Opinion - The Story of Plastic

I should start off this opinion piece with one important fact you all should know - I love Jason Momoa. Not only is he a badass actor, known best for his role in Game of Thrones but a badass climate advocate and one the biggest plastics haters in the world (also, a fellow climber.) When he came out with a video shaving his beard for awareness that plastic bottles suck, that was one PR stunt I could get behind... LA Times did a create piece covering this stunt here.

The past few days, Jason Momoa has been posting about an upcoming documentary taking place on Discovery and Discovery Go regarding the history of plastic and its devastation to our planet, debuting on Earth Day. For someone like me who is always looking for new climate documentary to watch, I was totally onboard... and I have no regrets.

The documentary started out with a great overview of the history of plastics and how they are created by the fossil fuels industries. I, for one, had no idea about this... I have never thought about where plastic comes from, just that it is everywhere. From important medical supplies, to toothbrushes, to food storage and take out boxes - plastic is EVERYWHERE and fossil fuel industries like BP, Shell and DOW are responsible for this.

The documentary follows climate advocates, zero wasters, journalists and lawyers from all over the globe but focuses mainly on areas like Philippines where plastic can be found flooding coves, down rivers and in fisherman's nets or in India where Western companies like Procter & Gamble sell small plastic packets to Indians instead of in bigger, recyclable shampoo bottles like in the States and Europe.

This film does an excellent job of explaining why plastic is so damaging to our environment, how what we do in the United States or Europe have horrendous effects to islands like Manila in Indonesia and provides coverage of advocacy groups that are working 24/7 to help start a zero waste movement in all cities. This feature will have you thinking of ways you can cut your plastic usage. I actually purchased some Stasher bags and Modibodi panties right after to help reduce some of my most frequently used plastics.

This is a documentary I would recommend to everyone and anyone who is looking to reduce their plastic usage... even those who might be in doubt. It displays a harsh reality of consumerism, explains how recycling is flawed, shows the devastating impacts that big business of fossil fuels has across the world and why subsidies for these businesses should be eliminated.

For more information on the film, how to watch it and how you can enact change, visit https://www.storyofplastic.org/.

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash