Toward an anthropology of plastics

Abstract

Materially plastics are ambivalent. In spite of their often lauded quality of creating seemingly untethered imitations, representations and replacements, they have a materiality that leaks, off-gasses and disintegrates. They are accomplished at mimicry yet frequently unable to be remoulded. They are ostensibly resistant to microbial contamination yet absorb environmental pollutants and leach endocrine disrupting plasticisers. This article argues that, due to the material influence of plastics, their ubiquity, and the societal transformations that they have enabled, that anthropologists need to pay sustained attention to this material. Moreover, it argues that anthropological methods and theories are crucial to understanding plastics at a vital moment in their (and our) history. It articulates three ways in which anthropology can engage plastics at all stages in their lifecycles. Firstly, to study plastics challenges what it means to exist: whether or not human beings are bounded or permeable entities, experienced as individuated, collective or somewhere in between. Secondly, plastics disrupt what people know, are willing to know, or are persuaded is worth knowing about the production and disposal of the products that they consume. Thirdly, the materiality of plastics expose contemporary inequalities. Plastics can create unseen violence, both in their geographically unequal toxic distributions and in the vastness of their temporal effects.

‘Plastic stays beautiful’: Attributing temporal and moral qualities in Ghanaian Ewe funerary contexts

“…Brenda Chaflin makes a similarly counterintuitive observation at her Ashaiman field site and remarks that ‘rather than composing durable objects through an additive process that includes labour, capitalising on the potential of waste's material and social “plasticity” (Millar, 2014), labour is applied to aid and accelerate a process of decomposition already under way, one from which they (the workers) reap the spoils’. As Pathak and Nichter, alongside other recent research work remark (Abrahms-Kavunenko, 2021; Westermann, 2021), it is therefore a timely and fruitful endeavour for anthropology to research the social lives of plastics. This kind of research may help to understand the details of plastic's effects on local contexts and ultimately prevent drowning in a sea of plastic waste by informing policies (Alexander and Reno, 2020; Chalfin, 2019).…”

Mengenyahkan Sampah Plastik Benalu dengan Ekobrik

“…Oleh sebab itu, secara ekonomi, ekobrik tidak memiliki nilai-uang; hal yang menyebabkan orang yang menganut prinsip-pasar tidak bersedia mengeluarkan waktu dan tenaga untuk membuatnya secara mandiri. Padahal, dari sudut ekologi, pembuatan ekobrik dapat mengurangi buangan sampah plastic (Santi, 2013;Zuska, E., dkk., 2023) sehingga tidak merusak lingkungan ekologi dan kesehatan akibat plastik (Abrahms-Kavunenko, 2023;Afianti dkk., 2022;Hidayat dkk., 2019;Blasiak dkk., 2021;Jambeck dkk., 2015;Kandziora dkk., 2019;Walker, 2024;Wichai-utcha & Chavalparit, 2019). Itulah mengapa diperlukan insentif, utamanya dari pihak ketiga (pemerintah) guna mengkompensasi opportunity cost yang dialami oleh pembuat ekobrik.…”