I'm a visual artist, and I'm also one of the co-founders of the Plastic Pollution Coalition.

我是一名视觉艺术家，也是塑料污染联盟的联合创始人之一。

I've been working with plastic bags, which I cut up and sew back together as my primary material for my artwork for the last 20 years.

过去20年，我一直参与塑料包的工作，我艺术创作的原材料是裁制和缝合塑料。

I turn them into two and three-dimensional pieces and sculptures and installations.

让塑料变为平面和立体型艺术，雕塑和艺术装置。

Upon working with the plastic, after about the first eight years,

在与塑料打交道的八年之后，

some of my work started to fissure and break down into smaller little bits of plastic.

我的一些作品开始开裂碎成许多小塑料块。

And I thought, "Great.

我想，“好极了。

It's ephemeral just like us."

塑料就像我们人类一样短命。”

Upon educating myself a little further about plastics, I actually realized this was a bad thing.

在进一步了解塑料知识后，我实际上意识到这是一件坏事。

It's a bad thing that plastic breaks down into smaller little bits, because it's always still plastic.

塑料碎成许多小块，但它还是塑料，这很糟糕。

And what we're finding is that a lot of it is in the marine environment.

我们发现其中很多都存在于海洋环境中。

I then, in the last few years, learned about the Pacific garbage patch and the gyre.

然后，在过去的几年，我知道太平洋垃圾环流和垃圾漩涡。

And my initial reaction -- and I think this is a lot of people's first reaction to learning about it -- is, "Oh my God!

我第一反应--我想这也是多数人的第一反应，知道这之后--“喔，我的上帝！

We've got to go out there and clean this thing up."

我们要去那里并清理这些塑料。”

So I actually developed a proposal to go out with a cargo ship and two decommissioned fishing trawlers, a crane,

所以我实际上制定了一个提案，用一艘货船和两艘退役的拖网渔船、一台起重机，

a chipping machine and a cold-molding machine.

一台削片机和一台冷压机出海。

And my intention was to go out to the gyre, raise awareness about this issue and begin to pick up the plastic,

我计划是航行到垃圾环流带，提高对于此污染的高度重视，开始回收塑料，

chip it into little bits and cold mold it into bricks that could potentially be used as building materials in underdeveloped communities.

切割它变成小片，然后冷压变成塑料块，它可能被用来作为欠发达社区的建筑材料。

I began talking with people who actually had been out to the gyre and were studying the plastic problem in the marine environment and upon doing so,

我同那些曾去过垃圾环流带的人们谈过，他们也曾研究过塑料污染对海洋环境的污染，交谈之后，

I realized actually that cleaning it up would be a very small drop in the bucket relative to how much is being generated every day around the world,

我开始意识到，海上清理塑料相比起全球每天产生塑料的生产量，就如大海捞针一样，

and that actually I needed to back up and look at the bigger picture.

我必须回过头想想，要展望更大的蓝图。

And the bigger picture is: we need to find a way to turn off the faucet.

真正的解决办法就是：我们需要在源头找到解决方法。

We need to cut the spigot of single-use and disposable plastics, which are entering the marine environment every day on a global scale.

我们需要切断一次性使用塑料和一次性塑料的源头，使得它们在全球范围内每天不会再进入大海。

So in looking at that, I also realized that I was really angry.

看看这个，我也知道我非常生气。

I wasn't just concerned about plastic that you're trying to imagine out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean -- of which I have learned there are now 11 gyres,

我不仅仅担心你试图想象太平洋中部的塑料--我了解到太平洋中部现在有11个环流，

potentially, of plastic in five major oceans in the world.

遍及世界五大海洋。

It's not just that gyre of plastic that I'm concerned about -- it's the gyre of plastic in the supermarket.

我担心的不仅仅是塑料环流--还有超市里的塑料环流。

I'd go to the supermarket and all of my food is packaged in plastic.

我去超市，发现我所有的食物都是用塑料包装的。

All of my beverages are packaged in plastic, even at the health food market.

我所有的饮料都是用塑料包装的，即使在保健食品市场也是如此。

I'm also concerned about the plastic in the refrigerator,

我也关注在冰箱的塑料，

and I'm concerned about the plastic and the toxins that leach from plastic into us and into our bodies.

还有塑料以及滤取塑料的毒素被我们吃下和吸收到我们身体里。

So I came together with a group of other people who were all looking at this issue, and we created the Plastic Pollution Coalition.

所以我和其他一群正在关注这个问题的人聚集在一起，我们创建了塑料污染联盟。

We have many initiatives that we're working on, but some of them are very basic.

我们为解决这问题开始许多活动，它们中的一些是非常简单的。

One is: if 80 to 90 percent of what we're finding in the ocean -- of the marine debris that we're finding in the ocean -- is plastic,

其中一个是：在大海，我们发现百分80到百分90海洋废弃物是塑料，

then why don't we call it what it is.

然后我们为什么不称其为：

It's plastic pollution.

塑料污染。

Recycling -- everybody kind of ends their books about being sustainable and greening with the idea of recycling.

再循环。关于可持续和再循环的环保想法的书籍都是类似的观点。

You put something in a bin and you don't have to think about it again.

大家扔东西到垃圾桶里，但是从来没有再想过此事。

What is the reality of that?

现实是什么呢？

In the United States, less than seven percent of our plastics are recycled.

在美国，塑料垃圾回收率少于百分之七。

And if you really look into it, particularly when it comes to plastic bottles, most of it is only down-cycled, or incinerated, or shipped to China.

大家想实际看看，特别当塑料变成塑料瓶，绝大多数塑料瓶仅被降级回收，或者焚烧，或运到中国。

It is down-cycled and turned into lesser things,

它被缩减循环并变成更小的东西，

while a glass bottle can be a glass bottle again or can be used again -- a plastic bottle can never be a plastic bottle again.

虽然玻璃瓶可以再次成为玻璃瓶，也可以再次使用--但塑料瓶永远不能再次成为塑料瓶。

So this is a big issue for us.

所以这对我们来说是一个大问题。

Another thing that we're looking at and asking people to think about is we've added a fourth R onto the front of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,"

我们正在关注并要求人们思考的另一件事是，我们在“减少、重复使用、回收”的前面添加了第四个R，

three R's, and that is refuse.

三个R，那就是拒绝。

Whenever possible, refuse single-use and disposable plastics.

尽可能拒绝使用一次性塑料和一次性塑料。

Alternatives exist; some of them are very old-school.

替代方案是存在的;其中一些非常老派。

I myself am now collecting these cool Pyrex containers and using those instead of Glad and Tupperware containers to store food in.

我自己现在正在收集这些很酷的耐热塑料容器，并用它们代替Glad和特百惠容器来储存食物。

And I know that I am doing a service to myself and my family.

我知道我是在为自己和家人服务。

It's very easy to pick up a stainless-steel bottle or a glass bottle,

拿起不锈钢瓶或玻璃瓶非常容易，

if you're traveling and you've forgotten to bring your stainless-steel bottle and fill that up with water or filtered water,

如果您在旅行时忘记带不锈钢瓶并将其装满水或过滤水，

versus purchasing plastic bottled water.

而不要购买塑料瓶装水。

I guess what I want to say to everybody here -- and I know that you guys know a lot about this issue -- is that this is a huge problem in the oceans,

我猜我想要告诉大家的是---我知道你们大家关于此塑料污染知道得很多, 漂在大海上的塑料是个严重的问题，

but this is a problem that we've created as consumers and we can solve.

但这是我们做为消费者自身产生的问题，我们也能自身解决这问题。

We can solve this by raising awareness of the issue and teaching people to choose alternatives.

我们通过提高这问题的意识，教导人们选择可替换性产品，能够解决这问题。

So whenever possible, to choose alternatives to single-use plastics.

所以无论何时，请选择使用可替换性产品，拒绝使用一次性使用塑料和即丢塑料。

We can cut the stem -- tide the stem of this into our oceans and in doing so, save our oceans, save our planet, save ourselves.

我们可以切断源头，阻止这塑料污染到我们的海洋里，通过如上4R行动，拯救我们的海洋，拯救我们的家园，拯救我们自己。

Thank you.

谢谢。