‘The Story of Plastic’ and a call for a plastic-free future

On Thursday April 20, 2023, Storm Surge will present a free community screening of the Story of Plastic at the Screening Room, 82 State Street Newburyport at 7 pm. Following the film will be a call to action/Q&A moderated by Eileen Ryan, Founder of Beyond Plastics Greater Boston and Molly Ettenborough, Sustainability Manager for the City of Newburyport.
Tickets are available at the website: https://www.newburyportmovies.com/the-story-of-plastic. There is no charge for this event.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Newburyport Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
For decades single-use plastic has proliferated as a part of our lives and we’ve been told we can’t live without it. The low-cost, lightweight, forever material is everywhere. According to a UN report released in 2020, the impacts of plastic production and pollution are a triple planetary threat to climate change, nature loss and pollution and are a catastrophe in the making.
The Story of Plastic takes a sweeping look at the man-made crisis of plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of our planet and the people who inhabit it. Shot over three continents, the film illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage, mountains of trash, rivers and seas clogged with waste, and skies choked with the poisonous emissions from plastic production and processing. The film features interviews with experts and activists on the front lines of the fight, revealing the disastrous consequences of the flood of plastic smothering ecosystems and poisoning communities around the world, and the global movement that is rising up in response. With engaging original animation, archival industry footage beginning in the 1930s, and first-person accounts of the unfolding emergency, the film distills a complex problem that is increasingly affecting the planet’s and its residents’ well-being.