The film, Plastic China, that aired last night was powerful and emotionally moving. The Chinese director of the film grew up penniless, much like the children in the movie. He brings up issues of the impact of pollution and the effect of western waste ending up in eastern countries as a remedy to hiding the massive overproduction of plastics. It also explored internal issues in China like the lack of free education, health issues, aspirations of the poor and pollution.
We don’t know the outcome of all of the family members but can report that the director created a fund to send the young girl Yi-Jie, back to Sichuan and pay for her education. The film has been highly influential and may be responsible for China enacting the National Sword policy to stop admitting western recycling materials.
The question was asked: What can we do to break this cycle? Zero Waste Vashon will be exploring this question in the coming months. On October 6th we bring a powerful speaker and videographer, Annie Crawley, to speak about our ocean and you. Her presentation will focus on the beauty of our oceans and how plastic waste is affecting life in the seas that we rely on to survive. Annie is a WA state resident and has been active in Olympia in getting legislation passed to reduce single-use plastics and to start holding the producers more accountable for these products. For more information on plastics legislation in our state visit Zero Waste Washington’s legislative page.
https://zerowastewashington.org/legislative-work/
https://zerowastewashington.org/legislative-work/
In the meantime, we can all help by reusing plastics instead of tossing them and we can reduce our use of them. Just say no. Here are some good tips on how to reduce plastics use.
There is a free streaming service called Kanopy that has the Plastic China movie on it. You can watch this at home via Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, streaming tvs, etc. All it takes to get a Kanopy membership is your library card.
PS: A reminder: Styrofoam is quite recyclable and it is done locally. This includes those styrofoam trays that meat and fish are sold with. Styrofoam collection happens on the first Sunday of the month, from 12-4pm in front of the old Kimmco building in town, across from Snapdragon.