Film “Plastic People”: the high costs of a throwaway culture

“Plastic Tsunami” is a large-scale art installation by local artist Chrissanth Greene-Gross. The sheet of single-use plastic curled around the entrance to the theater for the showing of “Plastic People.” Peter T. Michealis photo

Artist Chrissanth Greene-Gross's work “Greenwashed” featuring her self-portrait portraying her outrage discovering that recycling is a hoax. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Bedford 2030 Executive Director Midge Iorio and State Sen. Pete Harckham. PETER T. MICHEALIS PHOTO

By ABBY LUBY

It’s common knowledge that plastics have polluted the planet. The ubiquitous, hard to destroy material has not only taken over land and sea, the leaching microplastic by-products have invaded peoples bodies, affecting health. Startling evidence of this is seen in the award-winning documentary film “Plastic People,” presented last week at the Bedford Playhouse by Bedford 2030, a local grassroots organization actively working towards a sustainable and environmentally clean planet. 

Bedford 2030 Executive Director Midge Iorio greeted an audience of about 70, cautioning them that although the film showed some harsh realities about the health impacts of plastics, there were reasons to be optimistic. 

“Tonight is about hope and coming together as a community that’s an amazing, compassionate community that can do things,” she said. “We are going to take action and move towards a healthy, clean, plastic-pollution free future.” 

“Plastic People” was released in 2024 and shown at major festivals including Sundance, Hot Docs, and Human Rights Watch NYC. It explores the threat of microplastics in human bodies and features scientists, journalists, and personal accounts. The science unfolds through the eyes of acclaimed author and science journalist Ziya Tong as she visits leading scientists around the world who study microplastics and health. Tong’s home, the food she eats and her everyday habits are all subjected to the impact of plastics. The viewer first sees her slipping on contact lenses as she explains even the contact lenses shed microplastics. 

As Tong starts her journey to labs all over the world, a history of plastics using archival TV commercials shows how the tantalizing appeal fed a love fest with the new age material. A host of advertisements from the 1950s to ‘60s promote a plethora of uses. It didn’t take long for the burgeoning concept of disposables and throwaway living to emerge, captivating a public that embraced an easier lifestyle.

Today, plastics are inescapable. Exterior shots of mammoth heaps of plastic waste in landfills and along waterways shift to the deep interior of our organs and blood cells revealing tiny bits of nanoplastics. A hushed audience saw startling footage of an actual C-section birth to then unveil the micro-plastic invaded placenta. A similar shot was an operation removing a brain tumor that revealed microplastics, known to disrupt neuron activity. 

That fossil fuel companies are pushing for an increase in plastic production was highlighted in the film by the 24/7 operation of a petrochemical plant in Portland, Texas, (a majority of plastics are derived from petrochemicals). The $7 billion Exxon plant which opened in 2022 produces tiny pellets that serve as raw materials for plastic products. 

Tong meets with a farmer who lives within eyesight of the Exxon Portland petrochemical plant. He tells her the plant has been polluting their town with high benzene levels where the safe level of benzene is zero. (Benzene is a colorless, flammable liquid that is a known human carcinogen. Petrochemical plants are known to contaminate communities across the United States.) Night shots showed the sprawling plant lighting up the night sky operating with a deafening roar.  

As bleak as this film is, there is an uplifting final note. Footage of zero waste communities here in the U.S. and in different countries show how local movements are finding ways to be plastic-free. In Bayfield, Canada, teenagers hand out reusable produce bags and a restaurant owner serves his take-out Brussels sprouts tacos in a plastic-free fast-food wrapper. Informative texts on the screen offered such messages as “Over 100 countries now have a full or partial ban on single-use plastics.” 

As the film end credits rolled the audience applauded.

Before the film, Iorio introduced state Sen. Pete Harckham, who spoke to the negative impacts of microplastics on human health and about current legislation in Albany aimed at reducing packaging waste. 

“You can’t go a day without a study coming out about the harmful impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics,” he said. “I stand here before you and have nanoplastics in my brain and organs, clogging my arteries, in my reproductive organs — and so do all of you.” 

Harckham dispelled the truth about recycling plastics.

“Ninety-five percent of plastics cannot be recycled because of the toxic chemicals in them and they can’t be refashioned into new products. Plastics either go to landfills where they leach and break down or go to waste incinerators such as the one in Peekskill.” 

The current Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is in both Senate and Assembly environmental conservation committees. Among the many goals of the Harckham-sponsored bill is to significantly reduce packaging waste by requiring companies to reduce overall packaging use, support municipal recycling programs and eliminate toxins in packaging materials. If passed into law, PRRIA would require producers with annual net revenues over $5 million and those responsible for more than 2 tons of annual packaging waste to reduce their packaging by 10 percent within three years and 30 percent within 12 years. 

“By giving them skin in the game they have a financial interest in reducing the amount of packaging,” Harckham said of producers. “They would pay into a fund that goes to municipalities. A conservative estimate is that $300 million would go to New York City and municipalities outside the city to manage and dispose of the waste.”

Viewers exiting the theater were handed postcards with QR codes to easily connect to local representatives, to register for a People Over Plastic Rally on May 7 in Albany, and a subscription to the Bedford 2030 newsletter. 

Highlighting the film was an art installation by local artist Chrissanth Greene-Gross, whose work was both outside the theater and in the downstairs lobby.  

Displayed outside for the one-night film showing was Greene-Gross’ large-scale work “Plastic Tsunami.” The 47-foot-long, 6-foot-wide sheet of single-use plastic curled around the entrance to the theater. The work will be taken to Albany and placed on the Capitol’s “million dollar staircase” in support of the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act.