📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you saw a lot of plastic waste

This episode's vocabulary

Plastic waste (noun) – discarded plastic materials that pollute the environment. → The park was covered in plastic waste after the picnic.

Rubbish (noun) – garbage or trash. → There was rubbish scattered all over the street.

Strewn (adj) – scattered or spread untidily over a surface. → Leaves were strewn across the garden.

Heatwave (noun) – a prolonged period of excessively hot weather. → The heatwave made it difficult to stay outdoors.

Barbecue (noun) – a social event where food is cooked outside on a grill. → They had a barbecue in the backyard last weekend.

Discarded (adj) – thrown away or gotten rid of. → The discarded bottles were piling up near the river.

Bins (noun) – containers for garbage. → Please put your trash in the bins provided.

Constructive (adj) – helpful or useful, especially in improving a situation. → She gave constructive feedback to help me improve.

Clear up (phrasal verb) – to clean or tidy an area. → Volunteers helped clear up the beach after the festival.

Avoid (verb) – to stay away from or prevent something. → You should avoid touching your face during flu season.

Enthralled (adj) – fascinated or very interested. → The children were enthralled by the magician's performance.

Shared spaces (noun) – public areas used by many people. → Parks and playgrounds are shared spaces in the community.

Garbage (noun) – waste material, especially from homes or public places. → The garbage was collected early in the morning.

Tidying up (verb phrase) – cleaning or putting things in order. → She spent the afternoon tidying up her room.

Services (noun) – organisations or systems that provide public help, like cleaning or maintenance. → The city services ensure the streets are clean.

Littering (noun) – the act of improperly disposing of trash in public places. → Littering is a major problem in urban parks.

Pollution (noun) – the presence of harmful substances in the environment. → Plastic pollution harms wildlife and oceans.

Sustainability (noun) – the ability to maintain ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources. → Recycling helps promote sustainability.

Awareness (noun) – knowledge or understanding of a particular issue. → Environmental awareness campaigns encourage people to recycle.

Responsibility (noun) – the state of being accountable or having a duty. → We all have a responsibility to keep our environment clean.

Questions and Answers

Maria: You should say where and when you saw the plastic waste, why there was a lot of plastic waste, what you did after you saw it, and explain what your thoughts were about this.

Rory: Well, I wasn't very impressed the other day when I was walking through the park near my home, this must have been a couple of weeks ago now, and I was going for my normal morning walk when I was treated to the sight of all this rubbish strewn all over the place. It had been like a mini heatwave the day before, and lots of people had descended on the place to soak up the sun, evidently they'd done things like have barbecues, ordered food there and brought their own picnics as well, and some had just up and left their discarded packaging all over the place for me to find the following day. I'm not sure why they felt they could get away with that since lots of other people had clearly disposed of their stuff in the bins provided, but some people just left things, and that wasn't great.

I wish I could say I did something constructive after I came across all of this, but in all honesty, there was just too much to deal with by myself, so I just had to keep going past it and then complain about it to people after. Sometimes that's all you can do in these situations. And it did ultimately get cleared up, which was good, I just wish it didn't have to come to that, it all could have been so easily avoided. I suppose it should be obvious now that I wasn't exactly enthralled with the whole situation. People really need to learn to take better care of shared spaces like that and not just leave garbage lying around. Hopefully, in the future, it'll be less of a problem, but I'm not holding out much hope of that happening because this park is quite popular, and we've had these kinds of issues in the past, but on this particular occasion, it was particularly bad.

I'm not really sure what can be done about it, other than to just keep complaining and hoping that the services will tidy up and continue to do their job properly.

Maria: And do you often see much plastic waste?

Rory: In this place? Yes, increasingly so, and in general too, actually.