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The Plastics Crisis and Catholic Social Teaching
Summary
This chapter examines the plastic pollution crisis through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, arguing that addressing global plastic pollution requires cultivating virtues of social trust, prudence, justice, and solidarity alongside a critical assessment of technological solutions. The author draws on Pope Francis's critique of the technocratic paradigm to argue that structural transformation requires both strengthened social awareness and education-based moral formation rather than technological fixes alone.
This chapter argues that the virtue of social trust is necessary to address the plastic pollution crisis. Moreover, other virtues—e.g., prudence, justice, and solidarity—contribute to strengthen personal and social agency and inform concrete practices. Furthermore, civil society should not presume that technology is the only solution to address the gravity of the global environmental crisis. Following Pope Francis’s invitation to examine any “technocratic paradigm,” both a critical assessment of technological developments and a strengthened social awareness might lead to promoting environmentally sustainable alternatives and embracing forms of resistance to unquestioned uses of plastic products. Finally, education and formation empower moral agents and lead to needed structural transformations and changes.