You may not have been aware that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch had its own TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference. Luckily for conferencegoers, the event was held in Los Angeles rather than on the garbage patch itself.

In a short, passionate talk, former Obama administration green jobs czar Van Jones lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice. Plastic trash, he says, hits poor people and poor countries “first and worst,” with consequences we all share no matter where we live and what we earn. Watch his talk: