Join fellow environmental advocates from around campus for a screening of the documentary “Single-Use Planet” and uncover together the far reaching economic and political realities that have boosted the plastic industry and made these single-use products so ubiquitous in our lives.
“How do we keep the benefits that plastics provide, but protect ourselves from the negative impacts…and why does this waste continue to grow despite so many efforts to reduce it?” The filmmaker’s search for the true headwaters of the deluge goes upstream from the ocean to where millions of tons of plastic are being produced with limited oversight. From the ruins of America's bygone steel industry in Pennsylvania to Louisiana’s “cancer alley,” learn how money and power have shaped this problem of consumption and contributed to critical environmental, social and health issues caused by plastic waste.
After a peer-facilitated discussion, you’ll leave with a better understanding of the environmental impact of the industrial processes, the political processes that enable it, the community activism challenging it and how you can disrupt business as usual to build a more sustainable future.
This documentary screening is a part of this semester’s Campus Sustainability Month programming in partnership with the Department of Geography, Environment and Urban Studies and the Temple University Libraries. Light refreshments will be served.