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The Plastic Bag: From a Mundane Swedish Innovation to the World’s Oceans
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This essay traces how the plastic bag evolved from a mundane Swedish invention into an iconic symbol of environmental degradation, using marketing and new materialist perspectives to analyze how the object became institutionalized in consumer culture and then in environmental discourse.
The plastic bag is a mundane consumer product. It consists of just one inexpensive material, intended to carry other, more important, items. It is one of those objects that becomes more visible when it is out of context. But the plastic bag easily ends up there, out of context, demanding our attention. This essay explores how the plastic bag became an iconic symbol of environmental degradation, with a special focus on Sweden, the very place where the bag was invented. By combining perspectives from marketing and new materialism, this essay deepens our understanding of how the plastic bag was institutionalised.
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This Finnish thesis examines the role of plastic bags in plastic pollution, reviewing evidence on their environmental contribution and assessing consumer perceptions of plastic bag use. The researcher found that while plastic bags are often demonized, the evidence for their relative contribution to total plastic pollution is more nuanced than public perception suggests. The study provides a balanced review of the plastic bag ban debate.
Why is there plastic packaging in the natural environment? Understanding the roots of our individual plastic waste management behaviours
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This review explores why individuals mismanage plastic packaging waste, finding that the disconnect between discarding behavior and its visible consequences is a key factor, as is the deep historical rootedness of waste disposal habits in different cultures. The authors argue that policies to reduce plastic littering face fundamental behavioral constraints that require approaches beyond simple regulation.
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Anthropological essay arguing that plastics' material ambivalence, ubiquity, and social effects demand sustained anthropological study across the full plastic lifecycle.
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Interviews with 26 Swedish companies revealed that packaging transitions face core tensions between functionality and sustainability, cost and innovation, and individual versus systemic action, with plastic still dominating despite gradual shifts toward paper. The study highlights that legislation and large corporations are key drivers shaping industry-wide adoption of sustainable packaging alternatives that could reduce plastic pollution at source.
Un/Making the Plastic Straw: Designerly Inquiries into Disposability
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This study uses design research methods to investigate the cultural and material life of plastic straws, examining how disposability is engineered and normalized in consumer products. The authors explore how design practices contribute to single-use plastic culture and how they might be reimagined to reduce waste.
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.