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Happy Friday! We all have a tendency to buy, purchase and consume various things throughout a single day without thinking twice about where they came from, who labored to create them, how they were produced, and what communities and ecosystems are impacted by their disposal.
Did you know this month is Plastic-Free July? Welcome to the work of creating a world free of plastic waste. “The Plastic Free July campaign was started in 2011 by Rebecca Prince-Ruiz in Western Australia who later founded the not-for-profit Plastic Free Foundation Ltd in 2017” (CNN).
When thinking about the way we do or don’t consume, it is important to acknowledge how cultures, access, and beliefs shape our relationship to things. I hope today’s newsletter helps you reflect on your own consumption habits and waste.
Chante Harris, Guest Contributor
Your contributions are greatly appreciated. If you can, consider making a one-time gift on our website or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). Or, pledge $5/month on Patreon.
TAKE ACTION
Choose one product that you own that's made of (or packaged in) plastic. Pledge to replace it with an eco-friendly alternative. Here's a list of Black-owned eco-friendly products.
Choose one plastic free action from the Plastic Free Foundation and commit to doing it through the end of August.
Subscribe to at least one environmentalist of color. The Collective Resiliency Summit taking place on July 31st is a great place to start.
GET EDUCATED
It’s Plastic Free July, an initiative designed to help us reduce our global consumption of plastic. But Evaluating Scenarios Toward Zero Plastic Pollution, a paper published by Science on Thursday, July 23, indicated that our efforts to reduce plastic waste are "wildly insufficient" (Fortune). Let’s take a closer look at the intersection of plastic, waste, and environmental racism.
8% to 10% of our total oil supply goes to making plastic, in fact, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil a year are used just for making plastic bags used in the U.S. (1 Bag at a Time). The Science paper notes that humans are unloading 29 million metric tons of bottles, bags, and microplastics (little bits smaller than 5 millimeters) into the oceans annually, equaling 110 pounds per beach meter (Science). Consumed and undesired plastic products typically end up in either landfills, incinerators, the environment, or a recycling facility.
Plastic products are often consumed more in lower-income BIPOC communities, due to the taxpayer-subsidized low sales prices that incentivize companies to use it (Sierra Club). But these communities are often under-resourced to properly dispose of plastic waste than a high-income area (Wired). Together, these factors place marginalized communities at greater risks of consuming toxic chemicals in the plastic such as bisphenol A (BPA) and microplastics than more resourced areas (Sierra Club).
And all waste does not impact communities equally. Landfills have historically been placed in or near BIPOC neighborhoods. One of the distinct characteristics of garbage incinerators in the United States is that they are often sited in communities of color and low-income communities, also referred to as environmental justice (EJ) communities. 58 Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) incinerators – 79% of all incinerators in the U.S. – are located in environmental justice communities (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).
The incineration industry is a key demonstration of infrastructure strategically positioned in certain communities and not others. Environmental advocates have recognized for decades how these waste facilities prevent environmental justice. They also contribute to the cumulative and disproportionate pollution placed on communities of color and low-income communities (Tishman Environment and Design Center).
A few years back I had the pleasure of working on the East Harlem Healthy Neighborhood Action Plan and it became clear to me as I explored social determinants of health further that climate change and public health were not two separate communities. Communities with little to no landfills, incinerators, trucking, and bus depots have lower rates of asthma and cardiac disease. Additionally, studies show that where more incinerators are located there is a decrease in recycling, composting, and waste reduction due to perverse incentives to burn more waste.
“There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere”.
Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff
The disproportionate impact of environmental threats on Black, Indigenous, and people of color is referred to as environmental racism. Environmental racism exists as the inverse of environmental justice, when environmental risks are allocated disproportionately along the lines of race, often without the input of the affected communities of color (The Atlantic). It is important to acknowledge that those impacted the most by the climate crisis are victims to decades and centuries of norms, values, regulations, behaviors, and policies that have made it this way today.
The Anti-Racism Daily has covered other topics related to environmental racism in our recent coverage of COVID-19, including air pollution and the needs of the Navajo Nation.
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“In terms of defining environmental justice, we have to start from the beginning, as you don’t have justice without injustice first. Environmental injustice for Native people is about being forcibly cut off from their source of life sustenance. Native people are inseparable from their lands in terms of their cultures and their identities”.
Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Indigenous Scholar and Journalist, for Gizmodo
Since the late 1900s, the environmental movement has been pushed to center the knowledge and lived experiences of people of color. The reduction of the number of plastics used will lessen the unfair burden diverse communities carry. If everyone worked to decrease their use of plastic, we would be able to decrease fracking substantially, preserve wildlife, protect coastal communities, and improve the health conditions of BIPOC communities across the globe.
In 2020, people still have a tendency to view the causes of climate change as separate from their daily actions. And although it’s clear that policies accelerate these disparities, we still need to do our part. Let’s analyze our consumption as an environmental and anti-racist act. The future of a just and green planet relies on every single person, particularly those with access to resources, to take action that calls for larger societal changes.
Chante Harris
Chante is an urban innovation and civics champion scaling sustainable and impactful technologies and ideas that cultivate the world we all want to live in. She has worked to scale nationwide campaigns, technologies, and ideas for the Obama Administration, Fortune 500 companies, and startups that prioritize community and solve complex urban problems. She is also the co-founder of Women of Color Collective in Sustainability (WOC/CS).
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Despite our efforts to reduce plastic consumption, a recent study indicates our progress is insufficient to make change
The consumption and waste from plastics disproportionately affects BIPOC communities
Environmental racism is a term that analyzes how environmental risks are allocated disproportionately
We need to look at our eco-conscious efforts as both environmentally-friendly and an act of anti-racism
Related Issues
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