Stuck with plastics they couldnt sell, Smith and other recyclers met with representatives from the plastic industry. Kyoko Hamada is a photographer who was born in Tokyo and lives in Brooklyn. What do you think Americans need to know? This is the first time youve ever seen companies from across the whole supply chain all coming together to say, "We need to fix this.". And Im afraid that the same thing is happening right now. JENNIFER BOADA-RODRIGUEZ, Senior technical associate, Colgate-Palmolive: So were here today to showcase our first-of-its-kind recyclable tube. Plastic Paradise How do you get it to a place where 100% of this plastic getting recycledhow do you get there? It is ultimately getting recycled. In this independent documentary film, journalist/filmmaker Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. The host takes a 2-year trip around the world to give us a better understanding of the life cycle of plastic It's . Amazing work!' Yeah, yeah. But it isnt just industry thats kept consumers focused on recycling for so long. Would any of the trash be harmless?Use this encyclopedia article on food webs and the article on coral reef food webs to introduce students to a typical coral reef food web. My college age son thinks it is 'right on.' The smell of burnt plastic was in the air, and all around, there were sacks of plastic, and big piles, too. A PLASTIC OCEAN. Another priority is narcotics. ; "Plastic Paradise"; Bullfrog Films. We took a trek up to Wilmington and this one DuPont executive, he said, "I think if we had $5 million"which seemed like a lot of money then"if we had $5 million, we could solve this problem.". I dont think so, because when I looked at them, at the arrows, I thought this is a way to identify the products so that the early stages of recycling can take place. 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. ", Now youre getting more mixed plastics, like pouches andeverything comes in a clamshell now. I guess I think of it more as an investment in managing plastic waste. Plastic Paradise makes the issue of plastic pollution real and relevant. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Use and discard, and then this is where it all ends up. I watched the film with some of my students so I can attest that it appeals to the younger generation. ", We never asked the question, "Are they doing it the right way? Years later, we shut it down because there was no way to make money at it. How did it get there?The trash survey was conducted on a beach. Web Site Copyright 1995-2023 WGBH Educational Foundation. You get recycling going, that has its benefits and it improves the image of the material. And that's the way recycling has been sold as well, OK? At Plastic Paradise's conclusion, the viewer is left pondering that the amount of plastic in the world will increase by 400% by 2050. The Legislature wants to impose new fees on plastic makers and restrict single-use plastics. The recycling system that we have at the moment, its not really recycling because some part of it exportedbeing exported all over the world to be "recycled," but you never know whether its really being recycled overseas or not. That code was a numbering system put inside the well-known symbol for recyclingthe chasing arrows. Addicted to Plastic - DocuWiki Environmentalists have, too. Our member companies, SABIC and Shell and LyondellBasell, all of whom have made major announcements in traditional and advanced recycling to begin to intervene in that space in order to bring their scale, their technical know-how and their capacity to start providing products that are based on waste. Her film articulates this message in a way that will resonate with anyone that cares about nature and the environment. Her video of the encounter quickly went viral. Theres no one that would even take it if I paid them to take it." Plastic Paradise is an excellent, accessible, and troubling documentary that reveals these issues. With Josh 'Shag' Agle, Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry, Drew Birch, Richard Boccato. John Wesley Hyatt took up the challenge. By 2050, its estimated that global production of plastic will triple. This is our moment, California. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. Even if there was, how do we put a price on an albatross? And theres nothing wrong in an industry promoting those kinds of things, but thats not addressing the problem that people are criticizing you about. That kind of implies that thats where the responsibility lay. Angela SunProduced by Angela Sun, Gil Elbaz, Elyssa Elbaz, Tanya Leal SotoEditor: Wendy ShueyCinematography: Joseph Ochoa, Francisco Aliwalas, Mark BellaGraphics: Jonathan Jelkin. 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. [Speaking Indonesian] It used to be only once a month, but now it can be two or three times a week. They created the Council for Solid Waste Solutions, drawn from their ranks of big oil and petrochemical companies that made plastic, like Amoco, Chevron, Dow and Exxon. That was one of the comments early, that it implied that those products were being recycled. 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. Plastics have been around since the 1930's. It is virtually indestructible, never deteriorates and is produced by using resources from two of the largest money making industries in the world: oil and gas. to tout the virtues of plastics as a way of heading off the criticism the industry was experiencing. And yet despite the backlash, the industry that makes plastic is expanding. You know, I have looked at that picture and pondered that for decades. Some were very skeptical but felt they had to do it. But more than half of all people that live in the Portland area believe this belongs in the curbside container. 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. Eighty plastic bags found inside the whale. The whole idea about, "Oh, just sort better. I think it is a big moment. Sunil Bagaria is national chairman of the plastics division for ISRI, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. People can stop it. The manufacturing of plastic has increased from 20 million pounds worldwide in 1927 to 115 billion in 2014. We follow Angela Sun while she investigates the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is where the plastic waste of three different continents accumulates. How America's 20-year war in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory. Then what? I strongly recommend this film as an instructional tool to connect ecology, communication, and global service. 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. The big leverage is with the producers. Reveals the history and worldwide scope of plastics pollution, investigates, 2023 Docuseek, LLCAll rights reserved | Privacy Statement | Accessibility Statement, Angela Sun, consumption of plastics, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Midway Atoll, plastic, pollution, gyre, Pacific gyre, Midway Atoll, war in the pacific, history of plastics, plastics in war and peace, BPA, endocrine disruptors, Frederick vom Saal, John Klavitter, Matt Brown, Captain Charles Moore, Rikeem Sholes, Lewis Goldsmith, Arnold Schwarznegger, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Gerry Fishbeck, Brian Porter, Andy Keller, Rolf Halden, Wailana, Elizabeth Keenan, Gregor Hodgson, Susie Holst, Marcus Eriksen, Noel Mendiola, Annette Horman, Indie Carbo, dianna Cohen, Anna Cummins, Kitt Doucette, Dave Rastovich, Wallace J Nichols, Lisa Boyle, Julia Brownley, Gretchen Bleiler, Jack Johnson, Micah Mendiola, Daniel McGregor, Raquel Long, Matthew Long, Greg Stone, Peter Seligmann, Algalita Marine Research and Education, plastic nets, microplastics, albatross, indicator species, recycling, single use plastics, consumer power, American Chemistry Council, ACC, Society of the Plastics Industry, SPI, bag monster. Have we made any progress? The industry is not telling the public just to recycle. The film is excellent--in its timeliness, its depth, and its presentation. Good stuff, easy to do. Were a not-for-profit. How much plastic will the US produce this year? It says it's recyclable. So, contaminated plastic trash is as big a problem for you guys as narcotics and drugs coming into the country. 1. Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Where Art Meets 115 billion pounds. The film won many awards and was released in 2013. And we sold that $1.5 million machine for scrap. Less than 10% of plastic has actually ever been recycled. Plastic is different than any The Boston Globe, Sun, Angela (screenwriter) Highly recommended.' Where does the plastic pollution on Henderson Island come from? [CDATA[ RONALD LIESEMER, Council for Solid Waste Solutions, 1988-2001: They wanted to know, was I interested in being the guy who actually made recycling happen across the U.S.? Sun, Angela (film director) That wasnt the intent. [Chanting] Save our Earth! The big problem is that it is all about money, profits. 6 Must-see documentaries about waste - Byewaste There's dissatisfaction about what's going on with the solid waste issue." Sun, Angela (film director) But even as Liesemer and his colleagues were publicly promoting recycling, privately, the industry had long expressed doubt it was ever going to happen on a broad scale. Making recycling work was a way to keep their products in the marketplace. Great Pacific Garbage Patch - National Geographic Society It's margarine tubs, clamshells, deli containers. It's huge and very wide. Smokejumping is the pinnacle of wild land firefighting. They say residents will put all their plastic containers in one bag. 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. This is a pile of U.S. recycling. ", And this document was candid: There is serious doubt widespread plastic recycling can ever be made viable on an economic basis.. Can we afford, ecologically or economically, to turn it off or to leave it running? Responding to pressure from states and environmentalists to better identify the many types of plastic, it created a code to tell them apart. Considering the creation of plastic was used as a substitute for . Plastic Wars | FRONTLINE - PBS This film makes the case that the only solution is source control, and that consumers have a great deal of underutilized power.' They said I couldnt dream. William J. Cooper, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the Urban Water Research Center, University of California-Irvine'A fun and well-balanced introduction to a complex environmental topic. Their . What if its got a chasing arrow sign on it and you think that means its getting recycled? There shouldn't be any more talk about it! Do you think that America can recycle its way out of this plastic crisis? It was manufactured. The industry attitude was, "We'll set this up and get it going, but if the public wants it, they are going to have to pay for it.". I strongly recommend this film as an instructional tool to connect ecology, communication, and global service. 08/08/2014. "Greatly harming our oceans, and killing and injuring countless marine creatures and seabirds. Dr. Kirk J. Havens, Director, Coastal Watersheds Program, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary'I believe that this film portrays the state of the plastic marine debris issue accurately. And the remaining plastic waste will then be disposed of. 640,000 tons. Now what were doing here is were sorting it out into the milk jugs, the natural HDPE, the pigmented HDPE, PET water bottles. The good news is they're coming. Plastics 101 | National Geographic - YouTube Others, like Colgate-Palmolive, saw a need for better education. To preview films or license them for streaming, you must register and login. It has really good engineering qualities; it protects food very well. And I think whats good is that were all working together to help improve some of those recycling habits and understanding behavior. What are the toxics emissions? The Garten Foundation of Salem unveiled a new sorting machine that may change the way we recycle forever. As of today, plastic bags are banned in Jersey City. Until there is a viable option for recycling those things, we should be putting it in a landfill. In Oregon, again, there are no curbside programs that would accept any of these tubs. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Coy Smith ran recycling centers in Southern California in the 1980s and early '90s. Amazing work!' CNN.com - Transcripts You can see from that corner to the end of that valley over there. And the guy industry tapped decades ago to get recycling going isnt surprised. So this is how it looks like when they burn it. Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: Film Review 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. Plastics will never go away as long as the consumer demands it. We need to confirm if the data that we have is correct or not. Americans need to know that your waste ended up here. Flexible packaging has become part of our daily lives. Thats what it looks like when it comes in. How many discarded fishing nets are in oceans worldwide? Dr. Kirk J. Havens, Director, Coastal Watersheds Program, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary'I believe that this film portrays the state of the plastic marine debris issue accurately. It provides valuable information and presents that information in an engaging and visually gripping way.' Remember, a lot of the plastic packaging that you have in your kitchen is recyclable. I mean, for most states they did it in, recyclers didnt even know it happened. Thousands of miles away from civilization, Midway Atoll is in one of the most remote places on earth. What items were the least common? It spent most of its money, millions and millions of dollars, on advertising. 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? All Rights Reserved.Graphics by. It's hard to have faith in the plastics industry when it got out of its crisis in the '90s by telling Americans to recycle, even though they knew it was not economically viable. Wed heard about an environmental activist whos been tracking what happens to the plastic coming into Indonesia. Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - ResearchGate What are we looking at? Plastic Paradise is another documentary on the topic of plastic waste and our oceans. One study estimates that 60% of ocean plastic comes from Asia. 11 Zero Waste Documentaries to Inform & Inspire Change - Sustainable Jungle he was actually Italian, dressed up like an Indian [Laughs]but the fake crying Indian, the most famous one, ends with this very dramatic sentence where they say. ; "Plastic Paradise"; Bullfrog Films. Oh, yes. No, this is about all of us understanding that we each have a role to play in making the system that we have better and achieving the goals thatI think everybody would have to say we cannot continue with business as usual. While the efforts to change consumer behavior helped clean up the more visible litter problem, they did little to address the root cause. Because we thought that it was getting recycled gave us the freedom"OK, no problem. The Midwest Book Review'Intriguing..chilling filmJournalist Angela Sun offers valuable new insights.' Yeah. You also have to really build up the infrastructure for collection. So let's take a look at these blueberries. This is one of the easiest visualizations of how humans (not all, but many) have lost connection with the environment--a sad state of affairs--but the truth.' By doing so, this film will inspire young people to act as global citizens and contribute to finding solutions for the major environmental problems of the coming century.' Plastic Paradise Documentary by Angela Sun on the Great - Inhabitat As the film stated, plastic is the third biggest industry in the USA. The Midwest Book Review'Intriguing..chilling filmJournalist Angela Sun offers valuable new insights.' So the idea would be mechanical sorters pick out 11 billion K-Cups, right? So the big plastic producers came up with a multimillion-dollar solution: advertising. Do you think that the company feels so strongly that it is willing to make less money? The company has not been charged with any wrongdoing related to dumping. were contaminated with trash and plastic that cant be recycled. Conversely, plastics can also absorb pollutants, such as PCBs, from the seawater. Planetsave'Sun offers a fresh, new voice for her generation and has made a film that can appeal to the masses.' 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.' It would. 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. That all originates with us. Film Review: Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch DENI SURJANTORO, Spokesman, Indonesian Customs: [Speaking Indonesian] We have some priority issues and one of them is plastic waste. Now here we are again in a crisis. 'This is an issue of vast scales. I think we were overly optimistic about the potential of recycling, and perpetuating that narrative led us astray. Glass? Were working with other organizations to get the word out. In the United States. Not a good idea for the Earth. But it's not economical to recycle it given the current economics of recycling. They're not going to be able to continue to drill that oil and gas and burn it for energy anymore because the climate can't sustain it, so this is their lifeline. Plastic Paradise looks to make difference with plastic consumption Chevron Phillips would like to see all of that plastic recycled back to make new plastic things. Reduce the impact. So much of all this stuff in the grocery store is plastic now. Tejal Rao is the California restaurant critic for The Times . We need to increase the interest in and demand for recycled materials and more products made from recycled materials. I showed Ron Liesemer industry reports we found dating as far back as the 1970s. Plastics in the ocean have been building up for decades. plastic became the unrivaled material of choice for consumers. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . To appease government officials, the industry funded a local recycling pilot project. But thats not what weve been told for decades, as the things we buy have been increasingly packaged in 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. She is known for her stylized images of ordinary objects. There's going to be more plastic than ever. Docuseek Build 2.0.b297-c7-gej, Angela Sun, consumption of plastics, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Midway Atoll, plastic, pollution, gyre, Pacific gyre, Midway Atoll, war in the pacific, history of plastics, plastics in war and peace, BPA, endocrine disruptors, Frederick vom Saal, John Klavitter, Matt Brown, Captain Charles Moore, Rikeem Sholes, Lewis Goldsmith, Arnold Schwarznegger, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Gerry Fishbeck, Brian Porter, Andy Keller, Rolf Halden, Wailana, Elizabeth Keenan, Gregor Hodgson, Susie Holst, Marcus Eriksen, Noel Mendiola, Annette Horman, Indie Carbo, dianna Cohen, Anna Cummins, Kitt Doucette, Dave Rastovich, Wallace J Nichols, Lisa Boyle, Julia Brownley, Gretchen Bleiler, Jack Johnson, Micah Mendiola, Daniel McGregor, Raquel Long, Matthew Long, Greg Stone, Peter Seligmann, Algalita Marine Research and Education, plastic nets, microplastics, albatross, indicator species, recycling, single use plastics, consumer power, American Chemistry Council, ACC, Society of the Plastics Industry, SPI, bag monster. Here we are at our GDB South Brunswick facility. 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? The industry found another way to promote plastic using recycling. Film Review: Plastic Paradise, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Big. Oh, poor baby, Im sorry. As long as we didnt disclose his identity. Modern-day miracles that were made with the help of petrochemicals. and plastic bans are spreading across the country. Construction will eventually employ 6,000 people. Lately there's been a lot of talk about how plastics impact our lives, for better or worse. So you can talk about this stuff a lot. It`s a tiny particle created when larger plastic items, tooth brushes, bottles, bags, break down over decades. She or he will best know the preferred format. This is the same kind of thinking that ran in the '90s. MALE SPEAKER: I don't want to pull it too hard. We said go to a square. His company buys throwaway plastic from some of the largest big-box stores in the U.S. Currently, we support online registration for anyone affiliated with a higher education institution. Youre saying youve got plenty as it is? Carl F. Cranor, Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program, University of California-Riverside'Plastic Paradise warns that the environment is everyone's responsibility, and that humanity cannot turn a blind eye to its own garbage forever. We flip it over. So all the plastic will come off before the line ends. [Speaking Indonesian] It depends on the condition of the bales. Yeah, this is totally American. In the business, theyre called "mixed plastics. Recycle, bury, what to do with it? In what may be part of a national trend, the City Council of St. Paul, Minnesota, voted to outlaw the use of polystyrene plastics. What we put in our recycling bins ends up in sorting plants like this one, outside of Portland. Let's do right by our future. Eleven billion. Docuseek2 is a streaming platform of the best documentary and social issue films available for the higher education community. We wanted to see for ourselves what was happening to the plastic coming here. But later that night, on a back street, I met up with a New Harvestindo worker who agreed to talk to me about what the company does with its plastic waste. New Harvestindo eventually got back to us and denied it was responsible for doing anything that damaged the environment. We are the shipper of the scrap. This is classic. Back in Oregon, I found one of these new technologies. This is from California. Plastic enters the world's oceans, is broken into tiny bits, and ingested by marine life and birds. Recycle, bury, what to do with it? They are going to double down on single-use plastic like we have never seen, so we're heading towards a real battle. It was, "We need to be doing things.". Elizabeth A. Newell, Stephanie Hanus, Stevie Monteiro, Destiny Harbison, and James McTighe. Eventually, the reality of what was happening in China became clear. How much responsibility do you feel like you have over what's happening here? If you want to step up above, you can see the machine in action. If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice . 2023 Plastic Paradise. In many ways were just getting started. You could recycle this in a lab. Loaded with more than 3,000 tons of waste from New Yorks Long Island. Bagaria had come to make sure his plastic was actually being recycled and turned into tiny pellets that are used to make new plastic products. On the bottom, it says "100% recyclable." Yeah. Well, that is a challenge. The big problem is that it is all about money, profits. I met up with Yuyun Ismawati in a small rural community nearby. I think they knew that the infrastructure wasn't there to really have recycling amount to a whole lot. Melati and Isabel Wijsen are on a mission to stop plastic bags from suffocating their beautiful island home of Bali. And you just need to sort out your recyclables and do your part. Liesemer was sent to Minnesota on an urgent mission. What does coral treat? That's just freaking. News Pollution. Over the past year, weve been investigating the plastic crisis and found that many of the problems we face today were set in motion decades ago, by the very companies who make plastic in the first place. // ]]> Thousands of miles away from civilization, Midway Atoll is in one of the most remote places on earth. At the time, it was one of the few atolls in the world unspoiled by human activity. 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. Back in Oregon, I put the question to David Allaway. plastic paradise transcriptplymouth township mi police scanner. General Information . And if you turn this over, you see the chasing arrows. It was a critical moment. Anyone may search for titles and find detailed information about the titles. and industry is investing tens of billions of dollars in new plastic plants. See it and share it with others!' So here weve collected some old newspaper articles from 199425 years ago. childhood leukemia. The table is set with polyethylene products, too. Step into the world of man-made materials that take up where nature left off. Angela Sun is an award-winning journalist, sports caster, and filmmaker. How much water was withdrawn to produce this product? There are a lot of different kinds of plastics that have to be sorted. Polystyrene, PET, PVC, polypropylene. But as we continued our reporting in Oregon, we heard about a surprisingly similar effort that took place more than 25 years ago at a recycling company 50 miles away called Garten Services. 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. Her film articulates this message in a way that will resonate with anyone that cares about nature and the environment. Its the biggest Ive seen. Lead editor, Wendy Shuey; cinemtaography, Francisco Aliwalas [and 6 others]; music by APM Music [and 6 others]. Yeah, I mean, its bleeding already. 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. For decades, the national response to the growing plastic waste problem has focused on one solution: recycling.