00:00My name is Chris Barber.
00:29I'm the owner and the founder of a company called Degrade.
00:34My background is actually textile development and I looked at the feasibility of trying
00:39to use a recycled material in our production some ten years ago in the UK.
00:45Eight years ago we looked at the feasibility of coming to Dubai to try and set up the manufacturing
00:50system here.
00:52Now that was partly due to the fact that there is so much plastic in the environment.
00:56We know that there is in excess of 10 million plastic bottles produced every day and less
01:02than 6% of that plastic is actually recycled.
01:05This is conventional polyester yarn.
01:08We're just recreating it from a source that would otherwise be thrown into landfill.
01:15Far more environmentally friendly than creating polyester from scratch.
01:18We use 20% less water, 50% less energy and the process itself creates 55% fewer
01:26carbon emissions than creating polyester from scratch.
01:29And of course our process doesn't use oil.
01:33It takes approximately 2cm of oil to make a plastic bottle but with our technology and
01:41our process we're not using oil.
01:43So really it's a fantastic solution to what is now an environmental disaster with the
01:50amount of plastic that there is in the environment, in the sea and in the desert.
01:55Unfortunately 50% of all camels die through plastic ingestion in this area.
02:01Plastic has been given a very bad name recently.
02:04Consumers concern that plastic is endangering animals and wildlife and having a very bad
02:12effect on the environment.
02:13This is absolutely true.
02:15But we don't think plastic itself is the problem.
02:18We think it's more about human nature and that people should be more careful and take
02:24more responsibility to dispose of their plastic in an efficient and environmentally friendly
02:30way.
02:55Simply Bottles is an initiative that we've been running with schools for the past 2 years.
03:02We set competitions, we get the kids engaged, we teach them the process that we use itself
03:08to make clothing and we get them involved also to design school uniforms made from the
03:16plastic that they collect.
03:18So it's a great way of closing the loop and it's a great way of illustrating to people
03:24that if they recycle we can create something from it.
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