Near the beginning of the 1967 Mike Nichols film, The Graduate, college graduate Ben Braddock gets some friendly advice from one of his parents’ friends… a certain Mr. McGuire, who seems to know something about plastics.
In this clip from the movie:
“I want to say just one word to you,” says Mr. McQuire, in a slightly conspiratorial voice. “Just one word. Are you listening?”
“Yes, sir, I am,” says Ben.
“Plastics,” says Mr. McQuire.
Ben fails, momentarily, to grasp the importance of Mr. McQuire’s comment. “Exactly how do you mean?”
“There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”
“Yes, sir, I will.”
“Enough said. That’s a deal.”
I didn’t see this film when it first hit the theaters and became the highest grossing film of 1967… I was only three years old, and my parents thought a film about an older woman seducing a college graduate might not be suitable.
Which was probably the right decision.
Anyway, I managed to avoid seeing the film until after my own college graduation… at which point, I thought I might benefit from Mike Nichols’ insights into life as a graduate. Unfortunately, I was never seduced by an attractive older woman like Ms. Robinson, so maybe it didn’t really help after all.
Plastics don’t actually play much of a role in Nichol’s film, except for Ben’s brief conversation with Mr. McGuire. And the film ends well before Ben lands a job with Dow Chemical Company. But not before he falls in love with Ms. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine.
Director Mike Nichols seemed to be more interested in love, than in plastics. Which I can certainly understand. But this was, after all, 1967.
In 2023, plastics have become more important than love.
Take my car, for example. The engine is not made of plastic (thank heavens) but almost the entire interior is. Even the parts that don’t look like plastic.
Most of the things in my kitchen are plastic.
Most of my high-performance clothes are plastic. And my shoes.
I know. Most of us probably don’t think of our clothing as plastic. Here’s a quote from a documentary produced by Patagonia.
Plastics are essential to building durable, high-performance clothing. But they’re also accelerating the environmental crisis, from the fossil fuels used to make materials like polyester to the plastic pollution that piles up once that clothing has been tossed. Through the eyes of a lawyer, a climate reporter, and a Patagonia designer, ‘The Monster In Our Closet’ uncovers the dangerous threads that connect the clothing industry to the oil and gas industry and what we can all do on the individual, business, and government levels to create the change that our planet needs…
Something that struck theater audiences as quaintly amusing in 1967 — that brief scene of young Ben Braddock naïvely promising to consider a future in plastics — has become somewhat less funny in 2023.
According to a scientific report from 2021, which you can download here, we appear to be carelessly poisoning our oceans.
Under a business-as-usual scenario and in the absence of necessary interventions, the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could nearly triple from some 9-14 million tons per year in 2016 to a projected 23-37 million tons per year by 2040…
When plastics break down in the marine environment, they transfer microplastics, synthetic and cellulosic microfibres, toxic chemicals, metals and micropollutants into waters and sediments and eventually into marine food chains…
The links between exposure to chemicals associated with plastics in the marine environment and human health are unclear. However, some of these chemicals are associated with serious health impacts, especially in women…
I will admit that I’ve stopped using the plastic bags at City Market because they now cost 10 cents each, and I can easily carry the two or three food items that I’m able to afford on each shopping trip, without the extra plastic bag. I’m getting pretty good at balancing several items as I walk to the parking lot.
Because… well, my fruits and vegetables are already in plastic bags when I get to the check-out. And my bottled water is in plastic, of course. And the bread comes in its own plastic bag. And if I buy chicken or pork ribs, it comes wrapped in plastic. If I do happen to drop this or that item… well, it’s already wrapped up in protective plastic.
So I don’t need to spend that extra 10 cents, to kill more fish, and women.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.