Doing away with plastic shopping bags: international patterns of norm emergence and policy implementation

Clapp, Jennifer; Swanston, Linda

doi:10.1080/09644010902823717

Cited by 228 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Thus, at an international level, the political will to combat issues like MP pollution is not strong and is equally problematic at the local level. In most African countries, MP pollution is not recognized as emergent issue of concern, although the efforts to levy, reduce, and ban the use of plastic bags [26,27] would suggest that the plastic issue is not entirely ignored.…”

Section: Political Will and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improperly discarded plastic bags have been shown to block gutters and drains which create storm water problems and collect water which provides a breeding ground for mosquitos that spread malaria, and the use of bags as toilets has been linked to the spread of disease [26,27]. The government of South Africa introduced levies on the use of plastic bags in 2003 [28], in 2005 Rwanda imposed a ban on the use and importation of plastic bags of <100 microns thick, and Tanzania similarly imposed a ban based on thickness in 2006 [27]. Such measures may not always be successful as in South Africa levies were not predicted to reduce the plastic bag litter stream [28].…”

Section: African Freshwaters and The Potential For Mp Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microplastics in Inland African Waters: Presence, Sources, and Fate

Khan

Mayoma

Biginagwa

et al. 2017

The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

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As the birthplace of our species, the African continent holds a unique place in human history. Upon entering a new epoch, the Anthropocene defined by human-driven influences on earth systems, and with the recognition that plastic pollution is one of the hallmarks of this new age, remarkably little is known about the presence, sources, and fate of plastics (and microplastics (MPs)) within African waters. Research in marine regions, most notably around the coast of South Africa, describes the occurrence of MPs in seabirds and fish species. More recently environmental sampling studies in the same area have quantified plastics in both the water column and sediments. However, despite Africa containing some of the largest and deepest of the world's freshwater lakes, including Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika as part of the African Great Lakes system, and notable freshwater rivers, such as the River Congo and the Nile, the extent of MPs within the inland waters remains largely unreported. In the only study to date to describe MP pollution in the African Great Lakes, a variety of polymers, including polyethylene, polypropylene, and silicone rubber, were recovered from the gastrointestinal tracts of Nile perch (Lates niloticus) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fished from Lake Victoria. The likely sources of these plastics were considered to be human activities linked to fishing and tourism, and urban waste. In this chapter we discuss the need for research focus on MPs in Africa and how what has been described in the coastal regions and other freshwater environments can be applied to inland African waters. The aforementioned study in Lake Victoria is used to exemplify how small-scale investigations can provide early indications of MP pollution. Lastly we discuss the current challenges and future needs of MP research in African freshwaters.

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Section: Political Will and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: African Freshwaters and The Potential For Mp Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics in Inland African Waters: Presence, Sources, and Fate

Khan

Mayoma

Biginagwa

et al. 2017

The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

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“…The norm-activation model specifically highlights that personal norms frequently stem from pro-social behavior [4], and as a result the use of social norms to influence pro-environmental behavior change has received much attention in the literature. For example, studies have shown that behavior such as recycling and the adoption of reusable shopping bags can be influenced by norms [3,11], and the positive effect of norms on household energy reduction in particular has received a great deal of attention [e.g. 1,12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normification

Massung

Preist

2013

CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Previous work [7] has shown how smartphone applications can support community activism groups by enabling crowdsourced data collection. In this paper we theorize that the data collected by the app can then be used to bring about positive environmental behavior change by illustrating the adoption of new social norms, a process we term normification. We provide a theoretical framework for how this may be accomplished, both in general terms and specifically with examples from the Close the Door campaign.

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“…Whereas a plethora of studies (Florini 1996;Risse-Kappen et al 1999;Acharya 2004;Klotz 2002;Clapp and Swanston 2009;Clark 2010;McCoy 2001;Wheler 2000;Sikkink 1993;Nadelmann 1990) have examined how international norms change over time as they are replaced by new norms proposing alternative standards of behavior, this discussion shifts the level of analysis from the macro-level of norms to micro-level investigation on what happens within norms. The basic premise is that norms, understood…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing ideas, changing norms: The case of ‘the responsibility to rebuild’

Donovan¹

2018

Cooperation and Conflict

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Whilst much has been written on emergence of new norms in international politics, we know significantly less about changes to the ideas and assumptions that underpin such norms. Examined at micro-level, most norms consist of a set of ideas and assumptions that form the basis of what is considered as appropriate, legitimate or even the required thing to do. Far from being stable, ideational constitutions of norms can undergo significant changes in the course of the norm emergence process. Enquiring into such changes is important if we are to move beyond static and linear accounts of norm evolution. Using changes in the ideational constitution of the responsibility to protect – specifically, the de-emphasis of the responsibility to rebuild – as its vantage point, the analysis seeks to answer the following question: what drives change in ideational constitutions of international norms? The chief argument advanced in this article is that misalignments at the level of broader normative structures (external misalignments) and within norms (internal misalignments) result in changes in the ideational constitutions of emerging norms.

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Doing away with plastic shopping bags: international patterns of norm emergence and policy implementation

Cited by 228 publications

References 12 publications

Microplastics in Inland African Waters: Presence, Sources, and Fate

Microplastics in Inland African Waters: Presence, Sources, and Fate

Normification

Changing ideas, changing norms: The case of ‘the responsibility to rebuild’

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