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Societies can struggle with cognitive flexibility. A dominant narrative is highly resistant to change, and it can take a great cumulative effort to recognise such a wrong and trigger a moment of change. But when it comes to plastic, that moment has come.

Earth Day

Recently, the tide has felt like it is turning on plastic. The theme for is evidence of this. Earth Day鈥檚 themes have a long history of highlighting pollution. The event emerged in response to the and gained momentum in the context of bans on , , the and the .

It was pollution that was the genesis of modern discourse on environmental protection. As the 21^st century began, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and the climate breakdown they are causing started to dominate the conversation. Meanwhile, plastic production quietly more than doubled.

Why the words we use matter

The phrase 鈥榩lastic pollution鈥� doesn鈥檛 really register as an until 2018. This was the year the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Ellen Macarthur Foundation (EMF) and launched 鈥榯he , a report that rethinks the future of plastics. These words are important 鈥� plastic is no longer another innocuous material; it is a pollutant. In the same year, Earth Day鈥檚 theme was 鈥淓nd Plastic Pollution鈥�.

This year, the rhetorical stakes have been raised again, and the theme is 鈥淧lanet vs Plastics鈥�. The plastic pollutant is now a serious adversary in the battle for the wellbeing of ourselves and this planet. And this battle is being taken to the source, with an acceptance that reducing production is the only way to stem the flow.

Changing the way we talk about plastic is an important step in a broader conversation as well 鈥� and it is a conversation that extends to our resources and energy systems.

Plastic = carbon emissions

When it comes to tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies, humanity has a materials problem, not an energy problem (to ). Material resources are scarce, energy is not. The fossil fuel industry is a resources industry. It produces energy at the cost of greenhouse gas emissions and global heating, but examining the plastics system reveals that this is only one side of the coin.

It also produces billions of tonnes of plastic at the cost of plastic pollution emissions. Ultimately, as with any resource industry, it functions through managing the scarcity of its product.

The implication of this framing is the realisation that, without tackling plastic production (and other fossil-based chemical production) in parallel, abating the burning of fossil fuels will not prevent carbon emissions, it just displaces those emissions in space and time. What would have been gaseous carbon emissions risks simply being repositioned as solid carbon emissions in the form of plastic instead (until such a time as that plastic itself is ultimately burned or enters the ).

Adding to the pile

When it comes to waste, the things we throw 鈥榓way鈥� don鈥檛 really go 鈥榓way鈥�. They just get relocated, becoming someone else鈥檚 or somewhere else鈥檚 problem. The evidence is increasingly clear on the futility of plastics recycling, and its position as a justification for consumption.

It鈥檚 hard to capture the sheer volume of plastic produced. It鈥檚 expensive to process, and each time it is recycled it becomes less useful and more toxic. Plastics recycling is not a long-term solution; there is simply too much of it. The and .

The scale of the problem is alarming. To put some numbers to it, globally and conservatively, adapting

• Corporations produce approximately 500,000,000 tonnes/year of plastic. This rate of production has been accelerating since 1950
• If we assume that 10% has been recycled and 10% has been incinerated, that leaves a cumulative total of about 8,000,000,000 tonnes still in circulation or in the environment
• The global recycling capacity is around 18% of current production. To recycle all the plastic in circulation would take about 80 years
• Once it鈥檚 recycled, that is not the end of its life 鈥� it is still plastic. To dispose of all of it by burning would take about 65 years and produce a host of other pollutants
• To just keep pace with current year-on-year production we鈥檇 need more than five times current recycling capacity
• Global plastic production is on track to triple by 2060.

The solution is known to us

If CO₂e emissions are the atmospheric pollutant legacy of fossil fuel exploitation, then plastic waste is the earthbound equivalent. The aim for plastic pollution should be the same as for carbon emissions, and just as urgent. The two are inextricably linked.

To co-opt : we already have a good enough measure of the degree of flooding in the bathroom. We need to stop mopping the floor and wringing the mop back into the overflowing bath, and instead just focus on turning off the tap first:

1. Stop making any more plastic
2. Make best use of what we have
3. Carefully clean up and dispose of the remaining mess*.

(* If we can imagine using technology for or , maybe we should instead start with reclaiming and valorising the waste material that we know is out there 鈥� in great need of cleaning up.)

What do we, the built environment sector, need to do?

There are positive indicators all around us. We can pay attention to these, talk about them and help them gain momentum. The towards a 鈥楶lastics Treaty鈥�. The EU is starting to talk openly about the importance of . are and , is growing and investors are applying the .

Plastics are a relatively small proportion of the mass of material used in the built environment, and an only slightly larger proportion of the volume. But they are a relatively much larger chunk of the upfront emissions. Their proportional share of the sector鈥檚 pollution load and health impact is underexplored. Plastic leaves a more traceable footprint than greenhouse gases do.

Plastic pollution, like waste management and the climate and nature crises more broadly, is a 鈥樷��, a 鈥樷��, a big, tangled mess than can be cognitively overwhelming.

We are choking on our own rubbish. But the tide of consensus is turning. Sometimes it feels like the future we’re trying to build is actually the future imagined by a previous generation. The future we now know we need to build is radically different, and not beyond our collaborative imagination and efforts. The clearer we are about that now, the easier it will be.

We have our work cut out cleaning up the plasticky mess we’ve already made. Our projects now need to be based not on how we deal with even more plastic coming down the supply chain, but rather how we build a world without plastic.

Earth Day is a good time to reflect on the dominant narrative that has accompanied plastic use in recent decades, on the ecological consequences that we cannot ignore any more and on the positive legacy that we鈥檙e committed to leaving.

By turning to face the plastic pollution problem head on, we can reconnect with nature and our communities by using natural materials and local jobs and skills, and we can help create a healthier built environment for people, places and planet.