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‘Solutions’ versus sustainability

Microplastics 2024
Natalie Welden

Summary

This chapter examines societal, financial, and geographic barriers to sustainable plastic behavior change, analyzing the tension between technological waste management solutions and the behavioral shifts needed to reduce microplastic pollution at source.

There is tension between our current approaches to the management of plastics: the technological approaches to waste management and circularity, which seek to mitigate our consumption of natural resources, and the changes in behaviour that might reduce demand for such interventions. However, behavioural changes are frequently dependent on changes in infrastructure and services. This chapter will review our understanding of the societal, financial and geographic barriers to the adoption of sustainable behaviours relating to plastic and plastic management, as well as the impacts associated with the current toolkit of plastic and microplastic solutions, highlighting potential interactions with other environmental issues, such as water use, land use and CO2 production.

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