Plastic Fantastic

Plastic is omnipresent today - in rivers and oceans, in our air, soil and even our bodies. There are 500 times more plastic particles in the oceans than stars in our galaxy. In the midst of this rapidly growing crisis, the giants of the plastics industry continue their production unperturbed. And this despite the fact that recycling plastics hardly works.
"PLASTIC FANTASTIC" follows various protagonists, including representatives of the plastics industry, scientists and activists, and explores with them previously unnoticed aspects of the plastics crisis. Environmental lawyer Steven Feit reveals that plastics have become part of the oil industry's growth strategy in the 21st century. A retired teacher from Louisiana, Sharon Lavigne, fights tirelessly against pollution in her city, which is home to one of the world's largest plastic production facilities, while also campaigning against environmental racism. Oceanographer Sarah Jeanne Royer makes tangible the devastating problems caused by microplastics on the coasts of Hawaii, while in Kenya, photojournalist James Wakibia uses the power of images to draw attention to the problem of single-use plastics in his home country. In Hamburg, chemist and inventor Michael Braungart is driven by the vision of a world without plastic waste. Together with him, we find out how a circular economy could really work.

Meanwhile, Joshua Baca, lobbyist for the American Chemistry Council, and Ingemar Bühler, lobbyist for Plastics Europe, are doing everything they can to convince people that the plastics industry has recognised the signs of the times: new recycling technologies would make a big difference in the future. At the end of the day, the question is: has the plastics industry heard the call? How serious are their efforts to take responsibility? PLASTIC FANTASTIC provides fascinating insights into the thinking and behaviour of the plastics industry and explores possible ways of overcoming this crisis.