“Solid wastes” are the discarded leftovers of our advanced consumer society. This growing mountain of garbage and trash represents not only an attitude of indifference toward valuable natural resources, but also a serious economic and public health problem.
– Jimmy Carter
Within the United States the idea of milk that need not be refrigerated is still a very foreign idea. Much technology has gone into making such an idea reality, however, and around the world unrefrigerated milk safely sits on grocery store shelves, waiting to be consumed.
For many around the world these containers are a blessing â€“ a way to keep and transport perishable liquids to places and homes without refrigeration. There is, however, a downside.
The packaging for these liquids, , also known as aseptic boxes, is a high tech combination of materials designed to last forever. And that they do.
Once the liquid inside has been consumed these containers can take ages to even begin deteriorating. Their compositional make-up makes them very difficult to recycle, and so they often end up on the side of the road or raising the levels of local landfills.
â€œAll About The Siliconeâ€ is a film not only about one idea of what can be done with these packages to repurpose them, but it also tells the inspiring story of Michael â€“ a transplant to Talamanca, Costa Rica who saw an environmental problem and decided to do something about it.
Actuality Media is an organization that takes media students to developing communities around the globe to create positive media that tells the story of changemakers doing good works to fight societal and environmental problems that plague the world. These short documentaries were each produced during a thirty day outreach where crews researched their subject changemaker, wrote out their story, filmed and edited it.