Waste pickers would look for plastics of value, and the rest would be burned. That needs to be. Considering the creation of plastic was used as a substitute for . So, if somebody throws their Tide bottle into their bin, thats a win, but what youre saying is youre seeing more and more of this stuff. Presenting the possibilities of plastics. This poor sea turtle, a straw stuck in its nose, It would attract more than 35 million views. ANNIE LEONARD, Executive director, Greenpeace USA: Earth Day was profound in terms of people waking up to the fact that we live on a finite planet, and there was a lot of concern about the trend that was happening towards a more throwaway, disposable lifestyle. Liesemer was sent to Minnesota on an urgent mission. ', "Business is being lost; analysts are beginning to take notice. These chemicals can then enter the food chain when consumed by marine life. Tejal Rao is the California restaurant critic for The Times . "Greatly harming our oceans, and killing and injuring countless marine creatures and seabirds. He was checking out a recycling company that he sells his plastic to. Thousands of miles away from civilization, Midway Atoll is in one of the most remote places on earth. Some items, like soda bottles and milk jugs, are easier to recycle, so theres money to be made. Americans need to know that your waste ended up here. They didnt want to go anywhere near no triangle. Once in the ocean there is really no way to get it out, other than hope that it washes up on a shore and is collected. The reality is, for all the ads and promises over the years, it's estimated that no more than 10% of plastic has ever been recycled. 115 billion pounds. See it and share it with others!' This is a documentary that should be seen by educators, students, politicians, and environmentalists alike. Existing customers, please log in to view this film. They say residents will put all their plastic containers in one bag. A dead seal or sea lion? And theres nothing wrong in an industry promoting those kinds of things, but thats not addressing the problem that people are criticizing you about. If you want to step up above, you can see the machine in action. It did a good job of doing what it was asked to do; it made life more efficient and easier. Amazing work!' I strongly recommend this film as an instructional tool to connect ecology, communication, and global service. There are various types of plastics, and that the cost of new plastic is so low that sorting and reprocessing used plastic cant be justified economically. One study estimates that 60% of ocean plastic comes from Asia. How much responsibility do you feel like you have over what's happening here? Id come to see what its archive could tell me about the evolution of the plastic problem. childhood leukemia. ", We never asked the question, "Are they doing it the right way? The idea behind that particular facility is if we improve the way that recyclables move down the conveyor belt, so they get separated, we're going to create better, cleaner streams of like materials. How did it get there?The trash survey was conducted on a beach. Science tells us that we need to significantly reduce our use of materials overall, and yet for the most part, the policymakers are still focused with laserlike intensity on recycling. See it and share it with others!' And Liesemer found a solution. If the oil industry is able to get 100% of the material recycled. In the United States. In this state, none of this is recyclable. and came up with a report identifying key problems with the numbering code. We are the shipper of the scrap. Looking back, do you think putting the banner on the Mobro was a mistake? Soto, Tanya Leal (film producer). Smokejumping is the pinnacle of wild land firefighting. You could recycle this in a lab. I notice that you guys put the big chasing arrows. Using the infographic and a world map, point out the pattern of ocean currents. Dr. Chelsea M. Rochman, Smith Fellow in Conservation Biology, Marine Ecologist/Ecotoxicologist, Aquatic Health Program, University of California Davis'Plastic Paradise offers new and sharpened perspectives on the problem of plastics in the environment. Do you think that because its not quite recyclable yet that that might be a little misleading? I think they knew that the infrastructure wasn't there to really have recycling amount to a whole lot. The fact that you now dont have to worry about dropping a shampoo bottle that was made out of glass on the bathroom floor because its plastic. Plastic Paradise engages students by illustrating how their everyday interactions with plastic are connected to pollution at the farthest, most exotic corners of the world . We call it Plasticstown USA. Its facing opposition to the construction of new plants. National Geographic Magazine infographic by Jason Treat and Ryan T. Williams Powered by Background Info Vocabulary Idea for Use in the Classroom Her film articulates this message in a way that will resonate with anyone that cares about nature and the environment. ; "Plastic Paradise"; Bullfrog Films. STEVE RUSSELL, VP, American Chemistry Council, 1995-2020: The thing that made them unique was the ability to do more with just a little bit of material; to make things that we used lighter and more efficient. It was manufactured. Timothy Hoellein, Aquatic Ecologist, Assistant Professor of Biology, Loyola University'With fantastic archival footage, revealing modern images from the pacific and thoughtful, fact-based explanation, Plastic Paradise provides an educational, hip, and very entertaining look at some of the many ways plastic is affecting us all. What do you think? And now Im what I've always wanted to be. There's dissatisfaction about what's going on with the solid waste issue." "Give me raw material"that's all they wanted. General Information . Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society. View Plastic Paradise Worksheet.pdf from CHEM 1405 at Killeen Early College High School. ThermaSet is the future. No. Because we are struggling to clean up the modern debris and modern litter in Indonesia, the additional burden of waste from overseas, I dont know how we are going to handle it. Oh, man! They want to sell more plastic containers. One of those companies is DuPont, and on the grounds of the first du Pont family home, I found the Hagley Library. Transcript Plastic Wars View film LAURA SULLIVAN, Correspondent: In 2015, a marine biologist came across a sea turtle in distress. Ask students to predict what kinds of floating trash might be most harmful to ocean life and why. And that's the way recycling has been sold as well, OK? A good substitute is a Swap Meet. Along the way she meets scientists, researchers, influencers, and volunteers who shed light on the effects of our rabid plastic consumption and learns the problem is more insidious than we could have ever imagined. Added to the plastic consumer goods swirling and settling in the way-beyond, are the estimated 640,000 tons of discarded plastic and nylon commercial fishing nets, many weighing more than a ton each, that snag on and break life-giving coral reefs, and entrap and kill larger marine animals. Were going to have to invest in innovation, because some of these technologies still need to be further developed. Let's do right by our future. The voyage she completes can motivate students to discover more about pollution of all kinds on their own. Trace the history of the material that ushered in the "plastics century." Watch Think Dig Deeper Discuss Customize this lesson 403 Create and share a new lesson based on this one. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Melati and Isabel Wijsen are on a mission to stop plastic bags from suffocating their beautiful island home of Bali. Today the American Plastics Council unveiled the machine. Directed by Angela Sun FEMALE. And this one talks about the cost of separating plastics from other trash. The problem, recyclers said, is that it left the impression that all those kinds of plastics were actually being recycled. First,. Almost 20 years. You can see from that corner to the end of that valley over there. I believe with the proper infrastructure and the proper education and we all work together as a collective, we can. Reveals the history and worldwide scope of plastics pollution, investigates its toxicity and explores solutions. They float in the water and get eaten by sea life. For the oil and gas industry, the stakes are higher, too, because single-use plastic is their Plan B. In a highly controversial action, one county in New York state has voted to ban all packaging made of two kinds of plastic. Buy the Official DVDBuy the Digital DownloadEducational Screenings. This is the big war. Oh, poor baby, Im sorry. She is known for her stylized images of ordinary objects. They would just take the low-hanging fruits. Plastic Paradise makes the issue of plastic pollution real and relevant. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . When you look at plastic, you know how it helps things stay fresh and safe and light. Drawing from the expertise of a diversity of scientists, activists and management practitioners in the field, this film introduces its audience to issues regarding plastic production and waste-management, plastic contamination in the ocean and the hazards of plastic and its chemical cocktail to humans and wildlife.' I watched the film with some of my students so I can attest that it appeals to the younger generation. All of a sudden, our own customers, they would bring it in and not only say it has the triangle, but it wouldthey would flat-out say, "It says its recyclable right on it." He now heads a local environmental coalition, but he remembers a pivotal board meeting in the late '80s, when the industry was worried about its public image. As we continued reporting, we found even more internal documents and court filings and spoke with over a dozen industry insiders, including three top executives who represented the big plastic producers and agreed to talk publicly for the first time. They knew these problems existed, absolutely. Lead editor, Wendy Shuey; cinemtaography, Francisco Aliwalas [and 6 others]; music by APM Music [and 6 others]. New to Docuseek? were contaminated with trash and plastic that cant be recycled. The economics that are described there still prevail today and likely will prevail tomorrow. Amid the backlash, I headed to the Texas Gulf Coast, where oil and gas companies are under pressure from climate change and increasingly turning to plastics, now their biggest growth market. Industry wouldnt even consider, say, no triangle, or a circle, or. On a bright day last summer, Larson and fellow . To appease government officials, the industry funded a local recycling pilot project. What is the problem? Have each group report their findings to the class. We wanted to see for ourselves what was happening to the plastic coming here. A dead seal or sea lion? We follow Angela Sun while she investigates the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is where the plastic waste of three different continents accumulates. Plastic bags are essentially indestructible, yet they're used and thrown away with reckless abandon. Let me continue to use it. They are going to double down on single-use plastic like we have never seen, so we're heading towards a real battle. "Some firms used it as a green marketing tool." How could they go into all of these communities and tell people "You just have to recycle" when they knew there were so many problems and so many hurdles? Thats how unrecyclable it was. People with respiratory problem, they really get affected. In this independent documentary film, journalist/filmmaker Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. 18 billion pounds of plastic waste end up in the ocean every year. Its the biggest Ive seen. Yeah, I mean, its bleeding already. What items were the least common? So you can talk about this stuff a lot. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. What once was glass will soon be plastic. Sun offers a fresh, new voice for her generation and has made a film that can appeal to the masses, "Chilling filmjournalist Angela Sun offers valuable new insights. It's time for change, and this is that time. Then what? How do you get it to a place where 100% of this plastic getting recycledhow do you get there? Now what were doing here is were sorting it out into the milk jugs, the natural HDPE, the pigmented HDPE, PET water bottles. We're covered in plastic-based gear from head to toe. The documentary is directed by Craig Leeson, an Australian journalist dedicated to investigating the impact our obsession with plastic is having on the planetspecifically our oceans. I mean, you got handed this task to recycle plastic in the United States. That's just freaking. This floating ocean garbage is home to a surprising amount of life from the coasts. Plastics will never go away as long as the consumer demands it. 57 min. Back then, one of the vice presidents at the Society of the Plastics Industry was Lew Freeman. Modern-day miracles that were made with the help of petrochemicals. Angela SunProduced by Angela Sun, Gil Elbaz, Elyssa Elbaz, Tanya Leal SotoEditor: Wendy ShueyCinematography: Joseph Ochoa, Francisco Aliwalas, Mark BellaGraphics: Jonathan Jelkin. Plastic Paradise | Bullfrog Films: 1-800-543-3764: Environmental DVDs and Educational DVDs is a leading source of educational DVDs & videos, with a collection of over 700 titles in these main subject areas: Environment Globalization Sustainability Climate Change Social Justice Developing World Indigenous Peoples Earth Science Life Science Let's get these bills passed. The most famous one, with the crying Indian. And I think whats good is that were all working together to help improve some of those recycling habits and understanding behavior. Oh, yes. Every single piece of this has to be sorted in some way. You get recycling going, that has its benefits and it improves the image of the material. Register to request a quote. David Allaway is a senior policy analyst with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. So the big plastic producers came up with a multimillion-dollar solution: advertising. Glass? An endangered sea turtle? In 2015, a marine biologist came across a sea turtle in distress. You'll receive access to exclusive information and early alerts about our documentaries and investigations. What makes our lives convenient is burying us. Dr. Sherri A. Mason, Professor of Chemistry, Environmental Sciences Program Coordinator, SUNY at Fredonia'We are all familiar with trash, but most of us likely are unaware of indestructible plastic trash that pollutes the oceans, contaminates our seafood, kills birds, fish, and marine mammals as well as carrying toxic substances into the environment and our bodies. One recycling company here caught our attention. To the best of my knowledge there has been no life cycle analysis of plastic. When you get a bale of plastic, how much of that bale is plastic that the company wants and how much of it is stuff that is just plastic that youre not going to do anything with? Making recycling work was a way to keep their products in the marketplace. Allaway is a leading authority on the environmental impacts of materials, like plastic. Because as long as it remotely resembled plastic, they wanted it. In this independent documentary film, journalist/filmmaker Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. I remember being a kid and watching those ads. Dr. Joel Baker, Director, UW Puget Sound Institute, Professor and Port of Tacoma Chair in Environmental Science, University of Washington Tacoma'Angela Sun has found a way to present the imminent dangers of plastics pollution in a jarringly visual and inquisitive formatSignificant take-home messages include a misconception of just how few plastic products are recyclable, and that plastics production will continue to increase as long as the demand for plastic products remains. So much of all this stuff in the grocery store is plastic now. It is ultimately getting recycled. Coy Smith ran recycling centers in Southern California in the 1980s and early '90s. Coming up with ways to have their product perceived as more recyclable and more environmental makes their product look better. It didnt make any sense. The film's haunting message highlights the importance of society transitioning to the existing truly biodegradable polymers wherever possible and as soon as possible.' As of today, plastic bags are banned in Jersey City. My college age son thinks it is 'right on.' So, it was up to us in the plastics industry to solve this problem so that they could continue to package their products in plastic. Please inquire if you are with a K-12 district or school or with a public library. We are approaching a 'point of no return. Welcome to Portland. And in 2018, China stopped taking imported plastic waste. He told me he could take me to a place where the company had recently been dumping plastic. It provides valuable information and presents that information in an engaging and visually gripping way.' A growing backlash was threatening the future of plastic. This is from Purchase, New York. The image of plastics among consumers is deteriorating at an alarmingly fast pace, it says. But they said, "Oh, you know what? Thousands of miles away from civilization, Midway Atoll is in one of the most remote places on earth. Its very confusing to a lot of people. But more importantly, we have to look at reuse models; using less where we can; developing new materials, which is the plastic maker's responsibility, that can be better recycled; and also really important that we deploy the technologies that are now available to us at scale. This is an American city, a real community of homes and homemakers like thousands of others across the nation. In response, many companies, including plastic makers, and even some environmentalists got behind an iconic ad campaign that focused attention on the publics role. TV-PG. Dr. Mike SanClements, Staff Scientist, The National Ecological Observatory Network, Affiliate Faculty, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado-Boulder'Sun's documentary sends a clear and coherent message about one of the major environmental problems we face today. Were going into the office. JERRED JONES, Program representative, Keep America Beautiful: We are Keep America Beautiful. This is everywhere in every supermarket. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. [Speaking Indonesian] If its not useful, we put it into the community. What are the toxics emissions? Many of them cannot be recycled anymore and are dirty. How big can the trash get? And the consumption and lifestyle that we have, I think itsyou have to rethink, because we have to reduce the amount of plastics that we produce at the moment. Yes, because we are struggling to handle our own waste. Were a not-for-profit. Her documentary, Plastic Paradise, reveals the devastating truths around single-use plastics and the reality of what they are doing to our oceans & marine life on a massive and rapid scale. I had no staff. The host takes a 2-year trip around the world to give us a better understanding of the life cycle of plastic It's . Our system is woefully inadequate and it needs dramatic investment. To the best of my knowledge there has been no life cycle analysis of plastic. Polystyrene, PET, PVC, polypropylene. The big problem is that it is all about money, profits. It would. Wed heard about an environmental activist whos been tracking what happens to the plastic coming into Indonesia. And you just need to sort out your recyclables and do your part. Many U.S. cities are taking steps to ban plastic grocery bags. Can we afford, ecologically or economically, to turn it off or to leave it running? We cannot keep just continuing this mindless consumerism, mindless consumption and dump it somewhere else. This is a pile of U.S. recycling. These Chinese children spend most of their waking hours between plumes of smoke and mountains of plastic. There's going to be more plastic than ever. But there are growing concerns here that a lot of plastic waste is not being handled the right way, and Indonesian officials are trying to prevent what happened in China from happening here. Plastics are once again on the low end of the public's opinion and now the industry is telling the public again to recycle. This is classic. Busy lifestyles and a growing urban population mean an increase in demand for food that is fresh. Plentiful supplies of natural gas are driving down the cost of making plastic. For decades, the national response to the growing plastic waste problem has focused on one solution: recycling. Because we thought that it was getting recycled gave us the freedom"OK, no problem. Our newest CALI Award winner is Angela Sun - Storyteller, Adventure Traveller, Sports Lover. Along the way she meets scientists, researchers, influencers, and volunteers who shed light on the effects of our rabid plastic consumption and learns the problem is more insidious than we could have ever imagined. I mean, for most states they did it in, recyclers didnt even know it happened. But it's not economical to recycle it given the current economics of recycling. Did you feel like they cared more about selling plastic than they did about making recycling work? What items were most common? The plastic industry that you were working with agreed to these and signed on to this report. 'This is an issue of vast scales. And this was in 1973. The Midwest Book Review'Intriguing..chilling filmJournalist Angela Sun offers valuable new insights.' In South Portland, the plastic industry was showcasing a demonstration project. Idea for Use in the ClassroomHenderson Island in the South Pacific was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in 1988. It's huge and very wide. And some children got hospitalized. There shouldn't be any more talk about it! The crisis passed. She or he will best know the preferred format. Back in Oregon, I put the question to David Allaway. What do you think Americans need to know? Jim Becker is the vice president of sustainability. I mean, how big a problem do you think these kinds of dumping grounds are in Indonesia? Good stuff, easy to do. Were they misleading the public? So this is classic. This confusion about what can and cant be recycled, and where plastic ultimately ends up, is no accident. We've got to fix the recycling system; clearly that's job one. For the last 40 years, the conversation in this country has been about the recycle part of "reduce, reuse, recycle.". Starring Angela Sun Wallace J. Nichols. And few places have pursed recycling more aggressively than Oregon. Let's just go knock and see if maybe someone will talk to us. A PLASTIC OCEAN. It includes a good history of the genesis of the plastics industry from materials shortages during World War II, and demonstrates that things put in the environment (such as a message in a bottle) can stick around for a long time and move great distances. Until there is a viable option for recycling those things, we should be putting it in a landfill. This is it. Do you fundamentally think that in the United States recycling could ramp up to a capacity to handle the vast majority of plastic that's being produced? A lot of Americans do this, like what you're doing right now. The question that people are going to have is what are they supposed to do to make this better? Is this recyclable? Plastic enters the world's oceans, is broken into tiny bits, and ingested by marine life and birds. The film takes a refreshing approach of avoiding the blame game, while emphasizing that learning about the issue can lead to less plastic use by the general public.' And when it comes to understanding and reducing the environmental impacts of materials, including packaging, consumers have the lowest amount of leverage. People can stop it. So let's take a look at these blueberries. The big problem is that it is all about money, profits. Dr. Sherri A. Mason, Professor of Chemistry, Environmental Sciences Program Coordinator, SUNY at Fredonia'We are all familiar with trash, but most of us likely are unaware of indestructible plastic trash that pollutes the oceans, contaminates our seafood, kills birds, fish, and marine mammals as well as carrying toxic substances into the environment and our bodies. and plastic bans are spreading across the country. You also have to really build up the infrastructure for collection. What are we looking at? The Hollywood Reporter'The film everyone needs to see.' Not a good idea for your wallet. Timothy Hoellein, Aquatic Ecologist, Assistant Professor of Biology, Loyola University'With fantastic archival footage, revealing modern images from the pacific and thoughtful, fact-based explanation, Plastic Paradise provides an educational, hip, and very entertaining look at some of the many ways plastic is affecting us all. This film makes the case that the only solution is source control, and that consumers have a great deal of underutilized power.' Literally me. But later we surely realized that there was always another aspect of what was going on in China. Earth Day was one of the largest mass protests in U.S. history. The world is flooded with plastic garbage. I highly recommend checking this film out!' How America's 20-year war in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory. In 2017, however, researchers surveying the islands beaches found the highest concentration of plastic trash ever recorded.In this infographic, the colored dots show the amount of plastic and other trash collected in one survey plot. There's also an entire industry that's going to triple production by 2050. In Oregon, again, there are no curbside programs that would accept any of these tubs. Film Review: Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. If youre in politics, youre in deep trouble with a 35% rating. The start of construction on that multibillion-dollar plastics plant. A piece of plastic debris that's been colonized by both costal barnacles (pink and striped) and a gooseneck . We can't delay this for another 10, 20, 30 years or we're going to be. Made from readily available petroleum, plastic was the go-to material for the war machine. Forty years on, despite a plastic crisis thats been getting worse, the industrys future seems bright. Plastic Paradise is an excellent, accessible, and troubling documentary that reveals these issues. Less than 10% of plastic has actually ever been recycled. Web Site Copyright 1995-2023 WGBH Educational Foundation. Their . This film makes the case that the only solution is source control, and that consumers have a great deal of underutilized power.' Sunil Bagaria is national chairman of the plastics division for ISRI, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. "The code is being misused.". That wasnt the intent. What if its got a chasing arrow sign on it and you think that means its getting recycled?
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