Event #1 "This Mortal Plastik"

This week, I attended the Ecology and Art zoom talk with Jess Irish. Jess is extremely talented in a multitude of mediums, including film, design, art, and poetry. We were able to watch “This Mortal Plastik” with her and then ask questions. The premise of the film is to understand the synthetic materials that we are so quick to dispose of. What is the environmental damage from the convenience of single-use plastic? How did we become so reliant on this substance? These are some of the questions that Jess highlights as she details the past, present and future of plastic. 

What I really liked about her documentary were the different ways she used time to create a storyline. The narrative involving her mother was emotional, but also helped put into perspective how things have changed. All of the plastic created during her mother’s lifetime is dwarfed by how much we have made in the past two decades. There is also the story of the whale, which I found quite compelling. I know some other students were somewhat confused by it. To me, Jess uses the whale as a parallel to what is happening today. The whale was hunted to near extinction for its blubber and oil. Our emerging cities were lit by the remains of these giant animals. Nowadays, we use fossil fuels to make our plastics. “Plastics have become our 21st century whale”, to quote Jess.

I also liked her use of animated features. Making her hands animated was a stylistic choice she choice explicitly. It makes them look almost alien, representing the artificiality of plastic. Additionally, it shows how plastic will "outlive" us all. Flesh and blood break down and decompose over time. Plastic, meanwhile, stays on this earth for hundreds of years. Animation has similar synthetic qualtities, so it fits well in the themes Jess is trying to show.

On average, each person uses 234 pounds of plastic a year. I wanted to include a few powerful quotes from the presentation to highlight this dependence. Susan Freinkel described plastic as “the skeleton, the connective tissue, the slippery skin of modern life”. Charles Moore agrees with this sentiment by saying it is “the lubricant of the globe”. Even pioneers for plastic are negative. Dr. Julian Hill, who helped develop nylon, once said pessimistically: “the human race is going to perish by being smothered by plastic”.

Plastic mountain

I felt pretty hopeless after watching this film. Large corporations are the ones who contribute to all of the plastic production, and there really is no way for us to make a difference. Most of our power relies on our vote: to elect leaders that champion for environmental justice. We talked about this in lecture, but Jess reiterated the dismally low numbers when it comes to recycling. According to the US’s Environmental Protection Agency, only 5%-  6% of plastic is being recycled (Ivanova). Plastic is even in our food. Researchers have found that a majority of people have plastic in their blood due to their diet (Rannard). “A 2019 analysis by the World Wildlife Fund estimated that people consume up to 5 grams of plastic a week — about the same amount of plastic in a credit card” (Stevens). Micro-plastics have infiltrated every area of the earth, from the mountains to the oceans. Jess even spoke about plastic rain! 

One piece of good news I wanted to end on was this new coating that researchers at the University of Tokyo created. Once applying the coating, paper can simulate many of the properties of plastic. This could be used to mitigate the dirty process of making more plastic. It would only be a small dent, but at least it is something. The coating also has antibacterial properties (Carleton)

Citations

Carleton, A. (2022, May 13). Scientists make paper durable like plastic, without the pollution. VICE. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypn8y/scientists-make-paper-durable-like-plastic-without-the-pollution 

Ivanova, I. (2022, May 11). Recycling plastic is a total bust, industry critics say. CBS News. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plastic-recycling-rate-5-failure-say-environmentalists/ 

Rannard, G. (2022, May 12). How much plastic do you use in a week? BBC News. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61393078 

Staff, T. W. (2022, May 14). Plastics everywhere. The Week. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://theweek.com/environmental-news/1013503/plastics-everywhere 

Stevens, A. P. (2022, May 11). Your bloodstream may be littered with the plastic you've eaten. Science News for Students. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/your-bloodstream-may-be-littered-with-the-plastic-youve-eaten