Shadowing Practice: Environmental Impacts Of Consumer Products - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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MUSIC We often don't realise it,
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but the decisions we make as consumers,
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from what products we buy to how we end up disposing of them,
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of them all affect other people in other places.
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I want to know more about the impact that the manufacturing and consumption of goods has on different environments around the world.
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Let's hear from Kathleen Griffith about the environmental impact of manufacturing.
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Countries that make consumer goods or produce the raw materials are going to be affected environmentally.
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From previous old-fashioned behaviours such as making garments
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and just basically getting rid of waste into the rivers
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or the waterways and therefore the fish die
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and the rivers might get green algae and it can all pollute people that live around those rivers,
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it really can be quite devastating.
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You would think we would have gotten better at that by now
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but if you know there's been recent media attention to the bleaching of Great Barrier Reef
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and a lot of protests about how close we're discharging stuff into
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that part of the world or that part of Australia's waterways
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and that it is having a detrimental effect on the Barrier Reef.
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Now that all comes from stuff that's being manufactured here in Australia.
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If we take an example of a country that does a lot of manufacturing,
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China, they have a a lot of trouble with pollution.
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You have to pretty much wear a mask if you're in one of the tier one cities of China.
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It is affecting people's health,
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it's reducing their life expectancy,
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and people in China in those tier one and tier two cities are very,
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very concerned about the effect of that pollution on their children.
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Sourcing raw materials and producing goods have an environmental impact in our country and around the world.
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So what can we do as consumers to help minimise this impact?
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I've been thinking about my lifestyle and the things that I buy.
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I'm buying diamond earrings for a friend.
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I can't say I know much about where they come from,
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so that's where I'll start my research.
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Diamonds are one of the most precious and sought-after stones on the planet.
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However, around 4% of the rough diamonds sold on the world market are known as blood diamonds
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because of the fact they originate from places of civil war and conflict like Sierra Leone,
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Angola and the Ivory Coast.
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These territories are often controlled by groups of rebels who sell the diamonds to pay for guns and weapons.
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The illegal diamond traders cause the deaths and displacement of millions of African people.
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The mining of diamonds has also had a severe environmental impact on several parts of Africa.
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In the Kono district of eastern Sierra Leone,
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thousands of abandoned mining pits remain filled with stagnant rainwater and malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
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Wildlife has vanished from the area and what was once fertile farmland is now barren and uninhabitable.
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There's a lot of consequences of diamond mining.
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What about makeup?
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I need to look a bit deeper here.
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Sodium Laurel Palmate, I've heard of that.
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It's the scientific term for palm oil.
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Let's have a look.
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Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the Eleus genensis species of palm,
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indigenous to West Africa.
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Because of its high resistance to oxidisation and decay,
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the oil is used in a variety of products to increase their shelf life.
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This includes everything from cosmetic products to soaps and shampoos to instant noodles and chocolate.
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The cost of the widespread use of palm oil has been massive deforestation in Malaysia
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and Indonesia where 90% of palm oil is currently produced.
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Since oil palms need high humidity and temperatures and a large amount of land,
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rainforests are regularly cleared to make way for commercial plantations,
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taking a devastating toll on local plant, animal and bird species.
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Another environmental issue is the dumping of electronic waste.
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Do you know where 70% of the electronic waste generated globally eventually ends up?
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Guayu in the Guangdong province of China,
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it's notorious for being home to the largest electronic waste dump in the world.
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Electronic and other waste is shipped to China,
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and various other parts of the world,
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including poorer countries, where environmental protection laws are weak or non-existent.
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Environmental impacts from adding heavy metals to landfill,
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or the burning of circuit boards and plastic wires,
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and washing of electronic items to recover metals, go unchecked.
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Work areas in these recycling centres are often poorly ventilated and there is no protective gear provided.
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Workers are exposed to toxic fumes from heavy metals.
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Together with hydrocarbon ashes, heavy metals are also released into the soil, water and air.
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People are feeling the effects.
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In China's Guangdong province, children have been found to have abnormally high levels of lead in their blood.
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Those are just three examples of how our use of products contributes to the environmental decline in other parts of the world.
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The good news though, is that more
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and more businesses are using sustainable practices to reduce the impact of manufacturing on the environment.
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Here's a company that specialises in sustainable packaging and recycling practices.
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Vizi processes recyclables for millions of households and businesses across Australia and New Zealand each year.
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They recover over 1.7 million tonnes of paper and cardboard,
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221,000 tonnes of glass, 92,000 tonnes of plastics and 34,000 tonnes of metals.
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Visi first started off as a manufacturer of cardboard boxes
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and is now one of the world's leading packaging and recycling companies that employs over 5,000 staff.
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We collect and process materials such as plastic,
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cardboard, paper, aluminium, steel and glass and we use this to make our own recycled and new packaging.
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Recycling and sustainability is so important at Visi as we are a manufacturer of new packaging.
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We collect and process this material which then creates a closed loop.
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This helps us reduce the need for natural resources.
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Australians spend over half a billion dollars a year on bottled water.
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We all know about putting empty plastic bottles in recycling bins,
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but what happens to them after that?
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So a plastic bottle
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that is placed into a recycling bin is collected by a dedicated recycling truck
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and that material then comes back to what we would call our MRF or our material recovery facility.
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And that is where we separate and sort all the different material types,
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whether it is glass, plastic,
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aluminium, steel, cardboard and paper.
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We use a combination of either machinery or manual hand sorters to separate this material.
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Once that material is then separated,
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is then sent away to different divisions of the business to be recycled and turned into new packaging.
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Plastic bottles are typically sorted using our optical sorting machine.
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This machine separates the three types of plastics into three separate categories.
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So it will separate our HDPE,
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our PET bottles and our mixed plastics,
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and they are then baled separately and sent off to our plant in Smithfield for reprocessing and remanufacturing.
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So once the plastic bottles arrive at our Smithfield plant in New South Wales,
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they're then ready for reprocessing.
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So the plastic bottles are flaked,
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palletised, moulded into little preforms,
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which would be the mould for the end product.
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Those preforms are then blow moulded into the final product,
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which is a plastic bottle.
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They're then ready to hit the shop shelves.
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However, up to 36% of plastic bottles aren't recycled,
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which means that hundreds of millions of bottles end up as waste every year.
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And if you don't think your personal recycling habits make much of a difference,
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then think about this.
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Statistics show that the average Australian produces two tonnes of landfill waste per year.
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So outside of always using the right bin and reusing a drink bottle or coffee cup,
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what else can we do to improve our recycling habits?
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I guess the first step is to purchase recyclable products when you're shopping.
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The other would be to make sure everyone in the household is educated on on what can
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and can't be recycled and how they should be utilising or using their bins within the home.
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Vizi is aiming for a future where everything that touches us can be recycled,
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where waste is a thing of the past,
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and we won't stop until we get there.
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Every product we use has an environmental impact,
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in some cases a devastating impact.
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It's up to us as consumers to be more aware of the wider implications of our buying decisions
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and to consider not just where our product has come from but where it's likely to end up.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
In today's global landscape, understanding the environmental impacts of consumer products is not just an academic exercise; it’s a vital conversation in various spheres, including business, policy making, and everyday life. By engaging with this video, you'll have an opportunity to practice your spoken English in a meaningful context. The speaker, Kathleen Griffith, discusses the serious consequences of consumer habits on the environment. Using this content, you can adopt shadow speak techniques to mimic her tone, style, and pace, which can significantly enhance your speaking abilities. Practicing with relatable content helps you not only improve fluency but also build vocabulary relevant to contemporary issues, making your conversations more engaging.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Throughout the video, several key structures can enhance your understanding of English grammar:
- Conditional sentences: "If we take an example..." This structure is used to discuss hypothetical scenarios, which is useful in articulating opinions.
- Passive voice: "are known as blood diamonds..." The passive voice helps emphasize the action over the subject, a frequent feature in informative discussions.
- Present continuous: "countries that are making consumer goods..." This tense helps describe ongoing actions, aiding in conveying current trends.
- Causal phrases: "because of the fact..." Understanding causation is crucial for discussing complex topics like environmental impacts.
Implementing these structures in your conversations will allow for clear and precise communication on various matters.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you practice speaking, you'll encounter some pronunciation challenges from the video, particularly with words tied to environmental issues:
- "consumer:" Pay attention to the stress on the second syllable. It sounds like "con-SU-mer."
- "bleaching:" This term can be tricky; ensure the "ea" produces a long "ee" sound, as in "bleach."
- "sourcing:" The "ou" can trip up non-native speakers; it should sound like "sors-ing."
- "malaria:" The emphasis is on the second syllable - "ma-LAR-ia."
Practicing these challenging words using a shadowing app can significantly improve your pronunciation and fluency. Repeat after the speaker, mimicking rhythm and intonation, to effectively master these terms. Engaging with their practical usage enables you to incorporate them naturally into your conversations.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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