Plastic Wars (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
Have efforts to solve the plastic pollution problem made it worse? Go inside the battle over plastics, recycling and what’s at stake.
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#RecyclingDocumentary #PlasticWars #frontlinePBS
Despite efforts spreading across America to reduce the use of plastic and the crisis of ocean pollution growing, the plastics industry is rapidly scaling up new production and promoting a familiar solution: recycling. But it’s estimated that no more than 10% of plastic produced has ever been recycled. The documentary “Plastic Wars,” from FRONTLINE and NPR, reveals how plastic makers for decades have publicly promoted recycling, despite privately expressing doubts that widespread plastic recycling would ever be economically viable.
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Only one viable option in my mind: You make it, you take it back. All of it. Community & private haulers could collect all consumer plastics in a separate waste bin. Manufacturers pay (or are taxed) for shipping and sorting. When manufacturers have ever-growing waste mountains on their properties that they are required to keep, they will quickly & miraculously develop the science to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
I like this idea!
I like this idea, too.
Great idea!
Or manufactures have to use the most recyclable plastics or switch to paper containers that can biodegrade or be recycled.
I've actually seen politicians discussing that. It's called EPR extended producer responsibility. Currently four states are pushing legislation on it.
this video deserves more views. it's so hard to buy stuff without a single plastic involved
china and india are the two biggest cancers on the world when it comes to waste
Don't believe the environmentalists. They hold large nude, parties (with drugs used) in the "Cathedral Forests". I got tricked into going. My professor said I could get extra credit if I went.
I tried going plastic free, it's impossible. You can reduce, but a pharmacy won't give you meds in a paper bag.
@@tillitsdoneor a small glass jar
@@tillitsdoneThats why wee need to contact the product producers to not use plastics. Every call counts.
it's so insane that even when you try to reduce your waste, you realize just how much waste there is in everything we do. It's almost impossible to buy food without some kind of plastic. so far the only way I've bought things like the berries and produce (where the plastic isn't recyclable) without plastic is going to my local farmers market. almost no plastic compared to the store. but not everyone is able to or has a local farmers market 😕 the amount of plastic waste just from food is crazy. thanks for this wonderful documentary. 💕
Several years ago, I became acutely aware of the issue in the ocean, and I thought I'd go plastic free. It's impossible. For example: Try asking a pharmacy to give you pills in a paper bag. It's literally in everything. And as you mention, in food containers. It's bad in to-go eateries, like fast food and convenience store drinks. So, the best I can do is try to reduce it. Paper or reusable grocery bags. Sodas by the can only, easy to recycle, etc. No single use stuff, like bottled water. It feels like a hopeless effort though, one can't compete with this level of corporate greed.
In our country, we often sell vegetables in the open and people bag it in grocery given plastic bags. I try to bring my used plastic bags for the purchase these days, but I've seen literally no one else do it. It also maddens me hella lot when I see my mother buying plastic trash bags. Reuse all the plastic bag from all other purchases!
Here in Austria, you can buy many things without plastic. There is a counter for meat too where you just say what you want and how much of it. And you can bring your own container too. They will still use one plastic thing and especially their gloves. But most vegetables are still in plastic too. So I try to avoid to buy those as much as i can. We always bring our own bags from home. They're big and we only need 1 to fill a while cart. Still, many things i buy has plastic on it. Like butter and milk, cereals or even when i make my own cereals, the pacackages also has plastic. But I'm trying
I'm watching this 3 years later in 2023, and nothing has changed.
I remember when I worked for the Toys R Us Times Square flagship store they used plastic hangers only ONCE and threw them all out in the trash. And it was A LOT! At least a couple hundred each day over the course of 7 years. I’d stare in disbelief at the huge piles of hangers thrown out daily. The hangers were durable and could’ve easily been reused a ton of times over and over but they instead threw them all out and used new ones for clothes. I took some tossed out hangers home during the time I worked there and still have them in my closet years later.
Those plastic hangers of the past were durable too, not like todays' thin cheap plastics that break after a single use.
This was probably the most shocking and upsetting to me. It just doesn't make sense. I can understand why someone would not want a random food container, but there is nothing wrong with the clothes hangers... it's literally exactly the same.
The same happens at walmart and target. When I worked there, everyday, I see bags and bags of hangers thrown away.
@@lothean2099 i work at target. We recycle them. And in the grocery store I worked in we recycled all the thin plastics... I mean, thats what I've been lead to believe
I ride by Macy’s on my bike a lot and notice bags of plastic hangers thrown out everyday after a single use. What a waste.
On the bright side, I hope this report wins an Emmy so it gets more views! Thank you for making this!! 👍👏💪
Did no one but you and I watch this? I sent it to two politicians in my city who just a month ago wanted to do the 'no one-time-use plastic bags' restriction in our city, county and state. Neither one replied.
Win an Emmy? Ha. maybe a regional one but never a prime time, national Emmy. By the way regional Emmys given out by the hundreds because the people they give them to pay big bucks to go to the awards ceremony
Coming from a sprouts expert/nut, that's quite a compliment.
Win an Emmy? For what?? We are still facing this crisis, how about let's stop giving out rewards and come up with the solution to the critical issue
I like cake
Can't believe this was put out 3 years ago and nothing is better
In 1988, milk, juice, cookies, spices, and ice cream all came in cartons, not plastic. Potato chips and pretzels came in bags, and straws were plastic, but takeout came in cartons. Sodas came in cans or large bottles. We didn't have small or medium soda bottles. Until the late 1980's, some buildings still had incinerators. It gave off fly ash, but it was easier to incinerate paper and textiles than plastics. Nowadays everything is plastic and you have no incinerators.
And incineration that does not release toxic byproducts into the air is fantastically expensive. Burning anything on a large scale is already problematic - check out the crop stubble burning in India that gives Delhi and other cities impossibly bad air.
The milk in that carton is worse for the environment than the jug.
This has to be the most educational video I've watched on KZhead, thanks so much for the effort you put into this, the travelling, interviews, meeting , research and countless hours poured into making this.
Frontline has always been a good investigative program. It was better in the '90s, but it's still pretty good.
PBS is likely the last of news organizations left with journalistic integrity, the others american news outlets are clout chasing, yellow journalism, misinformation and opinion channels.
@@Skyhawk656 I've noticed that even the PBS Newshour is beginning to embrace leftist philosophies. In the last 3 - 5 years I've observed their embrace of anti-gun / 2a rhetoric, pro-abortion stances, racism (pro African-American stances in support of liberal agendas), etc. When Jim Lehrer was heading the News Hour, that never happened. In fact, there was more representation of all sides in face-to-face talks and conversations where liberals and conservatives (etc.) could directly challenge one another's statements, and you (the viewer) could see it all and make up your own mind. The PBS Newshour is in decline imo... Nova, Frontline, Secrets of the Dead, and other long time programs are still good, but I'm losing respect for the News Hour...
i think that to
During the pandemic they went back using plastic bags and now that it's kinda over. They haven't stop using plastic bags in the NYC / 5 Boroughs
I've spent 45 years wondering why the H things haven't changed. I'm 72, have a full life, history research, family..I've known something was 'wrong' in not making progress with freaking plastics and other pollutants, since Earth Day 1970, of which I was a part of. I KNEW it wasn't about the drinking straws my friends are obsessed with not using. This show has confirmed it for me; I do not have to make recycling the ridiculous 'yes this' and 'not that' BS that I don't have to worry about now. I hope Laura Sullivan indeed, receives an Emmy.
Bonnie Speeg We haven’t changed the system so prohibiting one kind of plastic versus another one doesn’t change anything as you mentioned. And this is the same for other types of advocacy.
I've been so laser focused on "recycling" plastics, cans and other metals that I never thought question it. After dinner, I literally stopped and stared at a plastic bottle for almost 5 minutes before I threw it away thinking recycling was the right thing. Letting it go to a landfill is actually the lesser of all the evils. I was even fooled into thinking the recycle symbol with a number in it meant it contained more or less recycled material. Im absolutely terrified for the future of this planet and what will become of it in the next 10 years. Now im questioning whether or not electric cars are going to have any real impact on the bigger picture.......
I feel the same way, in 58... nothing's changed only more slick media propoganda and psychological narrative pushes.
OK, who threw away a Bowfinger VHS tape!
The big money players infiltrated the government. That's what happened. I remember ZPG (Zero Population Growth) back when I was in college in the late 60's and early 70's. They warned of what would happen when the earth's population got to 7 million people. Somehow that movement just died out somewhere along the years. Fast forward to now where we have too many people, extreme climate change and the beginnings of food and resource shortages. No wonder everything is made of plastic because how on earth could 7 billion people all have everything made of natural substances? We could have controlled our population and our resources and had a paradise on this earth for most, but now I fear it is too late.
Can you imagine our planet without plastics? Sadly, neither can I... 😢
I've been trying to cut down on plastic. It's been... Illuminating. It is incredibly difficult to find anything that doesn't have some aspect of plastic, small as it may be. I use shampoo bars that come in cardboard boxes, toothpaste tablets (thanks Colgate for finally providing an ALMOST plastic free alternative- still has a plastic lid, but all other alternatives I've found have no fluoride, which I support the use of through scientific research and my own observations), I use reuseable bags and repair things when I can, I use deodorant that is housed in recyclable cardboard (yes, it the same as regular deodorant)) bought at target and it worked 100× better than any other deo I've used) I reuse things and hold on to them until the cost of repairing them is far more than it would be to buy another one. Then I donate the broken electronics to small shops doing repairs in my area in the hope they can reuse for parts. Most businesses I've found are fairly happy to take them, though they admit only a small amount of parts will be able to be reused. I try to educate and persuade the people around me how terrible plastics are, but I can't force anyone to do what so many of us try to do, I can only hope to be a good influence or something. I'm trying so hard but it's almost impossible. I will not, however, stop trying. Ever.
Same. I went to whole foods yesterday to buy beeswax paper to replace plastic baggies and they just had their own brand of plastic baggies 😒 I also am trying to cut down on my use of single use plastics.
@@mechengr1731 Yay! Thank you for trying to save the planet :) I appreciate you.
@@leafyveins4985 I found a brand of silicone bags at IKEA that are similar to Stasher/Zip-top bags. So im going to try those
In Australia, the kerbside "recycling bin" has evolved over the years to become almost twice the size of the standard trash receptacle. Yet, there are so many regulations stating what can be added, such as not placing any containers that have come into contact with food, which is most containers. Recent investigations have found a great deal of recycled matter ends up as landfill. It's a fantastic con-job if ever I've seen one.
That's why a lot of people dont even try
In my county, each house gets at least one brown ~55 gallon plastic trash can on wheels and one green ~55 gallon plastic trash can on wheels. What someone thinks is recyclable goes in the green one and what people think is not recyclable goes in the brown one. The brown one gets rolled to the street one day per week and the green one once per month for pick up
Environmentalists claim to be angels. They actually hold nude parties (with drug-use) in the "Cathedral Forests". I got tricked into going by a professor who said I could get extra credit if I went. I had NO IDEA what to expect. Hundreds of people trampling the earth - so they could have privacy for their nude parties???????
Same here in America
@@josephcontreras8930 that's why you're part of the problem if you don't even try
I had a professor tell me a couple years ago that recycling is a "merely therapeutic act." I see now that he couldn't have been more correct.
I hope everyone in the whole world could see this.
I wish there had been some discussion of EPRs. Extended Producer Responsibility laws switch the responsibility for dealing with waste materials from taxpayers to corporations. Every corporate spokesman said "we need new infrastructure" meaning YOU the taxpayer have to pay for our unwillingness to change. Several states have new EPRs tied up in committee (including New York's S-1185) It's worth investigating and calling congresspeople.
I would glady pay a little more to have things put into glass and waxed cardboard
Yes we need more re usable containers and other alternatives from plastic build up
Tell that to the Republicans in my state (Florida) where they banned a law that would have banned plastic straws.. all because Blonde Barbies find those mushy paper straws “inconvenient”.
Bottled water needs to go into milk carton type packaging. Do know that the wax is petroleum based and may contain more petroleum then the current plastic bottles
yeah right. you can only say that because you have plastic. btw, it wont be a little more.
@@theanimaster i cant believe people like you exist. you guys literally went after the specific item that hurt a turtle in a documentary. lmao. were f'ing doomed.
She is probably one of the few remaining journalists left in this country. God bless her.
we need millions of people to share this
We need to somehow get this message more visible and scenes like this into more households. I think too many people are just simply unaware and buying into the plastic industries lies.
New Respect for Frontline. You did an amazing job, love your interview style, VERY TRUSTWORTHY reporting.
luke lucy Why didn't you respect them before?
hello
P B S Is what it's all about. News hour. No commercial interruptions. Frontline. The truth, no matter what. Nova. More to discover, more to explore. Finding your Roots. We are one... Support your local station. Inform others with what you've seen and heard. Share the truth, not your fabrications.... Lastly, Believe in man's "capacity for goodness, and his potential for greatness". Take good care...
What a slob species we are!
We can only hope we die off before we kill the planet. Looks like we are making headway this year!
I love us, but we are a sorry mess.
I agree with you but those really to blame are the 1% who have controlled the masses for profit. It is not your average working class person who is benefitting from this. Most ppl are just trying to get by while those at the top (in every country in the world) are exploiting the land/animals/people so they can greedily get even more.
Oink oink oink! (Actually pigs are cleaner.)
Three years later and very little has changed. I'm sharing this video with everyone I can. This video shows how manipulative and deliberate the plastics industry was in gaslighting the public to feel solely responsible for plastic pollution. They know that what they produce is unable to be managed properly, but they aren't going to stop making it. There's too much profit in it. And I have to say those interviews with former industry members look like confessions if guilty consciences that knew that " changing the image" of plastic has lead us to the world we live in today.
I am an avid recycler - AVID I tell you and this video is literally a punch in the gut.
AVID
Everything is an eyeblind.
Great documentary. You should check into Hemp based biodegradable plastics. Hemp takes a lot of CO2 out of the atmosphere and Hemp Inc in North Carolina is doing a little with biodegradable plastic. However, there is limited demand which is probably due to people being unfamiliar with Hemp. You could also investigate the reasons why hemp, despite having very low thc, was made illegal by politicians at the urging of big oil. The Congressional - Industrial Complex has caused a lot of problems.
I like this comment. I am so grateful to have access to KZhead and all its info. Hemp is nitrogen fixing, isn't it? With effort, I will find a way to eliminate plastics from my...home.
It's not a Congressional industrial complex. It's just called lobbying. Or corruption.
If there is any actual interest in solving the problem, you add a recovery surcharge to the price of plastic at the source of production and then pay good cash for every cubic meter of plastic recovered from the ocean.
Cradle-to-cradle for plastic. Great idea; must be put to action. But some people are not willing to pay for it. Costly they say.
@Yeng Sabio: "Cradle-to-cradle" isn't possible for plastic. Plastic degrades with each recycle. It's not like steel; you can't keep recycling it.
@@ncooty Recycled plastic isn't the enemy. For that matter, neither is plastic that ends up in landfills. The battle is against plastic that winds up in our oceans.
@Larry Hickey: Not just oceans, but also rivers, land, air (from open burning), wildlife, etc. Currently, there's no viable plan beyond the initial retail consumer. (Waste-to-energy is a less unsustainable option if it's off-setting burning other fossil-based fuels for energy.)
@@lpointmpoint3736 Keep looking more deeply into plastic recycling and you will find that recycling is simply an excuse to make more and more plastic every year. Even in landfills, it can seep into groundwater and ultimately into your food. Plastic production is yet another curve that needs to be flattened.
Every country MUST find and develop an alternative for plastic!!!!!!
In Romania during the communist's era, each family had 1-2 shopping bags made from cotton fabrics and used those bags for couple of years, we put all liquids in glass containers and exchange the empty ones when we bought something in similar container at the shop. We had no bottles thrown in the forest or the river because each bottle costed money. Now we have the nature full of PET bottles because they are so cheap or even free so people don't see the waste of throwing them. Remember the milkman, when we put the empty glass bottles at the door? We all had that in a way or another. I think the problem is not the plastic, it is the way we see things now, containers lost their personalities, the sentimental value. Containers used to be part of our lives, we wash them, take care not to break them, cherish them in a way. May sounds stupid for most of young people, but this is how I see things( I am not 90, I am 40) Now is all throwable or one use only: phones, tv, partners
What was wrong with endlessly reusable glass bottles for all beverages? Of course the bottlers had to bring them back, wash them and reuse them. Certainly a nuisance for the industries. Same thing with cloth diaper services that did not need forests for huggies and likewise presented nothing to feed landfills. Who IS making fortunes off landfills?
I hear that glass isn't being recycled because it's cheaper to make new glass. Same with aluminium.
There's also a issue with colored glass if I remember correctly. Can't be removed so you're stuck with what you have.
Yep. And cardboard cartons for berries, eggs, etc. E-commerce needs to include the packaging materials in their descriptions, even better with options. Packagers, why can you not at least use ONE KIND of plastic, the recyclable stuff
In many instances, the recycling of a material creates more harmful waste/pollutants than said material in it's garbage form or even mined from the earth. It is a capital economy. Nothing happens unless someone is making a profit. Corporations have one goal only that being to make the shareholders money. They could care less about anything else. Sad but definitely true.
i live a quarter mile from the land fills in Niagara falls n.y... they are now mountain's on the edge of our water supply!!
my mom always reuses those plastic containers from grocery stores to store homemade left overs.
I love that she showed her teeth a little at that eco fair. Great reporter. Great reporting. Thank you
it's true though, the marketing campaign has ingratiated our psyche about the advantages of plastics. despite not watching a whole lot of network tv growing up. the tagline, "plastics make it possible" from the ad campaign from the early to mid 90's is still ingrained in my mind and i was thinking about it literally seconds before it was mentioned in this documentary.
Frontline never disappoints. I was trying to go to bed early, oh well! Emmy quality as always.
Exactly. Amazing source of information!!!
We need disposable governments and corporations... when you are done with them, just toss them in the rubbish pile.
1,000% Correct!!! 🤔🤫🤭🤭😆🤣✌🏼
Expendable assets :p
The sad truth is that the corporations consider US disposable.
The plastic and oil companies should be compelled to have a place for all of the products they make
Congratulations on your new achievement, Li from China, manufacturer of low-temperature magnetic waste thermal decomposition device
Any time I’m in Costco their suggestion box will get a note regarding their appalling over-packaging‼️ I really like some of the paper molded clamshells & using an adequate pasta noodle as a straw is a winner. Thanks Frontline, I am recommitted to the cause.
I work at Costco and we're buried under paper complaints.
You're so virtuous. Praise be to Dawn Renee.
Why do i even bother rinsing/cleaning All my plastic containers then take them to the recycle bin every week? Waste of time.
😕😥 so do we stop recycling? I'm making an effort to reduce my plastic consumption already.
OK, who threw away a Bowfinger VHS tape!
Stop buying plastics. Reuse your containers. Bring your own bag for shopping, stainless steel tumblers instead of plastic bottles, paper milk jugs, paper meat wraps. I'm been trying my best to stay away from it but its nearly impossible to completely avoid.
@@bryanjordan8876 yep, I think it's impossible right now :(
The city of Berkeley CA stopped recycling years ago (perhaphs they have went along with it now) because they realized it was a scam and a mental manipulation that encourages ppl to keep consuming. The same goes for "Green Energy" which is another scam that manipulates the masses into thinking you can keep on consuming and you are helping, when the opposite it true. Derrick Jensen and others have shown for decades the only answer is to STOP CONSUMING and de-industrialize if the species/planet is to survive.
Incredible. Thank you for your work here... I'm hoping it changes the world
Concerning Europe (mainly CH, FR and DE) I can confirm that the essential findings and conclusions shown is this (very good) documentary apply here just as well, as of 2021.
Great program. I wish they would have expanded on micro plastics and the damage they are doing. Even IF we were able to reach 100% recycling, micro plastics would still wash out of our synthetic clothes and be released in the recycling process. Micro- and nano-particles of plastics are already showing up on pristine mountain tops and uninhabited lands, and are starting to accumulate in sea life which builds up in the food chain. I wonder what health problems will arise when people end up eating too much plastic?
uuuuuummmmmmmmm, cancer ?
Don worry. If we eat too much plastics, we will become plastic like. So when, we need do plastic surgery, we don hv to pay much as we already very plastic, *"PLASTICS INSIDE"* ‼️😂😂
Oh how horrible and your answer is
Plastic poop
Ex·ter·nal·i·ty ECONOMICS 1. A side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved.
Guilty of wanting bargain cheap things. Guilty of gluttony.
Its is damning that capitalist economics utilizes the term externality. The logic of capitalist economics requires ignorance of the total effects of economic actions. If externalities were considered, the ideology would be unsustainable.
"Generally, turning plastic to diesel process needs two major steps. First is the plastic pyrolysis plant (also called plastic to oil plant) which is mainly used to turn waste plastic into fuel oil, and then through the oil distillation equipment, it can make the fuel oil processed into diesel"
Plastic can be turned back into oil to gas. Ergo-- end of gas crisis! This story is heartbreaking
THESE COMPANIES SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIER FRAUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An eye opening documentary, i literally thought my whole life that the chasing arrows meant that the plastic is recyclable. Very informative, frontline you did a great job
Shared this video with all the eco warriors I know. Thank you for updating the data on the flawed nature of recycling.
correction: flawed nature of PLASTIC recycling, don't lump glass and paper into the same problems plastic has.
@@pika62221 I can't find a glass or paper recycler within 30 miles of my rural MidSouth home. If I bust the glass up I can dump in the creek to eventually grind down to "sea glass" but paper and Kraft board are only good for heating the house in the winter. Only corrugated cardboard without dirt, food debris or oils or waterproofing is acceptable. I can do plastic 1 and 2 and that's about it.
Our local recycling agency always promotes the priorities of actions that deal with waste: 1. Reduce 2. Reuse 3. Recycle. If we only think about #3 and dispose of everything (including packaging) that we buy, recycling will never keep up.
@@jessiec1194 I know someone who does nothing but watch CSPAN all day long. Please share this video with your local eco warriors. 😊
P
What this made me think of: For about one year I lived on the Thames River (US) in the Gales Ferry section of Ledyard, Connecticut. Many mornings, while walking to the bus stop (I was in 7th grade, this was 1977-78) I felt nauseous from the smell in the low-hanging air eminating from the nearby DOW Chemical plant.
An issue with trying to solve the problem with recycling is that plastic can not be recycled forever. The material eventually breaks down because of the stress on it by melting down and reforming. Even if we recycled 100% of plastic, we will always need new plastic because it wears out eventually.
does anyone not remember that we used to use glass bottles for bottled drinks and our own reusable bags for groceries? This behavior has been decommissioned and reconditioned by the plastic/oil companies. My house has been using wicker bags for 2 years now, we still seem to have a plentiful supply of free plastic bags from stores we visit, without even thinking the cashier will shove my glass bottled iced tea into a plastic bag.
used to use reusable bags??? you mean paper bags??
@@hikesteepfishhigh no, cloth/wicker whatever ect...
@coffeeinthemorning were they not heavy then? has our logistical abilities gone backwards? or is it that it's a 100% profit driven idea that doesn't account for anything horrible we do to our ecosystem?
@coffeeinthemorning so you'd trade a broken glass bottle on a sidewalk for plastic in the ocean as it is today?
I say I don’t need a bag every single time I’m at the store and 2 seconds later my stuff is in a bag and they are about to Double Bag it too! When I take the items out of the bag, they go to throw it in the trash! Absolutely Infuriating. Thank God for self checkouts at this point. If I forget my bags, I put everything right back in the cart loose and put it in my car like that. I have bags at home lol. And somehow they look at me like I’m the crazy one.
I'm all for buying the most things I can without a packaging. When I was young, in Brazil, supermarket sold cooking oil by the bottle - you brought your bottle and purchased the oil. Brazil is very good in recycling ... not because of anyone's effort but because a lot of poor people make a living out of it. But then, some people decided to pitch in and the IPT (Institute for Technological Research) developed a way to recycle the aluminum and plastic in the Tetrapak packages (milk cartons) by using plasma to evaporate the plastic turning it into paraffin and melting the aluminum into an extra clean metal. The solution to use packaging as little as possible and recycle the little we use as much as possible.
You are so right, when I was a child no fruit wrap in plastic grapes cherry all fruit you pick. Milk was delivery to the house, with eggs and butter.
This is one of the most incredible videos I have seen, with all the facts that we will never recycle this plastic. I have an aggressive solution if all governments take this seriously. If we circle back, we can see clearly see how the plastic industries lie to us. So the governments impose the ban on sectors ( not the consumers) in a progressive way, like starting with a ban on manufacturing plastic bottles which consume an estimated 30% of all plastic. These multi-billion-dollar industries make innovations to find other ways to manufacture bottles that do not use plastic. There are definitely challenges with a price; however, if we circle back to 30 years ago, plastic-made items were a little expensive. Now the same cheap thing applies to new innovative bottles. Eventually, it applies to all the plastic items we use today. Don't refrain from saying that no innovation replaces plastic use. If scientists thought the same way a few decades ago, no innovation introduced plastic to this planet.
Prior to 1975, those were the most recyclable generations ever.❤ We reused milk and soda glass bottles, paper grocery bags to protect our school text books and trash bags. Now, as for the plastic tubs from the grocery scene in this video, most of us reuse those tubs for left over food containers. Recyclable doesn’t have to mean it goes to some factory, its “REPURPOSING” that is the key. 😊
Repurposing is not enough--not by a long shot
great documentary Thanks PBS & Front line for making me feel like a piece of trash
OK, who threw away a Bowfinger VHS tape!
🤣😂😆
Why do i even bother rinsing/cleaning All my plastic containers then take them to the recycle bin every week? Waste of time.
@@angiecabrera8810 I guess some of it. Some probably helps.
😂😂
Spokesmen who can sound Believable, Earnest, and Honest are always selected for these interviews - note the emphasis on the word 'sound'.
Thanks Laura ❤
This needs to be on Netflix for more people to watch it
KZhead is a free service though. I agree, getting it on the front page of Netflix would give it a lot of views and awareness. But so would If everyone upvoted this video, which would win favor with the youtube algorithm, and put it on people's front page feeds more often. Especially if it made it on the popular part of youtube, overtaking music videos and vloggers (unlikely).
YEAH NO ONE CARES INCLUDING ME I USE PLASTIC STRAWS AND THAN I BURN THEM IN THE PIT
Netflix is the second world's largest polluter after plastic, dont use it.
This world needs more awareness.
Thank you for your support and your voice and video 😮
Grind or shred the plastic. Make a bonding agent that will stick it together. Compress it and use it as a building material for homes, highways, fill material for overpasses, foundations for homes, commercial buildings, etc.
Whenever possible I purchase glass, paper or metal packaging--given a choice, for the crap I buy. Never thought I'd say this but I'm putting all plastics--aside from 2 and 5 chasing triangles--in the trash...The plastics/petrochemical industries rest on lies and pollution. How much time and energy wasted over the years sorting and washing--literally trash. I am revolted.
Isn't #1 easily recycled? #1,2,4 and 5?
All cans are lined with BPA or other bisphenols. Paper milk jugs are also lined with plastic. Freezer paper is also lined with the plastic junk. Americans and the West, are poisoning the Earth.
Cant glass be collected for reuse too
@@johnauner671 I view it like hydra from mcu...he was defeated but his ideas are still in action.
@@morvieous Absolutely, glass is recycled. We should go back to glass. We used it for hundreds of years. We can do it again.
This gives me the biggest anxiety ever.
I just got my period.....and I`m a guy......
wait till you see the one on air pollution.
@@agt462 now you know.
@@Kunfucious577 all of this pollution of any type its just a horrible footprint of consumerism :(
Items I use with zero plastic: -toothpaste tablets -toothbrush -hand soap -deodorant -shampoo -conditioner -dryer sheets -detergent sheets -fabric softener sheets -lip balm -face wash -hand/body lotion -produce bags (reuse the 8000 bags you already have)
An eye openning great documentary on plastic recycling scam. Alternative product with no harmful impact is a must ASAP. Keep up all the good work Frontline PBS!
Look at industrial hemp as a replacement to plastic.
@Judith Wyer: In what way? Making plastics from hemp oil?
They didn't outlaw it because it got us high. Research all the things that can be done with hemp.
Hemp Plastics' durability dramatically decreases in 5 days. It won't compete against traditional plastics.
@ckorpi88ify Growing hemp near Marijuana kills the THC and potency of the marijuana is basically useless. So the marijuana industry doesn't want you growing hemp. The mainstream just thinks hemp and marijuana are the same thing. = vicious cycle ..oh ya you can make concrete blocks and build a house of hemp.
@ckorpi88ify William Randolph Hearst was a major player in making Cannabis/Hemp illegal.He owned huge tracts of forest land/trees that he was going to make newspaper out of.Hemp is a superior fiber and makes far better paper. The way to becoming a zillionaire is destroying/eliminating any competition.I'm sure he had slick lobbyist's and a few senators and congressmen in his back pocket to make it happen.
About last March, I started cleaning and saving every single piece of plastic trash I get and putting it in large bags to recycle, only there is no place to safely do this. It is incredible how much I have so far. I have about 7 very large plastic bags jammed with all this plastic trash in hopes some place here in this country will open a plastics plant like they have in Sweden where they process it into energy without polluting the air. It all moved to my garage it was taking up so much space. It's a real pain cleaning all the meat and food wrappers. I don't think people ever stop to consider how much plastic waste they create. I'd like to dump out all my plastic trash created for one year in one space just to demonstrate how much waste two people make in one year. Now take the amount we made and multiply it by the number of people on earth and then the number of years we have been using plastic for everything. It adds up to trillions of pounds of waste, most of it dumped into the ocean or buried in landfills. No wonder all the animals are going extinct. They say there is now plastic particles inn rain, snow and even in the food we eat now. How will we ever clean it all up? It is piling up even in extremely remote locations riding there on the ocean currents. Indigenous people living on remote islands who don't use plastic are having to deal with our trash. Perhaps we should start doing something about it before all that is left is man and a few cows and chickens all eating synthetic food.
Very interesting idea, to save your "unrecyclable recyclables". Maybe your paper would do a story?
I noticed in my Giant grocery store recently that they have a shelving unit of items packaged in glass that can be brought back for cleaning/re-use. Items included soups and olive oil. Giant is a grocery store chain in the mid Atlantic, people living in that area should check it out!
This is a great documentary - and so much good, original journalism went into it. Thank you for making!! The first person that figures out how to liquefy plastic into reusable chemicals will be an extremely rich person - and our waste will become a profitable resource. Too bad the chemical companies weren't thinking of that too.
Started bawling when the straw made the turtle bleed. 😭 I haven’t used a straw in like 2 years and always use glass stuff.
That poor turtle probably died after that.
@@amywalker7515 Exactly. Which is why they should have euthanized the poor creature to stop its suffering. Instead, they tortured it trying to "fix" the situation.
@@amywalker7515 - Turtles are tough. They've been around longer than humans. I am sure he is fine.
@@americancitizen748And hundreds of billions of animals are killed by our plastic trash. Pretty soon there will be no wildlife, but to be sure we will still be putting everything in single serve plastic containers. We have evolved into a nation of narcissists where nothing matters but our own gratification no matter who or what is harmed .
Taneal Lio, I am so happy you are doing your ecologically insignificant part in the reduce, reuse, recycle initiative!!
Everyt ime we sorted those plastic in bins, we could feel good we were being environmentally friendly. We know we were fed a big lie and we totally ate it all up. And we now know those mixed plastics are dumped in developing countries, where it pollutes the local environment and poisons the locals (Oh, well, as long as it's not in my backyard) And while we are all watching this video, many of us are ordering food delivery from Deliveroo and Grub Hub and buying items on Amazon and ordering grocery delivery from Whole Foods, where your orders are all packed in yet more plastic packaging. We all
SL Ren Yes and all those custom (single meal) deliveries create global warming with all the fuel they burn up
@@GOLDVIOLINbowofdeath alot of those delivery drivers are picking up multiple meals at a time, which technically is better than one person driving to mcdonalds for one meal and driving home... especially if the grubhub driver has a fuel efficient car and the single use person does not. Im not disagreeing with you, jsut saying that in some ways those things can be more efficient than the older way, but not always. the question is, now that we have these delivery drivers at our convenience - is it causing more trips in cars, or less? what is the net emissions impact before and after... i dont know, but science and math is needed to know for sure.
Yeah, we have to try not to buy plastics.
They say - 'where there's a will, there's a way.' However, marketing rules, ergo - 'go as cheap as possible.' We must stop about the now, and, focus where our world will be . . . 20 years from now ! If we don't . . . we'll be multiple times worse, in position to survive . . . in this world !
SL Ren unfortunately. When I realized 2 years ago ( because we witnessed where our “ recycling “ is really going ) I was devastated. Actually to the point that we changed not only our lives entirely, but also started a non profit organization to fight the inflow of single use plastic world wide. I have been doing only this since. And I couldn’t be more thrilled that people start to hear this because I sure have been talking to deaf ears , believe me. We’re based in Brussels Belgium but will tour in the USA soon enough. Usa is the world’s biggest single use plastic user and exports waste under the label 🏷 “ recycled “ in sickening amounts all while pointing at Asia.
The main priority in any company is profit. You thought the recycling was a good intention from the plastic companies but it's just another ploy from them to create more plastics. That's a good presentation of all big companies.
I have seen more than a few fairly low tech options here on YT that don't pollute and use the un-recycleable plastics. The two that really stick out in my mind are making roof tiles and pavers. I don't know if either are viable in colder climates, but it is a start. If I remember correctly the pavers can even use dirty plastic because they mix it with dye and sand and as a paver it doesn't really matter. It doesn't pollute because the temperature used to melt it never gets high enough to start off gassing.
thank you for providing this for free on youtube! i never realized that so little plastic is getting recycled. i wonder how it is here now, in europe..
Probably close to USA. China and such are taking "the world's plastic". Read up and attempt a zero/near-0 waste lifestyle. It has opened my ideas about everything I think of buying. Mindless consumerism and the "it can be 'recycled'" mindset is killing our planet. Everyone should be required to live with just one year of the waste they produce. It would change their minds. There is NO AWAY.
Hemp could replace all the plastic packaging and its strong enough it could even build cars
Moldable fungi too. The oil barons/US Govt will murder every last "hippie" before it happens. Sad reality.
The hemp market is already on the verge of collapse. Here in Kentucky you can't give away this last years yield. We're flooded with the stuff. On top of that of course it was always set up for the big guy. Ten acre minimum. The average farmer isn't capable of that.
Companies which produces plastic won't let it, simple as that. You think they care about the environment? Nope, they care only $$$.
Yea, but how we make money
@@jpmnky That's one of the biggest issues. This government needs to support the little entrepreneurs from being stomped by t.he big corporations and infinite lobbying
Recently where I live, Republic started to pick up our recycle bin with the same truck as general trash, mixing both so I’m speculating that they aren’t recycling at all. We need to overhaul the system, get new materials that will degrade to non toxic and reduce the materials being used. Some small items purchased come in very large packaging.
One thing I can share is that for fruits and vegetables with no packaging in stores. They still use a small plastic bag to put them in. Small reusable see-through bags, which exist. They are crochet like bags. A cashier can still use it to weigh. Plus using your own bags and putting it in a light basket to weigh. So you want to get 6 different fruits and veggies. You get a container in the store for that fruit or veggie. It would fit into the cart.
Wow! This was pretty shocking. I thought--like most I'd bet--that many more things are recyclable than truly are. Amazing how confusing it all is. Throwing on that friendly little triangle with the arrows was part good initiative and part deception which is really too bad.
@Stephanie Logan #7 is "other", it can be any of innumerable plastic compositions or even mixtures of different plastics. In order to recycle the plastics successfully, the material must be homogeneous. Therefore, #7 will likely never be recyclable, and likely wasn't intended to be.
Who is the best team?
More lies
@@ademolaadedeji1852 the Denver Muggetz.
I love this documentary but can you please do a follow up to it on how we SOLVE the problem? I see that recycling is not the answer, but what is? Switch back to packaging everything in glass? How do we make plastic production stop??
It stops with you. Avoid plastic when you can 🤷♂️ the truth is most people dont care so perform your due diligence and leave it at that.
Yes. Vote with your dollar!
please demand change from Federal government and write to corporate institutions
Indeed consumer recycling was a con to make the people think they were doing something positive. It was a lie, fabricated by the plastics industry, to postpone the inevitable for another few decades. This was never a consumer problem, it was always a business\industry problem. *Pass some laws that make recycling the plastic waste the plastic producers' problem, and see how fast they standardize the plastics used for packaging.* See how fast they eliminate the hard-to-recycle plastics (#3-#8) and develop innovative ways of using the most recyclable versions (#1-#2). That's how you solve this problem.
@@Sandlin22 it doesnt stop with ypu. Are you going to stop eating? Buying things? That was the real point here. Pilluting industries keep convincing consumers it's Their responsibility. we can change this by taxing non biodegradeable plastics heavily
Excellent ! I would like to see much more about this & I wish that it was somehow made mandatory that the truth be put out on all media for everyone world wide to see just what is really happening with all this plastic & trash in general !
Great stuff. Thank you for showing us the truth
Wow. Kudos to Chevron Phillips for willing to be interviewed. He was spot on about why Cali's plastic bag ban is a HUGE failure. People give no thought to just paying 10 cents for a bag that is way thicker and much more harmful. They should just ban them outright. Period. You didn't bring a bag? Tough shit.
I thought that California had completely banned plastic bags like Germany?
the plastic bag ban in cali wasn't actually for the reduction of plastic waste. it was for the reduction of street trash. the street trash in california was something like 60% plastic bags from stores. people would just grab handfuls of them in the store and leave whatever they didn't use lying in the parking lot. in the city where i live, it was really bad. they clogged up the street drains and got caught in the sewers and blew up against fences thick enough to cover them. and then they would just sit there forever. plastic bags were literally becoming part of the ground here. _that's_ why those type of bags were banned here. because people here couldn't even be responsible enough not to mess up their own homes and neighborhoods with them. don't let californians trick you into thinking they're "healthy" or "clean." they're oblivious, obnoxious garbage fountains. i'm from detroit, and if someone had told me this before i got here, i'd have assumed they were just bitter, but it's the sorry truth.
@@Prodigious1One Nope! $.10usd each for groceries, excluding some local cities that have complete ban.
Admittedly, my BS-o-meter can be finicky, but it was jumping when i listened to the Chevron guy. But yes, at least they allowed an interview at all..
Why are there so many different kinds of plastic? The salad and blueberries cant be put in the same plastic as recyclable milk jugs or water bottles?
You missed the point of the Frontline story. Recycling simply allows plastic manufacturers to make more plastic every year. It winds up in our landfills, oceans, water, and ultimately our food. Please consider not using any single-use plastic. It is a difficult to do, but worth trying.
Thickness and color differ ⏳
@@carlojones8610 also each plastic is classed by composition of chemicals [some cannot be in foodstuff, but ok for industry, etc. Recycled plastic rope all has different strengths, flexibilities.
Seems like we should be able to house lots of stuff in the same plastic soda bottles are made of. But maybe its more expensive?
Your answer isn't here the answer is on your cities website. They will tell you what is accepted.
In some places they are starting to take old plastic that can't be recycled into roads. Would be great to find the best solutions or replacements for plastic. Great video! thanks
The foundations of our society are made of plastics, we need it.
There is no excuse for all this plastic. I am old enough to remember produce being sold in bulk or bunched in rubber bands - not in plastic bags. Straws made from waxed paper, glass storage for leftovers on & on. Today, I cannot shop for groceries without plastic packaging.
Please take a few minutes to write to your congress or corporate conpanies.
Plastics are cheaper
The phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is ordered that way for a reason. First, reduce the amount of trash you take in; second, reuse the trash you have; then lastly, recycle whatever is left if you must.
There is a wonderful feeling being able to repurpose something bound for the trash. So many useful containers are great for organizing things. What are some popular containers brands you use? and for what?
Trader Joe's packages mushrooms and soup stock in cardboard. I've seen canned tomatoes packaged in cardboard, detergent in cartons, and paper straws. I see no reason why Wholefoods can't do the same. There are so many things we can package in paper, and then we can incinerate it.
7:40 It's not confusion it's deception.
I was in HS in late 70's and after two oil embargoes we were lectured on the wastefulness of oil needed to create plastic. So McDs gets rid of the Styrofoam Big Mac boxes and wraps with wax paper. But somewhere along the line something CHANGED. Go to WM and look at almost EVERYTHING is encased in hard, tough, CLEAR plastic packaging. WTH happened?
And check the dollar store too...
Walmart happened
Wonderful program. This program reinvigorates my personal effort to reduce my purchase of plastic.
I re-use my plastic bags, but I don't know how I can get my groceries in containers that are not made of plastic. Since plastic has such a long shelf life, it seems re-use would be the way to go. On another but similar tangent, I think there needs to be a bigger effort in the way electronics are being disposed of. Right now Ghana has become the dumping ground for discarded phones, computers and other related items.
Im thankful to live in Alaska the last true wilderness, everytime I go to the lower 48 I just cant believe how polluted the rest of the United States is, I cant even breath, its very sad.
Everglades is still clean, so don't hold your breath and posting yourself so high and mighty. There are still plenty of places in the US that has wilderness.
Alaska has no landfills? I doubt it.
@@LadyCoyKoi the culture is polluted
Frontline never disappoints. I was trying to go to bed early, oh well! Emmy quality as always.
I agree. I'm from Illinois. I've lived my whole life in "The Prairie State" and always wondered where the prairies were. I only saw a prairie for the first time in 2020. The woodland that we have here is all in ravines(most of the flat-ish land has been built on or used for farming), so growing up they weren't really a great option to play. I wish we had more nature. Its been getting slightly better in recent years though. Theres a former golf course that's been turned into a big park and the park service is replanting a lot of it with native plants.
Thank you frontline. Great documentary.
And the whole ban on the thin plastic bags has already backfired as a study in California found that the newer thicker plastic bags, that can be reused and that are charged for at checkout, now has created more waste than before the ban. The bags weighs more than the old ones and by weight we now have more discarded and littered plastic
Informative documentary ! Beautiful Reporter !
The only thing that has been recycled is a manufactured consent. “It was manufactured.”
Rob Fila 🤯
the problem is easy to solve but we love our comfort....
When we pay the real cost of that comfort, we might decide to change.
That...and the business market loves cheap materials.
If real options were viable for many people then maybe, but don't try to pin this on the consumer like corperations like todo, this is failure to take responbility for the damage their products create.
No we didn't love our comfort. We were taught to love our comfort.
@@TN-br9yl Ya'll speaking like people were better off living in caves. This mentality that "its easy to solve but we love our comfort" is dumb. Like we could "easily"solve the million so deaths a year from car accidents if everyone all stopped driving... doesnt mean its easy...
If you look at the percentage of all waste materials that get recycled, you will be amazed and appalled. Aluminum, 35%. Glass, 31%. Steel, 71%. Paper, 68%. Plastics, 9%.
These companies making all the plastics should be liable for the clean disposal and or recycling of the plastics. Whether it be profitable or not. They should adjust their profit margin to account for the clean disposal and or recycling of the plastics after consumption.