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Closer to Home

This season's unusually frigid winter (dumping snow on 49 states) and the recent email admission from environmental scientist (dispelling the hype surrounding Global Warming) have some people reconsidering the importance of going green. If skepticism convinces us to forget about curbing greenhouse gas emissions, offsetting our carbon footprint, turning to more sustainable power, then maybe the new documentary Garbage: The Revolution Starts at Home, will bring the message closer to where we live.

If “seeing is believing” than filmmaker’s, Andrew Nisker, latest project should persuade Doubting Thomases that the issue of careless human consumption is a physically real problem after all. How much does one family consume and discard over a 3-month period is answered in eye-popping detail.

The family under scrutiny, Glen and Michele McDonald, agree to account for every piece of trash they create. Rather than haul away with the weekly garbage pickup, the McDonald’s trash quickly piles up in their garage. Nisker follows the trash cycle to expose the ugly truth of where our trash goes once it’s out of our sight. From kitchen scraps, bathroom waste, plastic water bottles and shopping bags, to the energy used to power Christmas lights and the fuel burned driving around town, viewers will begin to assess their own consumption and waste.

The social experiment and modern day archeological dig reveals what and how much our average society regularly uses and throws out. Without the unnecessary drama of witnessing a sea turtle choking on one of millions of plastic waste that ends up in the ocean, the visual magnitude of 3 months’ worth of household trash and where it eventually ends up should be enough to question our consuming behaviors. Thankfully the film is not available in Smell-O-Vision.

Show times on the Sundance Channel: Tuesday, February 23 (9 PM), Wednesday, February 24 (4:15 AM), and Sunday, February 28 (11 AM). The film is also available for purchase as an educational tool.