Original subtitles

This story begins with a single plastic bag

to carry home a single container of peach yogurt

Once I got home I shoved the bag

in with all the other bags next to another bag full of other bags

And I never really thought about it

Maybe I tried NOT to think about it

I mean I�m an average guy I�m not what you�d consider a tree-hugger

I try to be informed. I try to do the right thing but I find

that it can be a bit overwhelming at times

I live in a small town in Colorado

and it wasn�t until my town challenged another town

a few hours away to see who could reduce

their use of plastic bags the most that

I first started to think about plastic bags and what we do with them

I mean we all have a lot of bags right

Everybody does the same thing

We collect them, we shove them anywhere they�ll go

like under the sink, into closets, junk drawers

We throw a pile away every now and then just to be done with them

because they're disposable, right?

They were created to be thrown away

But let�s face it: there�s a dirty little secret here

even if we won�t admit it

Just because plastic is disposable

doesn�t mean it just goes away

After all, where is away?

There is no away

It actually sticks around for a really long time

That got me thinking about all the endless products made of plastic

A lot of them designed to be used for less than one day

Heck, less than fifteen minutes even

Once I began looking around

pretty much everything seemed to be made of plastic

Could all this plastic in my life maybe be bad for me?

So I started looking into it

The fact that it is everywhere

The way it doesn�t go away

The way it pollutes

the way it flies and floats and drifts

and clogs and entangles

The way it gets into things so big and so small

the way we can't escape it anymore

the way, eventually, we may not have any recourse

we'll all just simply all have to stand up and say

Bag It

You know that thing when you learn something for the first time

and then it starts popping up everywhere?

Like, you meet someone for the first time

and everywhere you go there�s that person

That was what it was like for me with plastic bags

They were everywhere

Let me just say this

first of all:

Plastic is an incredible material

It�s lightweight, it�s moldable,

durable, versatile, inexpensive

You can do amazing things with plastic

In the 1960's, the idea of plastic being the wave

of the future seemed like a bit of a joke

I just want to say one word to you

Just one word

Are you listening?

Yes, I am.

Plastics.

Exactly how do you mean?

There�s a great future in plastics.

In retrospect, this scene seems less like a joke and more like a prophecy

We were fed the concept of disposable living

Life would be easier and more convenient

Why do the dishes when you can just throw them away?

Plastic is an incredibly valuable resource

It�s something that really has a purpose in this society

and it needs to be used for that purpose

Petroleum is way too scarce and way too important

to us to be thrown away as a plastic bag.

Plastic bags are made of polyethylene

which is a polymer made of ethylene monomers

which is made from

well, actually, what they�re made from is a really good question

The United States uses, you know, roughly

estimates are about 100 billion plastic bags per year

It takes about 12 million barrels of oil.

In North American because we have an abundant supply of natural gas

they�re predominantly made out of natural gas

The key feedstock for making plastics is petroleum

In North America we don�t use oil, we use natural gas.

Plastic bags

are made of polyethylene

The building block is oil.

The bottom line is, they�re made from fossil fuels

which are non-renewable resources

That means, once they�re are gone, there isn�t any more.

And in this very short amount of time

we�re up to consuming about a million a minute

World plastic bag consumption is estimated

at about 500 billion bags per year.

So how do we learn how to shop

like our grandparents did?

I mean we haven�t always had plastic. Right?

What if we shopped using our bags over and over

you know, old school?

Some say that plastic bags have been singled out

that they have become an easy target

That there are much bigger

environmental issues out there

So why pick on plastic bags?

It would be great to come up with

the real cost of a plastic bag

because that is the number one consumer item in the world

We are not going to use those little plastic produce bags

We have our own bags

Here we go.

Here we go.

I�m going to use my own bag

for some deluxe salted nuts

There we go

Anne is the creative director at a newspaper

Thankfully, she�s pretty much on board for all of this

Plastic bags are being banned around the world

From New Delhi India and Bangladesh

where bags were clogging storm drains

and were contributing to severe floods

to the kingdom of Bhutan

where bags were banned to better foster

gross national happiness

In 2008, China banned ultra-thin plastic bags

It�s estimated that in the first year

it eliminated 40 billion

In May of 2009

the state of South Australia banned plastic bags

hoping to set an example for the rest of the nation

Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Zanzibar

and South Africa have all banned ultra- thin plastic bags

Many countries and cities in Europe

have either banned

or placed fees on plastic bags

Ireland placed a fee on plastic bags

and reportedly reduced consumption 90 percent in the first year

What�s the policy on plastic bags?

Like plastic carry-away bags

They�re 22 cents each.

22 cents?

Yeah.

Okay.

It�s the government�s policy, it�s not actually the shop policy

Is that all of Ireland?

Do you find that most people

do most people not take them?

Do they bring their own bag?

Yeah, most people won�t take them.

How fast did you see a difference from when the tax went in?

It was instant. It was an overnight success as a campaign.

If you want to find out

what the people really think in Ireland

there�s only one place to go

to the pub.

Plastic bags in the bushes

plastic bags in the rivers

plastic bags in the canals

plastic bags everywhere.

Yeah, it has cleaned up the countryside an awful lot.

A pint of Guinness doesn�t come in plastic

Slancha

In England, the village of Modbury became Europe�s first plastic bag free town

when the local merchants got together

and decided to voluntarily do something to help protect

their coastal environment.

We live 4 miles from some of the most beautiful coastline in the UK

You know, what legacy are we leaving

It�s really not to be quite selfish for the moment

and to think about the next generations to come.

In environmental news

a top UN official is urging a global ban

on plastic bags

in part because

plastic is the most pervasive form of ocean litter

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the U.N Environment Program

said quote �Single use plastic bags

which choke marine life

should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere

There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere

So what are we doing here at home?

Thirty rural communities in Alaska have banned plastic bags completely

In June of �09, Washington DC became the first US city

to place a fee on plastic bags.

California has been at the forefront of the plastic bag debate

San Francisco becomes the first city in the nation to ban plastic bags.

In San Francisco, those ubiquitous plastic shopping bags

have been ordered to Get out of town

People think San Francisco is a bunch of crazy radicals

We didn�t want to pursue a ban

So we tried for a year

to move forward with a fee

We thought that�s the most progressive way to do it

it�s the fairest way to do it

If you don�t use bags, you don�t pay

But the plastic bag lobby of the American Chemistry Council

quietly pushed through a law

prohibiting charging fees for plastic bags

anywhere in the state of California

The plastic bag lobby basically

pushed us into a corner through

strong arm tactics, back door deals in Sacramento

with our legislature

We had no option

The predictions from the plastic industry was

doom and gloom

You know, San Francisco will grind to an absolute halt

How can they live without plastic bags?

In the two years since we�ve had it in place

not one single complaint in our office, not one.

After San Francisco, other towns in California tried to pass their own bans

The American Chemistry Council�s and other pro-plastic groups� response?

Was to sue

They claimed

it would just make people use paper bags instead

which would be even worse for the environment.

Even though city governments are being fought every step of the way

a lot of retailers have decided to take matters into their own hands.

At Costo and Sam�s Club

people have never been given bags

On earth day of 2008

Whole Foods became the first U.S. Supermarket

to completely do away with plastic bags

It�s paper versus plastic

And what do you do?

And I guess tote bags are the thing.

That�s what I�ve heard on the streets.

You could get a nice tote to go with your sweaters

Yeah well you know once I get my Bedazzler

I could you know...

Oftentimes the plastics industry

will say when you�re making the choice between paper of plastic

plastic is the better choice environmentally

Plastic is very lightweight

It takes fewer fossil fuels to transport plastic

So what�s left out of the equation

very conveniently is

what happens to our plastic

when it winds up into the ocean

If that were quantified

and if that became part of the analysis

there would be no contest

The eternal question: paper or plastic

How did San Francisco justify using paper?

The paper bags in San Francisco

many of them are 100% recycled content

and that means that no new trees are being cut down

Paper bags are being recycled at least ten times

more than plastic bags are being recycled

That significantly changes their environmental impact

So I think we have to really watch out for

the lobbying efforts of the American Chemistry Council

and other plastics industry

They�re really trying to protect their market share and their profits

That�s the bottom line

So who is the American Chemistry Council, anyway?

Well, the American Chemistry Council, otherwise known as the ACC

with over 130 member corporations

basically protects the interest of plastics and chemicals

One of the ACC�s branches is the Progressive Bag Affiliates

and the Progressive Bag Affiliates

has formed groups with friendly names like the Coalition

to Support Plastic Bag Recycling

And then there�s Save the Plastic Bag...

you know, like Save the Rainforest

or Save the Panda, or Save the Manatee

Yeah, Save the Plastic Bag

Just reading our e-mails from the plastic industry

So far, this many people have agreed to be in the film

If we�re going to be more than one-sided

we need to hear from more than one side

and if one side won�t talk to us... kind of problematic

Ooh, ooh, no bag, no bag

Thanks. I didn�t bring a bag but...

Would you like a bag?

No, no, no. Thanks.

I�m going to do it commando style

Alright!

You don�t even need a bag for your produce

Did you know that?

Yeah.

Yeah. I like my lettuce loose... like my ladies!

Are you sure you don�t need a bag?

We�ve got bags on sale for 99 cents.

I got it covered. I got it covered. I can do it. I can do this. Oh thank you. K.

Thank you so much. Have a good day.

People kept referring to plastic bags

as this thing called a single- use disposable

Single-use disposable plastic

Think about it

Why would you make something

that you�re going to use for a few minutes

out of a material

that�s basically going to last forever

and you�re just going to throw it away?

What�s up with that?

From things like yogurt containers, yogurt tubes

plastic forks, plastic spoons

don�t even get me started on Snackables

stackables, Lunchables

pizza on a cookie

to- go containers

all kinds of packaging created to be ripped off then tossed off

sandwich bags, snack bags, candy wrappers

drinking straws...

and of course, the big three

the three things that we Americans love to use and throw away the most.

Bags, bottles, and cups.

So I just went into a very well known coffee chain

Which will remain nameless

Let�s just say that it rhymes with �Marbucks.�

And everybody�s sitting around drinking coffees

and lattes, and chais,

and soy mochas

and everybody has a to-go cup

The to-go cup is for things to go

Which, uh, coincidentally has a little lining on the inside made out of plastic

Did you know that?

Your cardboard coffee cup has a lining made out of plastic?

Let�s take a disposable, single-use coffee cup, of which we use 300 million a day

You drink the coffee in 10, 20 minutes.

If it�s a Styrofoam package, that package is going

to be around longer than the statue of David.

Now, we�re being convinced by marketing geniuses

that we�re supposed to use to go cups... in our own homes!

So we just found out some very exciting news

Yes

Didn�t we?

Yes, we did

We�re going to have a baby.

We�re having a baby.

We�re having a baby!

Well I�m a little freaked out

Yeah, well, so am I.

You are? Yeah. OK. Good.

And excited

And excited

And excited

Yup. Better clean this place up. Pink... or blue?

How about yellow or green?

Green!

OK, let me just clarify something: when I said I was freaked out,

I am freaked out, but not in a bad way.

I�m very excited about having a baby

But I�m also freaked out about this whole plastics issue.

You know, how it's going to affect our baby. Our baby's health... I gotta find out more.

Why should we make a cup or a piece of cutlery

that you gonna be using for five minutes,

why should we make it out of a drop of oil that takes 70 million years to make?

It�s not making sense

In 1970, the United States was one of the largest exporters of oil.

And here we are in 2008, and we are the largest importer of oil.

The sheer numbers of packaging that we�re each individually responsible for are staggering

The average American contributes 800 pounds of packaging

to the waste stream per person per year

This is packaging rage, an affliction suffered daily by millions.

Think about how ridiculous it�s become

We package everything in plastic

Even things that are already perfectly packaged by nature come packaged in plastic

We package paper in plastic

We even package plastic in plastic

One single-use disposal item we can definitely avoid is disposable diapers

It says �Buy cloth diapers instead of disposables and save up to $1,200.�

That�s good. That�s the diaper right there?

It�s beautiful

It�s very stylish

It�s very stylish.

It also says reusable cloth diapers prevent up to one ton of landfill waste.

So you don�t have to throw them away

You don�t throw them away

That�s good.

You wash them

Alright. I�m in.

I�ve done several images on single use disposable plastics.

One of them is an image of 60,000 plastic bags,

which is the number of plastic bags, sacks, and wraps

consumed in the United States every 5 seconds

Plastic water bottles

That to me is another one of the most insane things in our world right now.

There are 1.2 billion people -- almost 20 percent of the world�s population --

who lack access to safe drinking water on a daily basis.

And at the same time as that is happening,

we�re spending untold amounts of money and resources shipping tap water from Fiji to Miami,

Bottled water has now surpassed sales of beer and milk

and analysts think that within three years it may surpass soda sales

We go through the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil making the

bottles that are used in the United States each year

Making those bottles generates two and a half million tons of carbon dioxide.

They had hundreds of millions of dollars to spend telling us to drink more water.

They used celebrities and models and used athletes so that their product was linked with wellness.

Utilities don�t have millions of dollars hanging around in their budgets to spend on advertisements saying

"Drink from your sink;" you know,

And so the category grew and grew, and in 2008,

What is plastic made out of? Do you know?

Not really. No

I have no idea what the chemical compound is

Plastic is made of... plastic

Plastic is made of Yellow Dye No. 5

It turns out one of the biggest environmental consequences

of making bottled water is making the plastic that makes up the bottle.

If you were to fill any bottle about 25 percent of the way up with petroleum

that�s the amount of oil required the make the bottle itself

But that�s not the whole story

On top of it, we then have to transport it

If you�re moving it a long way, it requires a lot more energy,

maybe as much as another quarter.

It would be nice if people started to think of

buying single use bottled water like driving a Hummer.

Because it�s basically what it is.

They don�t necessarily do it this way in the rest of the world

Enter Germany, home of the bratwurst, Beethoven, BMW and Oktoberfest oompah bands

They also take the recycling of plastics very seriously.

I basically collect all the plastic bottles, and just carry them to the supermarket,

and you put them into this machine and you get a receipt back and with this receipt it�s worth money.

This bottle is getting used a couple of times

As you can see there are like the little marks on it which says how often this bottle is in this recycling circle.

And this one is 22nd times.

They�re getting cleaned, refilled, relabeled and coming back into the circle.

So this is all the plastic that I collected this year so far

This is Beth Terry

Two years ago she decided to stop using plastic altogether,

and whatever plastic she can't avoid, she saves

These are like used spaghetti sauce jars

And so I just take them with me to the store. So there�s sugar that I can get in bulk... and lentils.

I stopped using plastic bags because I just... hate them

But Michael is a real conservation, use-what-you-have kind of person,

so he washes out the plastic bags that we already have.

This is our bathroom

The easiest thing in the bathroom is just not to use liquid soap

You know. So we use bar soap

Beth uses an antique all-metal razor

She swears by it.

- You need three blades, you know why? - But you don�t

Because the first blade pulls the hair out, and then the second blade pulls it out a little more and smacks it around

You�re a product of marketing!

When I was growing up, we didn�t have bottled water

I mean, people made jokes about Evian being �naive� spelled backwards

I think that, for me, it was the idea of harming other living creatures

and other people and harming the planet.

That�s what really woke me up.

Making changes in your own life gives you a sense of ownership

It makes you feel like We�ve got to do so much more

I�ve got to talk to other people

I�ve got to talk to my representatives.

I�ve got to start writing to companies

I�ve really got to up my game

But I think it starts on the individual level.

When we started our film, Seattle�s City Council had already approved legislation

placing a fee on disposable plastic and paper bags;

They dropped $200,000 into a campaign to get signatures to put the ordinance on the ballot

By August of 2009, the ACC had upped their spending to 1.4 Million dollars

So why would the plastics industry spend over a million dollars fighting a bag tax in Seattle?

Well, it�s not all about Seattle. They worry about other cities and want to get the message out fast.

I feel a real responsibility as an American to stand up to these American corporations and say,

I�m angry. They have no business being here: I want their hands off Seattle!

So, I just want to say that we took on the most powerful industry in the country

So, I think we won.

Thank you so much for everything you�ve done

Keep on the good fight

Every time we go and we buy something,

we decide who we give our money to

This machine can stop as soon as we decide to say

�No. I do not want that plastic bag

I do not want to buy your stuff and throw it away.�

So here�s a recap of the basics

The way I see it: Bring your own bag

Bring your own coffee cup.

Bring your own water bottle.

Oh and bring your own brain

Consider less packaging

Go single-use free for a single day

Start there

Become aware of your habits.

It�s not as easy as you think

But guess what?

It makes you think!

Ice cream doesn�t come in plastic

So, it seems like in this society, we like to consume

And a lot of the stuff that we like to consume is made of plastic or it comes in plastic

But once we�re done with that, where does it go?

We put out garbage at the end of the driveway

and the sanitation crew comes and picks it up and it goes away

Where�s away?

You know?

There is no away!

If you can imagine Yankee stadium, as a Tupperware container

We fill it three times a day with garbage here in New York City

And certainly a huge amount of it is also plastics.

Here we are in New York City

I�ve got my man purse. OK?

Something. Oooh, look at that. Oh sorry. Yeah, see that thing?

Look at that

Okay, that is not wildlife, people. Okay?

That is not nature. That�s a plastic bag

It�s a bit of a workout to chase them around.

I don�t have to go to the gym now.

If I just say �plastic bags,� to you, �in New York.� What do you say?

We use them,

They�re a convenience for a couple of minutes, a couple of hours,

and they remain an environmental burden for hundreds of years.

One of the biggest problems in the city is that we use about a billion plastic bags a year

People joke that the New York City flower is a plastic bag stuck in a tree.

That�s a bad emblem.

Hi, welcome to Wendy�s, what can I get for you today?

Um, I have a question for you

I�m trying not to use packaging and I brought my own plate and my own cup.

Is it possible to get it served on my own plate?

Hold on one second

Thanks

We cannot put it on ourselves, but we can give it to you and you can put in on though

Me taking their food out of their packaging and putting it on my own plate,

sort of defeated the whole purpose.

So, I decided to try Taco Bell.

I�m sorry, sir, we can�t do that.

That�s called cross contamination, and we can�t take anything from the outside in.

Oh. Are you able to put a soda in my own glass?

Cross contamination. Okay!

It�s not exactly true they can�t take anything through the window.

They�re fine taking our cross- contaminated money

I'm sorry you can't film here, ma'am!

There�s no ah-haa moment, it�s just sort of hacking away at it little by little

And that�s how you can go a year and end up with 32 pounds of garbage

Okay, I get this whole concept of using less and producing less waste,

but with plastic packaging, can't we just recycle it?

I spend a lot of time in my book asking �Is recycling doing any good?

Is it worthwhile, should we continue to do it?�

And the short answer is a resounding �Yes, yes, yes.�

It saves enormous amounts of energy to make new goods from old goods

instead of continually pulling raw materials from the earth,

and transforming them, transporting them, and then

sending them on this one way trip to the landfill.

For every barrel of waste we put on the curb,

there are 71 barrels of waste generated upstream

in making all these consumer goods.

And every time we recycle whatever we can,

we�re chipping away at those 71 barrels upstream.

This stuff isn�t recyclable-

It�s recyclable.

ANNE No, it�s not.

That�s recyclable.

No, it�s not.

You put it all in there and they�ll figure it out.

There, there�s the thing.

See? Recycle.

Why would they put that on if you can�t recycle it?

Right. Okay.

I�ll do it.

Thank you.

You shouldn�t be carrying stuff.

No, you shouldn�t.

I thoroughly believe people are recycling because they think it�s the right thing to do

As soon as they get rid of it, into that container, they never think about it any more

I don�t even think they know where it goes after it leaves our site

I don�t know where it goes after it leaves this site!

I think it could be a feel-good thing for people.

I have such a love-hate relationship with recycling.

Because I love recycling in that it�s sort of an on-ramp

or a gateway drug to bigger, better environmental activism.

But what I hate about it is it lulls people into thinking that they�re making a difference.

You know, you buy this thing, you know that it�s overpackaged.

But at least you can recycle it. You put it in that blue bin and it�s like Ahhhhhh.

This is recycling arrows

Yeah

It�s a chasing arrow

So most people would assume that means, �Hey I can recycle that.�

Yeah, that was brilliant marketing on the American Chemistry Council

and the American Plastic Council�s part.

They use that chasing arrow to make us all think that it�s all recyclable.

Turns out, there�s no regulation with the recycling symbol.

We�ve been duped into believing that all these products are getting recycled.

The truth is that really only a few of those numbers, 1 and 2, are highly recycled.

Those other numbers are going straight to the landfill or the incinerator.

Okay I�ve seen these numbers on the bottom of plastic before,

and I always wondered what they meant...

And now the society of plastics industry coding system:

Number 1: polyethylene terephthalate

Number 2: high density polyethylene

Number 3: polyvinylchloride

Number 4: low density polyethylene

Number 5: polypropylene

Number 6: polystyrene

And number 7?

Other!

I was feeling pretty confused as to which plastics could and couldn�t be recycled

So I decided to put on a recycling challenge,

in order to find out if other people were as confused as I was.

I recycle, so I think I know things that should be recycled.

Here�s your recycling bin. Here�s your trash can

Aaaand, Go

Well, guess what.

It turns out that everyone was pretty much as confused as I was.

Especially the bagpiper.

For those of you looking for an easy answer, there isn�t one.

Every municipality across the country has different guidelines

as to what they do and don�t accept.

With a lid, you can�t. My wife taught me that one.

Good, good, good.

Do you recycle these?

Well, I�d be giving it away wouldn�t I?

Yeah, you�re pretty sharp.

The most common items taken are Number 1 and Number 2, but only the bottles.

Currently in the U.S., recycled plastic bottles are not made back into new bottles

but are downcycled into products that can not then be recycled.

So they tend to get just one more life.

Unlike an aluminum can or a glass container that can theoretically be recycled forever.

The plastics industry, they like to buy, fresh out of the refineries,

plastic pellets that they can turn into really clean high grade material;

so they don�t really even want the recycled content back.

Their only incentive in promoting recycling

is to be able justify to the consumer that this product is good.

If they don�t want it, where does it go?

Well, as a matter of fact, a lot of our plastic goes to Asia.

Shiploads of our plastic garbage is going over there.

And the reason it�s going over there is it�s yucky to reprocess it.

It�s technically impossible to really recycle it.

It�s dirty and stinky and gross and we don�t want that stuff here.

What they do is they take it into a big yard and they pop it open

open and they have people working under very low wages

with very bad working conditions,

and they will cherry pick out the things that they can melt down and do something with.

But the human rights and labor issues related with that

the toxicity issues of some of the open plastic melting that they do

-- to me those do not fit in a recycling model.

Recycling can�t do everything for us.

It�s more important to reduce what we consume

and to reuse things that have already been made.

But even more important is this fourth R, which comes ahead of these three.

And it�s Redesign: redesigning goods to last longer,

to contain fewer toxins, and to be easier to take apart and rebuild or repair.

Michael Braungart is a German chemist well known for his cradle to cradle concept.

So you define everything no longer from cradle to grave but from cradle to cradle.

So you always plan the next life of a product in it.

We have this idea that our worth as a nation is based on gross national product.

And that consumption and a high standard of living equals happiness.

The number one thing that makes people happy is the strength of our social relations.

If we stop putting so much of our life energy into getting more and more and more stuff

we take it out of that system

and we plug it into our communities and families and friends,

not only do we create less waste, but we actually have more fun.

Buy less stuff, that is the simplest thing that I can say to people.

How about not using something that needs to be disposed of or dealt with in the first place?

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

If you don�t need it, don�t buy it.

We think of a lot of plastic products as being cheap and disposable.

If it breaks, no problem, just get another one.

But here�s the thing: disposable plastic isn�t really that cheap.

Someone has to pay.

Whether it�s the cost of making it, transporting it, or the cost of throwing it �away.�

And how about the unquantifiable amount it costs

when plastics end up loose in the environment?

who pays for that?

So I recently found out that there is all this trash sitting in the middle of the ocean.

And a lot of this trash is plastic.

And, my first thought was, well, alright, but that�s...

I didn�t do that.

Where does that trash come from?

Trash gets loose on the land, it blows into a river,

and the trash goes into the ocean.

So, that is our plastic out there.

And there�s a lot of it.

People ask me: Why should I care about the ocean?

It seems so obvious.

The ocean is the cornerstone of earth�s life support system.

It shapes climate and weather; it holds most of life on earth.

Ninety-seven percent of earth�s water is there.

It�s the blue heart of the planet.

We should take care of our heart.

It�s what makes life possible for us.

We still have a really good chance to make things better than they are.

They won�t get better unless we take the action

-- and inspire others to do the same thing.

No one is without power.

Everybody has the capacity to do something.

How bad is the situation with plastic in the ocean?

I think it�s bad because it�s unnecessary.

It doesn�t have the be there.

There are clear environmental consequences in terms of that we know

that over 260 species that are affected by plastic debris,

through entanglements and ingestion.

So just based on the statistics of production,

how we�ve gone from half a million tons of plastic per year produced

in the 1950's to over 260 million tons today.

To put that into context, okay

-- the first decade of this century, by 2010,

will have produced more plastic than the whole of the century that preceded.

And most of that material is going to make throwaway items

that are then ending up in landfill or the ocean.

Eighty percent of all marine debris actually starts from a land-based source.

All drains do lead to the ocean.

We dump things.

They end up going down a storm drain or into a wetland,

going down streams and rivers, straight into the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.

It�s estimated that about six million pieces of litter enter the oceans

every day and that the majority of this is plastic.

Camillo Beach has a very white sand look,

and it�s not really sand at all,

it�s mostly white plastic covering the beach,

sometimes up to a foot thick of plastic pieces.

Wait a second. This is Hawaii?

I�ve seen pictures of Hawaii. Hawaii is beautiful.

This is not what a beach in Hawaii is supposed to look like.

There�s just far too much of it in our ocean right now,

and what is washing up on our beaches is a small indication of what�s really out there.

Mainly what we find are fragments of plastic.

Stuff like this.

And all this debris is coming from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre,

or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

There are actually five major �gyres� --

swirling systems of currents in our oceans.

One in the Indian Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean and two in the Pacific Ocean.

The gyre that has been studied the most is the North Pacific Subtropical gyre

-- otherwise known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Estimated to be anywhere from twice the size of Texas

to the size of the entire United States.

Debris of all kinds floats into this gyre and there it stays.

Swirling.

Now the problem is that when this debris is made of plastic,

it doesn�t biodegrade, it photodegrades.

That means that sunlight breaks it down into smaller and smaller pieces,

which marine life can mistake for food.

So what exactly does this garbage patch look like?

We went to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation for some answers.

They have spent over a decade studying plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

It�s not a floating island of trash that can be cleaned up or scooped out.

It�s way worse than that.

It�s tons of little bits of plastic floating under water,

like a plastic soup.

It�s our thickest sample yet.

We�ve been finding more plastic by weight than plankton.

And the ratio keeps going up. That�s our concern.

Over the years, they have seen in their trawls through the Patch,

plastic-to-plankton ratios that have gone from six-to-one to as high as forty-to-one.

What that means is that in some parts of the ocean,

there is now 40 times more plastic than food.

No bueno. (No good)

To raise awareness about plastic in our oceans,

Dr. Marcus Eriksen and a fellow scientist

decided to set sail across the pacific on a boat made of plastic.

Hi!

Hi Dr. Eriksen. Why exactly are you making this trip?

The point is to get the nation talking about

how do we end the age of disposable plastics.

We need to end this mass consumption of single- use plastic materials.

So the idea here is to sail from California to Oahu

on a boat made of 15,000 recycled plastic bottles, correct?

Exactly. And those bottles are held together by derelict fishing nets.

It�s name is Junk, because it�s made of junk.

What has to happen is a global recognition

that disposable plastics have no place in our environment.

According to Dr. Eriksen, the plastic in the ocean is carrying toxins at high concentrations.

Animals are then eating the plastic fragments.

They think it�s food.

They just open up their mouths and take a big gulp.

What amounts to a big gulp of Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POP�s.

These are chemicals and toxins -- like DDT, DDE and PCB�s among others

-- that latch onto plastics and become super- concentrated.

The plastic acts like a sponge!

And then when the plastics are mistakenly eaten by marine life,

the toxic chemicals go with them.

When you eat a large fish like a swordfish,

it might be the fifth step in the food chain

because it�s eaten a smaller fish that ate smaller fish

and they ate zooplankton and eventually they ate phytoplankton;

and at every step you�re getting a multiplication factor of ten times

or a hundred times or even a thousand times those chemicals.

And the plastics are facilitating this:

they sort of sop up the toxic chemicals and concentrate them in their flesh

so that we can end up eating them on our dinner plates.

This is Midway Atoll, a tiny speck of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

where plastic is having a direct impact on the fate of the Laysan albatross.

Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is home to the largest albatross colony in the world.

These birds are fantastic flyers, they forage throughout the Pacific,

but because they forage so far,

they're really good indicators of the health of the Pacific

and what's happening out there.

In the 1950s when people looked at dead albatross at Midway,

they didn't see any plastic at all; and it wasn't until the '60s

that we started to see in at Midway and in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Every dead bird at Midway has plastic in them.

So this is kind of the extreme:

plastic everywhere and very little food.

Nineteen caps of some sort,

and then of the 19, there were about 14 bottle caps.

The plastic they use for the top isn�t recyclable right now --

so maybe that�s one of the reasons why you find so many plastic tops around.

The albatross that are surrounding us here today

face numerous threats over the course of their life,

to successfully come back here and

have chicks of their own

They�ve got to fly hundreds of miles to find food;

they�ve got to survive for several years at sea;

and the plastics in the ecosystem are just

another hurdle in that path to come back here.

All the plastic that you see here was brought to the island by an adult albatross and fed to a chick.

We can calculate how much plastic is brought to Midway each year by the adult albatross

and it comes out to be five tons of plastic.

That�s every year. Five tons.

What�s happening to Midway will soon be happening around the globe

unless we change the way that we operate as a people.

And he totally agrees.

He thinks that was very well stated. I know.

It�s not just albatross that are feeling the effects of plastic in the oceans.

Over 260 marine species are being impacted by plastic,

either through ingestion or entanglement.

This 26 foot long Bride�s whale was stranded on a beach in Australia and died.

It was found that the whale�s stomach was packed with over 19 square feet of plastic.

In fact, it is estimated that plastic kills 100,000 marine animals each year.

Just about every big animal in the ocean is down 90 percent.

Animals aren�t going to be fine unless we figure out how to help them.

But imagine if every morning your breakfast was a bowl of cereal

and half the stuff in the bowl was little Styrofoam balls and half of it was cereal.

In some parts of the ocean, there�s enough plastic out there that animals are eating a lot of it.

And it�s not good.

Sea turtles are fascinating animals that have been on our planet since the time of the dinosaurs,

but now all sea turtle species in U.S. waters are listed as

threatened of endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

They just eat what�s out there.

And, not that long ago, everything that they would find was edible, or at least biodegradable.

If you could envision what a plastic bag would look like floating in the ocean,

it looks like a jellyfish;

and many sea turtle species eat jellyfish.

Ach, it�s another No. From the plastics industry.

To be interviewed in our film.

So far, everybody from the plastics industry has declined to be in our film.

Even the ones that we interviewed.

See Jeb, this marine debris issue is way overblown.

To say that �Oh, we cut open a dead animal and

we found a bunch of plastic fragments in it

therefore the animal died because of plastic?�

How do we know that the animal wasn�t sick and dying

and that it just ate a bunch of plastic at the end of its life

because it was sick and dying?

Did they do a toxicology autopsy on them?

No, they don�t do that on animals, they do that on people.

When scientists are conducting necropsies,

which are animal autopsies,

they�re finding that sea turtles� stomachs are full of tiny little pieces of plastic.

Some sea turtle species like the Pacific leatherback,

it�s estimated that they could go extinct within the next couple of decades.

We�re really in a position where every dead sea turtle counts,

and we need to do whatever we can to keep them alive

and to recover healthy sea turtle populations.

Here�s a question I�ve got...

When did they start doing this?

On milk... and juice.

It�s supposed to open like this.

I don�t get it.

There�s really no cleaning it up.

I�ve heard the scenario that to clean up the North Pacific Gyre,

it would be akin to vacuuming the entire continental United States three times over.

That�s a monumental task.

So we�re stuck with that plastic in the ocean as it is.

Although there�s no real way to clean all this plastic out of the ocean,

some people are at least trying.

We�ve been here for approximately two weeks now on our marine debris trip.

We do this every year in conjunction with NOAA.

We brought two cargo containers because that�s what they filled last year.

There�s so much debris this year that we�re going to

overflow the two containers that we brought.

I think maybe if people saw the amount of debris we that collected in these quantities

it�d make them think twice about the amount of plastic they use in their daily life.

We need help from industry and people

involved in product and packaging design to help with material reduction.

Reducing the quantities of plastic that we use for single-use one-trip items

and then they�re thrown away --

and that�s to my mind, you know,

a third of all the plastics we make,

that�s what we�re using them for --

that�s the area that really needs to be targeted

if we want to help to reduce the problems

of contamination in the marine environment.

Nature solves its problems.

nd if we�re a problem, nature will solve us as a problem.

To be an environmentalist, to be a conservationist is really a question of self-preservation.

We�re really working to make sure that we survive.

The earth will survive.

But if we don�t learn to live in harmony with its ecosystem then we will simply disappear.

Even though we can�t clean up what�s already in our oceans,

we can make sure that we do all we can to not add more to it.

Can I use my own container?

If plastic is affection our oceans so dramatically,

could it be impacting human health?

And what about our child?

I�ll take the free-range chicken.

You know I�ve never been one of those people

that worried about chemicals and toxins and stuff;

I thought it was a little bit overboard.

But, when you�re going to have a baby,

you do start to worry about that kind of thing.

And you start to look around at your house at the stuff that you have.

The stuff that�s for your baby, that�s going to go on your baby�s skin.

And the stuff that people start giving you for your baby.

I don�t even know what kind of chemicals are in this stuff.

All day long you�re getting exposed to very small amounts

of many different things and each industry will say

�Oh it�s just a little bit of our chemical,�

but the problem is,

we think the cumulative impact during that whole day

is what�s causing that health effect in the human.

Basically there are no requirements

for testing chemicals for health and safety effects.

The current regulation is so weak

that the EPA tried to use this law to ban asbestos,

and they failed.

There�s something like 125,000 chemicals

registered for use around the globe and

very few have been tested for the effects on human health.

The Europeans put in the program REACH

where chemicals had to be proven safe

instead of the reverse where in our system,

first they have to be proven harmful.

So a chemical is innocent until proven guilty.

In this country.

Maybe we shouldn�t give chemicals the kind of rights that people get.

The chemicals we�re testing for now include

phthalates, which are the chemicals that are used to soften plastic,

bisphenol A which is a chemical used to harden plastic.

Phthalates and bisphenol A have been getting a lot of attention lately

because they�re both known as endocrine disrupters,

meaning they disrupt or inhibit our normal hormone function.

Let�s start with bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA, which is a synthetic estrogen.

BPA is the main component of polycarbonate,

the hard, clear plastic sometimes used to make such items

as water bottles, food storage containers, sports equipment, and electronics.

But wait! There�s more.

So you think you�ll avoid plastic

you�ll do the right thing and you�ll buy something that comes in a can

and then you find out that the can is lined with...

guess what... You got it: plastic.

And this plastic that lines this very can contains bisphenol A.

Which means it also lines soda, juice, and beer cans, and -

guess what else BPA is in?

Infant formula can liners and baby bottles.

That�s right, baby bottles.

Bisphenol A exposure at phenomenally low doses

during the early period after birth

when babies are drinking infant formula laced

with bisphenol A out of baby bottles made with bisphenol A.

What you get is animals that are hyperactive

and show learning impairment.

Remind you of a human condition called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

This is a poster chemical for that.

Basically, we have released a lot of chemicals into the environment

that can interfere with the way our children are constructed

from the moment of fertilization until they�re born 38 weeks later.

Not only health-wise but also in the way they behave and in their intelligence.

Academic and government scientists are showing an array of harm from bisphenol A

that is frightening to the brain, to the reproductive system.

And one of the things you see happening

with Bisphenol A is gender neutrality.

That means our boys are become feminized feminized and our girls are becoming masculinized.

And furthermore, many scientists believe that BPA exposure is linked to prostate cancer,

breast cancer, hypospadias, low sperm count, early puberty, uterine fibroids,

miscarriage, polycystic ovary disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, ADHD, and autism.

Right now, it is predicted that one out of every third child --

and if you�re a minority, it�s one out of every two children born --

is going to develop diabetes sometime in their life.

Autism -- one in a hundred and fifty children.

This can�t be genetic because it�s happening too fast.

And in most instances, they were rare disorders before the 1970�s.

Of the more than 200 government funded studies, 92 percent show harm related to BPA exposure.

Of the less than 20 studies funded by chemical corporations, 0 percent show harm.

A Centers for Disease Control study detected BPA in the urine of 95% of adults sampled.

Those with the highest levels had more than twice the risk of heart disease and diabetes...

The FDA cites two studies, both of those studies funded by the plastics industry.

Scientists have measured BPA in the blood of pregnant women, in umbilical cord blood,

and in the placentas, all at levels demonstrated in animals to alter development.

Where is the FDA?

Have an FDA warning to tell you about this morning.

Now in a shift in the agency�s position

the FDA is saying that the chemical is of some concern.

...Especially on the brain, behavior and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.

The government agency is encouraging families to limit their children�s exposure...

The American Chemistry Council says BPA is safe.

I�m calling Rob Krebbs from the American Chemistry Council.

Rob Krebbs-

Hey Rob Krebbs, it�s Jeb Berrier, from the Bag It movie.

From Bag It movie?

I e-mailed you a few weeks ago. We�re doing a documentary.

Uh, okay, I�m sorry.

Jeff, I�m literally on the phone with someone else right this second.

Can you shoot me an e-mail, again? Just to remind me?

Okay, no problem, I�ll e-mail you again. Thanks.

Honey?

Yes dear?

I�m doing the dishes.

Thank you.

Because you are so... pregnant!

There are certain plastic containers that we stopped getting.

We kind of cut back on can usage altogether.

We stopped reheating anything in plastic.

The other chemical we�re concerned about,

phthalates, is actually a family of chemicals.

Phthalates are commonly found in polyvinyl chloride plastic,

otherwise known as PVC.

Phthalates are �plasticizers� that are used to soften plastic.

They�re used in a wide variety of products --

anything from vinyl flooring and all other things vinyl

to personal care products to... children�s toys.

You take a rubber ducky.

In order to make that brittle material seem like rubber,

you actually have to have more phthalate in it than you do polyvinyl-chloride.

When a baby puts that in its mouth, it�s like a phthalate lollypop.

Phthalates have been linked to:

renitis, eczema, asthma, allergies,

premature birth, obesity, premature breast development,

thyroid dysfunction, insulin resistance, lower sperm counts,

decreased sperm motility, shorter ano-genital distance,

undescended testicles and smaller penis size.

It�s not just our Johnsons that are suffering,

it�s our swimmers as well.

Over the past several decades scientists have found

the sperm counts have been dropping dramatically.

Paul McCartney knew about this far earlier.

You know �Yesterday.� The second part.

�Suddenly, I�m not half the man I used to be.�

We�re loosing dramatically fertility.

So taking us compared to our fathers, we�re only half the men.

What we found with the human study is that

the moms that had greater exposure to phthalates

were more likely to have sons with feminized reproductive organs

was that those were at everyday levels of phthalates,

those were not unusual exposure levels,

those were at levels that people are being exposed to in the U.S. today.

You�re constantly being washed in phthalates every day.

That chemical is not required to be on the label for any personal care product.

So if you see �fragrance� on the label,

that is often phthalates.

Basically it�s an industry loophole that prevents the consumer

from finding out what ingredients are in the product.

Fragrance can be a collection of hundreds of chemicals,

or it might be just a handful, we really don�t know.

One question that you may have is �Are phthalates safe?�

The answer is �Yes.�

My name is Steve Risotto of the American Chemistry Council,

and we represent the companies that manufacture

a family of versatile chemicals called �phthalates.�

The University of Washington tested dozens of babies� urine

and found that the more of these baby products they used,

creams, lotions, powders, shampoos,

the higher their levels of man-made chemicals called phthalates.

Phthalates are used in baby products to help the fragrance stay on the babies� skin.

Babies are not little adults.

Nothing you learn about a chemical in an adult

can be applied to tell you what that chemical will do in a baby.

This was pretty shocking news for Anne and me.

I mean wouldn�t anyone want to err on the side of caution?

Um, I had a question about one of your products. It�s a baby lotion.

It�s called Grins and Giggles.

I wonder if it has any phthalates in it.

I�m on hold.

The music�s really nice though.

Peter Coyote is a well-known actor.

What most people don't know is that he's also

a committed activist and has been for many years.

He is one of few people in this country

to have his body burden tested.

That's a test that identifies and quantifies

hundreds of chemicals present in your body.

When the results came, I was really shocked,

and then I was angry because I had in my body,

stuff that should not be in a human being.

And when I was reviewing it I thought -- quite literally --

who gave these sons of bitches permission to poison the commons?

I decided to do my own Body Burden experiment

I wanted to see how much my levels of BPA and phthalates

would go up simply by using normal, everyday, supposedly safe consumer products.

I did a pretest to find out what my normal levels were.

And then I spent two days in a friend�s apartment eating canned food,

microwaving in plastic, using shampoo, lotion, deodorant, air fresheners.

These are all products that will supposedly be safe for my baby.

You know this place just needed a little... something.

Air Fresh. Freshen it up....

I�m about to shampoo with kids� shampoo.

This is all stuff that people use pretty much every day.

This is my last supper. I don�t get to eat like this very often. I don�t feel good.

At the end, I got tested again.

By the way, whatever the levels are, they�re reversible.

So, it�s never too late to stop ingesting, absorbing and inhaling these chemicals.

And now we�re just waiting for the results.

Hi Catherine, it�s Jeb Berrier.

Calling you back from the movie Bag It, the documentary about plastic.

And I�m really hoping to get an interview with you,

about, specifically about BPA and phthalates.

We are keeping chemicals afloat in our environment

in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence from other countries.

Because the information is being systematically withheld from us.

Who are the people that allow this? They�re supposed to be our leaders.

They�re supposed to be mediating between the needs of the citizens and the needs of the corporations.

Not giving the corporations everything they ask for and asking the citizens to pay the bills.

If you don�t want a deadly poison in the biosphere, you don�t make it. Period. End of story.

Okay. I finally got my results.It�s 144 pages of numbers.

So, I am at the house of Dr. Theo Colborn. World renowned environmental health analyst,

and she is going to help me decipher what my test results mean.

Your results were very interesting. Why don�t we start with bisphenol A?

Okay. So, my BPA levels went up 110 times.

Yeah, that is high, I�ll be quite frank with you. You really spiked.

Now these are the phthalates. This one went up 53 times.

Okay now, here we are. This one went up from 2.7 to 143.

So if you sum this overall and then take the difference,

you had about 11 times increase of phthalates.

If Anne who�s pregnant had those levels, what would that mean? For the baby?

It could mean that that baby would be partially feminized. In other words, reduced ano-genital distance.

You know. Maybe a smaller penis.

Wow.

Yeah. I always feel uncomfortable talking to people

who are expecting children or planning to have children.

Because this is the critical period,

from fertilization to birth.

As a citizen, don�t you feel

that we have enough evidence now to say we should not be using these products.

Absolutely. I don�t want any of these in my body.

I don�t want any of these in the mother of my child�s body.

I don�t want them in my child�s body.

No. They�re going to be.

It�s not about being against chemistry or against plastic;

it�s about being against stupid plastic. Silly, stinking, toxic stuff.

When you reach the point where it becomes a public health issue --

and this is a major public health issue at the population level --

the government has to step in.

But I will frankly say, government is no longer government -- it�s corporate control.

What we�re asking for is for a law that will make sure

that chemicals are tested before they go into products.

We want to be able to go into a store and buy any product.

The products on the shelf should be safe for us.

We have lost a whole generation of children already

because we haven�t even begun to take action on one of these chemicals.

Though you may feel that going up against corporations is impossible,

and that government moves way too slowly,

what we cannot forget is that we are the government, that we influence industry.

Thanks to the outcries of concerned parents,

a law was passed in 2009 banning six phthalates from children�s toys.

And due to consumer demands, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us

decided to remove all baby products containing BPA from their shelves.

This led six different baby bottle manufacturers to completely remove BPA from their baby bottles.

I�m trying to find out whether people in town would support a fee on paper or plastic shopping bags.

Yeah to try to reduce the amount people use disposable shopping bags.

Go big or go home.

Would you guys support some kind of measure in town....

Remember that part about how we were expecting a baby? Well, it�s happening.

Well, I did start out making a movie about plastic bags,

but like any journey, things developed and changed along the way,

it became about so much more.

I still think plastic is an incredible substance.

But it�s not supposed to end up in our oceans or in our bodies.

And just to make sure I really, really got all this, Anne got pregnant;

and it became about the fate of our child and all our children.

I�m still an average guy... but even average people can make changes.

You know, everybody keeps asking me: So what can I do? Well.

Here are some things we�ve come up with while making this film.

Things you can do, too. Starting today, right now.

You can cut way WAY back on single-use disposables.

Don�t drink bottled water.

Choose products with less packaging

When you need something, buy it used.

Think outside the bag -- bring your own container.

Buy less stuff.

Remember, recycling comes after reducing and reusing.

And how about volunteering in your community to do litter clean ups?

But most important, you can simplify... your... life.

I keep coming back to how my grandparents lived.

They didn�t have all this plastic in their lives, but that didn�t seem to make them any less happy.

When it comes down to changing your life and living with less plastic,

And look at that: foam cups.

Stay back.

We just have to rethink how we do things. It all comes down to common sense.

Well there you have it. The end of one odyssey, the beginning of another.

We�ve decided to live life with a little less plastic.

How about you? Is your life a little too plastic?

Cause if it is, there�s only one thing you can do about it...

Bag it.

Alright. I think I got it that time.

Buy bulk food, don�t buy small packaged things

and suddenly your trash is really minimized.

Hey look everybody! It�s a single-use disposable camera.

Use it once, and throw it away!

I�d put no plastic into a microwave or an oven.

When you don�t use a lot of plastic... you eat better.

That�s my girl.

You really should think, when making decisions,

of how this is not only going to impact yourself and your children,

but your children�s children�s children. Out seven generations.

Look at that. No plastic bag in the bathroom garbage can. You don�t need it.

Plastic�s a useful thing, but single use plastics are just instant garbage and... we don�t need it.

Maybe you�re forced to eat a plastic bag if you use one, to know how the fish feel.

That�s a good idea.

I�m still waiting to hear back from the American Chemistry Council.

I�m starting to think that maybe they don�t want to talk to me.

Babies don�t come in plastic.