This presentation was first given at a Bristol ‘Communicate’ Conference in June 2018. It summarises the development of the “plastics issue” and argues that the relevant ie effective and evidence-based framing is of plastic as a pollutant not litter or recyclable ‘waste’. The September 2018 blog Wood v Oil argues that ‘cellulosics’ could pose the end-game for fossil fuel plastic. chris@campaignstrategy.co.uk
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Plastics bristol june 8 chris rose updated 28 9 18
1. Plastics Crisis: How We Got Here
Changing Minds Beyond Plastics
Communicate, Bristol, 8 June 2018
updated 28 9 18
Chris Rose
chris@campaignstrategy.co.uk
www.campaignstrategy.org
@campaignstrat
3. Why we ‘suddenly’
have a plastics crisis
How the plastics
industry used framing
to evade responsibility
What it means for
campaigns to solve the
plastics problem
6. How we decide
?Easy way
Intuitive
Emotional
Unconscious
Reflexive
Hard way
Analytical
Conscious
Reflective
95%+ decisions rare
Behaviours
rationalisation
www.campaignstrategy.org
System 1 System 2
7. How we decide
Easy way
Intuitive
Emotional
Unconscious
Reflexive
95%+ decisions
Behaviours
rationalisation
www.campaignstrategy.org
System 1
HEURISTICS VALUES
12. Framing: Litter or Pollution? 1998
“This is not, the fault of the government. It is the fault of
the people who knowingly and thoughtlessly throw it
down.”
Image http://www.anorak.co.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2012/11/PA-2100904.jpg
Mrs Thatcher with Environment Secretary
Nicholas Ridley prepares to collect pre-spread
litter in St James park for photo opp 1988
Removed for copyright reasons
13. Others know this
stuff too
Plastics industry 2017
Litter framing
Children picking up
plastic ‘marine litter’
Where the ‘litter’ framing strategy
came from: Crying Indian Campaign by
‘Keep America Beautiful’, 1969/1970
“People start pollution. People can stop
it”.
Strategy puts responsibility on the
public, not the packaging or plastics
industry.
16. People arguing !
Slow: think
Research
needed
Analysis
City
Collective
decision making
Ethical
dilemma
Cost
benefit
Unknown
unknowns
New data
Calculation Avenue
i
After due consideration of all the facts what we think is …
Check it
FRAMING
HEURISTICS VALUES
We
usually go
this way
Feels
right
Just seems like common sense ….
FAST
TRACK 1
SLOW
TRACK 2
A one of
those
19. Heyerdhal reported oil and plastic but he only
counted (and photographed?) oil. The UN acted – on
oil, not plastic. Oil was more salient.
Plastic pollution sank into track 2 world.
Image from
Kon Tiki museum
Thor Heyerdalh
Norway
https://www.kon-tiki.no
20. 2001 Takada PCBs on nurdles
2004 Thompson microfibre
build-up since 1960s
2001 Moore ‘plastic soup’
2015 ‘All the plastic ever made’
Geyer, Jambeck
2011 Browne microfibres in
sludge & washing effluent
2014 Eriksen 5 Trillion pieces
Moore creates a
new plastic as
pollution frame
– media reports
microplastic
science
2001
21. Example
1972 – 2009 ‘Plastic’ rarely in indexes
of pollution books and not seen as a
‘pollutant’ in itself. Appeared as
minor bit-part roles and in other
guises/ silos both T1 and T2.
Toxic additives
eg CFCs, HMs
Pollutant
carrier eg
PCBs
Wildlife
entanglement
Beach / land
litter eg bags
Marine / land
“litter”/
“debris”
Minor roles
in major pollution
agendas
Localised/specialist (marine)
soluble as ‘litter’,
ie physical recovery
+
Not a big
‘pollution’
issue
Priority
filter
In environmental T2 world ‘plastic’ was
outside the global pollution silo – took
time to get in
22. Global Oceans Commission 2012 - 16
You mean
plastic ?
High Seas
issues ?
In public perception
as ‘oceans’ issue; not
an global political
enviro’ issue
2008-14
2016
23. 2013 vol 22001
Plastics mentioned once -
carrier for CFCs in styrofoam
Plastics mentioned only for
toxic additives
EEA (T2)
There was activity – but it wasn’t
seen as ‘pollution’
24. Charles Moores book pub Oct 27 2011
Blue Planet 2 airs Oct 29 2017 in UK, Attenborough trails plastic in October 2017
Graph courtesy of Sigwatch
‘Plastic’ ‘activist’ global activity (T1) - Sigwatch
2011 2018
Moore voyages 2000>
26. February 2017
2013
2012
Moore voyages 2000>
Marcus Eriksen T1 + T2
January 2017
October 2017: Plastic Whale – Sky – Blue Planet II BBC
Breakout T2> T1
29. ‘waste’ ‘pollutant’
‘litter’
plastic
Cognitive Model of ‘Plastic Problem’
Government policies currently accept the ‘litter’ frame and ‘waste management’.
Campaigns will only shift these is there is public demand – if the public sees it as
a pollution problem. This requires reframing (Track 1 communications).
30. ‘waste’ ‘pollutant’
‘litter’
plastic
What seems to be the right and effective solution to plastic as a problem,
depends on how it is framed. The three dominant frames are as waste, as litter
or as a pollutant.
The litter and waste frames are linked by ‘recycling’.
Microplastic redefines plastic as a pollutant.
‘recycling’
31. ‘litter’
Activation of the litter
frame leads to ‘pick
up’ and dispose of
responsibly which =
recycle.
clean-up
Dispose of responsibly
Problem
Solved
plastic
32. ‘litter’
Activation of the litter
frame leads to ‘pick
up’ and dispose of
responsibly which =
recycle.
The ‘recycling’ action
‘solves’ the problem
from ‘litter’ and own
use.
Problem
Solved
plastic
33. The ‘recycling’ action
‘solves’ the problem
from ‘litter’ and own
use (own waste).
WYSIATI = ‘What You See Is All There Is’ cognitive bias (Kahneman). The
litter/waste gets recycled and the problem disappears – unless a different frame
is triggered because you see different things.
34. Activation of the
‘waste’ frame also
leads to recycling but
on a larger scale
Circular
economy
assumption
Problem solved through “waste management” = problem solved by someone else ‘managing’ it,
taking it away. Circular economy is something the public hears about, if at all, from
professionals. They only see the green bin/ bank collection point. WYSIATI
‘waste’
Not visible – in professional world
“waste crisis”
“improve recycling
system”
35. ‘pollutant’
Activation of the pollutant frame leads to an
excpectation of danger, containment, control,
warning, avoidance and elimination. Pollutants
are too small to be ‘picked up’ and can get
everywhere.
Not easily visible
Microplastic cannot be litter
Is not recycled
Does not fit ‘litter’ or ‘waste’
frames
Policy rethink ?
plastic
38. Cellulosics – cellulose and
lignin create new
feedstocks to replace oil.
> textiles, structural, plastic-
like materials
Eg Stora Enso, Metsa group
Lenzing (Austria) Lyocell/ Tencel
