An environmentalist and a plastics representative walk into a bar. The environmentalist says, “Plastic is killing the planet.” The plastics representative responds, “But plastics save resources by being so efficient!” They roll their eyes at one another and sit at opposite ends of the bar. And so continues the Great Plastics Divide.
Can the differences ever be reconciled? Let’s look at each perspective and, yes, some possible solutions.
Plastic has long been targeted as demonstrative of our throwaway society, our culture of excess, of waste. This image of plastics is so prevalent that you see it in contemporary art. Brooklyn-based artist Dana Bell recently thermoformed bio-plastic art as critique of our contemporary modes of production and consumption. Her project abstract reads:
“My newest body of work is based on the problems of production found in fast fashion, limited-use furnishings/decor, and commercial packaging. Using the very tools, materials and techniques behind the modalities of mass production, I am creating sculptures, paintings, and photographs. In doing so, I seek to develop a body of work which speaks in critical dialogue with over-production, over-consumption, and the disposable desire that holds accumulative manufacture together, and propels the system of proliferating waste…By re-contextualizing the materiality of waste and industrial byproducts and transforming the detritus into intentional art objects, I aim to focus attention upon, and to denormalize escalating waste culture.”
But #plasticsmakeitpossible proponents tweet alongside stories of how plastic packaging protects food the longest, reducing spoilage. Natural capital accounting firm TruCost supports these arguments, finding that plastics are in fact the preferable environmental material when compared with alternatives intended to perform the same function.
But when has science ever trumped public perspective? Take the plastic shopping bag—a waterproof, durable, lightweight packet capable of holding more than a thousand pounds its weight, soon to become a relic of modern convenience, thanks to bag bans aimed at its eradication.
Thus, plastics making it possible doesn’t replace the powerful images of albatrosses with plastic debris in their decaying stomachs, or children in India sifting through mounds of plastic garbage; it doesn’t change the economics of recycling, where much post-consumer plastic is of too little value to recover; and it doesn’t help position the industry toward a sustainable future where plastics is regarded as the true engineering marvel it is, not the environmental burden it is perceived to be.
Some argue that plastic isn’t the problem: people, policy and/or waste management schemes are. If we facilitate more recycling at the municipal level, and encourage the responsible disposal of plastic at the behavioral level, through education, incentives and investment in the recovery infrastructure, then we won’t see plastics in our waterways or landfills.
These remedies to the problem of plastic waste, though helping to move the needle, are too granular. Even if all of the best practices were sophistically implemented, it would not fundamentally change the public’s perception of plastic, because it would not solve the global problem of plastic waste.
What is the Solution Then?
The solution to the war of plastic ideologies becomes clear. The sociological construction of plastics as symbolic of waste culture—communicated through Bell’s art—will only be replaced with proper representation, when the global problem of plastic waste is tackled. Perception is power, and the perception of plastic can’t oscillate between good and evil, but fall on the truth.
The economy of waste is not divorced from capitalism. In the majority of America, waste management is funded by taxes and managed by municipalities. In countries with Extended Producer Responsibility programs, however, industry funds waste management and private companies compete for the management of the waste. America’s plastic recycling rates have stagnated while countries with EPR boast high plastic recovery and recycling rates. Economics and policy therefore dictate the success of waste management.
To read the full story, visit http://www.packagingdigest.com/sustainable-packaging/how-to-change-plastics-waste-reputation-2017-08-31.