The collaboration between SEEDS and THE WHY foundation began in 2020. The later is a danish non-profit media organisation located in Denmark. Their mission is to produce and distribute investigative documentaries and make them available for everyone, everywhere. Thanks to their network their work reaches 200 countries and territories worldwide. Each year they focus their research on a human rights or environmental issue. For example in 2012 it was WHY poverty, 2018 WHY Slavery and now in 2021 the question is WHY Plastic.

 

Since the 1950’s, we have thrown away more than 6 billion tons of plastic. The annual global plastic production is projected to double by 2035 and quadruple by 2050. Plastic waste increased 36% in the EU between 2010 – 2018. In Iceland the plastic waste during this time grew by 121%. Now with the pandemic, our plastic waste has increased even more. Face masks and their packaging, single-use gloves and hand sanitizer have become items of daily use. 

 

To bring more awareness to this topic SEEDS organised a documentary screening together with the Nordic House. The screening took place on November 11th, 2021 in the Auditorium of the Nordic House. After the introduction of the event, the documentary "THE RECYCLING MYTH" was screened. This was followed by a panel discussion with four guest speakers. As one of the speakers we were lucky to have Bjartmar Oddur Þeyr Alexandersson, a journalist at Stundin. He could tell us more about the recycling industry in Iceland and how Icelandic waste doesn't always end up where we think it ends up. Another guest speaker was Steffi Meisl. She focuses on a zero waste lifestyle and told us about her approach to the topic. Then we had Alex Kassapis, a SEEDS long-term volunteer very active in climate issues as well as a member of Extinction Rebellion Iceland. And last but not least, we could welcome Stefán Örn Snæbjörnsson, who represented Ungir umhverfissinnar, the Icelandic Youth Environmental Association.

 

Of course we also gave the audience the opportunity to ask the guest speakers some questions or simply tell their opinion about the documentary. This opportunity was very actively used and we received many insights from the audience. 

 

Read more about the WHY PLASTIC? project: www.thewhy.dk/whyplastic

 

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