We’ve all been there, trawling through streaming services, seemingly being pushed the same movie/show again and again – which is strange, considering Netflix Australia is reported to have over 3,500 pieces of content available to watch 🧐.

We’ve gone looked for the best content on sustainability, plastic pollution, the environment, and consumer waste. We’ve looked for both free and paid shows, so there’s something for everyone!

We’ve categorised the documentaries in the following topics:

Plastic waste & pollution

A Plastic Ocean

Journalists and scientists come together to travel around the world and explore the state of plastic in our oceans.

A Plastic Wave

  • Where can I watch it: YouTube
  • Length: 24min

A father of two is seeing more and more plastic wash ashore on his beloved home beach. In a bid to discover the route of this problem he embarks on a journey of discovery to educate himself and understand more about the problem. Along the way, he discovers some alarming issues.

The Plastic Problem

  • Where can I watch it: YouTube
  • Length: 54m

By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. It’s an environmental crisis that’s been in the making for nearly 70 years. Plastic pollution is now considered one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals globally.

Corporations

The Devil We Know

Unraveling one of the biggest environmental scandals, citizens in West Virginia take on a powerful corporation after they discover it has knowingly been dumping a toxic chemical – now found in 99.7% of Americans – into the drinking water supply.

Broken Series

  • Where can I watch it: Netflix AUS
  • Length: 4 episodes, 1hr each

Broken is a new investigative documentary series that identifies and deconstructs the systems that make consumer products vulnerable to fraud, corruption, and negligence – often at the expense of public health and safety.

Rotten Series

  • Where can I watch it: Netflix AUS
  • Length: 2 seasons, 6 x 1hr episodes

Local farming is fading as profit margins decide what food makes it to our plates. The new Netflix documentary series Rotten exposes the fraud, corruption, and the consequences on our health of today’s global food industry. Nobody’s hands are clean.

Thought provoking

Brave Blue World

Matt Damon (Actor & Co-founder of water.org) takes us through new technologies and innovations to re-think how we manage water.

The Story of Greenpeace

This is the story of the pioneers who founded Greenpeace and defined the modern green movement.

Our Planet

High definition imagery of our planet and narration by Sir David Attenborough, that’s all you need to know!

Mission Blue

Mission Blue tells the story of world-renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle as she travels the globe on an urgent mission to shed light on the dire condition of Earth’s oceans.

Is our climate doomed?

  • Where can I watch it: YouTube
  • Length: 10min

An animated short about our climate and if it’s really possible to reverse our emissions.

Chasing Coral

Follow the story of renowned marine biologists as he invents the first time-lapse camera to record coral bleaching events as they happen.

Thanks for reading!

We really appreciate you taking the time to review our list of must-watch sustainability and environmental documentaries. If you have watched a show you think will be a great addition to this list, feel free to email us at founders@ecopen.club 🙂

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