By Elizabeth Bacu
River Plastic → Furniture, created by Josie Palaroan, is a short, thought-provoking documentary about a problem most of us rarely consider: What happens to plastic after we throw it away?
Some plastic can be recycled. But difficult-to-recycle plastics, including plastic bags, can end up polluting rivers and eventually reaching the ocean.
The film introduces Sungai Watch, which works to intercept and remove plastic from Indonesia’s waterways, and its sister company Sungai Design, which gives some of that discarded material an entirely new life.
Instead of treating hard-to-recycle river plastic simply as waste, Sungai Design transforms it into durable, beautifully designed furniture. Its signature Ombak Chair, for example, gives new life to approximately 2,000 discarded plastic bags.
That transformation is what makes the film so engaging: a material that once threatened waterways becomes something useful and valuable.
Timely, accessible and hopeful, River Plastic → Furniture shows how cleanup, recycling and creative design can work together—and how one innovative idea in Indonesia can offer a new way of thinking about the global plastic waste problem.
⭐ Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5) — Thought-provoking and engaging.
Creator: Josie Palaroan | Featured Innovators: Sungai Design & Sungai Watch | Series: Problem Solvers | Network: Planet Classroom Network
Elizabeth Bacu is a graduate student of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. She’s pursuing further education in photography and enjoys watching movies in her free time.
