The DOI matches its Crossref record; 110 of the 110 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Politics and the plastic crisis: A review throughout the plastic life cycle
Open accessAbstract
This article surveys the politics of plastics through a reading and analysis of more than 180 scientific articles in the fields of environmental science and environmental studies. Despite the many benefits of plastics, the global plastic system is increasingly being recognized as the source of severe environmental problems. Rather than orient the investigation around specific venues, levels, or architectures of governance, our survey first follows plastic through its life cycle, and then considers the major categories of plastic objects addressed in the current literature, and the different approaches taken to each category. The politics of plastics is a growing field of inquiry, with the most rapid expansion in the areas of marine pollution and microplastics. Our consideration of plastic flows reveals increasing politicization towards the latter end of the life cycle, that is, plastic as waste and pollution. Turning to plastic objects, we observe different forms of mobilization, and varying connections between flows and objects, which allow for multiple interpretations of what is at stake. In the closing section, we consider two recent trends in the plastic governance discussion that take a more holistic view of the plastic crisis: attempts to construct (a) a circular plastics economy and (b) global plastics conventions or treaties. We end the paper by highlighting the need for studies to further investigate the norms and practices that maintain the role of plastics in society, as well as the political and economic arrangements that secure its overabundance and low price. This article is categorized under: Energy Policy and Planning > Economics and Policy Fossil Fuels > Science and Materials Fossil Fuels > Climate and Environment
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Cites
Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made
Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700782 · Cited by 18,606
Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean
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Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions
Kirchherr, J., Reike, D., & Hekkert, M. (2017) · Resources, Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005 · Cited by 8,550
Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C. M., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., Galgani, F., Ryan, P. G., & Reisser, J. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913 · Cited by 4,710
The Physical Impacts of Microplastics on Marine Organisms: A Review
Wright, S. L., Thompson, R. C., & Galloway, T. S. (2013) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2013.02.031 · Cited by 4,524
The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review.
Derraik, J. G. B. (2002) · Marine Pollution Bulletin · doi:10.1016/s0025-326x(02)00220-5 · Cited by 4,042
River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans
Lebreton, L. C. M., van der Zwet, J., Damsteeg, J.-W., Slat, B., Andrady, A., & Reisser, J. (2017) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms15611 · Cited by 4,011
Plastics Recycling: Challenges and Opportunities
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Plastics, the environment and human health: current consensus and future trends
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Transport and release of chemicals from plastics to the environment and to wildlife
Teuten, E. L., Saquing, J. M., Knappe, D. R. U., Barlaz, M. A., Jonsson, S., Björn, A., Rowland, S. J., Thompson, R. C., Galloway, T. S., Yamashita, R., et al. (2009) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0284 · Cited by 2,938
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Outside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities
Persson, L., Carney Almroth, B. M., Collins, C. D., Cornell, S., de Wit, C. A., Diamond, M. L., Fantke, P., Hassellöv, M., MacLeod, M., Ryberg, M. W., et al. (2022) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c04158 · Cited by 1,347
Kumar, R., Verma, A., Shome, A., Sinha, R., Sinha, S., Jha, P. K., Kumar, R., Kumar, P., Shubham, Das, S., et al. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su13179963 · Cited by 1,111
Plastic Waste: Challenges and Opportunities to Mitigate Pollution and Effective Management
Kibria, M. G., Masuk, N. I., Safayet, R., Nguyen, H. Q., & Mourshed, M. (2023) · International Journal of Environmental Research · doi:10.1007/s41742-023-00507-z · Cited by 884
Plastic biodegradation: frontline microbes and their enzymes
Amobonye, A., Bhagwat, P., Singh, S., & Pillai, S. (2021) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143536 · Cited by 738
Plastic pollution solutions: emerging technologies to prevent and collect marine plastic pollution
Schmaltz, E., Melvin, E. C., Diana, Z., Gunady, E. F., Rittschof, D., Somarelli, J. A., Virdin, J., & Dunphy-Daly, M. M. (2020) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2020.106067 · Cited by 459
Metadata
- Authors
- Nielsen, T. D., Hasselbalch, J., Holmberg, K., & Stripple, J.
- Venue
- WIREs Energy and Environment
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-08-08
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2041-8396 (ISSN-L)
- 2041-840X
- OpenAlex
- W2968230765
- Cited by
- 499
- References
- 110
- FWCI
- 12.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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- Nielsen, T. D., Hasselbalch, J., Holmberg, K., & Stripple, J. (2020). Politics and the plastic crisis: A review throughout the plastic life cycle. WIREs Energy and Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.360
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
