The story of this stuff begins in the once-upon-a-time land of the late 1800s, when Coca-Cola was an environmentalist’s dream—served in stylish, refillable glass bottles that were washed and reused dozens of times. Today, however, according to the Story of Stuff website, Coke has become the world's biggest plastic producer and polluter, “pumping out a quarter of a million plastic bottles every minute . . . almost one-quarter (23%) of the world’s PET plastic bottles.”
The annual One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest Global Awards Celebration is gearing up to take place at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, both in person at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., and online virtually anywhere in the world. Featuring the top 10 winning films from among 403 submissions, this event is the first with global reach.
Reserve free tickets here: tinyurl.com/yfc23awards
Germaine Caprio launched Majamas Earth in 1999 after designing, patenting, and selling the first nursing tank top to Nordstrom Department Stores. “I thought,” she says, “I could sell one of these to everybody. I dove in, and I wanted to be big, like Lululemon.” So she added other clothing lines, basics for women (including those who are pregnant or nursing), men, and babies. And the business grew.
Since its inception in 2013, the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest has grown from a local, Oak Park/River Forest, Illinois, project accepting just 12 submissions to a highly competitive international competition garnering 403 submissions. Countries such as Brazil, Australia and Mexico and states such as California, Georgia and Indiana will be represented among this year’s winners at the Global Awards Celebration at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, in person at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., in Chicago, or online virtually anywhere in the world.
Reserve free tickets here: tinyurl.com/yfc23awards
Three mayors ago, in the City that Works, the original Goldblatt Bros. Department Store sat empty on Chicago Avenue in the City’s bustling West Town neighborhood. A shadow of its former distinguished self, the structure was slated for demolition, to be replaced by a Del Ray Farms supermarket. Enter a group of community activists and preservationists, whose objections to the razing prompted the City to buy the vacant store in 1997 and recast it as a municipal office building. The structure, now a Chicago landmark, underwent an extensive rehab to accommodate a senior center, the Chicago Department of Family Services and other City agencies. More recently, part of it was remodeled again to become the West Town branch of the Chicago Public Library.
Last month, the Plastic Pollution Coalition hosted an expert panel discussion, Safe Drinking Water for All: Protecting Communities from Plastic During U.S. Lead Pipe Replacement, for the UN 2023 Water Conference. It highlighted the need to keep plastic out of water systems because of its toxic impacts. Plastics are a health threat at every stage of existence and an environmental injustice issue disproportionately harming rural, low-income, and communities of color.
