Integral Planet is a media production business with a focus on environment, nature conservation and energy issues. We aim to produce coordinated visual media materials that integrate video programs with the Internet in order to maximize public participation and learning.

We seek to inspire creativity, social initiative, and optimism in our audiences. Yes, our planet has problems, but with determination, sound science and political will, much can be achieved to become skillful, respectful partners with nature.

Integral Planet is currently working to launch a national educational project to develop more plastic recycling in Mexico called "The Power of Plastic",  with the goal of inspiring action and problem-solving in relation to plastic recycling as much as informing people about plastic. The project also aims to encourage civic action for environmental cleanups, especially by youth.

The project will produce a set of 5 DVDs for use in schools, colleges, business associations, and for community events. The videos will also be available on The Power of Plastic website, which will provide curriculum materials for teachers, technical instructions for the development of recycling programs and constantly updated information about plastic in Mexico, state by state. It will be an interactive website enabling people to share their own media, news and experiences about recycling and environmental protection.

We are looking for corporate sponsors from companies that use recyclable plastic containers for their products, from companies involved in manufacture and recycling of plastic, and from other donors. We aim to work closely with relevant Government departments and NGO partners in Mexico.

We recently met informally with two Secretariats in Mexico City - SECTUR and SEP, Tourism and Education. In SEP, we met with the department concerned with Social Participation which fosters various citizenship activities in schools and is responsible for creating and supporting School Councils. With around 200,000 of these "Consejos Escolares" now getting going in Mexico, there is a ready-made network for use of The Power of Plastic materials, involving both school children and their parents/the communities. They can also help with stories of school actions which could be included in the project videos, and foster ongoing participation through the proposed interactive Power of Plastic website, i.e., uploading their own videos, photos and text about campaigns and activities relating to plastic and environmental cleanups that protect waterways and oceans of Mexico.

At SECTUR, we met with the dynamic young Director of Policy who is very keen to see the project go ahead. SECTUR would use the materials to support development of environmentally aware tourism in Mexico through their network of some 150 tourist destinations in Mexico. They hold a lot of data on these destinations, some of which will help The Power of Plastic project, and can offer the project access to "best practice" tourist areas where local activists have made a real difference to town and environmental conditions.

As SECTUR already works closely with SEMARNAT, the plan is to hold another meeting soon that includes relevant people from SEMARNAT (Solid Waste and possibly the department for Environmental Education) to discuss plans and ways forward in more detail.

We are hopeful that with formal support in writing from various Government Secretariats, funding to support the first phase of the project - Research/Pre-Production - will be found this year. We will be approaching Mexican industry involved with plastic, either as producers of plastic or as users of plastic for their products. PEMEX will be approached as well.

Private donors with a passion to see Mexico's environment better protected, and more recycling and manufacture with recycled plastic going on in the country, are very likely needed as well.

Much research involving travel around the country to meet people and view potential filming locations has to be done before finalizing the content and the style of the videos and website being created.

By making better use of the mountain of plastic at Mexico's disposal, the vision is for the growth of a sustainable economy that better protects the nation's priceless natural environment.

Caroline Webb is a British documentary film-maker, photographer and writer. She worked for British television and for UN agencies during the 1980's and 1990's. Most of the programs she worked on concerned environmental or health issues in developing countries.

In 2000, she went to do a Master's degree in Philosophy and Cosmology at a graduate school in San Francisco where she did an MA thesis about the philosophical and cosmological aspects of photosynthesis - the cornerstone of life on Earth, the chief engine of planetary evolution over billions of years and the primary process producing biological matter that eventually can be made into plastic.

After graduating, she designed and taught classes for adults about cosmology at a community college just north of San Francisco where she then went to do studies in multimedia for two years, learning video editing, digital photography and website design. She also took courses in the sciences – Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and Environmental Studies.

In 2009, Caroline came to Mexico for the first time and lived for two months in San Blas, Nayarit where she filmed a community effort to clean the beach areas from extensive litter, sponsored by the Mexican Ministry for Environment (SEMARNAT).

In the summer of 2010 she returned to Mexico, this time to Bucerias, a town close to Puerto Vallarta where she filmed the Recyclers of Bucerias video, now in Spanish as well as English.

The Power of Plastic project will be created by a team of highly skilled creative workers from Mexico whose experience in video production, website creation and social media will ensure a project of the highest possible quality as befits the nature of this project and its importance for Mexico - and ultimately for the region as a whole.