Shaping EU Plastic Policies: The Role of Public Health vs. Environmental Arguments

Abstract

Few other environmental problems have received as much public attention and criticism in recent years as plastic pollution. Accordingly, in recent years, a number of plastic policies have been adopted at the national and supranational level in the EU and worldwide. In the U.S., health risks were repeatedly raised in the decision-making process of these policies and scholars have pointed out the crucial role of these arguments for the adoption of plastic policies. Hence, this article uses a structuring qualitative content analysis to investigate the parliamentary debates of two recently adopted plastic policies in the EU—namely the EU Plastics Strategy and the Single-Use Plastics Directive—and to assess the relevance of public health and environmental arguments for the EU debate. The analysis reveals broad support for plastics regulation among Members of the European Parliament, who most often use environmental arguments to corroborate their support for the policies in question. In contrast, health concerns do not seem to be crucial for the adoption of plastic policies in the EU.

Is It All About the Data? How Extruded Polystyrene Escaped Single-Use Plastic Directive Market Restrictions

“…Through EU notifications, the following countries advised the Commission of its national regulations implementing market placement restrictions on cosmetic products containing microbeads; France through 2016/543/F 4 ; Sweden 5 through 2017/284/S; the United Kingdom through 2017/353/UK 6 ; Belgium through 2017/465/B 7 ; and Italy through 2018/258/1, 8 in addition to Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxemburg, and Norway implementing relevant market bans (Dauvergne, 2018;Kentin and Kaarto, 2018). Environmental policies and legal instruments have been shown to have a higher chance of success, if public health is considered (Mederake and Knoblauch, 2019) and public support is provided (Black et al, 2019a). This requires clear communication and widespread understanding of XPS marine litter, including associated environmental and potential human health implications.…”

Tripartite Evolutionary Game Analysis for Plastic Pollution Prevention and Control under the Background of China’s Plastic Ban

“…Prata et al provided 10 recommendations for stakeholders on the Control and Mitigation of Plastic and Microplastic Pollution based on qualitative research [12]. Mederake, Linda, and Doris Knoblauch analyzed parliamentary debates on two recently adopted plastic policies in the EU, structuring qualitative content to investigate and assess the relevant debates, and revealed widespread support for plastic regulation among Members of the European Parliament [15]. Caterina De Lucia and Pasquale Pazienza responded to the EU resolution of 13 September 2018 and analyzed farmers' attitudes towards reducing plastics in agriculture to determine the probability of adopting specific policy tools, using a survey of 1783 farmers in Foggia, Italy, and a multinomial regression model [16].…”

Addressing Stakeholder Concerns Regarding the Effective Use of Bio-Based and Biodegradable Plastics

“…The use of plastics (of all types) is high on the political agenda, where the subject often touches upon a range of environmental, performance, and safety issues [13]. While most of these concerns are addressed within the policy landscape, consumer expectations and attitudes will likely have a long-term influence on market growth [13,14]. For example, consumers with pro-environmental values and purchasing behaviors may be predisposed to uptake BB-P/BD-P products.…”