TRANSCIPT
Welcome to the future. Welcome to the Throw Forward Thursday studio. Let’s go to. Well, I’m not sure which year we’re going to now because I want to talk about the end of play. Yes, I think that within my lifetime we are going to see a ban on plastic, or at least an agreement globally all around the world for us to stop using plastic.
Plastic was one of the great inventions of the last century. In fact, it reminds me there’s a beautiful scene in the 1067 Dustin Hoffman movie The Graduate. This is a movie where Dustin Hoffman played a young University student who was having an affair with an older woman. And at a moment in the movie, he is taken aside by the woman’s husband and a bit of tension. You think the husband is maybe going to confront him?
And the husband says, I have something to tell you. A secret to tell you. Dustin is a little bit nervous as the student with a secret and the husband leans in and says, I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Yes, sir. Are you listening? Yes, I am. Plastics.
Exactly. How do you mean there’s a great future in plastics? And it was plastic has changed our world in the 50 plus years since it was the new big thing. But the unintended consequence is pollution. Plastic pollution is everywhere.
It’s clogging up our oceans. It’s killing fish and animals. We’ve seen microfibers throughout the ecosystem. It’s killing the planet, and it’s killing us. And at some point we are going to say enough and it’s not worth it.
We’re going to have to stop using plastic or at least plastic as we know it. Now, I don’t know how far in the future we’re going to have to go, but the sooner the better. So come with me to the future where we no longer use plastic.
If you want to make this real for your business. In 2020, Anne Edalgo became, well, she was voted again to become the Mayor of Paris. She’s from the Green Party. One of her commitments is that the Olympics in Paris in 2024 will be plastic free. This is a real thing.
I’m not making a prediction. That is her commitment. I have a number of clients who are impacted by this companies like Kroftheims and Nestle and Coca Cola and others who are now freaking out and saying, hey, by 2024, we have to have completely plastic free packaging at the Olympics. This is how you do it. You use the power of government.
You use the power of regulations to just put a line in the sand and say, no further than that. Look, we’re not going to ban plastic everywhere by 2024, but the sooner, the better. Thank you for joining me in the Throw Forward Thursday studio. Wherever. Every week we jump somewhere in the future.
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Graeme Codrington, is an internationally recognized futurist, specializing in the future of work. He helps organizations understand the forces that will shape our lives in the next ten years, and how we can respond in order to confidently stay ahead of change. Chat to us about booking Graeme to help you Re-Imagine and upgrade your thinking to identify the emerging opportunities in your industry.
For the past two decades, Graeme has worked with some of the world’s most recognized brands, travelling to over 80 countries in total, and speaking to around 100,000 people every year. He is the author of 5 best-selling books, and on faculty at 5 top global business schools.