‘Plastic Pollution’ and Plastics as Pollution in Mumbai, India

In the last decade, plastic pollution has emerged as a major global issue in public discourse. Nonetheless, there is little consensus on which aspects of plastics constitute the problem. In India, litter, unmanaged disposal, lack of biodegradation, wasteful resource use, threats to bodily integrity and the natural order, and national dishonour are all variously associated with ‘plastic pollution’. What exactly, then, does the term reference when used in various streams of public discourse, and what semantic transformations does this imply? Using India as a case study, I examine discourses about plastic pollution and tease out four prominent framings, or senses, of such pollution – as spatial displacement, as waste, as environmental pollution, and as symbolic pollution – and explore their mobilisation by stakeholders. I also make the case for greater attention to the aesthetic dimension as a heuristic framework in knowing and acting upon pollution.