Example:
0 At the beginning of the programme Dan asks Kate whether she has heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
1 The patch was discovered in 1997 and basically consists of a big …………………….. of plastic garbage.
2 The patch is 600,000 …………………….. .
3 Every year, pollution kills a million sea birds and …………………….. mammals and turtles.
4 According to Jan van Franeker, what biologists are finding in the stomachs of sea birds is …………………….. and parts from fishing nets and ropes.
5 It seems that 80% of all the plastic litter in the sea has been …………………….. on land originally.
6 According to marine ecologist Richard Thompson, 40% of the plastic products made every year are …………………….. that we then discard.
7 The three R’s Dan mentions stand for …………………….. , …………………….. and …………………….. .
8 Kate thinks she’s very lucky because she has all her plastics and glass collected …………………….. .
Dan: Hello. I’m Dan Walker Smith and today I’m joined by Kate.
Kate: Hello Dan.
Dan: Now today Kate and I are talking about pollution. So I’m going to start the show today with a question, Kate; have you ever heard of the ‘Great (0) Pacific Garbage Patch’?
Kate: No, I’m afraid I haven’t; I’ve never heard of that.
Dan: Well let me explain: Garbage is an American word for something we’ve thrown away. What we in the UK might call rubbish. And the Pacific Garbage Patch is an area of the Pacific Ocean where rubbish has collected. It was discovered in 1997, and is essentially a (1) big floating soup of plastic garbage and bits of rubbish that have been thrown away on land and have ended up in the sea.
Kate: Ooh that sounds absolutely horrible. I had no idea that anything like that existed.
Dan: Well this is the bit which is really scary: we don’t actually know the size of the garbage patch, but some people say it could be 600,000 (2) square miles across –which is twice the size of France.
Kate: What? Twice the size of France? That’s absolutely huge!
Dan: And it could be bigger.
Kate: That’s very frightening. Now plastic pollution in the seas kills over a million sea birds and (3) 100,000 mammals and turtles each year.
Dan: So here’s the Dutch marine biologist Jan van Franeker talking about the effects of plastic pollution on birds.
Worldwide, there’s so many bird species that have litter in their stomachs. It varies from pieces from (4) bottles or toys, parts from fishing nets, from ropes. Any sort of plastic really that is broken up and is floating around the ocean.
Kate: OK, so the plastics they’re finding aren’t just things that might have been thrown into the sea, like fishing nets and ropes, but are actually things that have come from the land, like pieces of bottles and children’s toys.
Dan: Apparently 80% of all the plastic found in the ocean is actually litter that’s been (5) thrown away on land.
Kate: And part of the problem is that most plastics aren’t biodegradable.
Dan: And some plastic bags could last in the environment for up to a thousand years.
Kate: Let’s hear the marine ecologist Richard Thompson talking about plastic packaging.
I think we need to think very, very carefully about the way that we use plastics in society. If we think that 100 million tonnes of plastic products are made every year, 40% of those are (6) packaging materials that are mainly used once and then discarded.
Dan: OK, so 40% of the world’s plastic is used as packaging material and then discarded. To lower the amount of plastic waste, scientists recommend the ‘three Rs’ for packaging. We can (7) reduce the amount of packaging used on products; we can re-use packaging more than once, and we can recycle the materials used.
Kate: Do you recycle, Dan?
Dan: I’m actually very lucky, because where I live in London has a great recycling programme. So essentially every week we’ve got someone who comes round and collects all the paper and all the plastic and all the glass that I’ve used that entire week, which is fantastic.
Kate: Oh that sounds great, you’re really lucky. Actually I’ve got the same thing: I have all my plastics and glass picked up (8) outside my house, so I think certain places in the UK are doing quite well on the recycling front.
Dan: And even if you can’t recycle, just try and reuse or reduce the amount of waste that you’re going to be producing. So from all of us here, thanks for listening, and goodbye!
Kate: Goodbye!