Plastic is vital in so many ways to our modern way of life and well-being—but not all forms of it. In search of why more and more single-use plastic debris enters the ocean despite all efforts to recycle, SINGLE-USE PLANET goes upstream to where millions of tons of raw plastic are being made amidst the ruins of America's bygone steel industry in Pennsylvania.

Further upstream, we see the economic and political realities that have boosted the new industry—realities reaching all the way to rural Louisiana where plans are laid to build the biggest plastic plant in the world. Can the powerful industry be persuaded to temper their production of single-use plastic? Our search leads to Washington D.C.—where a federal bill to regulate the industry remains stalled—and finally to France, where the prohibition of campaign donations by corporations may provide a key to the effective reduction of plastic pollution.

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Discussion & Education Guide available

59 minutes. Directed by Steve Cowan

"Single-Use Planet tells the powerful story of how policymakers sold out the health of communities and the environment for the plastics industry. From compelling footage of politicians and lobbyists to heartbreaking interviews with people living under the toxic cloud of the industry's pollution, this film will help viewers understand why we need to turn off the tap for single-use plastics and - even more importantly - how we can make it happen." - Stephanie Feldstein, Director of Population and Sustainability, Center for Biological Diversity