The documentary that I chose to share was created by the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and won the 2020 Best Film for Science & Education at the London International Film Festival. The documentary starts out highlighting the beauty of the Philippines – popular tourist attractions, white sand beaches, and a tropical paradise. This is then contrasted by facts such as how it is the third highest contributor to of plastic waste in the ocean and this problem is overwhelming and has reach catastrophic levels.
Some facts and figures that caught my attention were that:
– By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish
– 60% of plastic waste comes from 5 main countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand
– And many more undeniable facts
The biggest question then becomes – why is the Philippines one of the biggest contributors to plastic waste?
One of the biggest themes of this documentary is looking at communities in the Philippines that live the most sustainability and the answer is surfing communities. The filmmakers and researchers traveled to the top 6 surfing communities in the Philippines and found that they valued keeping their home clean and a sustainable lifestyle because of their love for the ocean and the water. One surfer stated “The ocean is my playground, and it’s hard to play in a dirty playground.” The owners of different surfing camps try and incorporate their sustainable lifestyles into their business by encouraging customers and tourists to always clean up after themselves, but struggles always seem to arise. One specific struggle is tourism. When people travel or go on vacation to different surfing capitals, there’s the issue of waste and lack of proper disposal. What’s been happening in previous years is visitors go to learn how to surf, have a fun time, and in the process produce various amounts of waste that residents end up having to clean up after. Weekly beach clean ups and plastic collections are put in place but this linear system is not the solution.
Overall, this documentary definitely sheds a different light not only on pollution and sachet economies but also encourages people to not only think about solutions but prevention, whether that be initiating no single-us plastic zones or eliminating the use of plastic in these surfing communities.
