Identifying knowledge gaps in the politics of marine plastic pollution

Babet de Groot, Justin Alger and Peter Dauvergne

Chapter 20 in A Research Agenda for Sustainable Ocean Governance, 2025, pp 245-256 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Plastic pollution is especially challenging to govern because of the ubiquity of plastics and their integration throughout global supply chains. We suggest a need to move away from conceptualizing the problem of ocean plastics as one of marine debris, instead framing it as a problem of pollution. This highlights the inherent nature of plastics as a toxic, hazardous contaminant for marine life and redirects attention to the upstream origins of plastic production and dissemination. This chapter provides an overview of recent global developments in efforts to govern plastics, suggests avenues for greater diversity in plastics research, and explores the potential for and implications of a global plastics treaty. We argue that more research is needed into the politics of the overproduction of plastics, the political economy of the plastics industry, and the shortcomings of global plastics governance. The severity of the emerging global plastics crisis warrants an ambitious research agenda.

Keywords: Plastic Pollution; Plastics Crisis; Politics of Plastics; Plastics Governance; Global Plastics Treaty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035325740
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035325757.00033 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22995_20

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().