News

Marquee Offers Second Film of the Summer Green Screen Series 

Marquee Performing Arts Center will offer a screening of the film The Story of Plastic Saturday, July 24, 7:00 pm. This is the second of a series of three films highlighting environmental issues on the planet. Local sponsorship for this one-time screening is Advanced Lawn and Landscape, LLC, 910 East Poplar Ave, Arkansas City.  

The Story of Plastic takes a sweeping look at the man-made crisis of plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of our planet and the people who inhabit it. Spanning three continents, the film illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage, veritable mountains of trash, rivers and seas clogged with waste, and skies choked with the poisonous emissions from plastic production and processing. With engaging original animation, archival industry footage beginning in the 1930s, and first-person accounts of the unfolding emergency, the film distills a complex problem that is increasingly affecting the planet and its residents. 

“Packaging comprises the largest, and most rapidly growing, category of discards,” wrote journalist Heather Rogers in her book Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage. “Polymers are now ubiquitous in the country’s incinerators and landfills. . .  But because they are resilient and toxic, synthetics cannot be safely returned to the environment. On average, plastics are predicted to stay intact for 200, 400, maybe 1,000 years. . .”  

In Winfield and Cowley County, the recycling program recently returned to pre-curbside protocol. Many of the plastic items once welcomed for recycling are no longer accepted and end up in the county waste stream, where they will remain for those hundreds of years. Local symptoms reflect a large-scale emergency for the nation and the world in dealing with the burgeoning problem of discarded items with plastic content, especially those designed for only a single use before tossing.