That water bottle we use once you know, humans are really good and throw away will be with us at creating things, and, for generations. By 2050, there will be more were really good at making plastic in the ocean than fish. Things that last forever, clearly with plastics. And they are everywhere. There are campaigns to limit this plastic plague, with bans plastics take the stage at an International Exhibit in on bags and straws, and yet amsterdam. Alfonsi and thats been the around the world, it continues case ever since plastic filled to pile up, seeping into our our homes in the 1950s. Rivers and streams, and turning the womenfolk washing dishes our oceans into a vast garbage made of plastic dishes that dump. Bounce when they drop to the floor. But one mophaired young alfonsi it was revolutionary. Dutchman has come up with a plan when the rain comes down on which he says will save our tomorrows brave new world, seas. Youll put on your plastic hi, boyan raincoat, put up your plastic hi. Hood. His name is boyan slat. Alfonsi television he has no formal training, and commercials billed it as the material of the future. His muchhyped, multimillion see these two portable radios . Dollar device has made him well, watch this. Something of a sensation. Let her go, betsy we decided to see what all the fuss is about. Susan freinkel i think the ticking flood of Plastic Products in the years after world war ii helped im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Make the, sort of, americanib p im scott pelley. Im anderson cooper. Im sharyn alfonsi. Im bill whitaker. On Susan Freinkel is aciscoe those stories, tonight, on 60 minutes. Writer, whose book, plastic a ticking toxic love story, chronicles its history. Oh oh oh freinkel its kind of a ozempic® technological miracle. announcer people with type 2 diabetes i mean, weve created this are excited about the potential of onceweekly ozempic®. Family of materials, and figured in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults out how to make them do pretty much anything that we want them lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c to do, you know . Of less than 7 and maintained it. You want it to be bendy, you oh under 7 . Want it to be transparent, you want it to be squishy . announcer and you may lose weight. In the same oneyear study, you want it to keep lettuce adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. Fresh for two weeks . Oh up to 12 pounds . Listen, to the sounds of freshness. announcer a twoyear study showed that ozempic® does not alfonsi there are a lot of increase the risk of major cardiovascular events things that are made of plastic that we dont really think of as like heart attack, stroke, or death. Plastic. Where is plastic in our lives . Oh no increased risk . Freinkel laughs announcer ozempic® should not be the first medicine how long have you got . For treating diabetes, or for people i mean i did a thought with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Experiment at the start of my book, where i said, okay, im do not share needles or pens. Going to go a day without dont reuse needles. Touching anything plastic. I thought it was a great idea, do not take ozempic® if you have a personal until i walked into the bathroom or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, and looked down at the plastic toilet seat, and my plastic multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, toothbrush, and so i said, okay, im going to or if you are allergic to ozempic®. Spend the day writing down everything thats plastic. Stop taking ozempic® and get medical help right away and by the days end, i had this, you know, enormous list. If you get a lump or swelling in your neck, alfonsi you look back at some of those old commercials, severe sman, i, uble bng and its really you know, plastic is sold as something that is lifechanging. Freinkel yes. Alfonsi i mean, one of the things you see in these early ads is, it will last forever. Freinkel yes, yes, it will serious last forever. Taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin and unfortunately, nobody really thought about what that may increase the risk for low blood sugar. Meant. Common side effects are nausea, vomiting, di alfonsi there are really only three things you can do stomach pain, and constipation. With plastic. Put it in a landfill, burn it, some side effects can lead to dehydration, or recycle it. Which may worsen kidney problems. For decades, we thought i discovered the potential with ozempic®. Recycling was the best answer, oh oh oh ozempic® and we were told to throw our plastic, our paper, and our announcer if eligible, you may pay as little as 25 per prescription. Aluminum cans into those familiar bins, to be picked up ask your Health Care Provider today and carted away. About onceweekly ozempic®. woman man have you smeno. D this litter . But according to roland geyer, woman nobody has its unscented an environmental scientist at vo tidy cats free clean unscented. The university of california, powerful odor control with activated charcoal. 90 of the plastic we used never free of dyes. Free of fragrances. Made it into one of those bins unscented odor control like that . At all. Try tidy cats free clean. The other 10 ended up in places like recology, a recycling i kick it to the curb. Facility in northern california. Th pink power. Here, lots of milk bottles. Alfonsi and youllhe and many other plants across the with grapefruit e clears breakouts. K wer. Country, had been doing with neutrogena®. That plastic. Body clear®. Roland geyer until recently, in california, and probably its easy to move forward when youre ready for what comes next. Much of the rest of the u. S. , at fidelity, we make sure you have a clear plan twothirds of the plastic went to cover the essentials in retirement, straight to china. Alfonsi china. Why china . As well as all the things you want to do. Geyer china was accepting and on the way, youll get timely investment help it, and it appears that china to keep you on the right track, found a way to recycle it without the unnecessary fees you might expect from so many financial firms. Economically, which the, the because when you have a partner u. S. Has trouble with. Who gives you clarity at every step, alfonsi but all that changed theres nothing to stop you from moving forward. Two years ago, when china decided it didnt want to be the worlds trash dump, and shut the door to our plastic, leaving plants like recology scrambling. Where is all that recycling going now . Geyer a lot of the plastic has been diverted to other countries, like vietnam, indonesia, malaysia, bangladesh, thailand. Alfonsi and of those countries, do we know that what were sending to them is ultimately being recycled . Geyer we hope it gets recycled. Alfonsi we hope . But do we think . Geyer we, we dont know. Theres no real audit trail or anything like that, so its very difficult. And we know that a lot of plastic in Southeast Asia and other countries ends ends up in open dumps. Alfonsi this is discouraging, i think, to most people. Is the idea of recycling a myth . Geyer i wouldnt call it a myth. Alfonsi but its not working. Geyer for plastic, its currently not working. So we need we need to change it. We need to try different things. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Alfonsi there are campaigns across the country to ban straws and bags, and try to reduce the amount of plastic we consume in the first place. But su freinkel i know all the stahl tonight, well take you inside the growing, shadowy problems about plastic, and if you open my kitchen, you know, Global Market of cyber cabinets, ive got a box of espionage. Ziploc baggies there, because we looked specifically at a its easier. Controversial Israeli Company so, you know, we have to really called the n. S. O. Group, valued wrestle ourselves with, what at nearly a billion dollars, conveniences are we willing to give up, what kind of cons that says it developed a hacking consumption are we willing to, tool that can break into just sort of, pull back on, in order about any smartphone on earth. To change . Plastics. Plastics everywhere. As we first reported in march, alfonsi it is a big ask, n. S. O. Licenses this software, that would require a major called pegasus, to intelligence overhaul in the way we live our lives. And Law Enforcement agencies which may be why boyan slat and worldwide, so they can infiltrate the encrypted phones his big idea were getting breathless coverage from the and apps of criminals and terrorists. Worlds media. Slat we start with one problem is, this same tool can system, because we proof the technology and learn as much as also be deployed by a government possible. Alfonsi . Nearly all of to crush dissent. Whom seemed to turn up for the spectacle last september, as his and so it is that pegasus has been linked to human rights system was towed under the abuses, unethical surveillance, Golden Gate Bridge, 1,400 miles and even to the notoriously out to the Great Pacific garbage brutal murder of the saudi patch. Arabian critic Jamal Khashoggi. Slat well, its five years of work and planning coming together, in one nice shot. Headquartered in the israeli its overwhelming, exciting to city of herzliya, n. S. O. Group see. Operates in strict secrecy. Going through the Golden Gate Bridge right now. Its a beautiful sight. But cofounder and c. E. O. Shalev alfonsi but after hulio has been forced out of the deployment, its performance was shadows, and not i less enchanting. First, the plastic it did manage to corral ended up floating pegasus to saudi arabia despite right back into the pacific, its abysmal record on human then, the apparatus broke apart rights. And the word is that you sold and had to be towed back to shore. Pegasus to them, and then they and even if he did get the device working, scientists we turned it around to get spoke to had serious doubts khashoggi. About just how effective it shalev hulio khashoggi could be. Murder is horrible. Really horrible. For one thing, its tenfoot screen could only skim the and therefore, when i first oceans surface, missing plastic heard there are accusations that thats much deeper. It could also end up trapping our technology been used on marine animals. Jamal khashoggi, or on his but their biggest criticism is relatives, i started an that its pointless to spend immediate check about it. Millions of dollars trying to clean the middle of the ocean and i can tell you very clear, when more and more plastic is we had nothing to do with this flowing into it from the coastlines. For researcher denise hardesty, horrible murder. Slats device was certainly no stahl its been reported that you yourself went to riyadf silver bullet. Youre skeptical . Hardesty i would love to be wrong. Sold pegasus to the saudis for what im suggesting is that we use our resources wisely and 55 million. Focus on the items close to hulio dont believe newspapers. Stahl is that a denial . Source, where we can clean them up. No. Alfonsi get it earlier . Hardesty get it early. Pegasus is so expensive because alfonsi get it closer to the it lets authorities do what they shore . Hardesty get it close to shore. And if you really want to focus long couldnt break into smart it, be smart, have these big trash booms near the city phones remotely, making everything in them completely centers. Because thats where we lose visible all emails, contacts, much more of it, as well. And if you want to be even and texts, new, old, encrypted smarter, stop it before it gets to the coast. You know, have some rubbish or not. Traps at rivers that feed out pegasus allows detectives and into the mouth of the ocean, or agents to track locations, further upstream, even. You know, i think the analogy listen in to and record that you hear often is, if conversations; basically turning youve got a flood in the bathtub, youre not going to go the phone against its user. Just get a bunch of towels and try to keep cleaning it up, in the companys eightyear because its still flooding history, they have never let over. You really need to turn off the cameras in. Tap, right . Alfonsi people that we spoke but they wanted to show us to said, this is like trying to theyre like any hightech mop up a flooded bathroom, but company, with playstations and leaving the tap on. Pilates. Slat i think humanity can do more than one thing at the same time. But there was a lot we couldnt and, you know, if your bathroom show. Notice no faces. Is overflooding, im still the work is top secret, and some pretty happy that the mop employees are exmilitary exists. And eventually we need to mop it intelligence and mossad. Up, right . Pegasus is such a sensitive alfonsi slat has spent spytool, n. S. O. Has to get months working to overcome those early failures, and an updated approval before it can be licensed to any client, let device is now back in the alone saudi arabia, from the garbage patch. Israeli defense ministry, as he says hes hopeful that this time, it will work. Though its an arms deal. When we come back, well take why would the government of you to one of the most remote israel want, you know, what places in the world, to show you just how far the plastic plague seems to be an enemy, to have has spread. This technology . ticking hulio im not going to talk about specific customer. Stahl but can you say that you wont, and havent, sold cbs sports hq is presented by progressive insurance. Pegasus to a country that is imed a saddam ducker in our new york studio. Known to violate human rights golf today at the bmw championship. Justin thomas gets his tenth pga and imprison journalists and go tour win, shooting a course after activists . Record 61 in the third round. Hulio i only say that we are selling pegasus in order to in the n. F. L. , saints quash prevent crime and terror. Leads the comeback against the chargers. Yesterday it was the patriots beeat thing the titans and the stahl penetrating an iphone was an issue in the terrorist cowboys beating the rams. Attack in san bernardino, for 24 7news and highlight, california, in 2015. Visit cbs sports hq. Com. The f. B. I. Said it couldnt get more of. Into the shooters phone, and im not calling him dad. Apple refused to help over oh, nno. Privacy concerns, an issue that look, [sighs] i get it. Had come up before. Some new guy comes in helping your mom bundle and save with progressive, hulio intelligence agencies came to us and say, we do have but hey, were all in this together. A problem. With the new smartphones we right, champ . Cannot longer get valuable im getting more nuggets. Intelligence. How about some carrots . Stahl they were encrypted . You dont want to ruin your dinner. Hulio yeah, exactly. Youre not my dad stahl how many lives do you thats fair. Think pegasus has saved . Overstepped. Hulio ten of thousands of people. Stahl really . Hulio yes. Stahl hulio referred us to the head of a western european intelligence agency, who, off camera, confirmed that pegasus is a gamechanger in foiling attacks by european jihadists, as well as shutting down drug and Human Trafficking rings. But heres the question how often has pegasus also been used to go after a governments critics . If you were in saudi arabia, youd be in jail . Ghanem almasarir well, i dont think i would be in jail. I dont think anyone would find my body, like what Jamal Khashoggi has faced. Stahl Ghanem Almasarir is a saudi comic living in london, who has a popular youtube satire show that takes aim at crown Prince Mohammed bin salman. Last year, as the regime was kidnapping, locking up, and torturing saudi dissidents, ghanem says he and other critics abroad got Text Messages like this fake d. H. L. Notice that, if clicked, would download pegasus i have heart disease, onto their phones, so they could be spied on. Watch what i eat, take statins, but still struggle to lower my ldl bad cholesterol. And you clicked on it . Of course, yeah. Whos sending me a package . Which means a heart attack or stroke. Now, pegasus is designed to could strike without warning, pulling me away from everything that matters most. Catch terrorists. siren almasarir so, who defines because with high bad cholesterol, the terrorist . My risk of a heart attack or stroke do you think i am a terrorist . Is real. Do i look like a terrorist . Repatha® plus a statin seriously lowers bad cholesterol by 63 . I dont know what it stahl i dont know what a terrorist looks like. Almasarir but, i mean, the and significantly drops my risk of having a heart attack problem is, the saudis consider or stroke. Do not take repatha® if you are allergic to it. People asking for freedom for repatha® can cause serious allergic reactions. Speech as terrorist. Signs include trouble breathing or swallowing, they consider anybody who is a or swelling of the face. Threat to their regime is a most common side effects include runny nose, sore throat, terrorist. Common cold symptoms, flu or flulike symptoms stahl what do you do when your customer has a definition back pain, high blood sugar, and redness, pain, of terrorist that isnt our or bruising at the injection site. Definition . In some countries, the i wont let a heart attack or stroke come between me opposition are are terrorists . And everything i love. Neither should you. Hulio no such thing. Every customer that we sold has tell your doctor to lower your ldl and reduce your risk with repatha®. A very clear definition of what terrorism is. Pay no more than 5 per month with the repatha® copay card. And its basically bad guys doing bad things in order to kill innocent people, in order to change the political agenda. I never met with a customer that told me that oppositions are terrorists. Stahl well, theyre not going to tell you. Hulio but if they will act like that they will not going to be a customer. There are more than 100 countries 100 countries that we will never sell our technologies to. Ron deibert the problem is, theres there are not proper controls around how this technology is being used. Stahl ron deibert heads citizen lab, a human rights watchdog at the university of toronto where researchers, like Computer Scientist bill marczak, say they figured out a way to detect if a phone has been targeted by pegasus, which they did in the case of Ghanem Almasarir and other saudi dissidents. Deibert this technology is being used by autocratic dictators who can mount global Cyber Espionage operations simply by purchasing the technology. Stahl so you are saying that once they sell this technology, once the israelis sell it, they know how its being used . Bill marczak well, the question is, do they care to look . I think if they cared t