Documentaries

Produced by The Why

Who is responsible for the Coca-Cola plastic bottle you see lying on the side of the road or floating in the ocean?

The soft-drinks industry produces 470 billion plastic bottles every year, designed to be used just once and then thrown away. In 2018, Coca-Cola, the world’s largest soft drinks producer, set ambitious targets to prevent its plastic bottles polluting the environment. But the company has a long track record of failing to meet its own targets to reduce plastic waste. So will it be different this time?

Presented by White Pine Pictures

The ground-breaking feature documentary Plastic People investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic ever made breaks down into “microplastics.” These microscopic particles drift in the air, float in all bodies of water, and mix into the soil, becoming a permanent part of the environment.

Produced by Plastic Soup Foundation

“These findings scare me, and I hope they scare other people too,” warns Professor Dr. Lukas Kenner.

The problem? Nanoplastics are everywhere – from the food we ingest to the air we breathe, liquids we consume and clothes we wear. They have even been found deep inside the human body. Prof Dr Lukas Kenner takes a closer look at how nanoplastics interact with the human body, and in particular their effect on cancer cells. Not only are plastics absorbed by cancer cells, they also cause faster spread and more aggressive cancer growth. How can we prevent this?

Produced by Plastic Soup Foundation

n a world first, research led by Professor Dr. Thais Mauad and Dr. Luis Fernando Amato-Lourenco from the University of Sao Paulo and Freie University Berlin - supported by Plastic Soup Foundation - found microplastics in the olfactory bulb, located at the bottom of the brain.

Professor Thais Mauad, lead researcher from the University of São Paulo: “This study finds that the olfactory pathway is a potential major entry route for plastic into the brain, meaning that breathing within indoor environments could be a major source of plastic pollution in the brain. With much smaller nanoplastics entering the body with greater ease, the total level of plastic particles may be much higher. What is worrying is the capacity of such particles to be internalised by cells and alter how our bodies function.”

Produced by Netflix

Directed by Emmy-winning writer and filmmaker Nic Stacey, Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy pulls back the curtain on the world’s top brands, exposing the hidden tactics and covert strategies used to keep all of us locked in an endless cycle of buying—no matter the cost.

Produced by ECOTON DOCUMENTARY

The Strawberry's Voice tells the story of Alek, a young Gen Z who is passionate and brave enough to voice his concern for the environment. Alek is a figure who is not afraid to face challenges in order to bring real change to the environment around him.

Presented and produced by Leana Hosea | Mixed by Neil Churchill | Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman | Series editor: Penny Murphy | BBC

An estimated five million tonnes of plastic waste is exported each year, with the majority coming from 10 high-income countries.

Malaysia has become a global hub for plastic waste imports and recycling. But how clean and safe is the recycling trade and how much plastic can actually be recycled?

For Assignment, Leana Hosea travels to Malaysia to meet those who are risking their lives to stem the tide of foreign plastic waste. She tracks unfolding research into microplastics and people’s health, and gains access inside recycling factories to reveal the dirty truth behind the trade.

Produced by Pale Blue Dot Media in association with React To Film | Members Involved: The Story of Stuff, Peak Plastic Foundation | Regional Focus: Global

The Story of Plastic is an Emmy Award winning documentary that uncovers the ugly truth behind plastic pollution and the false solution of plastic recycling. Different from every other plastic documentary you’ve seen, The Story of Plastic presents a cohesive timeline of how we got to our current global plastic pollution crisis and how the oil and gas industry has successfully manipulated the narrative around it. This film introduces audiences to the heroes and the villains behind one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues, from the extraction of fossil fuels to plastic disposal and the global resistance fighting back.

Produced by The Story of Stuff | Regional Focus: Global

It's not that plastic waste in our world is mismanaged; it's that there is so much plastic being produced that it's unmanageable. Solutions start with reduction and prevention because by the time plastic enters the environment, it's already too late.

Produced by The Story of Stuff | Regional Focus: Global

Plastic pollutes at every step of the way but much of the consequences are hidden from view. We're pulling back the curtain to reveal the frontline communities being poisoned by plastic. This is The Story of Plastic.

Produced by The Story of Stuff | Regional Focus: Global

Plastic polluted neighborhoods in Manila are taking things into their own hands by creating systemic zero waste programs that collect all recyclables, compost all organics, and push for corporate accountability.

Produced by The Story of Stuff | Regional Focus: Global

The mass production of single-use plastic has put us in the biggest recycling crisis in history.

Directed by: Irja von Bernstorff

GIRLS FOR FUTURE follows four girls, aged between 11 and 14 years, from Senegal, Indonesia, Australia and India who fight for a better future. All are directly affected by the consequences of environmental destruction: Senegal stands for the global water crisis, Indonesia for plastic waste pollution, India for the agricultural crisis and in Australia we witness the fatal destruction in the oceans and on land through climate change.

Directed by: Debby Lee Cohen, Atsuko Ouirk

”Microplastic Madness” is the story of 56 fifth graders from P.S. 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn – living on the frontline of the climate crisis – whose actions on plastic pollution morph into extraordinary leadership and scalable victories.

With stop-motion animation, heartfelt kid commentary, and interviews of experts and renowned scientists who are engaged in the most cutting edge research on the harmful effects of microplastics, this alarming, yet charming narrative, conveys an urgent message in user-friendly terms.

Directed by: Miguel Hernandez and Miggy Hilario | Members Involved: BFFP Youth Ambassadors | Concept by: Nikhilesh Paliath, Maria Eduarda Bezerra, Dhrthi Bhat, and Tiara Orig Samson

In this short documentary, we look back with six youth leaders as they reflect on their life and the simultaneous degradation in our changing planet. We revisit their childhood, their influences, their environment, and their opinions on the progressing effects of plastic pollution. Juxtaposing these stories with the policies being discussed from before they were born up to now, we get a glimpse of the slow and looming consequences of inaction from our world leaders, and its effects on young people.

By Blenheim Films via Amazon Prime

Candida Brady’s multi award winning documentary with Oscar winner Jeremy Irons looked at the risks to the food chain and the environment through pollution of our air, land and sea by waste. Soundtrack composed and performed by another Oscar winner Vangelis.

via Netflix

Broken is a new investigative documentary series that identifies and deconstructs the systems that make consumer products vulnerable to fraud, corruption, and negligence - often at the expense of public health and safety. The series uncovers the truth behind the consumer price of the vaping industry, counterfeit cosmetics, plastics and fast furniture.

By TRT World

Malaysia's Plastic Jungle documentary investigates the consequences of illegal foreign plastic waste recycling on Malaysian people's health and environment. And meet the people who refuse to be the world's dumping ground.

by 60 minutes Australia | Reporter: Liam Bartlett | Producer: Grace Tobin

There is no doubt Australia is one of the most wasteful nations in the world, so the practice of recycling helps to lessen our guilt. As we drag our bins out for collection each week, we feel like we’re helping the environment. But the reality is that we’re all being conned. Right now, Australia is stuck in an unsightly and worsening recycling crisis. What is being done with plastic waste, the material most people think would be easy to salvage and re-use, is of the greatest concern. As Liam Bartlett discovers, most of it ends up either being buried or worse – exported to countries like Malaysia, a place we are now treating like a garbage bin.

By CBC News

Marketplace journalists go undercover overseas and pose as recycling brokers to expose the lucrative plastic recycling business. We reveal that Malaysian companies are willing to break the law to buy Canadian plastic and show how some of it is dumped and burned in illegal landfills, where the toxic fumes and run-off appear to be making people sick. Back in Canada, we buy nine tonnes of plastic and secretly track where big companies are taking it. Will it actually get recycled?