Plastic turbulence: illusions of containment, clean-up, and control, and the emergent promise of diverse economies

Summary, in English

Global ecosystems are currently buckling under the weight of “plastics turbulence:” the condition of ubiquitous plastic entanglement within all human and non-human natural systems. This chapter argues that “global plastics governance” - the fragmented and variable political and institutional response to the plastics crisis - suffers from strategies that are doomed to fail because they miss what is at stake. We criticize current initiatives as falling prey to illusions of containment, clean-up and control. These initiatives all assume that plastic turbulence can be addressed without altering our core, economic relationships to plastics. To dispel the illusions, the chapter suggests an alternative path forward that is defined by “diverse economies,” which recognize the diversity of economic activity that operates beyond or outside the profit motive. The chapter gives three brief examples of such diverse economies and reflects on their potential to address the plastics crisis.

• Author: Ekaterina Chertkovskaya; Jacob Hasselbalch; Johannes Stripple
• Editor: Peter Dauvergne; Leah Shipton
• Department/s: Environmental and Energy Systems Studies; Department of Political Science
• Publishing year: 2023
• Language: English
• Pages: 25-36
• Publication/Series: Global Environmental Politics in a Turbulent Era
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781802207149.00009
• Document type: Book chapter
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Topic: Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
• Keywords: alternative organizing; circular economy; diverse economies; governance; plastics; waste
• Status: Published
• Project: Plastics in a circular society: Alternative organising beyond resource efficiency
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISBN: 9781802207132; ISBN: 9781802207149