Waste Colonialism
Jennifer Truong
Background & Motivation
Single-use plastics usage have skyrocketed. It is not difficult to see the convenience of such a flexible and cheap material, however there is an unsettling byproduct that grows more prominent by the year: microplastics.
They come from more than just those sorts of litters, on the daily there are countless different sources where they could come from aside from disposable products. They take upwards of hundreds of years or more to break down and their effects are currently unknown as the scale of this issue is a rather recent issue from industrialization.
Luckily measures have been taken in order to counteract this rising problem. The famous “reduce, reuse, recycle” motto with the importance of each being in that order.
Animated Recycling Improvement
The growing societal conscience around the impact of plastics on the environment and spaces around is increasing for the better. However there remains an overlooked aspect that reveals an uglier side of the efforts for a clean and convenient lifestyle.
These particles are indicative of a larger social inequity at hand: waste colonization. Above highlights the top 10 plastic waste exporters, with their amount of plastic per capita dumped in their marine areas. It’s notable that the major exporters themselves may have the appearance of a more plastic-free society but not by way of environmental friendly policies.
Based on microplastic samples and an ocean current simulation made from the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model, here are the areas that are most likely to be affected by the dumping behavior.
Simulated Areas of Accumulation
Waste colonization is at display here. Wealthy nations export their waste to poorer areas such as Southeast Asia or Turkey in order to maintain the appearance of a clean nation with minimial waste. This map is reflective of such practices and displays the areas that will be affected most by these practices.
Marine Microplastic Records
Data of the occurrence, distribution, and quantity of global microplastics from 2004 to 2024 are plotted above. The density increases closer towards developed regions and especially so in their maritime cargo routes. In contrary to the common consensus that the less developed countries must be more wasteful, the data points towards waste simply being deposited there rather than being the source itself.
Below, the ratio of the litter density class and distribution of each saltwater body can be explored in detail within their respective groups. For the exact numeric entries, the second tab will be of use.
Regions Explorer
Countries that have exported over 100 thousand metric tons of waste plastics in 2023 are available for interactive to-scale visualizations below.
Top Exporters
It is notable that Europe specifically has countries that exports a significant amount of their plastics, which explains their “cleaner” surroundings. Developed countries seem to export their excess plastic the most but are typically not the most affected by their waste heaps. This is a combination of more secure waste management facilities but also the ability to simply dump it elsewhere when unmanageable.
Foods and Microplastic
The microplastics end up in the earth, water, and living organisms. A known issue is the building volumes within our foods. At current, microplastics have not been studied enough to assess the exact risks that they could pose to human health. The bar plot displays the food items that may introduce the most microplastics to consumers in particular.
This does pose a potential threat to countries that use the most heavily affected food groups as their staple.
According to data taken from 2010 to 2018, the countries on average that is most affected by dietary microplastic intakes are in the darker purple colors. Of note, some wealthy countries such as Canada and China face this issue alongside many developing nations. The nations in Africa and countries that do not border water on average appear to enjoy less microplastics in their consumables.
Conclusion
The visualizations above portray the facets of the social and environmental injustice issues in regards to plastic management. Waste colonization is something that stays far from the eyes of many who live in clean, wealthy nations and do not have to face wading through thousands upon thousands of plastic products in their day to day life. With these graphics, these issues and their potential consequences that would typically escape the eyes of a person with the privilege of living in a clean nation are brought to the forefront.
The data of contamination in food and marine environments brings up the need for systemic changes in how “recyclable” waste is handled. These insights are beyond numbers, but rather about the real lives and environments that are impacted by a seemingly innocent convenience product.