Making a Sea of Change, One Plastic Straw at a Time

Janson Media today announced the release to worldwide digital, television, and inflight airline markets of Straws, a powerful documentary about the plastic pollution that inundates our waterways and oceans. The 33-minute film illustrates how individuals, groups, and businesses around the globe are reducing the use of plastic straws through education, collaboration, policy development and utilization of non-plastic alternatives. Sparked by research that plastic straws are now among the top-five beach litter item collected, Straws outlines how billions of non-recyclable plastic straws litter streets and wash into oceans.

The film opens with an animated sequence narrated by actor Tim Robbins which charts the history of straws and notes how plastic is a recent trend in straw production as opposed to earlier sustainable forms, such as metals, bamboo, and paper. It then explores the modern dilemma of these one-time use products as millions are produced to satisfy a wholly artificial demand. Important questions are raised regarding the use of plastic in straw production, and several environmental scientists lay out how these seemingly innocuous items will end up doing irreversible harm to marine life, the ocean, and eventually human health if the problem continues to build. Sea turtles are frequent victims as they often consume plastics that will not break down in their body or get caught in bags and nets. The researchers who discovered the straw lodged inside the nose of an endangered Costa Rican sea turtle, recount their tale over footage of their viral video.

Alongside scenes of beach clean-up crews, Straws provides alternate, sustainable solutions such as paper, bamboo, or metal straws -- which have cut down costs for local businesses -- and encourages the simple act of refusing a straw when at a restaurant. Empowering tales, from local business owners who have changed their ordering model to middle schoolers who have enacted challenges in their communities, highlight how anyone can take action to help save the world's oceans.

Straws was produced and directed by Linda Booker. The film was an official selection at dozens if international film festivals, and won the Spirit of Action Award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival, and the Outstanding Achievement Award in Environmental Film at the Cayman International Film Festival.

Read more at the film's official website. Follow @strawsfilm on instagram. Worldwide educational distribution and community screenings are handled by The Video Project. Read more at their website.