Evento

Plastic China Screening + Panel Discussion

The Film:
As the worlds biggest plastic waste importer, China receives ten million tons per year from most of the developed countries around the world. With high external costs impacting the local environment and health, these imports are reborn here in these plastic workshops into recycled raw materials for the appetite of China - the world factory. This waste is then exported back to where they came from with a new face such as manufactured clothing or toys.

Plastic China quietly explores the human impact of the global plastics and recycling trade and exposes its dirty, dusty, smoke-ridden underbelly. The documentary follows two families living in Chinas Shandong province, who work in the rudimentary plastic workshops that are the final destination for some ten million tonnes of plastic waste annually imported from foreign, highly industrialized countries.

The Panel Discussion:
After the film screening join us for a panel discussion with experts from the field of recycling.

What really happens to all of that material that we toss in our blue bins? From recycling bin, to transfer facility, to being shipped off for processing, this panel will explore the path that our recyclables take and the types materials it consists of. This panel will discuss the China policy, commonly referred to as The National Sword, that is drastically changing our recycling system as we know it.

Panelists include a range of perspectives on recycling, including:

Al Yeh, Sorter at South Bay Recycling
Joe LaMariana, Executive Director of Rethink Waste
Jennifer Power, Waste Zero Specialist at Recology San Francisco
Professor Kate O'Neill, Associate Professor at UC Berkeley