Plastics pollution as waste colonialism in Te Moananui

Abstract

Plastics pollution is a global, relational, integrated, and intersectoral issue. Here, we undertook narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with nineteen key plastic pollution decision-makers. They offered a contextual lens to understand challenges facing Pacific Island (Te Moananui) nations in preventing plastics pollution. We build on the work of Ngata (2014-2021) and Liboiron (2014-2021) to situate the narrative analysis within a "waste colonialism" framework. We argue that plastics pollution as waste colonialism transcends environmental, policy, and industry concerns. "Indigenous political ecologies" of plastics pollution provide an understanding by which plastics pollution prevention can be examined at multiple scales. These include, at the international level: trade agreements and import dependency, donor aid and duplication, and transnational industry influence. At the local level: pressure from local plastics manufacturers, importers and suppliers, and barriers to accessing the latest science. Located within a global and regional context, our findings capture the systemic and long-standing impacts of colonialism on Indigenous responses to plastics pollution prevention and management, highlighting its effects on human and environment health and wellbeing. Sustainable solutions to plastics pollution for Te Moananui require the centering of its peoples and their deep, lived, and intergenerationally transmitted knowledges in the identification of challenges and solutions, the implementation of activities, and amplification of a shared regional voice.

An anthropocene-framed transdisciplinary dialog at the chemistry-energy nexus

“…Moreover, regarding fairness, from the importers' point of view, plastic waste trade can be considered an unwanted remnant of colonial ideology, contributing to the exploitation of populations in the global South. 137…”

Decolonizing ocean spaces: Saltwater co-belonging and responsibilities

“…These consequences unfold when Indigenous rights to govern and manage seas, seafloors, and fisheries are denied (Kearney 2018, Kearney et al 2022; Mehta, Parthsarathy and Bose 2022; Reid 2015; Richmond and Kotowicz 2015), or the state places hurdles, making it difficult for Indigenous Peoples and ethnic/ethnoreligious minorities to participate in processes of marine spatial planning (Lobo et al 2022; Parsons et al 2021; Diggon et al 2019). Or, when “sacred energies” (Marawili 1999, 54), laws, creation stories, songlines of ancestral beings, and interspecies kinship that weave responsibility through Sea, Land, and Sky, are broken by climate change, extractive capitalism (oil, gas, fish), and the pollution of oceans by nuclear waste, plastics, and toxins (Bordner, Ferguson and Ortolan 2020; Bradley 2010; Bundle, Rushton and Wade 2022; Fuller et al 2022; Liboiron et al 2021). The next section argues for responsibilities that center ocean kinship, undoes racial injustice, and mends broken promises enshrined in global agreements on oceanic justice.…”

Global producer responsibility for plastic pollution

“…In the past, the discourse on solutions to plastic pollution has largely focused on consumer-based actions and waste management infrastructure instead of producer responsibility ( 30 , 31 ). However, there is a growing realization that upstream actions by plastic producers have a vital role in addressing the problem ( 32 – 34 ). Audit event data may indicate problematic products or producer resources to reduce consumer plastic waste and support local material management ( 35 – 37 ).…”