chick. [00:07:27] Speaker 7: Yeah. Okay. [00:07:32] Speaker 3: That's just mad when you... It's just, yeah. Oh, my God. [00:07:43] Liz Bonnen: It's really, really hard to watch this poor little thing regurgitating plastic after plastic after plastic. And that wasn't even a bad one. That was 19 pieces of plastic. So, yeah, I feel angry and emotional and... full of... full of feelings I didn't quite expect would be so strong right now. Yeah, that's about it, really. [00:08:18] Speaker 8: 38.2? Yeah, not much. [00:08:23] Liz Bonnen: For the next three hours, we measure them, take feather and blood samples... Oh! [00:08:28] Speaker 9: Oh, my gosh. [00:08:29] Liz Bonnen: ...and empty their stomachs to increase their chances of survival. [00:08:34] Speaker 3: So, in the 12 years you've been doing this in this location, [00:08:39] Liz Bonnen: what's changed? What have you seen happening to this breeding colony? [00:08:44] Speaker 8: The numbers have definitely fluctuated, but definitely more and more of the birds have plastic in them. And we are finding an increasing number of birds that seem to be more heavily affected. So, quite a number of years ago, you know, the average number of pieces of plastic per bird might have been closer to perhaps five or ten pieces per bird. And now it's much closer to 30 or 40 pieces per bird. So, so things are shifting. [00:09:17] Liz Bonnen: By 11 p.m., the birds have stopped emerging from their burrows and it's time to call it a night. I am absolutely shattered. Not only are they long, emotionally draining nights, but it's a relentless job. I'm only doing it for one or two more nights. These guys are here for 60 nights. [00:09:41] Speaker 5: I don't know how they do it. Right, to bed. [00:09:52] Liz Bonnen: The three-month-old Shearwater chicks that left their burrows tonight are beginning one of the most astounding journeys in the natural world. They can't fly yet. Their parents have left them to fend for themselves. And they've never even seen the sea. And yet, instinct drives them to begin an extraordinary endeavour. Waddling through the dense rainforest in the dark, across the beaches and out through the pounding surf. Once there, they must teach themselves to fly and hunt. And for those who manage to take off, they won't touch land again for five years when they'll return to breed. But the Shearwaters who have been fed plastic are often so weighed down, they can't fly, and so weak, they can't get past the surf. Many simply won't make it. [00:10:54] Speaker 8: Oh, these are really, really bad. Oh, my gosh. This is what happens when they leave the colony in poor condition. They can't get up off the surface of the water, and they get tumbled in the waves, and it exhausts them, and this is how they wash up on the beach. [00:11:15] Speaker 10: This one looks so nutritionally compromised. I can't imagine that he'd ever make it. [00:11:21] Speaker 8: The key for these guys in the long term is in the absence of issues like plastic or other human pressures is the species can deal with a little bit of loss like this. Yeah. It's when we start to put other pressures like plastic into the environment. [00:11:38] Liz Bonnen: It's when you start seeing too many of these chicks on this beach in this condition or worse. Exactly. [00:11:43] Speaker 8: So, we'll put him in a bag, and we'll put him in a warm spot, and we'll have a look for any others. It's a bad. [00:11:59] Speaker 11: Yeah, he's on death's door. [00:12:02] Speaker 1: What do you normally do? [00:12:06] Speaker 8: Realistically, we'll probably just let nature run its course. [00:12:13] Liz Bonnen: How often do you find evidence of plastic ingestion in the chicks that you gather on the beach that haven't made it? [00:12:22] Speaker 8: Virtually every one. There's some kind of bottle cap or small fragments or maybe the lid of a pen or something like that. [00:12:31] Liz Bonnen: I mean, there are very few places left on the planet that are so remote and pristine, seemingly, than Lord Howe Island. And yet, even here. [00:12:43] Speaker 7: It shows what the rest of the world is doing. Impacts wildlife on even the remote islands. Everywhere. [00:12:49] Speaker ?: Everywhere. [00:12:49] Speaker 7: Everywhere. [00:12:50] Liz Bonnen: And it's a global responsibility. It's that much is without question. [00:12:56] Speaker 3: Yep. [00:13:01] Speaker 6: I think that's an interesting thing. [00:13:03] Speaker 12: This one piece will make 52 layers. [00:13:06] Speaker 13: Watch on mobile devices or the big screen. All for free. No subscription required. [00:13:12] Liz Bonnen: We head back to the island lab to examine the dead chicks. Do we know the source of most of the plastics that you find in the flesh-footed shearwaters? [00:13:29] Speaker 8: Unfortunately, not a lot are what we call unidentifiable fragments. But every now and then, we encounter something that is really recognisable. So this is a jar of plastics from the flesh-footed shearwater here on Lord Howe Island. How many birds contribute to this amount of plastic? Maybe 50 to 100, give or take. And right away, we see some top offenders. So a really common one. Let's have a look here. [00:13:56] Speaker 5: Oh, my good Lord. That is insane. Bottle caps. Whole bottle caps. How does that go down the throat of a three-month-old shearwater? [00:14:06] Speaker 8: I don't understand the top of tetra packs, maybe some boxed milk or a box of juice. Anything that we've really ever made from plastic. As we know, every bit of plastic ever made is still out there. And the birds are precision-finding mechanisms. They go out there in the ocean, they find it, they bring it back. And so we are never surprised at what we find in the ocean. It's the most surreal thing to see. [00:14:29] Speaker 5: I cannot believe all of this has come out of shearwaters' stomachs. [00:14:36] Speaker ?: I cannot believe all of this. [00:14:39] Liz Bonnen: Over the past 10 years, Jen and her team have had the disturbing task of recording the stomach contents of every shearwater chick they've found. [00:14:49] Speaker 8: So we've opened this chick up now, and there's quite a volume in here. [00:14:55] Liz Bonnen: Her studies reveal that by weight, shearwaters eat the most plastic of any marine animal. [00:15:02] Speaker 8: There's no doubt that this bird died as a result of this plastic ingestion. [00:15:06] Liz Bonnen: The contents of this bird's stomach is the equivalent of a human eating 10 kilos of plastic. [00:15:14] Speaker 8: It's quite remarkable. [00:15:15] Liz Bonnen: But Jen's research has revealed that the plastic may be doing even more damage than first thought. In the last few months, she's discovered evidence that chemicals found on plastic could be disrupting the bird's hormones. [00:15:34] Speaker 8: From these studies, we know that they interfere with hormone production and the function of hormones in the bloodstream. And so the bird or other animal can look completely normal on the outside and yet not actually be able to reproduce and grow correctly. [00:15:51] Liz Bonnen: More research needs to be done, but Jen now believes that even small amounts of plastic may impact a bird's health. We may have drastically underestimated the effect that plastic is having on these animals. And all of this can be in the plastics that these birds are ingesting. [00:16:11] Speaker 8: Now you understand the complex challenge that scientists have to try and tease it all apart and figure out the world that these seabirds now live in, the challenge that they face. [00:16:27] Liz Bonnen: This research into shearwaters has serious implications for the health of all marine life. Over 200 different marine species have been found to ingest plastic. But the question that scientists are still grappling with is why they're eating it in the first place. Fascinating new research suggests that smell might play an important part. Algae growing on ocean plastic gives off a scent that acts like a beacon attracting a whole host of species. It's also thought that sea life may mistake tiny pieces of plastic for fish eggs and plastic bags for jellyfish. But while research into what makes plastic so attractive to sea life continues, teams across the planet work around the clock to rescue as many animals as they can. As I prepare to leave Lord Howe Island, the biggest question on my mind is how we can even begin to clean up the overwhelming amount of plastic in our oceans. Predictions make for grim reading. Reports say the amount of plastic we use and throw away is growing year on year. And some have suggested that by 2050, there will be more pieces of plastic in the ocean than fish. I've read about valiant but small scale efforts to clean up the ocean plastic. Beach cleans, boat trolls and diving projects. And yet with an estimated 51 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, they simply won't be enough. But it's been reported that one pioneering project could remove hundreds and even thousands of tons of plastic from the ocean. The project was devised by a 16 year old boy. He's now 24 and is realizing his dream. [00:18:38] Speaker 4: Boyan, hi, Liz. Nice to finally meet you. I meet him in the Netherlands. [00:18:44] Speaker 11: So when I was 16, I went scuba diving in Greece and I looked around me and I saw more plastic bags and fish. And I just wondered why can't we clean this up? And now we have a team close to 100 people. We rest tens of millions of dollars. [00:18:58] Liz Bonnen: Boyan Slat and his team have designed a floating 600 meter tube with a three meter curtain hanging beneath it. Pushed by the waves, it will travel across the seas collecting plastic as it goes. [00:19:13] Speaker 3: Talk me through it because it looks fairly simple, but obviously so much thought and brain power and [00:19:19] Speaker 11: collaboration has gone into this. It has been extremely complicated to get to something simple. So it's a very long floating barrier. The plastic just gets pushed around by the current. Like a giant pac-man, the system roams the ocean and collects the plastic. [00:19:39] Liz Bonnen: Scientists have identified five colossal areas of plastic waste floating in our oceans. The plastic is gathered by enormous swirling vortexes fed by a global network of ocean currents. Boyan is concentrating his efforts on collecting the plastic from the largest of these, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California, which is now over three times the size of France. [00:20:09] Speaker 11: Pretty soon I discovered that everyone in the field was saying, well, no way you can do that. The ocean is too big. The ocean is too violent. You know, just forget about it. The only thing we can do is not make it worse, which first of all, I think is a very depressing message. [00:20:26] Liz Bonnen: Boyan is assembling his ocean cleanup system in San Francisco. Soon it will be launched into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to begin its work. Am I allowed to jump the gun here already and ask you what the ambition is for ocean cleanup? How many of these systems do you envisage being out there doing their job? [00:20:47] Speaker 11: Once the first system is working, we'll then start the scale up from one to around 60 of these systems roaming the Pacific Ocean. And if we manage to do that, well then we should be able to clean up half this Great Pacific Garbage Patch every five years. Between now and the launch date, what would you say [00:21:06] Liz Bonnen: is your biggest challenge that still needs to be solved? I think really now it's about getting the [00:21:15] Speaker 11: bloody thing in one piece, just assembling it and getting that done on time. We've communicated the launch date, so there's no way back. And definitely the sooner we get it out, the better it is for the ocean. [00:21:26] Liz Bonnen: There's just one month to go before this technology is tested out at sea for the very first time. Completing this project after five years of intense development and engineering is a mammoth achievement. I'll find out later if the launch is successful. But one of the biggest challenges scientists face is tackling the source of all this plastic. Around the globe, every minute, we buy a million plastic bottles, a million disposable cups, and two million plastic bags. And every minute, an entire rubbish truckload of plastic ends up in the ocean. Over a year, this adds up to a staggering eight million tons. And it's estimated that half of all that plastic enters the ocean from our rivers. The Yangtze, the Nile, the Ganges, the Thames, the world's rivers have been turned into plastic arteries coursing towards the sea. One of the worst affected rivers is the Chitaram in Indonesia. I'm travelling to Indonesia to find out why rivers here and across the world are choking with plastic. [00:23:13] Speaker 3: So we've arrived on the island of Java in Indonesia and it is bucketing it down in true tropical rain style. We have just got a call from some villagers who are supposed to visit in a few days' time. [00:23:26] Liz Bonnen: And because of these rains, they're sitting in the middle of something that is so disturbing, they've asked us to head out there straight away. So that's where we're going now. I'm meeting Indra Dharmawan, a local whose village plays a reluctant part in the nation's plastic crisis. Indra? Yeah, hello. Nice to meet you. How are you today? Uh, where are we heading? This way? Yeah, sorry. Okay. He takes me down to the banks of the Chitaram River. Hello. [00:24:07] Speaker 14: Plastic. I know I'm in plastic. Oh my god. [00:24:15] Liz Bonnen: There are people fishing in it. Yes. Overnight, an enormous raft of plastic waste has appeared. Over a mile long and stretching across the entire width of the river. [00:24:29] Speaker 1: I have never seen anything like, quite like this. [00:24:36] Liz Bonnen: What is going on? What is going on? 20 years ago, this stretch of river was teeming with fish. Now, it's being flooded by a deluge of plastic waste. Each day, an estimated 2,000 tons of plastic flows down this river. And today, after the heavy rains, it's one of the worst plastic rafts locals have ever seen. [00:25:14] Speaker 4: I can't. Indra, this is crazy. What are these guys, what are they doing on the boats? [00:25:33] Liz Bonnen: Many of the litter pickers used to be fishermen, but plastic waste and pollution in the river has reduced the number of fish species by 60%. And what's left is potentially dangerous to eat. [00:26:06] Speaker 3: I just can't believe how people can cope with this. [00:26:11] Liz Bonnen: It's this weird, weird, surreal reality that I never really expected to experience in my lifetime, you know? But this is real. This is what's going on. And there are guys on boats just getting on with their day's work. Picking plastic out of this massive raft that's now moving downstream. My god. Look at it, like. Just look at it. To find out how all this plastic has ended up in the river, I travel upstream to the region of Bandung. Home to 165 villages, many of which are on the banks of the Chitterum. I've contacted a local environmental campaigner, Denny Rizwandani. [00:27:28] Speaker 3: Wowzers. So this is where all the village puts their plastic. [00:27:38] Liz Bonnen: They're making their own landfill site because they're getting no help from anyone else to do this. [00:27:46] Speaker 15: Is this the same scenario in all the villages that border the Chitterum? The villagers say that they've used the Chitterum as a place to get rid of their rubbish for centuries. [00:28:29] Liz Bonnen: But the rapid rise in the use of plastic has replaced many organic materials and swamped the river and its banks. It's crazy. [00:28:48] Speaker 1: Absolutely crazy. [00:28:53] Liz Bonnen: Villagers say the local government here provides no facilities to collect and dispose of the rubbish. Globally, it's estimated that two billion people have no access to proper waste management. That's a quarter of the world's population who have no option but to throw their plastic waste on their own doorsteps or in a nearby waterway. But governments are not the only ones being blamed for this. Many think that corporations play a big part in the plastic crisis too. And wealthy global brands have been accused of knowingly selling products to developing countries that often have no adequate way of disposing of the plastic packaging. Much of the concern is over small plastic sachets that make everyday goods affordable to those with little or no income. [00:29:57] Speaker 10: So you bought straws and then drinks, drinks, drinks. [00:30:02] Liz Bonnen: Sachets provide locals here with modern essentials like washing powder, toothpaste and shampoo. And they cost very little. Thank you. [00:30:11] Speaker 1: Thank you. [00:30:18] Speaker 3: There is a huge dilemma here. [00:30:20] Liz Bonnen: On the one hand, you have this new affordable lifestyle that everybody here is as entitled to enjoy as much as we are in the West. And the sachets give them that. [00:30:36] Speaker 3: But then on the other hand, you've got rivers teeming with the stuff. [00:30:43] Liz Bonnen: And whose responsibility is that? Around the world, governments and corporations are starting to address the problem. Some companies are making very public pledges to make all their products 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. But many believe 2025 is just too late. Currently, thousands of tons of plastic are still pouring down the biggest rivers of the world. And the threats this poses to their wildlife is only beginning to be understood. Scientists are studying how animals living in these waterways are being affected. There are projects underway to help the manatees of the Amazon. Alligators in the Yangtze and the freshwater turtles, crocodiles and stingrays who make other major river systems their home. I've come to the Mahakam River in Borneo. This mighty waterway stretches for over a thousand kilometers. It's being monitored by Dr. Danielle Krebb and her husband Budiono, who are carrying out vital research to ensure that the few remaining river dolphins here are not lost forever. [00:32:16] Speaker 10: Today is the beginning of your surveying for this month, is that right? [00:32:20] Liz Bonnen: Right, yeah. How many of these Irrawali dolphins are left on the Mahakam? [00:32:25] Speaker 12: Right, so we think there are about between 80 and 90 dolphins left in the whole entire Mahakam River. And from the interviews with the local people, we know that they were much more numerous before. [00:32:36] Speaker 3: I mean, how in trouble are these dolphins? [00:32:38] Speaker 9: They're really in trouble. [00:32:42] Liz Bonnen: For the past 20 years, Dr. Krebb and Budiono have been meticulously photographing and recording every dolphin they encounter as they spend days traveling up and down the Mahakam River. [00:32:57] Speaker 3: So from 1999 to now, you've been mapping their locations where they feed, beginning to understand their behavior, their distribution. [00:33:05] Liz Bonnen: You know, 70 to 80 individuals, that is worrying. Dr. Krebb's research has revealed that the dolphins are already affected by heavy boat traffic and fishing nets on the river. But in the last few years, she has witnessed the emergence of a new threat. [00:33:25] Speaker 16: Well, we have had three cases of dolphins that were actually having some plastic debris in their stomachs. So there were two dolphins with nylon debris in their stomachs, which actually found the nets. And the other one had diapers in his stomach, so it prevents other food from getting in. So that diaper dolphin, yeah, he died and he was really skinny. [00:33:48] Speaker 13: So of all the dolphins you've ever necropsied, all of them had plastics? [00:33:54] Speaker 16: They had, yeah. All had plastics in their stomachs. [00:34:02] Speaker ?: They had a lot of them. [00:34:03] Liz Bonnen: To find out more about the effect of plastic and other human pressures on the dolphins, we begin a two-day mission up the Mahakam. We search for them with binoculars and hydrophones, but another crucial source of information is the local fishermen. [00:34:31] Speaker 3: he's here every day and he hasn't seen any for a couple of weeks. [00:34:49] Liz Bonnen: Dr. Krebs and Budiono have been working with the communities living along the river to find better ways of disposing of plastic waste. As we continue our search for the elusive dolphins, our little boats are dwarfed by a new arrival on the river. The coal, oil and textile industry, as well as palm oil plantations, have all made an impact here in the last few decades. And with new industry comes more plastic waste. [00:35:23] Speaker 10: What are your thoughts about plastics and how much of a threat they pose, on top of all the other threats the dolphin is facing? [00:35:30] Speaker 17: Yeah, actually, the plastic waste came along with the companies. When the companies came to this area and they built a huge area for plantation or for coal mining, the workers are not really well educated, not really, you know, told about the thrashing everywhere. So sometimes they just, the people just throw it everywhere. Throwing everything away. So... [00:35:58] Speaker 10: Do you think the dolphin can withstand this threat? [00:36:00] Speaker 17: Yeah, I think if it's on like this, there's a very small chance to survive. [00:36:07] Speaker 10: A very small chance to survive. [00:36:09] Liz Bonnen: As the sun sets, our chances of seeing the dolphins fade. [00:36:36] Speaker 3: So that's the end of day one. We've been on our little boat for about eight, nearly nine hours. And so far I haven't set eyes on the almost mythical dolphins here. But I'm really hoping I get the chance to see them tomorrow. [00:37:02] Liz Bonnen: The next morning, we resume our search. [00:37:10] Speaker 3: The thing about these river dolphins is they're very unobtrusive. When they come up for air, they don't do a big curve like whales do or orcas do. After they take a breath, they tend to just subtly go down under the water again so that their tails, their flukes, don't really go vertical before they submerge. So it makes them really difficult to spot anyway. Plus, there are only 70 or 80 on this entire river. So no wonder they're difficult to find. We just have to keep our eyes peeled. [00:37:52] Speaker 8: Are they behind us? Oh! He stayed up for ages. [00:38:01] Speaker 3: That was a Mahakam river dolphin. Came up with its little round of grey head and it was going that way. [00:38:18] Speaker 4: We're literally travelling with a Mahakam river dolphin. [00:38:26] Liz Bonnen: With large rounded heads that lack an elongated snout like most other dolphins, these magnificent animals have a distinctive appearance. Later that day we catch more tantalising glimpses, but it's clear that the future for these remarkable mammals looks bleak. This river is teeming with sewage, with chemicals from the coal barges that come through this river, with pesticides and herbicides from the oil palm plantations that are bordering this stretch, by marine debris. That's everywhere. I don't even know what this thing is. There are sachets, there are plastic bags, there are bottles, and yet there is one lone river dolphin making its way up this stretch. The impact of plastic pollution is devastating this river and its wildlife. And sadly, this is the case for many other waterways across the world. But there is a growing movement to reclaim the health of rivers, not just for the people, but for the wildlife that depends on it too. Back on the banks of the Chitarum River, locals are taking matters into their own hands. It's seven o'clock in the morning here in Majalaya and there's a real buzz in the air. The army have gathered here with some girls from a high school, two local NGOs and elders from the villages around here. And they've all gathered here this morning for a very special project. The plan... Oh, that sounded amazing. The plan is for all of these people to clean up as much plastic as they possibly can. This is how Indonesian villagers, along with the army, take it upon themselves to sort out the plastic problem. [00:41:03] Speaker 3: This feels really good. It really does. [00:41:10] Speaker 1: Thank you! [00:41:20] Speaker 4: Coming to help? [00:41:31] Liz Bonnen: Good morning! Clean-up teams have stretched out along the banks, sifting through years of waste. And projects like this one are taking place along all 300 kilometers of this river. So as well as cleaning up all the plastic that's been flowing down the river and getting caught on all the vegetation, they're cleaning up these makeshift dumps that the villagers have no use but to set up. And as you can imagine, it's a bit of a filthy job, which is why we're all wearing these. [00:42:12] Speaker 3: But this is going on, there's little groups of army guys and volunteers all along this stretch, [00:42:20] Liz Bonnen: cleaning up basically everything they can find that doesn't belong here. Colonel Kustomo is leading the charge on this section of the river. Colonel, just how bad is it, Chitarum? How much plastic have you seen? [00:42:39] Speaker 1: Do you think efforts like these can make a difference to the plastic crisis that you're facing? [00:42:58] Speaker 18: With all the boats filled with plastic, we traveled downriver to offload our cargo. [00:43:23] Speaker 3: How long would you have to work to get rid of all of this overwhelming amount of plastic? [00:43:41] Speaker 18: If there's only one sector in the 4th, it's just about 11,5 kg of the Citarum. [00:43:55] Speaker 3: And that's just 11 kilometers of the Citarum. The Citarum is nearly 300 kilometers long. Yeah. And the plastic keeps coming. So the clean up can't be the only answer. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem? [00:44:36] Liz Bonnen: At the main road, the bags are transferred into trucks, destined for a nearby landfill, and we start all over again. [00:44:44] Speaker 3: What everyone has achieved today is brilliant. And it bugs me that I have to have concerns, but I do, because after all of the bags of plastic we took away from that stretch, there was still more plastic than I could take in with my own eyes. [00:45:00] Liz Bonnen: The wildlife of the Citarum and the river's local communities are buckling under the pressure of plastic pollution. Scientists are working tirelessly to prevent them from suffering the same fate as the Citarum, and to stop that plastic from entering our oceans. Back in the city, I investigate further. [00:45:32] Speaker 3: Adam and John, is that right? It's good to finally talk to you. [00:45:36] Liz Bonnen: The growing ocean plastic crisis has galvanized engineers and inventors to design technology that collects the plastic from rivers before it enters the sea. The first person I speak to is a surfer from Sydney. So I was reading about your sea bin, and I wanted to know a little bit more about it. [00:45:57] Speaker 19: The sea bin is quite a simple device. We've basically got a rubbish bin, we have a small water pump, and then we filter out the debris in the middle. [00:46:07] Speaker 3: Do you ever imagine bringing some sort of sea bin out to Asia? [00:46:13] Speaker 19: We've got an order sheet with requests from about 170 countries, and as depressing as it is, it's quite an amazing time to see the opportunity of how we can fix this. [00:46:26] Liz Bonnen: The sea bin is an effective solution for harbours and smaller rivers, but it simply couldn't withstand the huge volumes of plastic pouring down the most polluted rivers in the world. [00:46:37] Speaker 19: There is one solution which is called Mr. Trash Wheel, and they're pulling out thousands and thousands of pounds of trash per year, and this is something that's suited for high volumes. [00:46:51] Liz Bonnen: This wheel has been built in Baltimore Harbour. It lifts plastic rubbish from the river and drops it into a barge. [00:47:00] Speaker 20: The trash wheel is actually a very simple machine. The water wheel gets its energy from two different sources. One is the blow of the river that brings the trash. The other is we have solar panels on the trash wheel. [00:47:14] Speaker 3: Yeah, that sounds incredible. [00:47:17] Liz Bonnen: Since the wheel started turning in 2014, it's collected almost one million plastic bottles, half a million plastic bags, and 11 million cigarette butts that are made up of tiny plastic fibers. But with each wheel costing around half a million dollars, this technology could be just too expensive for many local councils in countries like Indonesia. In Amsterdam, engineers have been experimenting with bubbles. A tube full of holes is placed near the bottom of a river. The air bubbles are forced to the surface, trapping the plastic and funneling it to the riverbank, ready for collection. This design has great potential, but it's still in the prototype phase. I'm also keen to find out about solutions that are coming at the ocean plastic problem from a completely different angle. I've arranged a meeting with this young entrepreneur who's been developing an alternative material to plastic. Now, if it's as good as the reports I've been reading online, it feels to me like this could be a real game changer. David Christian has been experimenting with a natural resource that could replace plastic packaging. He's focusing on finding an alternative to the billions of plastic sachets used in Indonesia and other developing countries. [00:49:00] Speaker 3: What is this made of? [00:49:01] Speaker 21: It's made of seaweed without using any chemical process, so we can use it from the... [00:49:05] Speaker 5: Cereal bar? [00:49:07] Speaker 21: Yeah, like from the bar and then from the coffee sachet. [00:49:10] Liz Bonnen: So, you basically just have to bung this in the... [00:49:14] Speaker 21: In the hot water and then stir it. [00:49:19] Liz Bonnen: Right, I'm going to taste this coffee because you promised me it would not taste of the sea. [00:49:24] Speaker 21: Yeah, please. It's very hot. [00:49:30] Speaker 5: That's great. That's a great cup of coffee. [00:49:32] Speaker 21: This is for soap, so you don't need to open the soap. We can just wash our hands. [00:49:37] Speaker 3: That's it, just... [00:49:38] Speaker 21: Yeah. [00:49:38] Speaker 3: And start rubbing? [00:49:39] Speaker 21: Start rubbing. [00:49:42] Speaker 3: That dissolves really quickly. When I think about the amount of little plastic soaps in plastic packaging in all the hotels around the [00:49:54] Liz Bonnen: world wrapped in separate little plastic bags and how this could completely change that industry for the better. That's huge. David and his team have also used their seaweed technology to design fast food packaging. [00:50:08] Speaker 3: I presume the only nutrition in this is in the wrapper. [00:50:14] Liz Bonnen: And disposable cups. Take bite. Food packaging makes up over a third of all plastic waste in the ocean. While there are still some concerns about how seaweed farms might affect coastal ecosystems, the potential of this design is enormous. Are big companies that make all of these sachets biting your hand off at the moment? [00:50:38] Speaker 21: Yes. Until now, we already get inquiries from more than 200 companies, including those big companies. [00:50:44] Liz Bonnen: I mean, the potential is huge. That much is very clear from what you've achieved so far. I needed to meet someone like you who has their feet firmly on the ground, but who is finding an absolutely exciting and viable solution to all this. So I really, I wish you all the best in the future. [00:51:02] Speaker 21: Yeah, thank you so much. [00:51:06] Liz Bonnen: That was really great. It seems to me to be such an exciting, but more importantly, a really concrete solution to the plastic problem. And it's coming from a young Indonesian. He's only 25 years old. It's coming from a country that's one of the biggest plastic polluters in the world. I cannot wait to see what this guy achieves in the next few years. At the beginning of my journey, I met another inspirational entrepreneur with ambitious plans to rid our oceans of plastic. After five years of working on his dream, the ocean cleanup system is finally being launched. Just look at this guy. He started thinking about this problem when he was 16 years old, and he didn't stop until he found an answer. He engineered and he re-engineered. He took bold, courageous action. And that, to me, is breathtaking. Next time, I discover how fishing industry plastic is devastating marine life. [00:52:16] Speaker 1: Oh, God, the damage is unbelievable. [00:52:18] Speaker 3: Can you believe this is what goes on when we carry on with our lives? [00:52:23] Liz Bonnen: I meet the scientists whose latest research has revealed how plastic is destroying our ocean's most precious ecosystems. [00:52:31] Speaker 1: What does this mean for this reef? [00:52:36] Liz Bonnen: And I find out why plastic is now threatening one of the most inaccessible wildernesses on Earth. [00:52:44] Speaker 1: We are in a very remote part of the planet, yet the plastic reaches even here. [00:53:14] Speaker ?: We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. We are in a very remote part of the planet. Thank you.