Garbage Island

Garbage Island

2008, Environment  -    -  Playlist 93 Comments
7.03
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Ratings: 7.03/10 from 174 users.

Garbage IslandVice sails to the North Pacific Gyre, collecting point for all of the ocean's flotsam and home of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: a mythical, Texas-sized island made entirely of our trash.

As long as it's existed, the middle of the Gyre has been a naturally occurring point of accumulation for all the drifting trash in its half of the ocean. Once upon a time, flotsam circled into the middle of the Gyre and (because up until the past century everything in the world was biodegradable) was broken down into a nutrient-rich stew perfect for fish and smaller invertebrates to chow on.

The problem with plastic is, unless you hammer it with enough pressure to make a diamond, it never fully disintegrates. Over time plastic will photodegrade all the way down to the individual polymers, but those little guys are still in it for the long haul. This means that except for the slim handful of plastics designed specifically to biodegrade, every synthetic molecule ever made still exists.

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Steven Francis
Steven Francis
3 years ago

I wanted to show this to my Middle School students and had to stop the “Documentary???” Due to the potty mouth reporter on the boat. I am not against a curse word or two, However this guy dropped a “F” bomb every 5 secs. On the documentary.

Kirsten
Kirsten
6 years ago

The underlying message of this documentary is important for everyone to see but....
What is with the awkward make out scene?? This is an environmental documentary, why do we care about who picked up who on their trip out to sea? And the guy constantly dropping the f-bomb made it hard to watch. These 3 VICE children (because they act like children for the majority of the film) came across incredibly ignorant and immature. Huge thumbs down.

Buttsalle
Buttsalle
6 years ago

I like how the comment by "Josie" implies that normal people relate to idiot behaviour. They should make a documentary about that.

Sue
Sue
6 years ago

This would have been a great documentary to show my students so they would be informed of this travesty. However, I cannot show this to my middle school students because of the language.

John
John
7 years ago

67 min documentary about a boat ride to hawaii, never did see a"Garbage Island" or anything close to it.. complete waste of my time

amy Lateran
amy Lateran
7 years ago

Why complain/whine about the garbage in the ocean when the garbage coming out of their mouths was just as disgusting. It was hard for us to tolerate too. At least the ocean garbage is silent.

Ariel
Ariel
8 years ago

At about 4 minutes, the captain says there is no red/orange plastic bits because fish and birds eat it thinking it's shrimp. Shrimp only becomes that colour after being cooked.. doubt the "shrimp" are cooked before the aforementioned animals consume it... Just saying.

burton
burton
8 years ago

The bespectacled, hipster doofus nerd with the extremely punchable face and who can't seem to get through a sentence without uttering the F word made what should've been a serious documentary into one that I could barely get through.
Gawd!!!!!!!

yy
yy
8 years ago

just a bunch of immature idiots. I didn't learn anything about the Gyre at all

John M.
John M.
8 years ago

20 minutes watching, still no island of plastic...boring....stopped watching. Poorly done!

mdc86
mdc86
8 years ago

This is an interesting topic but the way this documentary has been done is ridiculously crappy. There have been so many non-related (e.g. the kiss between the guy and girl from vice - so cheesy and unnecessary) scenes that should have been left out to pave way for more substantial content. There are ways to make documentaries less boring and more relatable but this isn't one of them. I seriously hope someone would do a better job of exposing this garbage island in a more professional and educated way.

Brett Stich
Brett Stich
8 years ago

XD

Brett Stich
Brett Stich
8 years ago

lol this is actually the worst documentary i've ever seen, and i've watched one about barney the purple dinosaur

Lawstudent
Lawstudent
9 years ago

I'm writing a legal paper on floating debris and was considering using this as a citable source ... until I watched it.

Leahh
Leahh
9 years ago

This idea is a great one to document but this guys mouth is just as toxic as the waste he is documenting. He is not a serious reporter and who can respect that?

Danny wood
Danny wood
9 years ago

in middle of ocean and come up with not one but like plastic pieces frack u and all gore!!!!

lpen7
lpen7
10 years ago

I was really interested in watching this, until I did. Felt like watching a groups bad vacation video! I'm not particularly offended by "f-bombs" but their constant, often gratuitous, use makes the makers seem uneducated & unprofessional. Production in general was poor but could have been easily tolerated had the substance been there. I suppose research or a different doc is in order for me.

Robert England
Robert England
10 years ago

He said the F word 3 times in one sentence in the first 2 minutes... Would be nice if CHILDREN could watch this since it concerns them even more than us.

Travis Sichel
Travis Sichel
10 years ago

Encountered an island of trash couples days off the coast of Brazil. 99% of it was actually floating a good foot underwater. But I hopped off the boat and walked along it and it totally sustained my body weight! pretty sure it was a good meter thick.

Took us hours to get boat out of it as we were stuck. I imagine it was a good 100 meters wide but who knows. we hit the edge quite by accident.

Hazmatte
Hazmatte
10 years ago

Someone please remake this film sans the incredibly annoying, narcissistic, unenthused and seemingly uneducated people.

Francois
Francois
10 years ago

1 hour of stupid people on a boat and 7 mins of documentary. I forgot there is 30 sec of romance...It's more like a bad vacation home video

Josie
Josie
10 years ago

Who cares about the language used. It's supposed to be relatable. "Normal" people experiencing extraordinary things that show the disastrous effect we have on our planet. There are enough documentaries with straight laced experts, scientists and political representatives and it's fantastic. We need those, but we also need all sorts of perspectives at this point to show that this issue is truly affecting everyone. You can be a bunch of kids on a boat and see how monstrous the affects of plastic are. Agreed, there could have been more stats.

Preshod cole
Preshod cole
10 years ago

I find it funny how people can watch something so disturbing, and only feel the need to write about the f*cking curse words being used, just shows how most probably wont do anything but watch and recommend to friends, that's why they need it holsum

BanishedJester
BanishedJester
10 years ago

Why do we have a name for everyone? Hipsters, goths, democrats, republicans...
I think we should discard this label language and refer to only people or men, women, boys and girls.

The documentary was alright. The language was sloppy for a doc and it is sad that these young men and women have to see what their predecessors have left for us. Does this not make a statement against what is called and honest living? If you grow and use nature to furnish our goods we find less accumulation of waste. It simply composts. But if you work in industry what are you doing? Are you not another cog in the murder machine spitting out more consumer trash for the next generation to deal with? Are not drug makers who use petrochemicals and other synthetics just dumping more poison into our biosphere for later cleanup and removal? Or rather bio-filtration...ie you and I are the filters. Cannabis plastics go away. But our companies don't use them. Huh?

Eduardo leal
Eduardo leal
10 years ago

Does any one if there's a subtitle version in spanish of this documentary, I would love to show it to my environmental impact class here at the University of Guadalajara

Kate Valleri
Kate Valleri
10 years ago

The concept of this doco was brilliant, and just what I'd like to show to my students. However, after watching the first twenty minutes, I can't help but agree with the comments below. Terribly produced, narcissistic and painful to watch. An embarrassing representation of today's youth.

Michael Oconnor
Michael Oconnor
11 years ago

I do not understand why he has to swear all the time. I mean, sure everyone swears; But this is a documentary for the public to see. The public includes younger viewers who may be interested in learning about pollution. If he shut up for five minutes, and actually did some real research he might have made a good, educational documentary. The only ones doing any work were the captain and his assistants. The crew vice sent in seemed like a bunch of college dropouts. I learned more about how big of a loser that Morton guy was. Hes scared of water, and gets sick at the thought of anything out of his comfort zone, such as a fish being filleted or a boat rocking. Why did they send such a seemingly uneducated baby to research pollution. I enjoyed what I saw, but the Vice crew did nothing to make the documentary good. The bearded fellow wasn't bad. He did not do much, but he wasn't detrimental to the film.

Nakor4Twunny
Nakor4Twunny
11 years ago

The dolphins were cute. :D

UnderfoundGreebies
UnderfoundGreebies
11 years ago

There should be a warning about the explicit dialogue, My 5 year old daughter got a "F" word about thirty seconds in....THANKS ALOT

apaulocreed
apaulocreed
11 years ago

And as I watched the end,seeing the bold boy expressing his outrage before he returns to his cozy upperclass background&the girl smiling with a bottle of beer on the beach they're both bitching about...I pat myself on the back for being wise enough to constantly skip forward&summarize it to a 12 minute experience=Phwew!!!

James Robert Edwards
James Robert Edwards
11 years ago

Sickening; and very well made documentarfy

Patricia
Patricia
11 years ago

It´s so sad to see how these hipsters suffered so.

Patricia
Patricia
11 years ago

Hipsters are funny.
It´s so ironic.

Mark Waller
Mark Waller
11 years ago

There are two types of people. Those who mindlessly consume without thinking about the consequences, and the others. Which are you?

max0680
max0680
11 years ago

this documentary has a good message in it we should take seriously, but it was produced by a bunch of wannabe enviromentalists. the guy thinks he is a bada** with his frequent cussing. he behaves like a braindead i*iot.

Lindsey Rice
Lindsey Rice
11 years ago

The documentary is not about the characters. What we have is one hell of a visualization of the sum that stems from our non-nonchalant use of plastic. These are atrocious actions that are irredeemable are killing the very last resource that mankind will have, water. As George Carlin says, "Mother Earth is fine, its the HUMANS that are ******!"

Sol Ruiz
Sol Ruiz
11 years ago

Too much plastic and too many "like, like" in this video. The guy is r*tarded, and the girl is a bimbo. Who sent these people out to do any research!

McKenzie
McKenzie
11 years ago

I understand that there's always going to be a sense of judgement towards the so called "cool hipsters" from California, and yes the do excessively swear. Look at the actual point of the documentary and look around the necessary stuff that is blinding you from the main point. The idea of this documentary is the journey these guys take to find this island made of trash and their reaction since they are obviously the ones filming and at there experiencing it.
Stop judging and being blind and open your minds to the pollution that is covering this planet and do something about it.

biskits86913
biskits86913
11 years ago

This documentary sucks! Iv seen a few vice docs and they are all fairly bad. No facts and analysis, just footage and opinion with the odd quote on screen.......pshhh

biskits86913
biskits86913
11 years ago

this guy is a knob

Steve Thompson
Steve Thompson
11 years ago

The narrator in this film is a 20 something braindead i*iot whose sole descriptive vocabulary consists of " fkng" this and "sht" that. I think he thinks he's cool. He makes this unwatchable.

Matt van den Ham
Matt van den Ham
11 years ago

When I was growing up the school system and the media really stressed that 'we shouldn't pollute or litter because some things like wrappers and plastic bottles aren't biodegradable' and by law can write you a ticket. Yes I understand that it's a good practice to teach children to keep their environment clean, but ticketing citizens for 'polluting' is ridiculous, it should be up to the manufacturer's to make biodegradable products!! And where do you think all the garbage goes?? it just gets buried in the ground.

With all the laws surrounding the environment in the public sector, how can the Government be so ignorant to such things? The public needs to wake up to the use of harmful plastics to our environment. We should only be using plastics for things that are intended to last a lifetime, not water bottles etc.

Irvine Ali
Irvine Ali
11 years ago

32yrs ago Carl Sagan warned of both garbage and plastic waste especially in the area of Hawaii, but what is the answer, in the case of plastic waste what do we do with it, I agree with what OCmackdaddy says but it's not the total answer.

OCmackdaddy
OCmackdaddy
11 years ago

I don't know why there are so many haters on the language used on this doco. And sure they're not scientific professionals but they are making a point and getting out there to create some awareness for the cause that they believe in!!! GOOD F*CKING JOB VICE !
I think this was a good doco because ultimately it makes you think about the fact that there is a whole lot of crap floating around in the ocean - as a direct cause of human consumption and globalisation. This crap is disrupting the flow of the natural environment around us, so what are we going to do about it? We can all make a small difference, buy a green shopping bag for $1, re-use a plastic coffee cup in cafe's. Get off your ass and buy some fresh fruit and veg and prepare your own meals at home....Quite frankly though, this is one small example of how humans are impacting on the natural environment, and its sad that we have little or no power in influencing the big players - mining/oil companies / mass corporations and governments!?!?!?

Simon Gramstrup
Simon Gramstrup
11 years ago

A documentary about how to take a serious subject and totally **** it up by turning it into a reality style 'road'-trip for a bunch of nobodies! :-/

Don't bother watching this..

prakash lamichhane
prakash lamichhane
11 years ago

Tempo.....it's not only about using but about how and where it ends and its consequences?

MrTemp0
MrTemp0
11 years ago

We are aware of the plastic situation but you forget that there is a price to pay for having nice things and modern technology and plastics is one of them.
I see in your video you yourself are using plastics to hold some of your supplies in and other stuff that just would not be made without your so called evil plastics of the world.
So you are hypocrites to suggest banning plastics whilst using them yourself.
Would you be satisfied if we go back to the caveman era without all the new modern technology ?
So make up your minds !
Caveman or live and manage what we have now !

seamus watson
seamus watson
11 years ago

With all the crap we eat and the fact that most of our surfaces are covered in urine and feces, it's a wonder we haven't died off from disease. Its so depressing that there is no answer to this.

seamus watson
seamus watson
11 years ago

If we stop using these materials now and they never go away. What is the solution.

LIVEFROMLIMBO
LIVEFROMLIMBO
11 years ago

you can actually just skip the first half, it just shows them getting ready for their trip. the second and last parts are the best, in terms of finding this "garbage island." people on this comment thread are complaining about the presenters in this "doc", but really, get over yourself. what i got from the show was that essentially, we are all living on "garbage island", by introducing compounds that are not biodegradable. and also that the debris is sometimes so small that it is changing the physical make up of our oceans. i'll agree that this is not a very serious doc, i think more screen time with the spanish scientist on board would have been nice, but the point was made. also, this whole thing could have been 20 minutes long, it didn't need to be over an hour.