Plastic Leakage Must Be Stopped While on Land at Global Scale: People Are Best Suited for That Challenge
Despite 50 years of dedicated efforts by scientists, governments, and NGOs to combat plastic pollution—using policy, regulation, infrastructure, and corporate advocacy—the plastic crisis persists to a level that is impacting Earth's interconnected systems, including contributing to the greenhouse effect. Our analysis reveals that, among other problems, for Circularity to work, humanity needs immediate and drastic reductions in uncontrolled plastic emissions--but there is a knowledge gap about how to do so. We determined that only the public could meet this challenge with a solution that engages people in proactive, land-based prevention strategies at a global scale. To achieve this, we've developed a plan to establish a leading global brand guided by an evidence-based marketing strategy.
Our Research: A New Paradigm to Understand Plastic Pollution
Despite growing environmental awareness, plastic pollution media campaigns have struggled to effectively curb the escalating crisis. Our research, initiated in 2014, synthesized a vast body of interdisciplinary studies to include peer-reviewed harms, marketing research, social psychology, and economics, with an eye on new innovations. This holistic perspective revealed knowledge gaps and data anomalies, leading to the discovery of a "new paradigm" — a missing piece in the plastic pollution discourse. We applied the new paradigm to public engagement but it has applications in nearly all market sectors.
Using a marketing research lens, we analyzed past and present public engagement efforts, including messaging, target markets, and geographical scope, to understand why progress has been limited. Our findings indicate that previous campaign designs were inherently flawed as messaging did not match the size of the target audience, so litter did not subside and visual litter increased; we presume the lack of effectiveness to impact litter may have wrongly cast public engagement as an ineffective intervention. Lastly, the current 3Rs media (reduce, reuse, recycle) supports the Circular Economy framework, which, while important, offers a long-term rather than immediate solution to the plastic crisis.
Circularity Can't Work Without Immediate Reductions
Circularity is an economic framework that aims to reduce plastic within the collective product lifecycle, thereby decreasing the percentage of plastics leaking into the environment. It is a decades-long-term solution. As Circularity progresses to fruition, scientists forecasted inputs of plastic into all eco-systems will increase to 53 MMT annually (Borelle et Al., 2020), and they called on the private sector for help (Lau et Al., 2020). Both papers highlight the urgent need for action to address the growing plastic crisis.
We interpret this to mean, the private sector must implement strategies that lead to immediate reductions of plastic emissions so that Circularity can work. Reduce, reuse, recycle, waiting on policy and infrastructure are long-term. Additionally, some of these proposed interventions reintroduce plastic into the uncontrolled waste stream through littering.
An Untapped Global Cohort: Aware & Willing to Help
However, we acknowledge stakeholders' success in cultivating a potential critical mass of people concerned about ocean health and plastic pollution who are willing to take action if effectively motivated.
Beyond Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Awareness: A New Strategy to Influence Safer Social Norms
While acknowledging plastic's pervasive presence in modern society--we developed a way to live with the benefits of plastic while protecting the environment, giving Circularity a boost. Study insights informed a new trajectory for a global business communication strategy to leverage the untapped power of this global audience, potentially achieving significant plastic waste reduction in high and middle-income countries with speed and scale, and with the potential for global adoption.
The Whitepaper Strategy: Global Scope to Meet a Planetary Challenge
Our proprietary whitepaper, co-authored by marketing researcher Suzette Mehler and environmental economist and Earth scientist, Jim Levine, outlines the rationale, purpose, and execution plans for a globally branded, for-profit business model. This model harnesses the power of the marketplace to engage consumers directly, synergizing actionable convenience with compelling media messaging, new product inventions for the mass market, and eco-entertainment about the big picture of plastic distribution and how to solve it--the untold story told in multiple languages--for release on video streaming services.
We're seeking a forward-thinking partners and board members to help us bring this vision to life. Join us in creating a world where plastic's benefits can be enjoyed without compromising the health of our planet.
Stopping invisible nano-sized particles is critical. Mounting research on the adverse effects of nanoplastics suggests an increased impact on animals and plants. Of particular concern is that nanoplastics are distributed worldwide by the atmosphere, spreading the problem far and wide. Human health may be affected, too. A mouse study raises concerns about the potential health risks of nanoplastics on the human brain.
Nano-Plastic Crosses Blood-Brain Barrier in Mice: A recent study finds evidence for potential neurological effects of plastic pollution. Researchers exposed mice to polystyrene nanoplastics and found evidence that these particles crossed the blood-brain barrier, potentially triggering brain inflammation (Wang, J., et al., 2022).
Harms to Plants and Animals: Plastic permeates ecosystems, with impact to animals through follicle contact and ingestion (Wang et al., 2021), and recent findings indicate plants may uptake nanoplastics via their roots, posing risks to the food chain (Meijer et al., 2021). This issue is compounded by atmospheric transport, which disperses plastics worldwide, leading to the next concern: greenhouse effect.
Airborne Micro and Nano-Sized Plastics and the Greenhouse Effect: Micro and nanoplastics become airborne, scatter sunlight, and absorb radiation emitted by the Earth. Currently, microplastics have a minimal influence on global climate. However, with projections to double plastic waste in the coming decades, atmospheric micro and nano plastics could increase the greenhouse effect unless plastic pollution can be reduced (Ravelle, et al., 2021).
Plastic pollution has a growing body of research documenting harms and its insidious reach into ecosystems. Reviewing viable scenarios to solve plastic pollution, even with aggressive measures such as Circularity, scientists in two 2020 studies forecast annual plastic emissions will increase to 53 million MT by 2030 (Borelle et al., 2020) and 710 million M.T. of cumulative plastic will enter all ecosystems by 2040 (Lau et al., 2020); both studies call for an urgent response from the private sector to employ an economically solution.
Why a private-sector for-profit model: The challenges faced by non-profit organizations in addressing issues like plastic pollution are multifaceted and complex. While the limitations on unrelated business income and the risk of losing tax-exempt status can be a factor, there are several other potential reasons why non-profits might struggle to compete for public attention with large for-profit conglomerates:
However, it’s important to note that non-profits play a crucial role in raising awareness, advocate for policy changes, conduct research, and implement projects on the ground.
We applied the new paradigm to empower humanity in a way that could disrupt plastic debris flows while on land before it escapes irretrievably into aquatic bodies of water.
Telling Data Anomolies: Though widespread awareness and concern about plastic pollution exist, behavioral inconsistencies indicate confusion about impactful solutions. To address this, a clear, targeted marketing plan that embodies our visionary approach is crucial. This will cut through the noise of competing environmental messages, empowering individuals to make informed choices and take meaningful action towards a healthier, plastic-conscious lifestyle.
Scope: Our Approach Goes Beyond Litter: While public engagement media often focuses on reducing single-use plastics and litter, we expand our scope to address macro, micro, and nano-sized plastics originating from various sectors, including garments, home improvement, and building and construction.
How We Solve It: We identified the point of greatest opportunity cost to disrupt the conveyance of plastic debris from land into rivers and oceans at the least economic cost to mitigate. We tied it to a global business opportunity. The specifics of our strategy are proprietary at this time.
Meta-Analysis Led to a New Paradigm to Understand Plastic Pollution: We conducted an in-depth interdisciplinary examination of literature addressing plastic influences on Earth systems and public engagement efforts to mitigate it. Interdisciplinary led to unique insights to the complex innerworkings within the plastic pollution community and a new paradigm to understand causes of plastic leakage, why stakeholders cannot slow it, and new interventions.
Research was Extensive: The research considered most countries, their socio-economic status, population size, governmental structure, culture, literacy rate, the state of their waste systems, and topography. We then considered peer-reviewed studies on the global perspective of plastic pollution, sources, harms, weathering of macro plastic into nanoparticles, coastal and riverine emissions estimates, and impacts to terrestrial ecosystems, continental watersheds, and the atmosphere. Lastly, we considered global policy, infrastructure, and public engagement efforts to offset producer activities to meet consumer demand with expansion, marketing, and advertising. We also stay informed about new innovations to fill knowledge gaps.
Knowledge Gaps & Inefficiencies Identified: In essence, our plan plays a part in closing the loop. We considered the pathway of plastic–from manufacturing to plastic pollution–in the context of human communications and behaviors. We discovered knowledge gaps and inefficiencies.
What Our Models Indicate: Our models predict the greatest impact could be seen in high- and upper-middle-income countries within two to five years of launch. We conceived of a monitoring system to quantify changes in per-country waste-collection data to prove efficacy. While we may have the most negligible impact in lower-income countries, our system could do well in high-consumption countries.
Our Strategy Has Not Been Tried: We spent time and effort as the historian of 50 years of data and attempts to control plastic pollution and we could not find anything such as what we propose. Monstrous plastic systems in our soils, vegetation, water, and atmosphere constantly move and redistribute, making it elusive to control. The world is invested in plastic, yet it harms marine and terrestrial animals and human health and costs industries billions. It is a conundrum to find a balanced, sustainable, and permanent solution. Considering this, we developed a strategy that goes upstream, activating the public's help in a way that has not been tried. While details of the strategy are proprietary, we can share general findings and benefits of the plan.
The Intersection Point: Our proposed paradigm offers a middle-ground solution that satisfies environmentalists and business, with the potential to slow plastic emissions as Zero Waste and Circularity manifest. We identified an intersection point for the ideal strategy that could slow global plastic pollution.
Project benefits include:
Strategic Collaboration: In a meta-analysis of the plastic pollution landscape, we developed a “new paradigm” capable of reshaping the understanding and approach to mitigate plastic pollution. This transformative shift led us to address a global void in public leadership by merging the power of people with market forces to slow “uncontrolled” plastic emissions en masse. Our unexpected solution is meticulously outlined in a comprehensive whitepaper proposing a private-sector, global brand business model with multiple product extensions. Now it is time to propel our project from its nascent stages to a position of global recognition.
We welcome inquiries about the project. Contact Suzette at SuzetteMehler@WorldHarmoni.com.
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