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<<DEE CAFFARI>> Hi. I'm Dee Caffari
and I'm a professional sailor
and I've sailed around
the world six times.

Most recently, I was the skipper
of a boat called
Turn The Tide On Plastic in the
Volvo ocean race.

Part of what I do is to
teach people about the problems of
plastic pollution in our oceans.

I want to talk to you about plastic
and what you can do to help,
but first off a quick
history lesson.

Did you know that plastic was
invented a hundred years ago?

But it wasn't until the 1960s
that it became popular.

It was so useful, and today is
used for a wide range of uses.

It's hard to imagine life
without it now.

Each year we make 300 million
tonnes of plastic.

That's the weight of the entire
population on the planet.

That's a lot, right?

In fact, if we put all the plastic
made over the last few decades
in clingfilm,
it would be enough to be an entire
layer around the whole earth.

So why is it so popular? Plastic in
inexpensive and easy to make.

It's lightweight but strong,
it's super-flexible and can
be made into lots
of different things.

Take a simple ruler -
once made from wood,
now much cheaper to make
from modern-day plastic.

Plastic is durable,
which means it lasts a long time.

Which is great for something
you use time and time again
like your washing up bowl at home.

The problem comes when you use
plastic just once,
like a drinking straw.

They're very difficult
to get rid of,

resulting in billions of them
being thrown into landfill.

And that's a mountain every day.

So what type of things
are made from plastic?

Well, plastic is all around us.
You'll probably be surprised

at how much we rely
on it in our daily lives.

Did you know, the toys
you play with at home,
the glitter you use
to decorate your artwork
your lunchbox and the clingfilm
around your sandwich,
surprisingly, even the teabag that
your teacher uses
for her afternoon brew -
all these things are
made of plastic.

Plastics can be placed into one of
three groups depending on their use.

For example some -
like a football or these trainers -
are used for a long period
of time over and over again.

These are called
extended use plastics.

Others we use for a few months
and then we throw them away.

These are called limited use
plastics. For example -
your toothbrush.

The final type of plastics are
those that we literally use once
and throw away.

Like this water bottle.
This is single-use plastics
and this is the group that
we need to be most aware of.

We need to reduce
our use of single-use plastics
and the good news is -
it's easy to do.