The Majestic Plastic Bag: nature mockumentary on "the plastic circle of life"

YouTube video link. Ah, the plastic cycle of life! Heal The Bay produced this advocacy video, the message of which is: put an end to plastic pollution. The short-form "nature mockumentary" is narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons and tracks the "migration" of a plastic bag from a grocery store parking lot to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean.

[via Submitterator]

• [MrsBug]

  Iron’s voice is delightful, like a fresh raisin scone, hot from the oven with a side of Earl Grey.

• [pambamboo]

  So I’m all like wait. what? Jeremy Irons is ripping off Werner Herzog??!! But no, Fools! Guess what? It is possible to make more than one film about a subject (even a fairly narrow subject like a plastic bag) and not duplicate! Both wonderful; both different!

• [Anonymous]

  This is AMAZING and HILARIOUS and I just wrote my senator. It only took like 3 seconds. I think anyone who cares about the environment should do the same.

• [jackieginzberg]

  I made a short, that is disturbingly similar to, a couple of months ago, but never posted it to youtube. Instead posting it to Vimeo. These guys have a similar plot and “similar” narrator.

  http://vimeo.com/10529622

• [imag]

  The plastic problem may well be much bigger than the global warming problem, or any of the other environmental issues we have going.

  The plastic doesn’t go away. It just gets smaller, becoming plastic dust that latches on to all the other nasty stuff we’ve put out there. Then it works its way up the food chain.

  What monumental idiocy we have within us, to create a substance that we know doesn’t break down, then to manufacture it on a literally geologic scale; the plastic layer of the Earth will be our legacy as much as any other. Even now, when we know what harm it is, more an more of our drinks come in plastic bottles vs. totally benign glass.

  And cleaning it up is absolutely worthwhile, but millions of tons will be too small to pick up, too deep, or too widespread. Cleaning it can’t be the only answer.

• [cinemajay]

  Reminds me of that scene in American Beauty. You know, the one with the plastic bag?

  Yeah, that one.

• [Anonymous]

  Herzog Herzog Herzog! (Irons made a decent Humbert Humbert, but he’s nothing compared to the master.)

• [Anonymous]

  This video reminded me of another piece that talks about the same theme, although from the point of view of the plastic bag, and narrated by Werner Herzog:

  http://futurestates.tv/episodes/plastic-bag

  —
  Santiago Casares

• [gerryblog]

  Isn’t this just a bad version of “Plastic Bag”?

  http://futurestates.tv/episodes/plastic-bag

  • [HeatVision]

    Thats exactly what I was thinking. Nothing beats Herzog. He should have his own Pokémon card.

• [Anonymous]

  Wait, isn’t this the same film narrated by Werner Herzog?

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBtCb61Sd4

• [Anonymous]

  I agree wholeheartedly. The plastic bag is a majestic creature indeed, and we need to encourage spawning, and help them get to the pacific ocean!

• [Gisburne]

  Is there no kind of clean-up plan for this huge mass of waste in the ocean? I realise that anything dredged out would then itself have to be dumped somewhere or otherwise disposed of, but at least it would no longer be free-floating.

  • [yokimon]

    The problem is that there is no jurisdiction over the ocean so it’s basically a bunch of countries going “not my problem”

• [Waldo Jaquith]

  Nthing that the Herzog version is way funnier.

• [luc samburg]

  it’s even there, btw 1′ and 1’10
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi8_Ly44hlU

  good films always spot a plastic bag somewhere

• [orwellian]

  Although it scares the hell out of me that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the size of Europe (!), I loved the way Jeremy Irons infused ‘plastic bag’ with such dignity and wonder. Good on him that he donated his time to this.

• [rhinny]

  “… one of nature’s most deadly killers, the teacup Yorkie.”

  Loved.

• [Anonymous]

  So… why isn’t there a clean up effort for the GPGP?

  • [BikerRay]

    Anon #10 – Apparently the GPGP is much more sparse than the video implies, plus the garbage is not all on the surface, making it about as hard to gather up as all that satellite debris going around above our heads. Awaiting a clever technology to go and get it, I guess.
    Here in Ontario, the bags are a gradually dying species, most shoppers (for groceries, anyway) being convinced to use their own cloth bags.