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Contribution short abstract:

Plastics have become naturalised in ways that obscure their histories, present influences, and future trajectories. For this workshop I will explore the spectral aspects of marine debris: the necessities of creating waste in capitalism, plastics and global warming, and ecological ramifications.

Contribution long abstract:

Whilst many people in wealthy nations have heard of the problems with plastics polluting the oceans, plastics and the pollution they produce, often go unnoticed. Plastics have become naturalised or made necessary, in ways that obscure their life histories, present influences, and future trajectories. Plastics, both single use and those designed to last for longer, are implicated in global warming. Pollution occurs at the site of their extraction, during their transportation, and when they are being moulded. They can off-gas or leach during their storage and usage. They pollute again in the process of recycling (if this happens), and off-gas and proliferate after they have been discarded (Bauman 2019). In 2019 it is estimated that plastics were responsible for 860 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (CIEL, 2019).

For this workshop I will bring in two plastic items I found on beaches on Christmas Island, an Australian overseas external territory. One is a plastic mirror and the other is a piece of fishing rope, washed up from a ghost net in the Indian Ocean. Whilst the plastics industry promote the idea that the problems with marine debris are due to individual consumption choices and that plastic pollution is a waste management issue, I want to explore the spectral aspects of marine debris: the necessities of creating waste within current forms of global capitalism, how plastics impact global warming, and their ramifications for the health of both marine life and humans.