Inside the Garbage of the World (2016) Online

It's not often that you watch something that makes you glad you won't be around in 100 years. This is one of those things. The scale of the problem is unimaginably enormous and I've no idea how or when it will ever be solved.

The film taught me that we as a species HAVE to change our habits. We have to become more aware of what is happening to our planet. Did you know that plastic trash is now present in pretty much every sample of seawater anywhere around the world? And it's not 'easy' stuff like soda bottles, it's been broken up over the decades and is now microscopic in size (in addition to the big stuff) and that is then eaten by sea animals and eventually ends up back on our own plates! So not only is this plastic killing off millions of animals a year, decades down the line it's surely going to have a big impact on our own health with more incidences of cancer caused by the chemicals we'll be ingesting. Think you're OK because you don't eat fish? Think again! Lots of other things eat fish and we eat those other things too.

These are the things this short film taught me. Things I was marginally aware of but am now far more knowledgeable of thanks to the clear and simple demonstrations and explanations shown here.

The photography is both beautiful and jarring with scenes of sea mammals and fish in their natural beauty then images of beaches and rivers clogged with plastic trash.

We are killing our planet. If you want to be part of the solution, rather than the problem, watch this film as a start.

Great first 40 minutes of film show us beautifully that millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, break into tiny pieces which carry poisons into the fish which eat them (virtually every species everywhere, since plastics outnumber plankton), and the poisons continue into chicken and vegetables grown with ground-up fish meal, and finally poisons are concentrated in us.

The movie also says thousands of microscopic plastic fibers in clothing (acrylic, polyester) fall out into the water each time they're washed, so these fibers flow into oceans and food chains.

Then the movie falls apart in the last 15 minutes. Of course we mustn't throw plastic in the oceans or hillsides, but the film never speaks to most of us who dispose of plastic properly into lined landfills or recycling. How does that get into the oceans? The movie says a couple of times that nothing can really be thrown away, because "there is no 'away'." I can believe there are problems, and I understand that landfills can erode and release plastic in future decades, but are they causing the current crisis? Can they be designed better?

If the problem is that many regions don't have good landfills, then we need to help create more good landfills. If the problem is that landfills don't work, we need to stop using plastic. The movie also says recycling is green-washing. Why?

Is there any way to capture plastic clothing fibers, in filters or septic systems, or should we stop washing all plastic fibers?

Once again we have a one sided produced panic-mentary. Lots of film time on things everyone knows are bad, pollution in an open environment. Lot's of crying over spilt milk bottles. Graphic images of wildlife ingesting plastic.

Sailors and beach combers and activists interviewed and portrayed as "experts" in pollution making suppositions that may or may not be true - no hard scientific evidence is presented - just opinion. Then we have a clever editing break to actual "experts" that discuss pollution transfer in the food chain.

Yes this is a bad thing - but how about a discussion on how to prevent, curtail, or offer solutions. Can we change the manufacturing process of plastic such that it DOES decompose in a short time - not discussed. Can we grow microbes that DO eat plastic - not discussed. Can large corporations and shipping companies that deliberately pollute be prosecuted - not discussed.

The spreading of the "message" is the solution! Huh? Good luck with that. Get back to me when you have some concrete solutions.