Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

My fellow Californian Angela Sun builds a compelling case against the convenience of plastics in modern living. Plastic's stubborn refusal to break down into its component parts mean it is a persistent pollutant. Plastic enters the world's oceans, is broken into tiny bits, and ingested by marine life and birds. It then makes it's way up the food chain, ultimately into humans.

As the film stated, plastic is the third biggest industry in the USA. Can we afford, ecologically or economically, to turn it off or to leave it running? This film takes the position of halting or diminishing plastic consumption...but what if there is another way? One of the challenges humanity will face as it continues to grow, and it's reach expands, is learning to use the finite resources of the planet (the Solar System, the galaxy) in ever more creative, efficient, and ingenious ways. After all, BPA is a discovery of 1930s chemistry.

Why not use 2015 chemical and physical science to find a way to alter plastics into a more degenerative or reusable compound? Our third largest industry and the second order impacts of those jobs would be maintained and contamination of the world's oceans would be reduced or eliminated. Somewhere in the sometimes rocky marriage of science and industry is a savior (for the ecologists) and an invention (for the entrepreneurs). I gave this documentary 7 of 10 for sounding an alarm that needs to be sounded, but was somewhat lacking in exploring solutions.