Toxic plastic particles in ocean should be a wake-up call for Hongkongers to recycle and reduce use of disposables
Government, businesses and consumers need to act now to reduce plastic pollution, say panellists at a discussion on sustainable living held after screening of documentary, A Plastic Ocean
Before filmmaker Jo Ruxton started to make her documentary on marine plastic waste, she expected to discover mainly huge swathes of plastic trash choking the seas.
But after venturing out into the Pacific Ocean to film the award-winning documentary A Plastic Ocean Ruxton realised that there was a more sinister problem – microparticles of plastic waste in the water, mostly unseen to the eye but ingested by marine life.
The 99-minute film, made with journalist Craig Leeson, freediver Tanya Streeter and a team of international scientists, documents how plastic items in the ocean break up into small particles that enter the food chain, where they attract toxins like a magnet. These toxins are eventually consumed by humans.
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“I’d been working at the BBC for 12 years, making mostly underwater documentaries. And every time we would show the ocean as being full of life and very clean, and the fish were plentiful, but, of course, we all know that’s not the case.”
“I just feel we have a duty to tell people the truth. So, I wanted to make a film that actually had a clear environmental message,” Ruxton says.
A Plastic Ocean, for which the team spent four years shooting at more than 20 locations, sheds light on the causes and consequences of plastic pollution.
It was released in Hong Kong cinemas last year and has been shown at conferences and festivals in the city including a private screening in Central last Wednesday held by Eco Drive, a volunteer group to promote a sustainable living environment.