
Can Innovative Projects Turn the Tide on Plastic Litter in Our Seas?
Every minute, the equivalent of two truckloads of plastic enters the world's rivers and seas. This film follows the people trying to slow that flow with new technology and materials rather than just warnings. In Cologne, the volunteer group KRAKE operates Germany's first floating litter collector on the Rhine, hauling in sneakers, bottles, and plastic pellets while logging data they hope will push the government toward binding pollution limits. In Taranto, Italy, mussel farmer Ciccio Marangione tests a maize-based bioplastic net to replace the polypropylene gear that has dominated local aquaculture since the 1960s, while other farmers try hemp and sisal instead. Off the French coast, Bordeaux company Nomads Surfing rebuilds the surfboard industry from the ground up, recycling old boards and turning worn wetsuits and flip-flops into new gear, drawing interest from major sporting brands along the way. The film moves between river, sea, and workshop, letting the people building these fixes explain what works, what doesn't, and how far behind the scale of the problem they still are.