Weird But True!

Hey, guys! Charlie here. You know my sister, Kirby. Hey!

Did you know that a recycled soda can be remade into a new can and put back on

the shelf in less than 60 days?

Or that Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

And wait till you see what we do with this goop.

Ahh! It's time for Weird but True!

Charles, we gotta do something!

Not a chance.

Not even like one piece? Not even one piece.

Guys, I'm glad you're here because Kirby's being ridiculous!

Charlie's being ridiculous!

Check this out.

You got any staples?

No, but I have a paper clip. You hear that?

Look out!

Charles? Charles?

I'm okay!

We've been having craft avalanches. Craftalanches. Small craftalanches.

And Charles won't get rid of anything!

I've got to destroy this stuff.

What? What? Kirb.

Each one of these pieces has a past, a story, how can we get rid of it?

Easily. You know what?

I'm gonna prove to you that each one of these super awesome amazing pieces of

paper art are worth saving because, today we're unraveling the world of.

BOTH (off-screen): Paper Recycling!

Great, another craft to add to the pile.

You have no respect for paper crafts, Kirb.

Do you know where this came from?

Do you know what paper is?

It's paper.

It's much more than that.

People have made paper out of all sorts of things.

Like cabbage and wasps' nests.

But the weirdest is probably the fact that they used to recover wrappings from

Egyptian mummies to make wrapping paper.

Fortunately, since then they've found out that cellulose from

trees works best.

If you look at paper under a microscope you'll see a bunch of super,

super tiny strips called "cellulose."

Cellulose is this material that gives plants their structure like celery,

or sunflower stalks, or trees.

And the cellulose in paper comes from trees.

So, before this shark existed, and before this paper was even paper,

it all started as a seed that found its way into the ground.

Two types of trees are harvested to make paper.

Hardwoods, they're trees that lose their leaves in the fall.

Or Softwoods, they have needles or scales and keep them all year long.

So maybe, that little seed grew into a big beautiful Aspen,

with white bark and fluttery leaves.

Or a eucalyptus with multi-colored peel-y bark.

Or maybe even a pine with long needles and big cones.

And both of these types of trees need to be harvested before they can become paper.

Check this out.

We're hipsters! No, we're lumberjacks.

You need a man bun. No, I'm good.

So, where are we anyway?

Welcome to Weird but True Forest.

This is where we grow all of the trees that we use to make the paper

for our craft projects.

And it looks like that seed we planted grew into a beautiful aspen.

See you later, tree! Kirby, wait! No, no!

We don't use axes to chop down these trees.

We use awesome equipment like this.

A chainsaw.

Or, even better.

One of these guys, a mechanical harvester.

This thing is unreal.

It can chop down a tree, de-limb it, and cut it into pieces.

In like 15 seconds.

Then comes the skidder.

The skidder has a huge clamp that bunches all the tree trunks up and brings them over

to the log yard.

Where my favorite machine comes into play, the knuckle boom.

At the log yard, the knuckle boom cuts the logs into the correct length

and puts them into neat piles for.

The truck.

No cool name? Nope, just the truck.

Which gets loaded up and heads off to the paper mill.

Which is where it gets torn apart and pulverized into paper, right?

Sure. Neat.

So, Kirb, can you see how long this takes?

It started as a seed.

From seed to tree.

Picked by the mechanical harvester, dragged by a skidder,

chopped by the knuckle boom, carted away,

pulverized into paper and what?

We just cut it up, slap it onto a super awesome amazing shark and then what?

Just throw it away?

Pretty much.

Do you hear that?

Hit the deck!

Charlie! What?

I don't care if it's gone through the knuckle bloom and the vehicle chopper,

but I'm sick of these craftalanches.

We have to get rid of stuff!

Give me one more shot!

No! One more shot! Fine, one more shot.

You're gonna like this.

Here, put this on.

Hold this.

What is this for?

I dub thee the Ruler of Rubbish, the Sultan of Scraps,

the Duchess of Debris.

It's truly an honor.

You're Queen of the Garbage now, Kirb.

And I'm gonna show you your kingdom.

You know that tree farm we used to own?

Yeah? Well, it's not a tree farm anymore.

Well, now it's a dump, because people throw out so many things.

It's your dump, Kirb.

Because you love garbage so much.

You're Queen of the Dump.

You're being dramatic.

The drama is real, Kirb.

The US is the number one trash producing country in the whole entire world.

Each year, every single one of us throws out around 1,600 pounds of garbage,

which is about the same weight as a mature Holstein cow.

Moo.

This is ridiculous. It's your dump, Kirb.

What's that noise? Oh, is that today?

It's a garbage funeral.

To commemorate this year's garbage.

You guys are gonna have to excuse me, I'm expected to talk at these things.

Whew.

Hello everyone, we're gathered here today

to remember our fallen heroes, this year's garbage.

First, our diaper brothers,

protecting the booties of babies across this country.

16 billion diapers are thrown out each year.

Diapers. Rest in peace.

1.6 billion pens.

Some of them probably half full of ink.

Pens.

Rest in peace.

And finally, the reason why we're all here today,

500,000 trees cut down each week

for our Sunday papers.

They were big trees.

With big pretty leaves.

And now, they are gone.

Trees.

Rest in peace.

Rest in peace. Wait, what?

Charles!

This is ridiculous.

What?

I would never sponsor a dump!

This sign is ridiculous. Where are the scissors?

Uh, I think they're, um, I'm not sure.

Fine!

What? Fine!

Do whatever you want with all this stuff, Kirb.

Toss it, throw it out.

I can't live with that guilt.

Goodbye, shark.

I always knew your awesomeness wouldn't last.

Yeah! Yeah! Victory! Victory!

It was nice knowin' ya, shark!

You okay, Kirb?

Yeah, I'm fine, but. We're not gonna throw away the shark.

What do you mean?

We're gonna recycle him.

Isn't recycling a sham?

A sham? Yeah, like pretend? A sham?

Yeah, like something that is not what it is purported to be.

Charles, let me hit you with some facts.

People of the dump, this is your queen, Kirby.

I know this trash is upsetting.

It smells gross.

16 billion diapers!

Yeah, but there's another way.

Recycling.

MAN (off-screen): Is that real? It's a sham!

It's not a sham.

Charlie, posters!

It takes about $70 to burn a ton of trash,

it takes $50 to send it to a landfill like this.

But it takes only $30 to recycle it.

Take an aluminum can.

Recycling one aluminum can can save enough energy to power a TV for three hours.

People of the dump, I implore you, recycle.

Recycling is new meaning.

Recycling is new life, recycling is rebirth!

MAN (off-screen): How? What?

MAN (off-screen): How does it work?

Huh. That's a good question.

I'm glad you asked.

Because I have the perfect place to show you. C'mon!

We're off to Tyrone, Pennsylvania for a behind-the-scenes look at

paper recycling.

Pennsylvania's known as the Keystone State and home to the first library

in the United States.

Weird but True.

Hey, guys.

We just made it here to Tyrone, Pennsylvania, where we're hanging out at the

American Eagle Paper Mills.

We're gonna get a hands-on look as to what these guys could turn our crafts

into if Charles lets us recycle them. Let's check it out!

Hey, Mike it's nice to meet ya!