Turkish Military Operation; History of A Famous Award; Utility`s Decision to Cut Power; A "Loop" of Reusable Containers
Aired October 10, 2019 - 04:00:00 ET
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN 10 on
this 10th day of the 10th month of 2019. It`s like a perfect 10. I`m Carl Azuz,
happy as always to have you watching. We`re starting with an update from the
Middle East. The nation of Turkey has begun a military operation in neighboring
Syria. The two countries share a border. Syria`s been torn apart by a civil war
that started in 2011 and Turkey says terrorists have been trying to establish
control along the border and that its military offensive is intended to destroy
that and bring peace to the region. Witnesses say Turkish war planes have
started launching air strikes in some areas. Syria`s government opposes the
attacks. It says Turkey has hostile intentions and that it`s trying to expand
its territory into Syria.
But other nations factor into this too. A few days ago the
United States announced it would move its troops out of northern Syria as
Turkey prepared for its attacks. About 1,000 American forces were there to keep
stability and help U.S. allies hunt down terrorists. Now, international
observers are concerned that those U.S. allies might be threatened. Turkey sees
them as terrorists who`ve launched attacks against the Turkish government for decades.
One group that America supports says it will fight Turkish forces along the
Syrian border and U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that if Turkey goes
too far in harming America`s allies in the region, the U.S. will wreck Turkey`s
economy.
Several other nations including the Netherlands, Germany and
Egypt have all spoken out against Turkey`s military actions in Syria. One
possible side effect they`re concerned about is that the Turkish operation will
cause civilians in the area to leave their homes leading to a new wave of refugees
in an already war torn country. Turkey says its mission is to establish safe
zones near the border where refugees can be resettled.
10 Second Trivia. Which of these scientists invented
dynamite in the 1860`s? Albert Einstein, Alfred Nobel, Nickola Tesla or Thomas
Edison. It was Alfred Nobel, namesake of the Nobel Peace Prize who invented
dynamite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the age of 28, the young Marie
(inaudible) married a French scientist named Pierre Curie. Together in their
laboratory in Paris, they shared in the research that isolated (inaudible).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Eight hundred thousand homes, businesses and other
buildings have lost electricity in Northern California. Stores have sold out of
back-up generators. Several school districts have cancelled classes. Some
traffic lights are dark and though this could last for a week in some places,
no single event has caused it. This is a safety measure. Pacific Gas and
Electric, the largest utility company in America`s most populated state is responding
to a weather forecast. Northern California is said to be under extreme danger
because of high winds and dry conditions. Those are key ingredients in
wildfires and PG&E is trying to prevent them from flaring up by cutting off
electricity.
The company`s equipment has been blamed for causing a number
of wildfires in the past and it`s agreed to pay billions of dollars in damages.
It says its probable that the Campfire, California`s deadliest blaze that
struck last year, started when PG&E equipment made contact with nearby
trees. It says this power outage is a last resort to prevent wildfires. But
critics say the company ought to improve its equipment so that it won`t have to
shutdown electricity whenever conditions are dangerous. Even after the winds
die down, PG&E says it will take several days to make sure nothing is damaged
before it turns the lights back on.
A reusable packaging company is trying to change grocery
shopping. Instead of buying ice cream, for example, and later tossing out the
cheap carton, the so-called milkman model would deliver dessert in a nicer
container like the milk bottles used by your great grandparents, and that
container would be returned, cleaned and reused. There are down sides. You
can`t pick up your products immediately and it takes a lot of shipping so
what`s environmentally friendly in terms of packaging isn`t in terms of the
effort required to get it to and from your home. But if it takes off, it could help
close the loop on trash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tom Szaky is on a mission to eliminate
the concept of waste.
TOM SZAKY, CEO OF TERRACYCLE: The act of throwing something
away in itself isn`t bad. It`s actually incredibly convenient. The problem is
where it ends up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it`s a big problem. About 91
percent of plastic waste ever created has never been recycled so Szaky decided
to go to the source, to target the companies making the kind of single use
plastic containers that constantly end up in the trash. And he started with the
four largest consumer goods companies in the world, combined their sales
totaled almost $285 billion in 2018.
SZAKY: We went to all these major companies saying, here`s
this new big idea, come take a risk on it and lets ideally change the world in
the process.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He called the big idea, Loop. His pitch
to consumers, buy the same household products you already love plus a small deposit
and we`ll send them to you in durable, reusable packaging. When you`re done,
return them to be cleaned, refilled and reused by someone else. How hard of a
sell was this to, you know, manufacturers and companies?
SZAKY: The Loop is a gargantuan (inaudible), because we`re
going into Proctor and Gamble and saying, reinvent the packaging of these world
famous products completely. Build production lines to fill this reinvented
package. Oh, and by the way I have no proof that anyone`s going to buy it at
all but they said yes because they know that there`s a garbage crisis and they
really don`t want to contribute to it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Nestle didn`t need much convincing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`ve invested so much time, energy,
people, resources and dollars because as we think forward to the future. We
know consumers will demand more recyclable products or reusable products and so
project Loop is a way for us to tip our toe into this territory and really learn
a lot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the end, Nestle along with Proctor
and Gamble, Pepsico, Unilever, Clorox and others took the leap.
SZAKY: Loop is an ecosystem. If it was just one company
making a few products, it wouldn`t work. You need everyone coming together and
it sort of became a certain, you know, snowball effect where as it got bigger
the more and more companies joined even faster and faster.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loop launched in early 2019 in a few
cities with about 300 products. Since then Szaky says more than 10,000 people have
signed up. It`s expanding to more cities as well and soon the products will be
available in major retailers like Walgreens and Kroger.
SZAKY: What`s neat is you can buy it at one retailer and
return it to another and so it really creates this nice network effect. We`re
adding a brand every day and so, you know, things you`ll see are from eggs
products to automotive products, not just one type of shampoo but, you know, in
dozen different types of shampoo. And everything really growing and pushing
each other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We still don`t know if Loop will catch
on. What do you think has to change in regards to the - - the consumer`s
mindset in order for them to adopt this new model you`re proposing?
SZAKY: I`m believe that asking the consumer to change
anything is an uphill battle. I think its much easier to ask the model what it
can do to match the convenience the consumer wants. Loop is not the first
refill idea out there, at all. But none of them have really taken off and I
would argue it`s because it`s less convenient for the consumer than throw it
away and buy a new one. The more we make if feel like a disposable lifestyle, the
easier it will be to get mass adoption.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That mass adoption, that`s really key
here.
SZAKY: It`s - - it`s everything. I think a lot of people are
going to think about whether there`s a future in reuse by whether we succeed or
not.
Because all the world`s major manufacturers are saying,
we`re going to give it a shot and Loop is their shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: We`ve heard of turbo chargers, super chargers, nitrous
oxide, but what this car has under the hood, is nuts, walnuts. After hearing
noises and smelling burning, the woman who owns this SUV looked under the hood
and found that squirrels apparently stored 200 walnuts right there along with some
grass. It took about an hour to clean everything out but the car was fine. Of
course it could probably "cashewse" a tune-up. It maybe "pistashioverdue"
for an oil change. You should always check the "filbert" and make
sure you can see that everything else is "pine".
You don`t need to be a master "macadamiac" to make
sure your engine is running like "butternut". I`m Carl Azuz, driven
to make puns on CNN.
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