Halloween: sweets; skeletons; screams.
And did we mention sweets?
All of which, in modern day living, tend to come accompanied in some way, shape or form, by the usual blight of our modern times: plastic.
But reducing your plastic impact this Halloween doesn’t have to be hard or even lessen the fun. It might even add to your participation and enjoyment of this most unique of celebrations.
A new publication in conjunction with Rolf Halden, from Arizona State University’s Center for Environmental Health Engineering at the Biodesign Institute, and Plastic Oceans International, reveals how time is often an overlooked element when it comes to studying plastic pollution [1].
Wednesday, October 20, 2021, Malibu, CA – Plastic Oceans International is pleased to announce the world premiere of Against the Current, a feature-length documentary, narrated by actor Matthew Modine, that chronicles the story of South Africa’s Sarah Ferguson becoming the first person ever to swim around Easter Island nonstop.
“Without education we will be stuck in a never-ending cleanup,” says Mora Siregar, co-founder and co-director of MUDFISH NO PLASTIC, another recent member of the Plastic Oceans’ BlueCommunities global family.
In saying this, Mora strikes at the core of the plastic waste issue, that unless proactive investment is made into the future generations, we will be forced to continue in the same unending hamster wheel of mitigation.
There are few experiences which link individuals across history, continents and classes, quite like that of the itinerant, public market.
Whereas individual points of sale – buying, selling or bartering at a fixed point – have also been in evidence throughout history, what sets the experience of the market apart is the fact that it is necessarily a collective event. The only way markets exist and survive is if they engender a kind of happening, a drawing together of society at a particular point and place. Something you have to make a date for, organize yourself around. To shop at a market, you have to want to be a part of it, shed yourself to the collective.
Growing up in Rochester, New York, at least a five-hour drive from the closest beach, my relationship with the ocean did not extend much past the occasional viewing of a nature documentary. The marine life I saw on the television was exquisite, but I never imagined the possibility of witnessing these animals in real life, watching them perform the behaviors that gripped filmmakers’ attention in the first place.
The award-winning filmmaker, Craig Leeson, who brought us A Plastic Ocean, and serves as our Plastic Oceans International Global Evangelist, continues to raise awareness of the human impact on the planet.
His highly-anticipated documentary, The Last Glaciers, will hit select IMAX screens on March 22, 2022. Made with producer, Malcolm Wood (POI Global Advisor), and executive producer, William Pfeiffer (POI Board President), it will immerse viewers in the cause and effects of climate change over an epic four-year stretch across Antarctica, the Himalaya, The French Alps, Andes and more.
Plastic Oceans International has been proud to be part of the Clean Seas Lobbying Coalition, a collective of like-minded organizations advocating for the California Circular Economy Package of legislation.
We joined this effort because the catastrophic impact of plastic pollution needs to be addressed by legislative action to support a circular system where waste is reduced, materials are reused and natural environments are regenerated.
After a few years of advocacy work, we are excited that five of the bills that address plastic pollution were signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, October 5; with a sixth being signed the following day.
How long have you been purchasing the same brand of supermarket deodorant? Shampoo? Dish soap or peanut butter?
Purchasing industrially manufactured items – almost always housed in plastic containers, and always single-use – has become second nature to almost everyone in the 21st century. Increasingly, however, people are questioning their consumer choices, and looking for viable, chemical-free alternatives in reusable packaging, made by real people in local community settings.
Poly…vinyl…alcohol…
What comes to mind? Well, “poly” alludes to ‘many’. “Vinyl” conjures images of musical records. “Alcohol”, well, we all know about alcohol. In reality, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and it’s corresponding blends such as PVOH, is a material being used heavily in the textile industry and it’s now becoming more popular in our homes and potentially in the environment.