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This is the story 
of three plastic bottles,

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empty and discarded.

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Their journeys are about to diverge

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with outcomes that impact nothing less
than the fate of the planet.

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But they weren't always this way.

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To understand where these bottles end up,
we must first explore their origins.

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The heroes of our story
were conceived in this oil refinery.

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The plastic in their bodies

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was formed by chemically bonding 
oil and gas molecules together

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to make monomers.

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In turn, these monomers were bonded
into long polymer chains to make plastic

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in the form of millions of pellets.

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Those were melted at manufacturing plants
and reformed in molds

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to create the resilient material
that makes up the triplets' bodies.

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Machines filled the bottles
with sweet bubbily liquid

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and they were then wrapped, shipped,
bought, opened, consumed

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and unceremoniously discarded.

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And now here they lie,

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poised at the edge of the unknown.

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Bottle one, like hundreds of millions
of tons of his plastic brethren,

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ends up in a landfill.

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This huge dump expands each day

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as more trash comes in
and continues to take up space.

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As plastics sit there being compressed
amongst layers of other junk,

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rainwater flows through the waste

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and absorbs the water-soluble 
compounds it contains,

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and some of those are highly toxic.

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Together, they create a harmful stew
called leachate,

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which can move into groundwater, 
soil and streams,

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poisoning ecosystems and harming wildlife.

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It can take bottle one an agonizing
1,000 years to decompose.

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Bottle two's journey is stranger
but, unfortunately, no happier.

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He floats on a trickle 
that reaches a stream,

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a stream that flows into a river,

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and a river that reaches the ocean.

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After months lost at sea,

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he's slowly drawn into a massive vortex,
where trash accumulates,

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a place known as 
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

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Here the ocean's currents have trapped
millions of pieces of plastic debris.

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This is one of five plastic-filled
gyres in the world's seas.

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Places where the pollutants
turn the water into a cloudy plastic soup.

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Some animals, like seabirds, 
get entangled in the mess.

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They, and others, mistake the brightly
colored plastic bits for food.

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Plastic makes them feel full 
when they're not,

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so they starve to death

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and pass the toxins from the plastic
up the food chain.

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For example, it's eaten by lanternfish,

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the lanternfish are eaten by squid,

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the squid are eaten by tuna,

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and the tuna are eaten by us.

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And most plastics don't biodegrade,

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which means they're destined to break down
into smaller and smaller pieces

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called micro plastics,

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which might rotate in the sea eternally.

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But bottle three is spared the cruel
purgatories of his brothers.

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A truck brings him to a plant

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where he and his companions 
are squeezed flat

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and compressed into a block.

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Okay, this sounds pretty bad, too,
but hang in there.

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It gets better.

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The blocks are shredded
into tiny pieces,

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which are washed and melted,

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so they become the raw materials
that can be used again.

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As if by magic, bottle three
is now ready to be reborn

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as something completely new.

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For this bit of plastic
with such humble origins,

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suddenly the sky is the limit.