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

This episode's vocabulary

Consequently (adverb) - as a result; therefore.

Overwhelming (adj.) - difficult to fight against.

Beachfront (noun) - a strip of land along a beach.

To wash up (phrasal verb) - to appear on land because the ocean or a river or lake left it there.

Shoreline (noun) - shoreline.

Inwards (adverb) - towards the inside.

Current (noun) - a movement of water, air, or electricity in a particular direction.

Coastal (adj.) - positioned on, or relating to the coast.

To toss (verb) - to throw something carelessly.

To dump (verb) - to get rid of something unwanted, especially by leaving it in a place where it is not allowed to be.

En masse (adverb) - if a group of people do something en masse, they do it together and at the same time.

Forgettable (adj.) - not important or good enough to be remembered.

To make a mental note of something - to make an effort to remember something.

Inescapable (adj.) - if a fact or a situation is inescapable, it cannot be ignored or avoided.

To address (verb) - to give attention to or deal with a matter or problem.

Phenomenon (noun) - something that exists and can be seen, felt, tasted, etc., especially something unusual or interesting.

Landfill (noun) - a place where garbage is buried.

To tip (verb ) - to get rid of rubbish by putting it in a place where it should not be.

To implement (verb) - to start using a plan or system.

Sight (noun) - something that is in someone's view.

-

Questions and Answers

M: Fire away.

R: Well, this is hard because where I live, there are very few people and consequently little rubbish of any kind, let alone just plastic. I suppose the closest time would be when I was walking along the beach, and I saw some collected there. But it didn't look very good, and I wasn't very happy about it. But it seems like such an overwhelming problem to deal with. I'm not sure what to do. To go further into where and when I saw it, it was the beachfront near my home. Actually, it extends all the way in front of my hometown. It's a combination of, well, like sand and stones mostly. Although apparently lately, there's an increasing amount of plastic washing up on the shoreline. To elaborate further on the why behind that amount of rubbish being there. I'm not sure I could trace every single part to its source. But I think it collects from various places out in the ocean, and then it gets moved inwards by the currents. It's not just in my area either. I think a lot of coastal places are affected by people just tossing things into the sea, either individually or it could be being dumped en masse, I'm not too sure. To provide further detail on what I did after I happened upon it repeatedly, I did what everyone else does, nothing in the moment and then making a rather forgettable mental note to not use so much plastic. It seems like an inescapable issue that's difficult to address as everybody uses plastic for everything, don't they? To go into more detail about my thoughts, I wish there was an easy solution to this problem. But it really is, or at least it seems to be a global phenomenon. I could have gone down there and put it in a trashcan myself, but it would probably just wind up going to a landfill or even worse, getting tipped back into the sea. Hopefully, a more permanent solution that's easy to implement can be found soon though, because it wasn't a terribly pleasant sight at the time. And I imagined it still isn't.

M: And do you often see plastic waste in your neighbourhood?

R: Not where I currently live, but I definitely see it on the beach, like I just described.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your rubbish answer!

R: It wasn't rubbish, it was a good answer.

M: Yeah, yeah, it was a good answer. It was just about rubbish.

-

Discussion

M: Yes, dear listener, an interesting question, and it's the first time that we've actually had this question. Describe a time when you saw a lot of plastic waste. Plastic waste, we mean rubbish. Okay? So rubbish or garbage. And you saw this in a park, on the beach, maybe in the city close to your home. So somewhere, yeah? Not in a trash can, obviously. And Rory decided to tell us about rubbish he saw along the beach, yeah? Because Rory leaves in the middle of Scotland, somewhere close to the sea, obviously.

R: Well, I live in the middle of Scotland now, but when I'm in my hometown, it's next to the sea.

M: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Rory sees the see out of his windows. And, Rory, I didn't quite get that. So you saw some collected rubbish on the beach. Like in bags? Or what exactly did you see?

R: So, for once, this is not actually a passive voice. It was just I saw rubbish collected there. That means that it was collected there at the time. So it was like a collection of rubbish. Not people collecting it.

M: Ah, okay. So the rubbish was collected in bags and you saw these huge bags of rubbish just standing there?

R: No, no, it was collected together. It wasn't in bags, it was just, it was like a pile of rubbish.

M: A pile of rubbish. All right. Okay, so some people just collected the rubbish in a pile and they just left it there. Okay.

R: No, no, no, not necessarily. If some kind of force draws like together a pile of rubbish, then you could say it's collected together, just because it's all in the same place at once. So no one's actually done anything. It's just, it's collected there, it's come together there.

M: Ah, okay, so not like, people didn't collect it.

R: No, if they'd collected it then it would have taken it away.

M: Okay, lovely. So, plastic waste. We say waste, not wastes. So waste is or we can use synonyms like rubbish. Also, rubbish is, yeah? And we can say that I was walking along the beach and saw some collected rubbish there.

R: No, rubbish collected there. I saw some rubbish collected there.

M: I saw some rubbish collected there. Yeah. Or if you just saw rubbish, then I was walking down the street and then I saw rubbish all over the street, for example, yeah? Or all over the park. Or for example, I saw some rubbish scattered around the park.

R: Yeah. Maybe we should talk a little bit more about collected because that's a hard one to explain. So, if you see rubbish starting to pile up like it's being washed onto the beach by the tide, or the water currents, and it's all building up together, and it's being placed there by the sea, then you could say there's rubbish collecting there because no one's picking it up. It's just staying there. And it's just building up over time. So that's, again, because that causes some confusion there, most people think it's a passive-voice thing, but it's not. It's actually... It's actually an adjective. To describe the state of the rubbish. It's collected together.

M: Okay, the rubbish is collected together. Okay.

R: Yeah, you could think the same thing about people in a meeting, the people are collected together in the town hall, for example, for their meeting.

M: Yeah, so if I see a pile of rubbish, kind of like together.

R: Like it's built up over time.

M: And you can say that this is an overwhelming problem. An overwhelming problem, it's a big problem, it's like a bit too much. Right? Because like, yeah, rubbish could be everywhere, even in the beautiful forests, or parks. And people just litter everywhere. So this could be an overwhelming problem. And then Rory used a nice expression, like, there has been an increasing amount of plastic washing up on the shoreline. Okay? So first of all, the amount of plastic. Right? Not the number. And an increasing amount of plastic and then it's washed up on the shoreline from the ocean. Yeah?

R: So, there's lots there because there has been. The grammar.

M: Oh, yeah, Present Perfect.

R: Yes. And then an increasing amount for talking about how much there is. An increasing amount of plastic, and then washing up or washed up. So phrasal verb for things being, I suppose, thrown out of the sea by the water or by the current.

M: Yeah, dear listener, I think, the easiest option for you is to talk about some rubbish you saw on the beach. Okay? Because again, you can just imagine this situation, you are walking along the beach and then suddenly you saw some plastic washing up on the shoreline. Because we do have some nice verbs and nice nouns. Shoreline, on the shoreline, about the beach, about the sea, about the ocean and plastic. So yeah, this could be your story. And then Rory told us that this rubbish, this amount of rubbish collects from various places out in the ocean or in the sea. So it collects somewhere in the ocean, and then the rubbish gets moved inwards by the currents. Wow...

R: So there's that word collects again. Maybe if we explain this further, you could probably just say, it collects together and that might make it super clear.

M: Yeah, it collects together, so the rubbish is floating in the sea...

R: Moving together.

M: Yeah, moves together, then it collects together. Yeah? Out in the ocean. And then this rubbish gets moved inwards by the currents. The currents like the waves?

R: Not quite, the current is the movement of the water. The waves are... Oh, how best to describe... The waves are generated by tidal force. There you go, that's where waves come from, and I'm not explaining that further. I think waves can be generated by current, but current is just a way of describing how the water moves.

M: So the rubbish gets moved inwards by the water. Okay? Or by the currents. And we really see a lot of rubbish in coastal places. So coastal places? Places by the sea. And then we can also say that people toss. People toss things into the sea, they toss rubbish into the sea, from their yards, from ships, and that's why this rubbish collects together.

R: They just throw it away.

M: Throw it away, yeah, toss things into the sea. And you also said that... In mass. In mass. Dumped, dumped in mass.

R: Yeah, so individually or dumped en masse. So like, individually means like individual pieces or by individuals, and en masse means just like it's dumped in one big load.

M: So the rubbish is dumped en masse. Yeah?

R: Yeah.

M: So for example, for one ship, they just like, toss a huge amount of rubbish just into the sea. Yep. Horrible, horrible.

R: Well, I just think they don't know what else to do with it.

M: And what did our Rory do? Nothing, pretty much. Yeah?

R: Well, what was I supposed to do? Like, there's a lot of rubbish. And I have a limited amount of time in the day. I'm not really sure what's supposed to happen.

M: Yeah, so Rory made a forgettable mental note. So he just thought, oh, how horrible it is, like, but I'm not gonna do anything. Well, it's okay. So I did nothing in the moment, I made a forgettable mental note not to use so much plastic, for example. Or I thought that I would not use plastic at all. And this is an inescapable issue. Inescapable, like we can't can't escape it.

R: Like taxes or death.

M: And when you talk about your thoughts, a great structure to use is I wish. I wish there was an easy solution to this problem. So solution to a problem, to this problem to this overwhelming problem. And then we're imagining, so I wish there was, there was a solution. So past simple, because it's an imaginary situation. Unfortunately, we don't have an easy solution. Yeah? To this plastic waste. I wish there was an easy solution to this problem. But it really is a global phenomenon. So this plastic waste is a global phenomenon. So it's a global thing. Yeah? Phenomenon. And then the third conditional is good to go. I could have gone down there and put it in a trash can. Yeah? I could have done this. I could have removed the rubbish. I could have done this. I could have gone down there. I could have put it in a trash can. Right? But I didn't. That's why I could have put it in a trash can. Nice one. And Rory, tell us about your favourite phrasal verb ever. Hey!

R: But it would probably just wind up going to landfill. So wind up for the end result after a long process.

M: Yeah, landfill is a place where we have all the rubbish in the world piled up. So this rubbish could wind up going to a landfill or it could get tipped back into the sea. So tip back into the sea. Kind of like go back into the sea. Yeah?

R: Yeah.

M: Hey, Rory, tell us what helped you to keep going and wish nice phrases you used to organize this answer?

R: Well, I was a little bit lazy with this one. So, really, I used some things that are probably... People have become quite familiar with now. So, I structured it in the way it was in the task, I had to say where and when I was when I saw it, why it was there, and what I did after I saw, and also explain how I felt about it. So for the first part, I said, just to go further into where and when I saw it. I suppose if you wanted to sound a little bit more original, you could say to go further into the where and when of when I saw this. Then that might be enough of a paraphrase to help out. In the same way, I said to elaborate further on the why. So that structure in action there, just delving into the reasons there might have been a lot of plastic there. And then going on to say what I did after I saw it, so then I said to provide further detail on what I did after. And then, again, with that detail sticking with it, to go into more detail about my thoughts. So, a little bit lazy, but that's how I structured the answer by taking parts of the task and adding my own expressions to it. So those are just some of the things that I did to signpost where I was going with what I was saying. Thank you, Rory! That was lovely! And thank you, dear listener, for listening and paying attention! We're gonna come back to you with our speaking part three episode, where we talk about plastic products and rubbish in general. Bye!

-

Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff:

Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi

Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi