TuttleJPFilm5

John Peter Tuttle Annotation #5 – 10/12/2011 Film Annotation: “Addicted to Plastic” Word Count: 1291

1. Title, director and release year? “Addicted to Plastic” is a 2008 documentary directed by Ian Connacher.

2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film? “Addicted to Plastic” explores the issues of plastic waste and recycling. It explores how much plastic is used in modern products, and how much of it is wasted. The film explains the history of plastic and its use in manufacturing, issues with disposing of or recycling plastic – little plastic is recycled in the first plastic, and what is needs to be sorted, creating overhead for the recycling plant – and potential solutions to these problems, such as alternative methods of making plastic that results in non-toxic and biodegradable plastic, solving one of the major problems with plastic waste. The film also explores bioplastics – plastic made from sources such as soybeans or corn, which result in more environmentally-friendly materials that are renewable, unlike traditional plastics, which rely on the world’s dwindling oil supply.

3. How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example? Does the film have emotional appeal? The narrative is mostly from a first-person perspective as the narrator travels the world and interviews people involved with the manufacturing of plastic. Scientific information is provided to explain particular aspects of plastic manufacturing, and to explain the magnitude of the issues. The film uses animation when appropriate, showing how resin beads are created, then used to make plastic. The first-person perspective of the movie certainly helps the emotional appeal, as it really makes the viewer realize how much these materials are used in modern products, and how much of a waste they are.

4. What sustainability problems does the film draw out? Political? Legal? Economic? Technological? Media and Informational? Organizational? Educational? Behavioral? Cultural? Ecological? The film explores the variety of issues that stem from the rampant use of plastics in modern society. It discusses the ecological issues of plastic – how it tends to end up in landfills and the ocean, and the potentially toxic materials it contains. It explains how plastics accumulate more toxic materials as they flow through the ocean, and how this ends up affecting marine life, and, eventually, humans. (There are also issues with animals ingesting plastics, even if humans do not eat them.) It touches on the issues of educating companies that make plastic-based products about the true problems that plastic waste cause. There is a bit of a cultural and behavioral portion to the issues involved with plastic; plastic started mainly being used for various purposes in World War II – protecting equipment, insulating radar, etc (Masterson, Kathleen), and after the war, uses of plastic spread to consumer products, starting the trend of disposable products and the throwaway lifestyle that we have ended up with today. There are some organizational issues with plastic recycling – there is not as nearly a widespread incentive program to encourage consumers to recycle plastic, at least in the United States. However, there are still technological issues with recycling certain plastics, as they simply do not biodegrade well, and the overhead required to properly sort plastics is much higher than that for glass. The film does touch upon economic issues and how plastic recycling and waste is affected by globalization.

5. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why? First of all, the fact that the film was from a first-person perspective made it easier to relate to; it was more interesting than just having interviews with various people with little narration between. The parts of the film that explore how widespread plastics are used were particularly compelling, especially when the film started to get into the issues of how much of a sustainability problem plastic is, and how much of it ends up in the ocean, creating what are essentially floating landfills. It was quite astonishing how many plastic products end up getting thrown out – and how many are still recognizable and completely intact even after they have travelled a long distance in the ocean. The part of the film that focused on the disposable culture that started in the mid-twentieth century was quite fascinating, as it shows how the throwaway society of today started, and how carefree attitudes were back then.

6. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why? There were not really parts of the film I was not compelled by; I actually found it quite fascinating. The details about toxics in plastic in the ocean were a tad boring, but that might have just been due to having already learned about them in other films we saw in class.

7. What audiences does the film best address? Why? The film seems to best address general audiences who are curious about plastic and its widespread use, and how they can help the environment by changing their behavior and choosing products that are safer for themselves and the environment.

8. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value? A tad more coverage of related issues would help, but overall, the film already has excellent educational value, and does a good job of covering different aspects of the issues with plastic.

9. What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective. The film suggests educating companies that use plastics in their products, making sure they know what ends up happening to the materials in their products once they are discarded. It also mentions how some plastics can be recycled into other products, but these sorts of solutions do not completely eliminate plastic waste. The film does bring up companies, like Patagonia, an apparel company that focuses on recycled apparel; they can apparently make 100% recycled plastic jackets and will take back any product for recycling, as well as a carpet company that uses high amounts of recycled plastic. (I was a tad surprised at this; I know there are some products that have some recycled content, but I was not aware that it could work that well.) Encouraging more companies to use recycled material like this will not completely solve the problem, but it does help, and spreads awareness about the issue. There are some communities in India that have banned plastic bags under a certain thickness. It is not clear whether this would work well on a larger scale; however, it does sound like a good solution, as it would not require getting rid of plastic bags completely, but manages to eliminate the use of bags too thin to be easily reused.

10. What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out? (Provide at least two supporting references.) While watching film, I was curious about the origins of plastic, so I researched a bit, and found a timeline of the history of plastic on NPR’s website, which gave a good overview of when and why various types of plastics were created. I also found a Time magazine article that explores the history of bioplastics, and potential issues with it, one of them being that even if bioplastics are biodegradable, there is not a big enough market for them to allow most consumers to dispose of them easily; the current recycling systems are designed under the assumption that plastic does not biodegrade, and ends up sealing it in airtight landfills to try to reduce leakage of toxic materials. Masterson, Kathleen. “The History of Plastic: From Billiards to Bibs”. NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114331762 Dell, Kristina. “The Promise And Pitfalls of Bioplastic.” Time Magazine. 03 May 2010. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1983894,00.html