‘TED Talks’ are awesome!  Passionate individuals present “ideas worth spreading”.

Recently, I watched ‘TED Talks’ episodes which were organized into a themed collection.  The collection was called, “Chew on This,” with perspectives on food from scientists, chefs, farmers, and foodies.  I enjoyed listening to the many perspectives, ideas, and solutions about food issues.

This sparked an idea!  I wanted a themed collection about plastic and consumption.  I watched a number of videos and chose to include the following 6 episodes on the theme of “Let’s Talk Trash.”

I even made a fancy movie cover.

Episode 1    Capt. Charles Moore: The seas of plastic

Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he’s drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.

Episode 2    Van Jones: The economic injustice of plastic

Van Jones lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice. Because plastic trash, he shows us, hits poor people and poor countries “first and worst,” with consequences we all share no matter where we live and what we earn. At TEDxGPGP, he offers a few powerful ideas to help us reclaim our throwaway planet.

Episode 3    Dianna Cohen: Tough truths about plastic pollution

Artist Dianna Cohen shares some tough truths about plastic pollution in the ocean and in our lives — and some thoughts on how to free ourselves from the plastic gyre.  Dianna Cohen co-founded the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which is working to help end our cycle of plastics use.

Episode 4    Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic

Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled — compared to almost 90% of metals — because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. Frustrated by this waste, Mike Biddle has developed a cheap and incredibly energy efficient plant that can, and does, recycle any kind of plastic.

 Episode 5    Chris Jordan: Pictures some shocking stats

Artist Chris Jordan shows us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics — like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every single day.

 Episode 6    Rob Hopkins: Transition to a world without oil

Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels.