Plastic Planet: A Review

Plastic Planet is a 2009 film that I had never heard of until it popped up in a Netflix recommended list for me. The film is decent, and centers around the ubiquity of plastic across the globe, as well as the harm that all of this plastic is doing.
The film is not nearly as good as Addicted to Plastic (a favorite of mine), however, Addicted to Plastic is a bullfrog film and is NOT available from Netflix....luckily the Portland Public Library system is awesome and they have a few copies. Plastic Planet is a Netflix instant-play and is much more readily available, and is still quite informative.
This film does a fairly good job addressing the extent of plastic pollution across the globe. There is an interview with Captain Charles Moore discussing the extent of plastics in the ocean, and adventures to clean up plastic pollution on a beach in Japan. The film goes across the world and has people bring all of the plastic that is inside their house outside, and the amounts are enormous. Even these little shacks in India have a huge pile of plastics.
The film also talks a good deal about the health effects of plastics. The film discusses BPA and pthalates, chemicals that are added to plastics and which can lead to reproductive problems, hormone problems, birth defects and cancer. In one scene, the director, Werner Boote, had taken blood samples of couples who were having trouble conceiving, and found that many of them had high levels of plastic additives in their blood. He also gets an inflatable globe tested for toxins, and is told that it should be treated as hazardous, even though it is sold on store shelves across the globe.
Boote also tries to get interviews with the head of the European plastics corporation (and gets kicked out) and also tries to get into a plastics manufacturing plant in China (where he also gets kicked out). The secrecy behind the industry is somewhat amusing, but also rather scary.
One big con about this film is the really annoying techno-ish music that is throughout the entire film... super distracting for me. My last complaint is that the film discusses lots of problems with plastics, but doesn't really touch on any good solutions... and, really, that is what we need. No one will be willing to give up plastics if there is not a good substitute.
Despite my criticisms, the film was super informative and is worth a watch. It is not as eye-grabbing or as well-organized as many of the environmental films out there, so it doesn't suck you in, but there is a wealth of information tucked in there. Pin It Now!