One of Mexico’s coolest holiday destinations has a garbage problem

A documentary film about a “plastic crisis” in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, premiered on YouTube last week.

Made by English filmmakers Jack Lawes and Tamara Davison for their “Outlawes” project, Paradise in Crisis combines graphic images of plastic pollution with stunning footage of the coastline of Puerto Escondido, dubbed “the coolest holiday hotspot for 2022” by British newspaper The Times.

Through interviews with environmental activists, waste pickers at a local dump and professional recyclers, among others, the film delves into Puerto’s plastic problem and the reasons behind it – namely a growing population and booming tourist industry.

It also looks at initiatives designed to improve the situation and encourages viewers to do what they can to help alleviate the plastic and broader garbage problem, wherever they are in the world.

“Puerto Escondido’s plastic crisis is sadly not unique. Nor is the solution to this wide-reaching problem straightforward,” Lawes says in a voiceover before Lorenzo Castillo Herrera, founder of a clean-up committee and president of the local restaurant owners’ association, offers some sage advice.

“Pay attention to everything around you and try to live in harmony with what nature gives you,” he says.

Paradise in Crisis is the latest of several short films Lawes and Davison have made about Mexico. Among the others, all of which can be watched on the Outlawes YouTube channel, is one about the Island of the Dolls in Mexico City’s Xochimilco borough.

Mexico News Daily