French Start-Up Fighting Plastic Waste (A2-B1/v35308)

A French company, Carbios, is using enzymes to break plastic down into its chemical building blocks, which can then be used to make high quality plastic again.

Narrator:  When you recycle glass you can make more glass, but  when you recycle plastic it’s more complicated and the quality goes down each time. I mean you can  mix stuff with it like this fleece or even the carpet I’m on, but eventually it all ends up in  landfill or it’s incinerated. So it’s not really recycling, it’s downcycling and you have to keep making more and more new plastic which uses more and more fossil fuels.

But a French company has  developed a way of recycling PET plastic so it  doesn’t lose quality. They get chopped-up plastic  from things like bottles plus clothes made from polyester, which get shredded. They then put them  into big vats along with water and some special  enzymes. In a few hours they get broken down,  the additives can be removed and you’re left with two substances which are the building  blocks for new PET plastic.

Emmanuel Ladious, Carbios:  That represents 95 to 97% of the PET production in the world. I mean the PET producers they use those two components, but instead of having them petro-sourced they would  have them recycled made from waste.

Narrator:  At the moment, it’s much more expensive to recycle plastic this way but they’re building a factory which will be able to process two billion plastic bottles every year. So maybe recycling plastic will be as easy as recycling glass. I don’t think  they’re paying us enough for this you know.

1. Recycle: To process used materials so they can be used again.
2. Mix: To combine two or more substances together.
3. Fleece: A soft, warm fabric made from synthetic fibers.
4. Carpet: A thick, heavy fabric covering the floor.
5. Landfill: A place where waste is buried under the ground.
6. Incinerated: Burned completely to ashes.
7. Downcycling: The process of recycling a material in a way that reduces its quality.
8. PET plastic: A type of plastic commonly used for bottles and containers.
9. Chopped-up: Cut into small pieces.
10. Shredded: Torn or cut into thin strips or pieces.
11. Vats: Large containers used for holding liquids.
12. Enzymes: Proteins that speed up chemical reactions in living organisms.
13. Broken down: Separated into smaller parts.
14. Petro-sourced: Made from petroleum or oil.
15. Factory: A building where goods are made in large quantities.

1. Are you aware of the fact that 91% of plastic waste never gets recycled?
2. Why do you think so much plastic ends up in landfills?
3. What might we do to greatly reduce plastic waste and improve on recycling?

Video script and vocabulary

Now find out more by asking Al-i some questions :

• How much of the world's plastic waste actually gets recycled? How much of the world's plastic waste actually gets recycled?
• How large is the giant plastic island floating around the Pacific Ocean? How large is the giant plastic island floating around the Pacific Ocean?
• What can we do to reduce plastics production and improve recycling of existing plastics? What can we do to reduce plastics production and improve recycling of existing plastics?

(Use the COPY function (Use the COPY function at the end of each phrase and then PASTE the copied phrase into Al-i)