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The Ethics of Permanent Fragmentation: Microplastics, Slow Violence, and the Problem of Unowned Residue
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This book chapter examined Egypt's circular blue economy strategy and its implications for Mediterranean cooperation on marine plastic pollution management. The analysis addressed governance gaps and opportunities for regional collaboration on plastic waste reduction, recycling infrastructure, and marine debris monitoring in the eastern Mediterranean.
Microplastics are "zombie matter"—technological residues defying traditional waste categories. This paper critiques environmental ethics and Extended Producer Responsibility for ignoring the "inverse trajectory of power," where fragmentation increases toxicity. Synthesizing "slow violence," "hyperobjects," and "phenomenology," I propose "The Ethics of Permanent Fragmentation." I argue microplastics are "unowned residue" escaping liability while colonizing the biosphere. Challenging the "thermodynamic blindness" of circular economies, I demonstrate that legal frameworks fail matter that multiplies through division. I advocate for a "trans-scalar ethics" acknowledging responsibility for the Plasticene’s molecular persistence.
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Agential cuts of regulatory science practices – the case of microplastics
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This sociological analysis examines how the choice of risk assessment framework — threshold-based versus persistence-based — shapes whether regulators act on microplastic pollution. Threshold approaches effectively permit continued industrial emissions because harmful concentrations in the environment are rarely reached, while persistence-based frameworks better justify precautionary action, making the choice of scientific method a deeply consequential regulatory and ethical decision.
Toward an anthropology of plastics
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Anthropological essay arguing that plastics' material ambivalence, ubiquity, and social effects demand sustained anthropological study across the full plastic lifecycle.
Understanding the Risks of Microplastics: A Social-Ecological Risk Perspective
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This chapter examines microplastics as a textbook example of a modern global risk — produced by everyday industrial society, distributed worldwide by ocean currents, and difficult to regulate because the harm is diffuse and slow. The authors analyze scientific, social, and political dimensions of microplastic risk, arguing that policy responses like the US Microbead-Free Waters Act address symptoms rather than the underlying systemic problem.
Framing pollution
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This social science analysis explores how "pollution" — and microplastics specifically — is defined not just by science but by political, economic, and cultural forces. The paper examines different ways of framing microplastic pollution: as a waste management failure, a consumer behavior problem, or an inevitable product of industrial capitalism, each with different implications for who bears responsibility. It argues that understanding the social and political dimensions of microplastic pollution is essential for developing just and effective responses.
Microplásticos: cuando lo pequeño es enorme y eterno
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Researchers argue that micro- and nanoplastics represent a fundamentally new kind of health challenge by belonging to the category of 'hyperobjects'—entities that transcend conventional scales of time, space, and causality—requiring new frameworks beyond traditional models of disease causation.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.