A Plastic Tide Documentary Analysis

Society is highly dependent on plastic. Unfortunately, eight tonnes of plastic are thrown away every year and most ends up in the ocean. The short documentary “A Plastic Tide” looks at various places throughout the world whose beaches are littered with plastic. Mumbai, India is one of the first places the documentary focuses on. They refer to the beach as a “plastic graveyard” because there is plastic everywhere causing almost no sand to be seen. Afroz Shah began the world’s biggest beach clean and inspired community members to take action. The documentary makes sure to point out that plastic is not the problem. While plastic may be convenient for us, it is not good for marine life. It is single-use plastic that is causing the most harm. Single-use plastics are discarded within the year and only about 5% of it is effectively recycled.

Various forms of marine life are consuming plastic.

Microplastics are often consumed by smaller fish, who are then consumed by bigger fish where the plastic continues to collect. Humans then proceed to eat the bigger fish, leading to us consuming plastics as well. This illustrates that in the end, everything we do to wildlife we do to ourselves. Overall, the documentary suggests that marine life is worth protecting because it is not ours to destroy: everyone on the coast will suffer. Essentially, we are trapping ourselves. If the path we are on continues, the amount of plastic in the ocean will outweigh all of the fish in the sea by 2050. This is a shocking, and devastating, statistic. It is also important to note that it seldom is the communities themselves using the ocean as a dumping ground. The plastic ends up in water systems and eventually gets brought to shore by the tide. It is not just litter that was dropped on the

beach.
This documentary shows that humans are careless and ignorant when it comes to the effect they can have on the environment, especially when it does not directly affect them. I believe this goes to show the inherently bad nature of humans. We constantly strive to fulfill our personal desires, even at the cost of destruction. I found it very interesting that Afroz Shah found cleaning to be addictive. While outsiders may believe he is doing it for the environment, but in reality, he was doing it to please his own self-interest. They said that they “are not only cleaning their beach but cleaning their hearts.” This shows selfish interests. They clean for themselves, not for the tourists or the future generations. It makes this happy. Jeremy Bentham would see this as fitting into his definition of happiness. He would say that these people are acting morally because they are making the world as happy as possible. To be clear, cleaning up the beaches is not bad, this example just goes to show that humans often only do things that benefit them, and in this case that was the happiness that came from cleaning. The devastating truth about the “Plastic Tide” must be brought to the public’s attention. If the public is not aware, they will continue to make damaging decisions. Personally, I would be devastated if the path continues on an upward trend because I love the ocean. When I went to Haiti last May, I saw the “Plastic Tide” with my own eyes: The water was lined with bottles and other random plastic. Haiti also has no way to recycle so the streets are littered with plastic bottles. Most of the sewers that go through the city connect to the ocean, making it easy for plastic to get there. My goal is to make a conscious effort to avoid using single-use plastics. I want to promote sustainability of resources in Canada by using reusable cups. It is so much more convenient to use plastic water bottles and throw out single-use coffee cups, but I know that if I want my future grandchildren to enjoy the beach, I have to make an effort to change my habits.