Four documentaries to reflect, educate and raise public awareness of the need to reduce plastic use and find alternative solutions. Stories of small daily actions that can lead to great changes. Enjoy at home, or at school!
“A Plastic Ocean”
Explores the devastating impact of plastic on the oceans and on marine life, bringing to light the full scale of the problem.
Directed by Craig Leeson, 2017.
“Plastic is wonderful because it’s durable. Plastic is terrible because it’s durable.”
“A Plastic Ocean” is a documentary directed by Australian journalist Craig Leeson that explores the devastating impact of plastic on the oceans and on marine wildlife. The project began in 2011, when Craig was filming a documentary about blue whales off Sri Lanka and discovered that the sea was overrun with plastic. The images show fin whales swimming among bags and bottles, ingesting plastics along with krill. This encounter leads him to explore other seas, discovering that no area is immune to plastic contamination, which threatens fish and seabirds alike.
The film highlights how plastic pervades our daily life and how its production has grown exponentially, with figures suggesting a vertiginous increase in plastic by 2050. Every year, 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans, and some seas — such as the Mediterranean — are already saturated with plastic particles, often in greater quantities than plankton.
The images show how plastic, though useful for its durability, also represents a threat to the environment: it does not break down easily, and almost every piece ever produced still exists on Earth. In the United States alone, 238 billion plastic bottles are used every year, the vast majority of them single-use.
The documentary ends with an urgent plea: stopping the use of single-use plastic is a crucial first step to reducing pollution and protecting the oceans.
“Planet plastic /Plastic Planet”
A documentary examining the omnipresence of plastic and its impact on our planet.
By Werner Boote, Germany, 2009. Italian translation by Igor Francescato with Autily Silva.
Enough plastic — plastic is killing the world!
The truth about plastic. This documentary demonstrates just how dangerous plastic materials are. Plastic does not degrade, and it contains elements harmful to air, water and land. Plastic is not recyclable except through further pollution and the production of very poor-quality plastic.
“Straws”
A film by Linda Booker — 2017
Focuses on the everyday use of plastic straws and the movement to eliminate them. It’s a story about how small actions can lead to great changes.
Straws has been praised as one of the “5 documentaries that make you rethink single-use plastic.”
Inspired by research that revealed how plastic straws are now among the top ten items of litter collected on beaches globally, Straws was praised as one of the “5 documentaries that make you rethink single-use plastic.”
Narrated by Tim Robbins, the film traces the history of straws — from gold in ancient Mesopotamia to today’s daily consumption of billions of non-recyclable, single-use plastic straws, epitomising a throwaway consumer culture. Plastic straws are among the single-use items that contribute to the roughly 8.5 million metric tonnes of plastic waste that enter the seas every year, taking decades or even centuries to break down to microscopic levels now found in bottled and tap water, in soils and even in the air we breathe.
Environmental researchers, marine biologists and activists explain how plastic pollution is causing irreversible damage to the oceans, to marine life and ultimately to human health. Sea turtles are frequent victims, often mistaking plastic for food. The researchers who discovered a straw lodged in the nose of an endangered sea turtle in Costa Rica recount their story over footage from their viral video.
Straws proposes sustainable alternative solutions — paper, bamboo, glass or metal straws — and encourages the simple act of declining a straw when dining out. Success stories, like companies saving money by using less single-use plastic or an 11-year-old who started a wave of change in his school and community, show how anyone can act to help save the world’s oceans.
“Trashed”
A film exploring the global waste problem, with a particular focus on plastic and its management.
Directed by Candida Brady. Documentary — Great Britain, 2012.
The documentary Trashed, starring and produced by Jeremy Irons and directed by Candida Brady, tackles the serious problem of environmental pollution and the planetary crisis in a way that is alarming yet also full of hope. Citing Albert Einstein’s distinction between the intelligent person who solves problems and the wise person who avoids them, the film offers a critical reflection on the state of the Earth. Irons takes the viewer on a journey across five continents, showing landfill sites, air, sea and land pollution, with shocking images of places like Lebanon, Vietnam and the Arctic — one of the most polluted places on Earth.
Despite the terrible realities it presents, the documentary also puts forward practical, optimistic solutions — such as composting or buying unpackaged products — encouraging an ecological revolution that is already under way. Irons remains confident and optimistic, maintaining that positive change is possible if we act now to protect our planet.
