Owens Published on Plastic Pollution and Environmental Injustice

Professor Katharine Owens from the Department of Politics, Econmics, and International Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences publishes an opinion piece, co-authored with Dr. Katie Conlon, about the environmental injustice inherent in plastic pollution in Frontiers in Marine Science. The piece is a part of a research topic focused on Ocean Sciences and Ethics.

This article discusses the framing of plastic pollution as the responsibility of the end user, highlighting how this is particularly problematic when considering the North-South perspective. The authors evaluate two organizations seeking to address plastic pollution: the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and Common Seas, making recommendations about solutions that address the source rather than the symptoms of the problem.