Pollution, Persistence, and Politics
Copyright © 2021 Trisia Farrelly, Sy Taffel, and Ian Shaw
Published by AU Press, Athabasca University
1200, 10011 – 109 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8
https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771993272.01
Cover image: collage of images from Shutterstock (73913416, 91155179, 136314392, 193978946, 194617823, 674811316, 1203969238, 1261148134, 1420338494, 1450716176, 1450732997, 1689704221, 1718764735, 1747330817, 1791703958, 1791703961, 1791703967)
Cover design by Derek Thornton, Notch Design
Interior design by Sergiy Kozakov
Printed and bound in Canada
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Plastic legacies : pollution, persistence, and politics / edited by Trisia Farrelly, Sy Taffel, and Ian Shaw.
Names: Farrelly, Trisia, editor. | Taffel, Sy, editor. | Shaw, Ian C., editor.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210215879 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210215941 | ISBN 9781771993272 (softcover) | ISBN 9781771993289 (PDF) | ISBN 9781771993296 (EPUB)
Subjects: LCSH: Plastic scrap. | LCSH: Plastic scrap—Environmental aspects. | LCSH: Plastic scrap—Social aspects. | LCSH: Plastics—Environmental aspects. | LCSH: Plastics—Social aspects. | LCSH: Plastics industry and trade—Environmental aspects. | LCSH: Plastics industry and trade—Social aspects.
Classification: LCC TD798 .P53 2021 | DDC 363.72/88—dc23
We acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Media Fund.
Please contact AU Press, Athabasca University at aupress@athabascau.ca for permissions and copyright information.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Our Plastic Inheritance
Trisia Farrelly, Sy Taffel, and Ian Shaw
PART I POLLUTION
1. Marine Litter: Are There Solutions to This Global Environmental Problem?
Imogen E. Napper, Sabine Pahl, and Richard C. Thompson
2. Slow Violence: The Erosion of Marine Plastic Debris and of Human Health
Sasha Adkins
3. How Seabirds and Indigenous Science Illustrate the Legacies of Plastics Pollution
Stephanie B. Borrelle, Jennifer Provencher, and Tina Ngata
4. Dawn of the Plastisphere: An Experiment with Unpredictable Effects
Sven Bergmann
PART II PERSISTENCE
5. Plastiglomerate: Plastics, Geology, and the New Materialism of the Anthropocene
Christina Gerhardt
6. Dressed in Plastic: The Persistence of Polyester Clothes
Elyse Stanes
7 Caring for the Multiple Cares of Plastics
Tridibesh Dey and Mike Michael
8. On Becoming a Massively Distributed Thing: Hedgehogs, Plastics, and the Bearable Lightness of Becoming
Laura McLauchlan
PART III POLITICS
9. Communicative Capitalism, Technological Solutionism, and The Ocean Cleanup
Sy Taffel
10. Toward Large-Scale Social Change and Plastic Politics: An Anthropological Perspective on the Practices of a Danish Environmental Organization
Johanne Tarpgaard
11. Plastics Talk/Talking Plastics: The Communicative Power of Plasticity
Deirdre McKay, Padmapani Perez, and Lei Xiaoyu
12. Redressing the Faustian Bargains of Plastics Economies
Trisia Farrelly, Ian Shaw, and John Holland
Conclusion: Where There’s a Will … Contesting Our Plastic Inheritance
Trisia Farrelly
List of Contributors
This volume was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Massey University College of Humanities, the Massey University School of People, Environment, and Planning, and the Massey University School of English and Media Studies. The editors also wish to thank Paul Spoonley, Glenn Banks, and Jenny Lawn for their ongoing support for Political Ecology Research Centre (PERC) initiatives and Lisa Vonk for her administrative assistance. This book emerged from PERC’s Lives and Afterlives of Plastic Conference held online in 2017. The presentations offered in this conference generated a great deal of lively online discussion. We would also like to thank those who contributed to these thoughtful and thought-provoking discussions since they have undoubtedly influenced the content of this book.