All language subtitles for The.Earthshot.Prize.Repairing.Our.Planet.S01E05.WEBRip.x264-ION10

2,000 years ago,
London was a marsh.

The Romans built the first bridge
here in 1850.

For century after century,
this city grew.

And it's still growing.

It's incredible what we humans
can build.

On the face of it, out of nothing.

But in reality,
nothing comes from nothing.

Imagine all the materials, the hours
and energy that we used to build

different versions of London
over the past 2,000 years.

And imagine what resources
are needed now to run London

for just one day.

The world we live in brings each
of us so many incredible benefits,

but we often forget that it comes
with a cost.

Waste.

We have become too comfortable
in societies

that are immensely wasteful.

As a consequence, across the globe,
the natural world about us is now

suffering from the waste
we throw away.

We are fast learning
that on this finite planet,

there is no such place as away.

This barge, and dozens like it,
are part of the waste management

of London, helping to deal
responsibly with one million tonnes

of waste each year.

This waste will be
turned into energy.

But we should be asking ourselves
why there is so much waste

in the first place.

Is it possible for us to keep what
we have and continue to progress

without generating waste?

That's the hope of the fifth goal
of the Earthshot Prize.

Every year, until 2030,

the prize will award £1 million
to a project that can help us

build a waste free world.

This film will expose the root
causes of our wastefulness...

..highlight people around the world
working on incredible solutions.

And I'll introduce you
to the new projects shortlisted

for this year's Earthshot Prize.

The people who built London
over the centuries could not

have imagined what the city
would become today.

If we are genuinely to become
sustainable on Earth,

we must now start to build something
that perhaps is hard for us

to imagine, and achieve
the last of our five Earthshots.

Here to tell its story

are Sir David and another member
of our Earthshot Prize Council.

A person with an invaluable
perspective on our waste problem.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim.

If you do not increase finance
for adaptation,

soon there will be no-one to adapt.

It's true that the natural world is,
in essence, the most gigantic,

the most efficient

and the most spectacular
recycling system imaginable.

Life established itself on this
planet billions of years ago...

..when primitive species developed
ways to build their bodies

from the raw materials of the Earth.

But these materials are difficult
to secure.

And once in the living world,
nature works to recycle them.

The grasslands of the Serengeti
grow vigorously on soils

enriched by neighbouring volcanoes.

Some of the greatest herds on Earth
tour these pastures,

gnawing to the ground to capture
the precious nutrients.

The herds, in turn, sustain
the greatest concentrations

of large predators found anywhere.

Others take their place
in their nutrient cycle

by recycling materials
indigestible to most.

There's no waste.
Anything not needed by one

becomes food for the next.

These grand cycles of nutrients form
a trading organisation

known as an ecosystem.

Every living thing on Earth
plays its part.

The busy recycler,

capturing, borrowing,

using and passing on materials,

even after they've ceased
to be living.

On the deep seabed a host
of bizarre creatures spend decades

breaking down the remains of any
living thing that falls from above.

If any minerals are missed, they
will be buried in the sea floor,

but nothing is lost from the system.

Ultimately, even that has returned
to the surface to feed

into the living world.

Nature is the very model
of a waste free world.

It's far more productive,
more complex and more diverse

than our human world.

And yet all the myriad structures
and materials it's made of

are degradable,
indeed biodegradable.

Its nutrients are on an endless
circular journey,

perpetually being used and reused.

The human world is not like this.

We mine the raw materials.
We build a product.

We use it for a limited period,
and then we discard it

and we get another one.

This is known as a linear process.

It's the cause of our waste problem.

Where nature has circles,
we have lines.

The consequence of a linear approach
is that we end up with waste,

stuff we no longer find useful.

The most problematic waste is made
of materials intentionally built

to resist the breakdown system
of the natural world,

including products made of metal...

..glass...

..synthetic fibres

and the many types of plastic.

This is the non-biodegradable waste,
and because it never rots

after being thrown away,
it never truly goes away.

It just becomes
someone else's problem.

Polluted waterways like this can be
witnessed around the world.

The volume of non-biodegradable
products that humanity generates

across the planet is remarkable.

Each year, we use over 300 million
tons of plastic alone.

Most of it is not recycled.

In wealthier nations,
non-biodegradable waste is removed

by organised collections.

But per person,
these countries create more waste

than anywhere else.

Because it doesn't biodegrade,
the volume inevitably accumulates.

Non-biodegradable waste
is often exported to other nations,

once again to become
someone else's problem.

The United States alone sends
more than half a million tons

of plastic overseas every year.

Much of it ends up in countries
with poor waste management systems.

Anything that can be used
is used, but the volume

of material is overwhelming.

It's been reported that the African
nation of Ghana alone receives

millions of items of clothing
from the West each week.

And that some of it is of such
low quality that it can't be sold.

Since much of it contains
non-biodegradable fibres, like nylon

and polyester, it inevitably joins

the plastic waste on landfill sites.

This is the fallout of our wasteful
societies, our fast fashion,

our single use plastic,
our linear approach to life.

Ultimately, the non-biodegradable
waste that doesn't end up

in a landfill may find its way
to the sea, the world's sink.

In recent years, more than
eight million tons of plastic

have been reaching our oceans
annually.

Here it floats about,
driven by the currents.

Some of it will sink
to the sea floor.

The rest is worn by wave action,
salt and sunshine

into microplastic fragments
small enough to be eaten

by wildlife and enter
the food chain.

Today, we know plastic may be
damaging our ocean creatures.

And when we eat seafood,
it's possible we are eating

microplastics, although at levels
that don't seem

to be harmful as yet.

But materials that will not
break down are only part

of our waste problem.

We also create biodegradable waste -
wood products...

..natural fibres...

..paper...

..and unused food.

Worldwide, we waste more than
a third of the food we produce,

which in turn wastes
millions of tons of fertiliser,

and trillions of litres of water.

The food that is wasted
will have added billions of tonnes

of greenhouse gases to the
atmosphere during its production.

The wastage of food occurs
at every stage of the journey,

from field to plate.

This is the story of
just one of those journeys.

The grapes that are up to standard
are cleaned, sorted,

weighed and packed.
Once they've left the farm,

they must be refrigerated
as quickly as possible.

Stacked in containers,
the grapes join other products

from across the continent
to begin their epic one way voyage

around the world.

Every year, container ships,
some of the biggest moving objects

ever made, help transport around
four million tonnes of grapes

for international sale.

South America is the leading
exporter with more than a quarter

of the business.

The journey from Chile to Europe
can take up to a month.

The race is on to get the grapes
to their next destination.

So once they come here, containers
discharged from the vessel,

we truck it to the warehouse.
We open it up and that's the moment

of the surprise, whether it came in
well or not.

My name is Jon Marc Schulz
of SFI Rotterdam.

We source fruit
from all over the world.

We have to do a QC check to see
what it has arrived in the condition

that our customers will require.

I think in the packing stations
easily, you can face something like

20% of food that's going
to be thrown away.

And this is completely edible.

There's nothing wrong with it.
It just doesn't look as nice.

Let's assume you were having
a bunch of grapes, or an apple

from the garden of your grandmother,

and there's one rotten berry
in there.

You'd just pick it out
and that's it, and the rest

of the product is perfect.

Nowadays, this one brown berry

will cause a complete reject
of one pallet of fruit.

That's one ton of fruit rejected.

But if it doesn't look nice, it does
not get sold in the supermarket.

Even once the grapes
reach their destination,

they may not be eaten.

One study found that 4.5 million
tonnes of household food

is thrown away each year
within the UK alone.

We humans have accepted
that we are wasteful.

It's difficult to estimate
the volume of waste we produce,

but one study suggests it could be
seven to ten billion tonnes

globally per year.

Of our municipal waste,
we recycle less than 20%.

And with each passing year,
this waste we produce increases.

Estimates suggest that by 2050,

we may produce more than
one and a half times the volume

we produce today.

We are turning our Earth
into something uniquely human.

A world of waste.

How can we turn this situation
around?

There is a simple solution
to this complex problem.

We need to take a page out of
nature's book and find a use

for everything we now throw away.

As the people who deal
with the daily supply of waste

in Ghana have discovered.

Ibrahim is one of thousands
of people working alongside

the landfill site at Agbogbloshie.

This workforce embody the right way
to think about waste.

Not as waste...

..but as scrap.

Whether aluminium comes
from computer parts or car parts,

it doesn't matter to Ibrahim.

It's all materials
moving within a cycle,

just as nutrients cycle in nature.

To build a waste-free world

we must reimagine
what we mean by waste

and start behaving
like the natural world.

Designing a system in which
the waste of one process

is the food for the next.

Finding ways to break down
every product

so that its building blocks

can be handed on to its next use.

Our materials will then become
like nature's nutrients,

cycling through the system.

All our production lines
will turn into circles.

In a world built of circles,

there is no end of the line

and therefore no waste.

Is this a dream
or can it be reality?

The fact is, this kind of
circular thinking is not new.

It's been part of human existence
throughout our history.

We just need to be reminded of this.

The first step to eliminate waste

is to eliminate
the word from the language,

because that makes us
think differently about waste.

Instead of waste water,
we have resource water

because the water is still full
of resources like, for instance,

heat and phosphorous.

Waste is really only waste
if you can't find a use for it.

My name is Lisbeth Randers.

I'm the symbiosis coordinator
of Kalundborg Symbiosis,

a unique industrial site

with a group of 12 companies
working together to share resources.

The waste from one company

becomes the raw material
for another company.

In nature, symbiosis
is when two species work together

to benefit each other.

We can apply this thinking
to our approach to industry.

And I think it's a beautiful
description

of what is actually happening

because we are living closely
together for mutual benefit.

Across the cooperative,
we have biotech,

energy and manufacturing companies.

Each of them has waste products

that can be used
by the next in the chain -

excess energy, water or materials.

Just one chain of resources,
for example,

we collect water from a nearby lake.

This is piped to a biotech company.

Here we produce many enzymes
that are used in detergents,

animal feed, food production.

We also produce
half of the world's insulin here.

When you make these wonderful
products like enzymes and insulin,

you're left with
a by-product, sludge.

This sludge can actually be used
to make fertiliser for agriculture.

But it can also be used as a raw
material for energy production

at the nearby biogas station.

Here, biogas is upgraded

to natural gas and provides
local industry with energy.

So this is an example
of how the system

where one production
results in waste

is changed into a circular loop
where you can actually see

that waste being the raw material
of the energy production.

At the end, any excess water
is cleaned and returned to nature.

The ambition is that
nothing is wasted.

The companies get the benefit
from making a saving

of $28 million a year.

We are not only doing this
for the benefit of environment,

it's also good business.

Zero waste is a goal, and I think
that being able to completely

eliminate waste will take
hard work in the coming years,

but I'm absolutely sure that we will
manage to reach that goal,

but we're not there yet.
We have to work still.

My name is Keiran Whitaker
and I farm black soldier flies.

Their larvae convert food waste
and other agricultural side streams

into high quality protein that
we can then use to feed animals,

pets and humans in the long term.

We're able to utilise
these huge volumes of food waste

to feed our insects. Our black
soldier flies are not fussy.

They will eat almost
any organic waste material.

We use local brewery wastes
at the end of the brewing process,

coffee waste and, lastly, we use
fruit and vegetable offcuts

and, you know, stuff that's not
sold at the end of the day,

and we then create that into a
perfect blend to feed the insects.

Fundamentally,
there are two different processes

to farming insects. On the one hand,

you have the creation
of the next generation

and then separately you have
the fattening of the insects

that are going to become
animal feed.

In the space of just 9 to 12 days,

they will grow from almost
the size of a grain of sand

into about an inch long protein bar.

So they can grow up to
5,000 times their body mass

in that period of time.

The insect larvae are then ground
down and turn into a protein feed,

supplying industries
with high-protein demand

such as meat production
and fish farming.

The most efficient part of this
is it's 24 hours a day,

365 days of a year production.

These insects will continue to eat
this product and grow and convert

into the sustainable protein
all day, all night,

no matter where they are.

Which means that we can implement
this anywhere in the world.

And now we need to do it
on a truly massive scale.

Our next facility should be able
to process more than 30,000 tonnes

of food waste every year.

So plastic has a bad reputation.
I think we need to remember

that plastic has transformed
our society.

Synthetic plastics
are an incredible material.

These long polymer chains give them
incredible durability,

they make them lightweight
and you can mould them

into just about any shape.

And this makes them so ubiquitous
in the manufacturing industry.

So my name is John McGeehan and I'm
a professor of structural biology

and director of the
Centre for Enzyme Innovation

at the University of Portsmouth.

When we designed synthetic plastics,

we kind of took our inspiration
from nature.

Nature uses polymers all the time.
It takes these building blocks

and links them together
to form these long chains.

If you look at a plastic like PET,

the stuff that makes
plastic bottles,

and most of our clothes,
actually, as well,

that's held together by the same
bond called an ester bond.

So nature has developed
over millions of years

to break that bond,
and we can use those enzymes

to break that bond
in synthetic plastics, too.

So in 2016 a group in Japan

had actually discovered a bacterium

that was growing
in a recycling dump.

This bacterium was actually
living off the plastic itself.

It was eating PET plastic and using
it as a food and an energy source,

and that's really quite incredible.

What this meant was that evolution
was actually in action.

So breaking down the bottles
is actually quite a simple process.

You take the bottles,
you put them in liquid nitrogen,

that makes them super cold,

and that's important because
when you then grind them down,

they don't remelt. They actually
form these small fragments.

We then take it a stage further
and actually mill them down

into fine powder, and that increases
the surface area and makes them

really accessible for enzymes.

Literally at that point,
we take a jar of this material

and we pour in the powdered enzymes
and we just mix it.

And over time the enzyme will start
to act on the plastic and you'll see

this solution just go clear

as the enzyme breaks the polymer
into its building blocks.

And this is a massive opportunity
for design of future materials

where you can use these recycled
waste streams to make the monomers,

turn them into composites,
but composites that can be recycled

at the end of life. And this is
a huge opportunity for industry.

New York has a really rich history
when it comes to waste.

Early days, like late 1800s,

waste primarily
went into the rivers,

and that's actually why you see that
big parts of Lower Manhattan

are built on landfill - it was
literally the waste piling up.

About a third of what ends up
in landfill in New York City

is food waste. So that is
the biggest portion of the waste

that could be diverted.

If you have food scraps,
you can compost them.

And that's great because
it's essentially taking something

that would have been wasted
and turning it into...

..almost like a fertiliser.
It's actually very valuable,

and around New York City,

we have both small-scale
community composting sites

as well as our commercial,
large-scale composting site.

And we're actually able to sell it
to landscapers and use some of that

revenue to go back into
the zero-waste education.

It's just really rewarding
and exciting

to see all the different,
creative ways that New Yorkers

and our institutions are coming
together around waste.

I think New York, being a place
where doing your own thing

is really celebrated,
and that has been one of the keys

for unlocking the idea of
zero waste to a larger audience.

My name is Daniel.

I'm the founder of a company
called Zero Waste Daniel.

The idea is that we take leftovers

from the fashion and apparel
industries production

and rejoin them together
to create new textiles.

One afternoon I saw all the bits
and ends that had been cut off

in our production, and I thought,
well, I'm not doing anything today.

I may as well make myself a shirt.

Lord knows I didn't have
the money to shop.

I sat at my sewing machine and I
took the time to piece all these

little scraps together,
and I created this sweatshirt

for myself and I had this
aha moment that this was it.

It was about making something
I really wanted to wear

out of things
that nobody else wanted.

And I thought, I know
where I can get more scraps.

The root cause of waste
is disposability,

using things for an incredibly
short period of time.

My name is Tom Szaky

and I'm the founder and
CEO of TerraCycle and Loop.

Before the 1950s,
we cobbled our shoes.

We mended our clothes.
We bought milk from the milkman.

The only difference between
Loop and really a milkman model

is that Loop tries to expand
that concept for everything,

from your shampoo to your motor oil,

from your orange juice
to your favourite spread.

Our job here is shifting packaging
from being your property at the end

to property of the manufacturer
at the end.

By making the package property
of the manufacturer in the end

through a deposit mechanism,
the manufacturer is going to be

motivated selfishly to make that
package last a long time,

to make it durable,
to make it refillable.

I think in New York and globally,

it's very possible
to achieve zero waste.

It's about a total mind shift
in the way we work.

In a place like this, the beating
heart of capitalism and consumerism,

I think we can shift and become
much more in tune with nature

and consuming and thriving
in a sustainable way.

I do think it's achievable
to send zero waste to landfills,

but it's going to take
a lot of work.

60 years ago, the River Thames
was biologically dead.

Today, it is one of the cleanest
city rivers in the world.

We can clean up our act
and the Earthshot Prize

is here to recognise, reward

and support those with
the best solutions to do so.

It is an honour for me to introduce
you to the three finalists

for this, the first-ever
Earthshot Prize

to build a waste-free world.

Our first idea, WOTA BOX,

is the world's first portable
water recycling plant,

reusing domestic waste water from
appliances like showers and sinks.

In many countries, poor
infrastructure wastes huge amounts

of water due to leaky pipes and
inadequate treatment facilities.

Within five years,
two thirds of the world's population

may face shortages
of this precious resource.

Yosuke Maeda
and the WOTA BOX team's solution

is to recycle the water
at its point of use.

The device starts with a reservoir
of water. As the water is used,

it goes through a series of filters.

AI sensors ensure that the water
isn't released until it's clean.

This way, the same water
can safely be used again and again.

Since it doesn't require an external
water supply or drainage,

it is portable. It could be used
anywhere, in any situation.

This technology is scalable
and extremely efficient.

But it is expensive.

With extra support, the designers
will work on bringing down the price

of production, so countries
all over the globe,

particularly those with poor
infrastructure, can benefit.

Next, we head to East Africa
with Sanergy,

a project that builds lavatories for
communities without sewage systems

and in doing so has found
a circular solution for human waste.

My name is David Auerbach and
I've lived here in Nairobi, Kenya,

for the last ten years.

We're helping to clean up
fast growing cities

with our
waste collection services.

We're providing vital services
for hundreds of thousands of people.

It matters to me that people have
access to clean toilets

because I think everyone

deserves to live
in a safe, clean environment.

Sanergy collects around
13,000 tonnes of waste each year

from the slums.
With this much waste,

they had to find a circular solution
for what to do with it.

If we could create something
from the waste,

we knew that we would have a
solution that would be sustainable

and could grow.

They began with a process
which heats up the waste,

killing any bacteria and making
it safe for use as fertiliser.

This fertiliser has helped
local farmers increase yields.

Initially, we would get
four kilos or five kilos.

Now we are up to 9 or sometimes
even 12 kilos per plant.

It's enabled me to kind of
lower my production cost.

We have also improved our grade
and quality of the fruit,

better shelf life, bigger sizes and
better presentation for the market.

I think the round economy style
of doing it is really creative,

helps us clean the city, at the same
time using the same waste material

that we use to be able to grow

and feed the same city again.
It's just amazing.

Everything about Sanergy
is circular.

We collect waste, we process it,

we produce fertiliser, which grows
crops and people feed from that,

and then we collect waste again.

If we don't manage waste
in the future,

it's going to be catastrophic.

We're going to destroy our
environment, destroy our rivers

and our oceans, and we're going to
make each other sick.

We've come up with a system
that will help solve that problem.

The project is still developing.

It's now turning to our friend
the black soldier fly

to scale up its production.

The soldier flies feed on the waste

that can be turned into
a protein-rich,

affordable animal feed,
an organic fertiliser.

Sanergy's work
can be done anywhere.

We have got a great solution
and it needs to go global.

And I just want to go faster.

Sanergy is an inspiring example
of a circular solution

to a huge waste problem.

With more support and investment,
the project wants to expand

production across
seven other African nations

and treat one million tonnes
of human waste a year,

helping millions of people
in the process.

The city of Milan
is our third finalist.

It leads the world in tackling
the problem of food waste

with a citywide system that rewards
markets, shops, restaurants

and canteens for passing on
unused, edible food

to those who need it via
local food hubs run by volunteers.

The food hubs can redistribute
over 100 tonnes of food per year

to people that need it,

equivalent to almost
a quarter of a million meals.

The city offers tax breaks
to businesses that donate food

and in fact saves money because
there is less biodegradable waste

for them to treat.
But what's happening in Milan

isn't about just money.

Milan believes it can reduce
its food waste by half by 2030,

and it wants to help
other cities to do so, too.

Milan's approach to food waste

works for the economy,
society and the environment.

The city next hopes to share
its blueprint with more cities

across the world.

In this series, we've discovered
the five Earthshots we have

to undertake in the next decade.

But is it all too much?

Can we pull this off?

If there's one thing
we can be sure of,

it is that we humans have the
capacity to change the world.

The issue is - the way our modern
world operates at present

is simply not sustainable.

Which means that
those of us alive today

have been handed the momentous task
of deciding the future of humankind.

We stand at a fork in the road.

If we continue on our current path,

the natural world will decline
around us and with it

potentially everything
we now take for granted.

But if we take the other path,

if we strive to find solutions
to our biggest problems,

we can create a different future
for our children and grandchildren.

A better future.

One in which both humanity
and nature thrive.

In which the way we live our lives
works in harmony with the climate.

A future with flourishing,
productive oceans.

One that is free
of the burden of our waste.

And that offers each of us
clean air with every breath.

It is within our reach.

But only if we reach for it now.

Over the next ten years...

..the Earthshot Prize
will celebrate...

..champion...

..and scale 50 innovative solutions

to the biggest environmental
challenges facing our planet.

But in truth, it'll take
a lot more than 50 solutions.

It will take every one of us
as individuals,

as schools..

..as communities...

..as businesses...

..and as leaders to do our bit...

What do we want? Climate justice!

And when do we want it? Now, now!

..to change our choices
and our habits

to set and achieve our own
personal Earthshots.

We can change the world again.
Today, every one of us

may - unintentionally -
be part of the problem.

But from today, working together,

we can all become
part of the solution.