English from BBC

Learning English. I'm

Neil. And I'm Beth.

"Plastic is fantastic."

This phrase was used a lot in the 1950s

when mass-produced plastic items started to become part

of our everyday lives.

The following decades saw a revolution as plastic became

the most commonly used material in modern life, found in everything

from cars to furniture to packaging.

Take a quick look around

and you'll soon see how many everyday items contain plastic.

But now our love of plastic is being questioned,

mostly thanks to climate change and pollution caused by single use plastics –

plastic products which are designed to be used just once

before being thrown away. 11 million tonnes of plastic waste

are dumped into our oceans every year.

It's believed that single-use plastics make up 40%

of all plastic pollution globally. What's more,

it's not just land and water being polluted - tiny plastic pieces known

as microbeads have even been found inside the human body

and can be passed from mother to child through breast milk. And

because plastic comes from fossil fuels, the process

of making it creates problems at every stage,

from burning coal, to transportation, to recycling. In this programme,

we'll be asking: is it

time to live without plastic? And, as usual,

we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you, Beth.

One reason why plastic became so popular is that

it's a very flexible material.

It can be formed into different shapes,

making it useful for keeping food fresh, or holding liquid.

Originally, plastic was invented to replace the decreasing supply

of natural materials like metal, wood and glass. So which items did plastic

first replace? Was it:

a. snooker balls b. shopping bags or c. hairbrushes?

Hmm, I guess the first thing to be made

of plastic was a hairbrush.

OK, Beth, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

Dr Sherri Mason is Professor of Chemistry at Penn State University

in the US, and a specialist in plastic pollution.

Her award-winning 2017 research into microplastics

in rivers led to the US Congress banning microbeads. Here,

she explains the problem of plastics to BBC

World Service Programme, The Real Story.

Plastic is synthetic and, as a consequence of that, nature

doesn't really know what to do with it.

Like, a paper bag that's sitting on the side of the road –

it's unsightly, but within weeks

there are organisms in the soil

they can use that paper bag as a food source, right...

They have evolved to basically chew up that paper bag

and turn it back into soil,

turn it back into carbon and nitrogen and oxygen.

But with regard to plastic, because it is a synthetic material,

you don't have that evolution.

There are some organisms that can use it as a food source,

but they're few and far between, especially when you're talking

about water systems, aquatic systems and the temperatures that exist, and

so they can't really use it as a food source so plastic doesn't biodegrade...

Plastic is a synthetic material,

meaning that it's made by combining manmade chemicals,

instead of existing naturally.

Natural materials like paper decay and harmlessly turn back into soil

– they biodegrade. But plastic is not like this.

It doesn't decay and get broken down by microbes and bacteria.

In fact, some plastic-eating microbes and bacteria do exist,

but these are few and far between, they're rare –

they don't happen very often. It is the fact that

plastic doesn't decay which is responsible for the waste

we see in the environment. Waste

which is often unsightly, meaning ugly and unpleasant to

look at. Fortunately, help is at hand.

The plastic-eating microbes

Neil mentioned, especially one called Rhodococcus ruber,

have been tested by scientists

and seemed capable of breaking down plastic into its basic components.

What's also needed is an emphasis on reducing plastic production,

especially packaging and other single-use products, rather

than simply recycling. Action like this should help

plastic achieve its original purpose – to help preserve, not pollute,

our natural resources. And speaking of the origins of plastic, isn't it

time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil?

Right. I asked you

which object made of natural materials was the first to be replaced by plastic?

You said it was a hairbrush which was... the wrong answer, I'm afraid Beth.

In fact, the first plastic-moulding machine

was used in 1872

to produce snooker balls.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary

we have learned from this programme, starting with single-use plastics –

plastic products which are designed to be used just once,

before being thrown away.

Microbeads are tiny plastic particles found in products

like toothpastes and body scrubs,

which can enter and pollute rivers, seas and the human body.

The adjective synthetic describes

a non-natural material made by combining chemicals.

To biodegrade means to decay naturally in a way that is not harmful

to the environment. The phrase few and far between

means very rare or not happening very often.

And finally, if something is described as unsightly,

it's ugly and unpleasant to look at. Once again

our six minutes are up.

Join us next time for more trending topics

and useful vocabulary here at Six Minute

English. Goodbye for now.

Goodbye!