Power and politics in plastics research: A critique of ‘Whither plastics? petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’

Van Veelen, B.; Hasselbalch, J.

Abstract

In his article ‘Whither Plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’ , Michael Jefferson [1] discusses a number of recent issues around plastics, including plastics’ dependence on fossil fuels, its contribution to ocean waste, and its possible impact on human health. Despite these multiple ways in which plastics are framed as (potentially) problematic, the author is clear in his recommendations: the most important form of action is behavioural change. While we strongly welcome social science research into plastics, we have a number of issues with the study in question which we deem significant enough for us to write this response. At the heart of our concern is the paper’s handling of extant research. There are three aspects to our critique: (1) conflations and misrepresentations of the data presented; (2) disregard of academic social science research on plastics; (3) the resultant promotion of over-simplistic solutions to a complex set of problems.

Citation

Van Veelen, B., & Hasselbalch, J. (2020). Power and politics in plastics research: A critique of ‘Whither plastics? petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’. Energy Research and Social Science, 61, Article 101445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101445

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 16, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 31, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 22, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 31, 2021
• Journal: Energy Research and Social Science
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Article Number: 101445
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101445