as for that plastic cutlery, let s pretend those bits never happened. but making plastic also requires fossil fuels, using as much oil as the world s aviation industry. so in finland, scientists are creating entirely new alternatives out of wood. it is similar to paper, made of sustainable wood fibres, it is made in paper machines, recyclable in paper recycling, but it performs similar to plastic. this is paptic, twice as strong as paper, but 50% thinner and water resistant. it can replace plastic bags, packaging for online shopping and food packets that don t need to be airtight. all thanks to some novel whipping tech. we can replace two thirds of water with air. the foam enables us to disperse the fibres much more efficiently and that helps us to simplify the process. a smaller process consumes
per week to rent their vehicle. and from driving to floating, anchors aweigh, here comes the remote controlled robot boat or ro boat. cruising amsterdam s canals after six years in the making, this plucky powerboat carries up to five passengers, goes a blistering four miles an hour and uses small cameras to get around the dock, with the hope of becoming completely autonomous in the next 2 4 years. it was a boat time! plastic is durable, lightweight and cheap. but by 20110, 29 million metric tons of it are expected to enter our oceans each year. that s 50 kg of plastic for every every metre of coastline worldwide. one immediate way we can reduce this impact is to reuse the packaging that we get our takeaways in.
this time, something will be done. next week, we ll be at the cop26 un climate change conference in glasgow, where pressure is building on those in power to make big changes. and this is the first of three click specials all about sustainability what we can change and how much technology can help. we all know plastic is a problem for our planet. left unchecked, the ocean could contain more plastic than fish by 2050. but much of the harm comes from things that we cannot see so clearly, like the fossil fuels emitting greenhouse gases. they currently emit more than 30 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, and every bit of c02 that goes into the air pushes the global temperature up just that little bit more. and we can tjust flick a switch, turn everything off
less energy, less water. the big benefit here is that i can recycle this along with my paper waste. and even if i didn t, it would just take several years to break down instead of thousands of years. i can also feel that the bag is stronger than paper, albeit not quite as strong as plastic. clearly, though, this won t be able to replace all kinds of plastic. but another finnish alternative does have the tough, mouldable qualities needed for cosmetics or food. it s almost impossible to guess that these aren t plastic. it is only close up that you can see its natural origins, and that is wood combine with natural binders and dyes. so our material biodegrades almost exactly the same time period as the same thickness of wood. microbes are able to eat our material and then our material biodegrades into c02, water and biomass.
we ve heard the warnings for some time. they have been getting louder and louder. the question is has our time to act run out? 2020 was the joint hottest year on record. hurricanes and flash floods have battered the planet. the earth is in crisis. and maybe, just maybe, this time, something will be done. next week, we ll be at the cop26 un climate change conference in glasgow, where pressure is building on those in power to make big changes. and this is the first of three click specials all about sustainability what we can change and how much technology can help. we all know plastic is a problem for our planet. left unchecked, the ocean could contain more plastic