Planet (and People) vs. Plastics

April 22, 2024

From 2023 to 2024, plastic pollution worsened. Increased industrial production and consumer consumption, coupled with insufficient recycling efforts, have exacerbated the issue. Expansion of e-commerce and online deliveries has led to a surge in packaging waste. Despite awareness campaigns and regulatory measures, the overall response from governments and industries remains inadequate to address the scale of pollution. As a result, plastic pollution continues to accumulate in oceans, waterways and ecosystems worldwide, posing significant threats to marine life and human health.

In 2023, the Nicholas School of Environment produced an in-depth special on the scale of the plastics problem, and how the Duke community was working toward solutions. Below are updates to what has happened in the plastics policy space since mid-2023, and some new developments in how Duke University supports scholarship and action to fight plastic pollution.

Federal action

Nationally, the U.S. Congress in 2023 reintroduced the Break Free from Plastic Act, a bill to amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act by reducing the production and use of certain single-use plastic products and packaging, as well as improving producers’ responsibility in the design, collection, reuse, recycling, and disposal of consumer products, and preventing pollution from consumer products and packaging. An earlier attempt in 2021 to pass the bill stalled when trade groups pushed back.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drafted its National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, and the General Services Administration (GSA), which sets U.S. government procurement policies, issued the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation; Reduction of Single-Use Plastic Packaging. On behalf of the NC Plastic Waste Coalition, Duke’s Environmental Law and Policy clinic submitted comments to GSA, while other members of the Duke community submitted comments to EPA. The National Park Service issued a plastics elimination and reduction plan in June 2023 to reduce single-use plastics at its facilities and promote better reuse of materials. Researchers at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability indexed an additional 300 policies on plastics in its 2023 Annual Trends in Plastic Policy for a total of 894 policies.

In the absence of comprehensive congressional action in the United States to address plastic pollution, other policies and regulatory reforms have assumed greater responsibility to mitigate environmental impacts of plastic pollution.

Local action: applied research

Michelle Nowlin, a Duke University law professor and co-director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, serves on the executive board of the interdisciplinary, student, staff, and faculty, plastic pollution working group at Duke. Nowlin and her colleague, Dr. Nancy Lauer, published a framework for inland cities to prevent marine debris in 2022. The study encourages inland city officials, resource managers, and community partners to collect data that informs policy development, to develop policies that reduce waste at the source, and to use stormwater controls to capture mismanaged waste and reduce aquatic and marine debris. Coastal communities up to 50km from oceans are responsible for almost nine metric tons of marine trash annually; another nearly two tons of trash come from inland cities located more than 50km from the coast, according to the study.

As important as personal responsibility is in reducing plastic waste, Nowlin said the heavier burden should be on industry, using the beverage sector as one example:

The beverage industry realized long ago that it could save money by convincing consumers that it was our behaviors and our habits that were causing problems…when really, it's a systemic problem. The industries have been let off the hook for managing the waste generated through their production and marketing practices. We need laws and policies that encourage better corporate stewardship and discourage waste.”

—Michelle Nowlin, Duke University Plastic Pollution Working Group

duke vs. plastic

Additional ways the Duke community is driving systemic change across industries on plastic pollution:

business owner showing ocean-friendly business certificate — *Business owner displays Plastic Ocean Project’s “ocean-friendly establishment" certification. Photo credit: Plastic Ocean Project*

Collaborated with the NC-headquartered Plastic Ocean Project, which has created a business certification program recognizing “ocean- friendly establishments” statewide.

ELPC trash trout cleanout - Haw Riverkeeper and Michelle Nowlin — *Michelle Nowlin (left) and Isabel Bukovnik, MEM'22 (right)*
*Photo credit: Nancy Lauer, Ph.D.*

Developed a data protocol and publicly accessible database for Waterkeepers Carolina, which obtained grants to install trash traps in local waterways. Volunteers haul out trash monthly and categorize the trash collected using the data protocol and database, which then informs policy.

'Plastics' book cover and head shots of authors Imari Walker-Franklin and Jenna Jambeck — *“Plastics” authors Imari Walker-Franklin (top) and Jenna Jambeck (bottom)*
*Photo credit: authors’ websites*

Published Plastics, a book that covers the entire life of plastic, its waste generation and management, the environmental and societal impacts, and policies that help reduce pollution caused by heavy plastics use.

Zoie Diana speaking to a group — *Zoie Diana, Ph.D.'23*

Based on doctoral experience researching plastics pollution at Duke University, Zoe Diana published roadmap on transdisciplinary doctoral training to address global sustainability challenges. Diana will present on microplastics in paint at October 2024 Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) meeting.

master's students giving their MP presentation on the Social Cost of Plastics — *MEM'24 students present their Master's Project on the social cost of plastics. Left to right: Sadaf Sutaria, Juan Camilo Moreno Ramos, Jon Ekberg and Anne-Elisabeth Baker.*

Devoted master’s project research to plastic-pollution related themes: the per capital social cost of plastic pollution, with an aim to inform global policy; how plastic pollution contaminates salt marshes; optimizing coastal ecosystem health and product safety by researching microplastic disposal dynamics of oysters; and the study of plastic impacts on terrestrial ecosystem functions like carbon cycling.

Andrew Kelbley ’24 and Anne-Elisabeth Baker MEM ’24 — *Andrew Kelbley JD’24 (left) and Anne-Elisabeth Baker MEM’24 (right)*

Developed a pilot program and training program for the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which oversees the state’s resources for the arts, history, libraries, and nature, to help the agency reduce single-use plastics in its operations.

hands in purple latex gloves holding a scientific sample — *Bioremediation uses microorganisms and other living things to degrade pollutants.*

Conduct a 2024-2025 interdisciplinary research group for graduate and undergraduate students on the bioremediation of plastic pollution to conserve marine biodiversity. Expected outputs from the year-long class includes peer-reviewed manuscripts; development and testing of a novel enzyme to degrade plastic; data on plastic additives as potential carcinogens; and a website that searches health endpoints of plastic additives.