Durness's Mr Plastic sparks movie interest
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A scientist who is battling to remove the scourge of plastic from Sutherland's beaches is to be the subject of a film by an award-winning director.
Dr Julien Moreau set up Plastic@bay in Durness two years ago.
Since then he and his team have removed tons of plastic originating from around the world that have landed on local beaches.
The organisation now recycles the marine plastic into things like clocks, table mats and coasters and is working on a scheme to pay fishermen – one of the main culprits of the pollution – to "catch" plastic.
But now Dr Moreau is to be a screen star – by accident.
Multi-award winning director Richard Schindler was visiting Durness to make a documentary about the difficulties of health care in remote areas, when he came across Dr Moreau and the work of Plastic@bay.
Now, a trailer of Edinburgh-based Mr Schindler's conversion to the eco-cause through the mission of Dr Moreau has been produced and talks are underway to raise the additional funding for the main documentary, planned for this year.
"When I visited the North of Scotland as a part of my research for this project, Julien took me to originally one of the nicest beaches of Scotland where we walked in two-metre-high stacks of plastic. It was then I realised that the situation with plastic pollution is critical and not sustainable. I decided to make my peers realize the same as I did," said Mr Schidler.
"It is vital to know how to waste less, reuse more and recycle effectively, and encourage others to do the same."
Producer Katy Kilgour from the Edinburgh College of Art added: "Richard is going to tell this story through Julien, a bio-scientist who has travelled all the way from Senegal to save Scotland from plastic pollution in our seas and strewn across our beaches!
"The film crew have kindly offered to work for free, and another company has kindly donated the insurance costs of equipment and travel. We are also in talks with the Scottish Green Party for funding, however we are trying to raise a small amount of £2000 to cover accommodation, food and transport for the crew to Durness where Julien is based."
In the trailer, Dr Moreau admits the scale of the task is overwhelming.
"I think the aim of having a clean coast is not possible. I think it's too late now," he says.
"But we aim at coping and getting people aware so we stop generating so much litter. Maybe in ten years I would say 'oh yes we can clean-up all of this - no problem.' But just coping would be great. Avoiding plastic to accumulate that would be great."
The film will follow Mr Schindler's own change of behaviour in reducing the use of plastic after meeting Dr Moreau.
And it would be spread online on YouTube and through the University of Edinburgh social media as a part of the #ZeroWaste UoE campaign and it would be first screened at environmental film festivals etc. It will also be offered to main TV channels and environmental groups and educational establishments.
Th film's synopsis says: "Julien turns on his computer and shows Richard a video of how plastic accumulates in the bay just behind his lab over time. After Julien shows Richard a picture how he literally had to swim through two-metre high stacks of plastic brought to the beach by a storm, Richard is astonished.
"In Julien’s garden, all four friends participate in a tour where Julien shows them all kinds of plastic from all parts of the world, which he found in the little bay."
Together they snorkel in a bay and discover a lot of plastic in the sea and bring it to the Plastic Lab, where they melt it and create a phone case.
"As Richard and his friends leave Durness and drive back to Edinburgh, Richard asks them in the car: 'If Julien and his friends manage to deal with plastic in Durness, with such limited resources and access that we even have to drive on a single track road among sheep to get there, why can’t we do the same as Julien in a civilized city like Edinburgh?”
Plastic@Bay previously received nearly £12,000 to purchase an electric quad bike and trailer, which helps remove rubbish.
The money came from FLAG (Highland and Moray Fisheries Local Action Group). Ironically much of the plastic waste Plastic@Bay collects is discarded fishing gear.
The campaigners were also awarded £65,000 for its unique marine recycling centre - believed to be the first of its type in Scotland.
Those interested in helping with the film contact katykilgourfilm@gmail.com
