TROUBLE IN PARADISE: DOCUMENTARY REVIEW OF PLASTIC ISLAND

With numerous picturesque beaches, mountains, tropical forests and deep seas, Indonesia lists as one of the top tourist destinations of Asia, even of the world. With its biodiversity and delectable cuisine, it draws millions of tourists every year. However, what gets masked under the breathtaking scenery is a looming emergency for the country- an issue that, if not dealt with urgently and expediently, would endanger Indonesia’s burgeoning tourism and the lives of its entire local populace.

According to the World Bank, Indonesia ranks as the second largest plastic contributor in the world, only behind China, with 7.8 million tonnes of plastic waste generated annually.[i] This colossal waste (of plastic) along with improper waste disposal and mismanagement has given way to a colossal environmental problem- seemingly a national or third world problem, but greatly exacerbated by the first world nations. The end goal is to deal with the mess via global cooperation, and the stepping stone in that direction would require the home government to undertake initiatives to mitigate the problem.

The documentary film Pulau Plastik (Plastic Island) produced by Visinema Pictures, Kopernik, Akarumput, and WatchdoC and directed by Dandhy Laksono and Rahung Nasution released on Earth Day 2021, merging environmental consciousness, street activism and the art of mise-en-scéne to highlight and bring to the front the disastrous consequences of our unbridled plastic addiction. [ii]Their aim- raising awareness, increasing public participation and merging efforts by the civil society, government policy makers and the private sector in achieving a plastic-free Indonesia.

The movie traces the activities of the three protagonists- Gede Robi, vocalist of grunge-band Navicula, Prigi Arisandi, a biologist based in East Java and Tiza Mafira, a lawyer from Jakarta, tied together by the zeal to explore the negative impacts of plastic pollution and advocate for change. The first scene begins with a certain sense of hope when Robi sails out to test the claims of environment-friendly plastic alternatives- paper-made takeout boxes, oxo-degradable and cassava-made plastics and PLA straws by placing them deep in the ocean, to be checked after six months. The water looks like you would expect to see in an advertisement for tourism in Bali, corals and colourful fish in the thalassic depths. But soon the camera zooms out and reveals the ocean surface that has not cleared up from the ripples made by the motor boat. It is covered in what looks like dirt and accumulated waste and a voice exposes the reality about how trash, not only from the nearby coast, but from land far away has been washed up by ocean currents, covering the sea bed . Throughout the film, the narrator brings up hard-hitting facts about the dire situation at hand, supported by haunting visuals. One million marine animals die every year because of ocean plastics, where most single-use plastics are used for an average of 15 minutes and then discarded. A dead whale brought to shore, with its ingested contents of plastic bottles and strings splayed out in the sea. The heart wrenching scene of an entire straw being pulled out of the bleeding nose of a turtle, promptly followed by the imagery of a bunch of straws being put into glasses of drinks at some eatery; Indonesia alone uses 93 million straws every single day.

The plot follows cleaning drives by public groups where Tiza announces that plastic packaging of products used during the 1970s and 1980s are still washing up on the beaches- evidence of generations of plastic use that have not degraded yet, along with other plastic waste of goods we use daily; putting the onus on us and forcing us to take cognizance of how we have accelerated the process with our consumer choices. Plastic straws inside plastic packets, toothpastes and toothbrushes used to clean our mouths speak of our negligence towards ocean cleanliness, kids’ toys that are symbols of our love towards our children but our failure to mete out the same to our planet and shells anchored on plastic bottles indicating how this plastic has made way into the biodiversity and almost become fused with it.

Prigi brings a new dimension to the story through his demonstration with environmental NGO Ecoton to shed light on the compounding problem of unfair and often illegal practice of importing plastic waste to Indonesia from the Global North, despite having better waste management systems. The slogan sounds clear: “Indonesia is not the garbage bin of America”. Since China launched its Sword Policy in 2017, America’s trash has been directed towards South-East Asia. In a brief segment, Robi lands a chance to question the President regarding national efforts to tackle the crisis, but is provided with a non-answer where the President struggles to even remember the term for ‘environment- friendly’, demonstrating their aloofness. Loopholes in the policy of paper waste import, which falls under Green Line category, needing only a document check has induced the smuggling of plastic hidden in bales of paper waste. This mixed waste is segregated by the factories and then sold to villages which dry and sell them to tofu and cracker factories to be used as cheap fuel. The scene witnessed in Bangun village looks appalling- with open garbage dumps filled with such waste; the excess being openly burnt with copious amounts of toxic black smoke being emitted from the furnaces of the factories. Factory waste water is dumped into waterbodies, making their way into nearby fishponds. Microplastics are found in the guts of these commercially farmed fish. Robi’s stool test after consuming the fish also yields a positive result- “what we eat is what we dump”. These microplastics threaten aquatic biota and ecosystems and have contaminated the food chain with the human consumption of affected sea food, and brought the crisis closer than ever. During the stretch of the entire feature film, faeces samples of important people like mayors, governors and district chiefs are collected and tested, and at the end, all 100 samples test positive for alarming rates of microplastics. These minute plasticizers are capable of compromising our bodily systems, making us vulnerable to kidney failure, diabetes, impotency or even cancer.

Their journey culminates with a plastic free march, with thousands of Indonesians joining the cause, demanding a national ban on single-use plastic and a return to ‘local wisdom’- living in the way we did before we found the convenience of plastic usage. It informs that plastic manufacturing is cheaper than recycling, however since the 1950s, only 9% of it has been recycled and another 12% burnt, hence 79% still exists in the world. It necessitates that we not solely reuse and recycle, but above all reduce plastic usage. Pulau Plastik ends where it starts, a testing of the plastic alternatives- to reveal the dissolution of only the paper container and the unaltered nature of the rest.

The problem of microplastics maybe invisible, but its ramifications abound. The documentary is informative and eye-opening. It raises important questions about the third world aspirations to learn from the consumer and producer awareness of our “rich neighbor(s)” and the inequality between the global north and south concerning climate change and pollution, compels us to reevaluate food safety and our superfluous consumerism, and most importantly rethink about where we are headed as a planet. Through the medium of interviews, campaigning and music, Plastic Island connects the ecological, social and economic facets of the suffocating crisis and makes the experience personal to all its viewers. The directors manage to keep the audience engaged throughout the 1 hour 40 minutes duration with its pithy narration, visual imagery and aerial shots with parallel portrayals of the idyllic oceans and the vast spreading open landfills in the tropical paradise that is Indonesia. Plastic Island on Netflix would move all of us through its unapologetic and original storytelling of a global catastrophe, one that only we have the power to prevent.

AhanaRoy

Intern, Asia in Global Affairs

Endnotes

[i]Kelly, “Novel Plastic Pollution Solutions in Indonesia.”

[ii]Merdhi and Imanjaya, “Documentary Cinema, Plastic Waste Problem, and Environmental Sustainability.”

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