Plastic waste can be found everywhere on Earth – and consumers are increasingly aware of the problem. But changing our consumption practices at the scale required to have a significant impact remains challenging. Plastic waste has steadily been accumulating across inland waterways, urban and rural landscapes, and along the shorelines of even the most faraway places, such as the Galapagos archipelago – an irreplaceable and protected ecosystem. A stark reminder of plastic’s sticky embeddedness in our natural environment is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a monstrous flotilla of marine debris – mostly plastic waste – estimated to be three times the size of France. Plastics are even turning up in the melting glaciers of Everest. Beyond the dramatic invasion of plastics throughout our natural environment, microscopic plastics have been found in different mammals. In Kenya, large numbers of donkeys were found dead with stomachs full of plastic waste, while researchers have previously highlighted similar issues with seabirds, seals, dolphins, whales, and farm animals. Most recently, plastic particles have been found within human lung tissue, placentas, and testicles, raising concerns about the increased health risks of our reliance on such a stubborn substance. Despite these realisations, the global production of plastics, calculated to be more than 400 million tons in 2022, is expected to increase at staggering rates. The latest figures show that we produce approximately 2.5 million tons of plastic packaging waste in the UK each year. Alarmingly, less than 50% is recycled. Against this backdrop, we are now facing one of the most significant global environmental and societal challenges. TURNING OFF THE PLASTICS TAP Understanding how we can ‘turn off the plastics tap’ requires that significant attention is given to the ways we produce, design, consume and dispose of plastics. Overturning the standard linear take-make-waste model of plastics production and consumption in favour of a circular pattern of reuse, recycle, or compost has become a key focus for governments, NGOs, packaging manufacturers, retailers, waste management organisations, and consumers. The everyday choices and behaviours of consumers are recognised as playing a pronounced role in the move towards circularity. Often, we hear about attempts to educate the public by telling them about the environmental consequences of plastic waste, or about the types of plastic packaging that can be recycled via their local council recycling bin and the types of plastic packaging that cannot. Other strategies involve attempts to persuade people or gently nudge their behaviour to encourage the making of ‘better choices’. What these strategies have in common is that they assume that people’s behaviours are driven by attitudes which can be shaped, and that fundamentally consumers choose to do one thing or another based upon these malleable attitudes, thus establishing consumer choice – and the larger idea of consumer sovereignty – as the main cause and solution for plastic waste. But what if consumers’ abilities to act on their attitudes and make sovereign choices are limited? Current nudge strategies not only ignore the significant elements that shape the availability and affordability of choices, but also undermine the many 20 |
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=