Im+Addicted+to+Plastic-+Pringle

1. Title, director and release year Addicted to Plastic, Ian Connacher, 2008

2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film? The film argues that the amount of plastic surrounding us is increasingly becoming more harmful to our societies’ health and environmental stability.

3. What sustainability problems does the film draw out? The film draws out issues on plastics that cannot be recycled or are being recycled in an inappropriate manner. There is a common misconception that our recycling system will take care of anything that we put in our trash or recycling cans. This, however, is a false assumption and many times trash never even makes it to the dump or recycling facilities. Instead, our trash is floating in the middle of 5 ocean gyros. The current method of trash sorting is, in fact, harmful to our current recycling process since many products have mixed materials in them. Not only should corporations be more responsible with their packaging to ensure easy recycling but also, the design of products should consider the full life cycle of a product and consider “cradle to grave” methodology.

4. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why? I found it very compelling that in the middle of the ocean, there are 10 to 1 plastic particles versus plankton. This was discovered through dissecting sea birds to find large amounts of plastic lodged in the stomach. Less than 40% of the plastic collected is actually able to be recycled, including plastic 1 and 2 when there is a total of 7different types. Also, hearing that the locals in Kenya call plastic bags their national flower is an extremely compelling statement and puts very well into perspective the waste of plastic.

5. What parts where you not compelled or convinced by? I am disliked the fact that they used cartoons in certain scenes to display problems because I believe this took away from the seriousness of the problem. When one begins to desensitize important issues and give them a childish appeal, I believe it is compromising the academic integrity of the problem. I find it harder to take a cartoon seriously and, in a lot of ways, can make a mockery out of the issues trying to be addressed.

6. What additional information does this film compel you to seek out? Where do you want to dig deeper and what connections do you want to make with other issues, factors, problems, etc.? This film makes me want to seek out why these large piles of trash in the oceans are not being cleaned when we most likely have the technology to do so. I wonder what is preventing the cleaning of trash in the oceans. Perhaps this raises issues and claims of what country (or company) the trash belongs to, but regardless, the fact that this much trash floating in our oceans has become accepted and acceptable is completely baffling.

7. What audiences does the film best address? What kind of imagination is fostered in viewers? Do you think the film is likely to change the way viewers think about and act on environmental problems? This film does not draw out one type of particular audience because we can all relate to the use of plastic, thus the film can attract to all age groups. The film does a great job of showing the role of plastic plays all around the world and what is being done to “recycle”. The film also shows products such as exfoliating soaps that we would normally not even think of containing plastic beads. This trains the viewer to understand how much our daily rituals involve use of plastics and encourage us as consumers to become aware of the plastic we are consuming.

8. What kinds of action or points of intervention are suggested by the film? The film suggests we look at our current methods of recycling products companies such as AgrePlas, which recycles 18 million tons of agricultural plastic that to be reused. Patagona makes jackets that are 100% recycled, composed of 2% plastic bottles and 98% random plastic products. This was the first film that gave a list of companies taking initiative as an environmentally responsible company. This shift towards companies taking accountability for their actions takes the pressure off of the consumer compelled towards buying products that are bad for the environment instead offering viable solutions.

9. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?

One thing that I think could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental education value is an explanation of how we can clean up the plastic waste in our oceans occurring at these gyros. They briefly showed the slow process of extraction of plastic from the ocean, however, quickly switched the subject to plastic alternatives. Although it is understood that we eventually will need to rid of our obsession with plastics, before we can do so we need to think about cleaning up all the problems plastic has already created. Top of Form