A、The British retailers Marks and Spencer. B、The German consumer-goods companies. C、The suppliers using social plastic in their

We’re trending to produce over 300 million tons of plastic this year. Roughly eight million tons are racing to flow into the ocean to join the estimated 150 million tons already there. Reportedly, 80 percent of ocean plastic is coming from those countries that have extreme poverty. And if you live in the grips of poverty, concerned always about food or shelter or a sense of security, recycling—it’s beyond your realm of imagination.
    And that is exactly why I created the Plastic Bank. We are the world’s largest chain of stores for the ultra-poor, where everything in the store is available to be purchased using plastic garbage. Everything—school tuition, medical insurance, Wi-Fi, cell phone minutes, power, sustainable cooking fuel, high-efficiency stoves. And we keep wanting to add everything else that the world may need and can’t afford.
    Now, that plastic we sell, we sell it to suppliers of great brands like Marks and Spencer, who have commissioned the use of social plastic in their products. Or like Henkel, the German consumer-goods company, who are using social plastic directly into their manufacturing. We’ve closed the loop in the circular economy. Now buy shampoo or laundry detergent that has social plastic packaging, and you are indirectly contributing to the extraction of plastic from ocean-bound waterways and alleviating poverty at the same time.
    We can now use our recycling to support and create recyclers. One bottle deposited at home could help extract hundreds around the world. Or, like Shell, the energy company, who’s invested in our plastic-neutral program. Plastic neutrality is like carbon-neutral. But plastic neutrality invests in recycling infrastructure where it doesn’t exist. And it provides an incentive for the poor by providing a price increase. Or, like in the slums of Manila, where the smallest market with a simple scale and a phone can now accept social plastic as a new form of payment by weight, allowing them to serve more people and have their own greater social impact.
    And what’s common here is that social plastic is money. Social plastic is money, a globally  recognizable and tradable currency that, when used, alleviates poverty and cleans the environment at the same time. It’s not just plastic. It’s not recycled plastic, it’s social plastic, a material whose value is transferred through the lives of the people who encounter it, rich and poor. See, I see social plastic as the Bitcoin for the earth—and available for everyone.
    Question 16. Why did the speaker create the Plastic Bank?
    Question 17. To whom does the speaker sell the plastic?
    Question 18. What does the speaker say about social plastic?