This Friday, May 17, World Recycling Day, the documentary "Recycling in Portugal" will premiere on the Odisseia channel, authored by actress and activist Sandra Cóias and director Pedro Rego.

It is the first major documentary about recycling in Portugal and covers the issues of excessive consumption and the seven 'R's' of sustainability: rethink, refuse, reduce, repair, reuse, recycle, and reintegrate.

A work, as the actress explained to Notícias ao Minuto, that is not only a warning about a problem that affects the entire population, but also a way of helping society understand the need to change behaviors regarding waste and the choice of materials that are consumed. All because "at this moment we have a common problem, garbage".

"This theme emerged around the time of the 25th anniversary of recycling in Portugal. I have been recycling since it began here. In fact, I lived in other countries where recycling was already being done and in Portugal it was not and that confused me a lot. Despite that, I continue to see garbage in the street, people continue to intentionally throw cigarette butts, papers on the street, they go to the beach and leave their garbage in a corner, they go to the countryside and leave their waste behind. That always confuses me a lot. And after years of preaching about recycling, I realized that there are still many doubts, many myths and it was exactly with this objective of warning about the change in behavior that I decided to make this documentary", revealed Sandra Cóias, recalling that "we have goals to meet by 2030 that are far from being achieved".

"We should recycle double what we recycle"

"We recycle about 30% in Portugal and we should be recycling double that. If after 27 years we have only managed to reach this number, that is worrying. Of course recycling is not the solution to our problems, but if we could recycle correctly, if each one did their part, we would have a completely different planet. A completely different country", stressed the activist.

The documentary, which was filmed over the course of a year in various parts of the country, such as Lisbon, Porto, Barreiro, Setúbal, Sesimbra, Alentejo and Bragança, features several renowned participants who have contributed, over the years, to having a cleaner society.

Among them are primatologist Jane Goodall, Ana Trigo Morais CEO of Sociedade Ponto Verde, Filipe Duarte Santos, president of the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development and Inês Costa, former Secretary of State for the Environment.

"Lack of civic-mindedness"

Some of these participants in the documentary point to "the lack of civic-mindedness" and the "people's indifference" as the main drivers of the garbage problem in Portugal,

"There continues to be an enormous lack of civic-mindedness. I continue to observe people anywhere in any part of the country, on the trips that I take, opening a pack of cigarettes and throwing them on the ground, they finish smoking and throw the cigarette butt on the ground, when it is forbidden and there have already been so many warnings. There is a total indifference, a lack of civic-mindedness. People are so distracted, so busy. It is an unthinking act, they don't even think about it often, they do it because they think that the ground is the right place to throw garbage, forgetting that this is everyone's home. We don't live alone, we have to have respect for others. I have already participated in countless beach clean-ups, in campaigns to clean Portugal and I have seen things... People put garbage in unimaginable places", described Sandra Cóias to Notícias ao Minuto.

Despite there already being a lot of information about recycling and how to do it correctly, as well as awareness campaigns about the theme on social networks, media outlets and schools, in Sandra Cóias' opinion more needs to be done.

"Recycling is not a very appealing theme. It is an issue that many people continue to not give much importance to. Our television channels, the series, soap operas, all of these things play a very important role because people consume a lot of television. More campaigns are needed. Warnings on social networks. Work in schools. There already are. But more needs to be done. More warnings, talking more about the theme. The information exists. We have the WasteApp, for example, which says everything about recycling. I think that there is still a lack of understanding of how much our daily actions, what we do, the implications that this has on our environment and on our life, on our planet, on our ecosystem. I think that this warning is still missing. After 27 years of recycling in Portugal, if we are still doing so little, it is because something here is missing. We have to insist more, we have to call people's attention more", stressed the artist.

And the documentary "Recycling in Portugal" is a great help in this sense, since within the theme, it touches on various issues that affect our country.

"Recycling implies a lot. It implies excessive consumption. Today, we consume more and more, like never before. We have to talk about electronic waste. About tires, overalls, toys, coffee capsules. There are so many themes, so many things to talk about, that I thought that they all should be in the documentary", related Sandra Cóias to Notícias ao Minuto.

"We have never consumed so much"

About excessive consumption, one of the great problems of modern society, the activist reiterated that "we have never consumed so much and that the planet's resources continue to be finite", despite the fact that people continue to believe that "this will never end", "that there will be no consequences".

"And we are already starting to see the consequences every day, in the news, for example, of how our ecosystem is becoming unbalanced. Climate change is increasingly visible. There are situations that we thought would only happen in 20 or 30 years and they are starting to happen now. The scientists are always warning about this situation", she lamented.

Besides the environmental problems, the excessive production of garbage also brings us great financial and social challenges, such as "living with garbage at the door, which is not pleasant", "the displacement of people" due to climate change and even arguments between those who recycle and those who do not, with the application of fees to those who do not follow the rules.

"The most appropriate thing would be to have a society that does not produce garbage because nature does not produce garbage, only we, humans. I think that this ends up affecting us. Several places have already implemented a fee that penalizes those who do not recycle. So that people understand that they are not acting correctly. We have to become aware that everything that we do not do well ends up having consequences in our life", concluded Sandra Cóias.

The premiere of the documentary "Recycling in Portugal" on the Odisseia channel is scheduled for 10:30 pm this Friday. Watch the trailer here

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