George
Town —

Despite
mandatory stay-at-home orders and island-wide curfews, local
environmental advocacy group, Plastic Free Cayman, successfully
hosted a free screening of a new full-length documentary, The
Story of Plastic,
and brought one of its stars “digitally” to the Cayman Islands on
May 30, 2020.

Over
150 local activists and supporters of Plastic Free Cayman, including
staff from the National Trust and Guy Harvey’s Ocean Foundation,
attended the virtual event.

“COVID-19
has impacted so many crucial in-person events that were supposed to
take place this spring, over the summer, and even into this fall,”
recalled Laura Lee, the event’s organizer.

“In
this unprecedented moment, however, it is critical to ensure that we
continue the conversation around the protection of the Cayman
Islands’ many environmental treasures against the devastating
effects of plastic pollution.”

“Plastic
Free Cayman was thrilled to be able to accomplish this event with
technology,” Lee explained. “We hosted the free movie screening
using the online platform Indie TV and were able to meet up
afterwards for our lively community discussion using the Zoom
platform.”

Two
advocacy experts from Oceana, the world’s largest organization
focused solely on ocean conservation, joined over 50 community
members, local volunteers, and Plastic Free Cayman youth ambassadors
in the post-movie meet-up. The Zoom group discussed the
thought-provoking documentary, asked questions, and met with iconic
oceanographer Captain Charles Moore, who was featured in the film.

Moore,
who developed the scientific protocols for measuring plastic
pollution in the ocean, is widely known in the media as the
discoverer of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” and continues to
lead global efforts to stop plastic waste.

Moore,
speaking from his home in California, where he heads up both Algalita
Marine Research and Education, and the new Moore Institute, warned
that learning about the plastic that is “invading our biosphere”
and “shortening our lifespans…hangs on us like a heavy weight.”

The
environmental star said we “must be critical of the whole system
that has created this mess because nature won’t let us do any less.
She can’t absorb our misuse of her and ourselves.”

But
the real stars of the event were the youth panelists who addressed
questions sent in from the community, and confidently spoke out about
how citizens can help locally and globally to end plastic pollution.

Many
in the audience wondered what steps they should take to help. After
all, as the documentary highlights, the plas­tics in­dus­try
is a one tril­lion USD a year juggernaut, and certainly it has
more power to in­flu­ence reg­u­la­tions,
politi­cians and cit­i­zens than small, grass-roots
organizations.

Youth
Ambassadors, Ben
Somerville and Dejea Lyons, 17-year old students from CIS who lead
the student advocacy group Protect Our Future, and Steff McDermot,
a Captain Planet Foundation “Youth Planeteer of the Year” winner,
provided some wise answers.

“Implement
change first yourself,” Somerville recommended to the audience,
“then you can begin to advocate. Start practicing it yourself, then
you can preach it.”

“When
you actually start to look, you see, and when you see, you can’t
unsee,” Lyons shared with the group. Expressing how helping to
clean up nearly one ton of plastic trash on the Sister Islands in
late 2019 inspired the teen, Lyons said, “Once you actually show
people [the problem of plastic pollution], that’s when their
engines start to run.”

Lyons
also suggested that Cayman’s youth can lead the way by putting
their ideas out into the world “through the power of social media.”

Captain
Moore praised the youth and congratulated them for their “profound
questions.”

Speaking
directly to 19-year old UCCI student, Steph McDermot, Moore described
how she and other Caymanian sailors can help with pollution data
collection as “citizen scientists.”

“Truly,
a scientist is nobody but a careful observer. Just make careful
observations and write them down. That’s why scientists carry those
little books, why they have pocket protectors, because they are
always writing down their little notes, telling them what they saw.
And that’s how they become accurate observers.”

Numerous
attendees asked how they could help encourage governments to take
action against plastic pollution. Again, Moore addressed the youth:

“Only
by struggling against the existing problems that you all are
struggling against will you all develop that understanding of what
has to be done. You can’t fix a system by using the same methods
that created it. The thinking needs to change.”

Plastic
Free Cayman’s Founder, Cayman Prep teacher Claire Hughes, reminded
the audience of the advocacy group’s three-part motto: “Take
action, spread awareness, and educate yourself and others.”

Addressing
what individuals can do to help, Moore added that people can “reduce
their personal use of plastic, think globally but act locally, and
support local farmers” who usually provide their produce free of
plastic packaging.

To
conclude the evening, Moore armed the young people in the audience
with words they could repeat as their own: “We’re working to
clean up your mess. Just wait. We’re going to tell you what has to
be done. Just give us a little time to get organized, and we’ll
give you a plan.”

Cayman’s
talented youth advocates seem to be well on their way.

Before
leaving the meeting to enjoy his home-grown dinner, Captain Moore
asked what local vegetable he has never heard of that farmers might
put in his salad. The resounding answer: callaloo.

If
you missed this free screening of The
Story of Plastic,
the film can still be viewed for a small fee on Amazon and other
streaming platforms.

Plastic
Free Cayman
is a team of volunteers passionate about reducing single-use plastic
in the Cayman Islands. They aim to raise awareness to the growing
issues surrounding plastic pollution and help others on their
plastic-free journey. Plastic
Free Cayman suggests that we can be better citizens by recycling,
picking up litter and reducing plastic use. These things are
important and still a part of the solution. Zero waste is the
ultimate goal.

Visit
PlasticFreeCayman.com for more information and links to helpful
resources.

The
Story of Plastic is a new documentary by the Story of Stuff
Project. The film​ takes a sweeping look at the man-made crisis of
plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of
our planet and the people who inhabit it. Spanning three continents,
the film illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage,
veritable mountains of trash, rivers and seas clogged with waste, and
skies choked with the poisonous emissions from plastic production and
processing. With engaging original animation, archival industry
footage beginning in the 1930s, and first-person accounts of the
unfolding emergency, the film distills a complex problem that is
increasingly affecting the planet’s and its residents’
well-being.

###

Plastic
Free Cayman contact, Laura Lee, leelauras@gmail.com

1-345-917-8082
text/phone/whats app

Professional
press kit photos available upon request.

Top screen shot of Plastic Free Cayman’s Zoom community discussion provided by Plastic Free Cayman. From left to right, top to bottom: PFC Youth Ambassador Dejea Lyons, Oceana staff Samantha Siegel, PFC founder Claire Hughes, PFC Youth Ambassador Steff McDermot, Captain Charles Moore, event organizer Laura Lee, PFC Youth Ambassador Ben Somerville, Oceana staff Paulita Bennett-Martin, and Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation spokesman Jessica Harvey