Welcome to Unwrapping Plastics! This series, developed by MRWMD intern Andrew Jarvis in June 2020, is comprised of a set of blog posts and video lectures intended to provide an overview of the nature of the global plastics crisis. The end goal is for readers to leave with a fundamental understanding of the unique geography of the post-National Sword plastics crisis, including the linkage between plastic production and resource management; environmental justice as it relates to plastics; and critiques of the main approaches to plastic pollution management. It is hoped that the series might serve as a community resource on plastics and plastic pollution.

As the Public Education and Outreach Intern at MRWMD, I have had the opportunity to engage with recycling and waste reduction projects, two of my passions. This project expands upon my undergraduate research, which focused on the geography of waste, public engagement with plastic pollution, and international environmental management. I am excited to make this content available to the public. I first became interested in plastics when I studied abroad in Bangkok and Oslo – very different cities with different relationships with waste, but united by the common problem of plastic pollution.

We live in an exciting time. The state of the environment, and people’s relationship to the natural world, is dire. But there is immense opportunity for change. I believe that change will come soon. Plastic pollution is a rapidly developing issue; media coverage of polluted environments together with surges in production can be disheartening at best and overwhelming at worst. But people aren’t powerless. People have the power to make change and expand that change through social networks. Every action, every decision, every post, matters. MRWMD wants to be a resource, and recognizes that plastic pollution is a crisis at the global scale and that there is a need for waste reduction at both the producer and consumer levels.

Further Reading:

• Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. 2018. “Plastic Pollution.” Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
• Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). 2020. Pandemic Crisis, Systemic Decline: Why Exploiting the COVID-19 Crisis Will Not Save the Oil, Gas, and Plastic Industries. 28 pages. https://www.ciel.org/reports/pandemic-crisis-systemic-decline/
• PBS Frontline. 2020. Plastic Wars. Available at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plastic-wars/
• Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). (2019). Discarded: Communities on the Frontlines of the Global Plastic Crisis. 46 pages. https://wastetradestories.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Discarded-Report-April-22.pdf
• Kaza, Silpa; Yao, Lisa C.; Bhada-Tata, Perinaz; Van Woerden, Frank. 2018. What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050. Urban Development, Washington, DC: World Bank. 295 pages. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30317
• Discard Studies. n.d. “What is discard studies?” Discard Studies. https://discardstudies.com/what-is-discard-studies/
• Mosbergen, D. 2019. “Here’s Why America is Dumping its Trash in Poorer Countries.” Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/03/heres-why-america-is-dumping-its-trash-in-poorer-countries/
• Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). 2017. Fueling Plastics: Fossils, Plastics, and Petrochemical Feedstocks. 5 pages. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Fueling-Plastics-Fossils-Plastics-Petrochemical-Feedstocks.pdf
• Holden, E. 2019. “Will a push for plastics turn Appalachia into next ‘Cancer Alley’?” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/plastics-appalachia-next-cancer-alley-fracking-public-health-ethane
• Lartey, J. and Laughland, O. 2019. Almost every household has someone that has died of cancer. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2019/may/06/cancertown-louisana-reserve-special-report
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2020. Garbage Patches. NOAA Marine Debris Program. https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html

Unwrapping Plastics                                          Video Presentations

Part 1: Plastics and climate change

Part 2: Impacts of plastic pollution

Part 3: Management of plastic pollution

Part 4: Solutions to the plastics crisis

About the author: Andrew Jarvis is a recent UCLA graduate with a B.A. in International Development Studies and Geography and interests in international environmental policy, critical waste studies, plastic pollution management, and environmental justice. He worked as MRWMD’s first Public Education and Outreach Intern from October 2019 to June 2020.

Andrew can be reached at adjarvis@ucla.edu.