The story of ocean plastic, at least the one we talk about now, began 20 years ago. Before then, nobody was making noise about how our oceans were filling up with with this everlasting nuisance. One man changed this when he showed the world what damage we were causing.
In this episode, we talk to the man himself, captain Charles Moore. And we ask: just how urgent is ocean plastic pollution? Is it as important as climate change?

Check out the Oceans series page for complementary resources & bonus materials.
Produced by Camille Duran
Published by Eleen Murphy
Senior Editors Eleen Murphy & Camille Duran
Music Credits: License by Ins. Green White Space.
Picture source: The Telegraph
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
 
Camille Duran [CD]: Ok Eleen are you ready?
Eleen Murphy [EM]: I am!
CD: This is real now, we said we would start this ocean series with a theme many human beings are talking about right now.
EM: Yes.
CD: It’s something we humans are ingesting on a daily basis, without even knowing it.
EM: humans & animals actually
CD: Right. Not only do we touch it and eat it, we also put it on our body all the time, it’s in our clothes, in our cosmetics…
EM: It’s everywhere in our lives
CD: And it’s also everywhere in the ocean.
EM: Plastic
CD: Plastic. Ocean plastic, Eleen. We promised we would tell crazy stories, we would investigate, infiltrate, hide microphones sometimes even – all this with the mission to bring clarity. Clarity on what needs to happen right now to solve this planetary emergency.  And Here we are, chapter one.
EM: Chapter one, baby!
CD: You know, I feel we should have picked a subject a little bit easier to deal with to be frank.
EM: Hm?
CD: A subject like.. Ocean Plankton for instance.
EM: Right….Not sure it would get the same interest…
CD: Hi everyone and welcome to episode thirty-three of our series on Ocean Plankton. I am your host Jimmy Shrimp-
EM: Okay okay, let’s get started now, we have a lot on our plate.
CD: Right, Sorry. Yes, so some of you have asked how many episodes we are going to dedicate to ocean plastic and actually we’re not sure. We do not know. It could easily go up to 10 or 15 episodes. Who knows how far the wind of change will take us.
EM: Yes, because we have a lot of stories already!
CD: Like the story of how plastic in the sand makes baby turtles turn from female to male.
EM: What? really? haven’t heard that one.
CD: Yes true story, or the story of the hidden GPS tracking device following a plastic container across continents all the way to… A place you will uncover.
EM: Nooo
CD: Or the dark side of something we cannot talk about yet otherwise they are going to cancel our upcoming meetings.
EM: Okay, okay, the point is: you’d better push that subscribe button.
CD: Yes, open your favourite podcast app, search ‘Green Exchange’, subscribe and share with your friends and colleagues.
EM: It’s not even physically hard.
CD: It only takes one finger.
EM: Or…two at the most…
 
PLASTIC SOUP: HOW MUCH POLLUTION IS LEAKING INTO THE OCEAN?
 
02:44
CD: Now, time to get our hands dirty
EM: I guess we can just put them into the ocean then?
CD: Yeah…the problem is, I am in Brussels.
EM: Ah, that’s right, how is it going by the way?
CD: We’ll talk about it. In due time…again.
EM: You don’t want to share anything.
CD: I don’t want to get anyone lost, that’s all. As you know, we are going to unpack the European debate later on in the series,