Talk Ocean Devotion and single-use plastics at Land & Sea screening
Consuming less, reducing single-use plastics, and taking care of the ocean and our natural environment is the focus of a CBC documentary and public panel discussion happening Tuesday night.
Land & Sea documentary Ocean Devotion is screening at the Manuels River Interpretation Centre at 7 p.m. on March 26, in a first come, first serve event.
The Broadcast producer Jane Adey will be there to take part in a panel discussion after the documentary airs.
"It's all about just getting the conversation going, continuing the conversation," Adey said.
For Ocean Devotion, Adey visited the seaside town of Lunenburg, N.S., where residents and business owners are working to reduce single-use plastic use through community programs and individual actions.
"I just wanted to find a group of people who were all working together on this, and I found that in Lunenburg, mostly in the business community actually," Adey said.
"They're just trying to find alternative products to, maybe, plastic cups, it could be plastic cutlery," she said. "They're trying to find ways of working around that so they don't have to use as many plastics."
Some examples she found in Lunenburg included a restaurant using wooden cutlery rather than plastic.
"Another store owner, for her takeout boxes, instead of using paper that was actually lined with plastic, she's now actually using a product that's made out of bamboo," Adey said. "So lots of things out there that they're trying to source and find, and actually a lot of the products are made in Canada, that's interesting too."
In Lunenburg, Adey said it wasn't any one person leading the charge — rather, it was a group of people working together to make change.
"Communities are starting to talk about it more. We talk about it on The Broadcast show that I host all the time, we talk about that issue, how to reduce single-use plastics, so I think it's just happening at a grass-roots level," Adey said.
"People in small places, like in Lunenburg, are just trying to get together," she said. "They know that if they get together and just try to make little changes that they can also have a very big impact."
With a lot of tourists coming through the seaside community, Adey said people there think they can get the idea to spread further — people can see alternatives, and implement them back home.
That's something Newfoundland and Labrador can do, too.
"If they adopt this attitude, it's going to draw people to their community … The environmental benefits are one huge thing, but I think this could have huge benefits for our tourism industry," Adey said.
"People want to go and visit places where the mindset is progressive and people are doing things to take care of that beautiful landscape and the ocean. So it's a win-win."
Anyone who comes to the screening can expect to leave with practical and achievable goals for reducing their use of plastics, Adey said.
"One voice or a community of voices can have a big impact, people can bring about change by talking about it, and by making small changes in their daily lives," she said.
Ocean Devotion is screening at the Manuels River Interpretation Centre at 7 p.m.
More information about the screening can be found on the Facebook event page.
