The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads,
Environmental Politics, DOI:
10.1080/09644016.2018.1449090

ABSTRACT:

Emerging environmental norms gain strength and diffuse more quickly when
scientific evidence of harm is consolidating, when activism is
intensifying, and when political and corporate resistance is relatively
weak. The anti-microbead norm – that plastic microbeads should be
removed from personal care products – has been gaining global influence
since 2012; witness the upsurge in anti-microbead activism, public
concern, voluntary corporate phasedowns and governmental bans. By 2018,
the world was on track to eliminate microbeads from ‘rinse-off’ products
within a decade, reducing microplastics flowing into oceans by 1–2%.
This confirms the power of environmental norms, but how and why this
phaseout is occurring – unequally across jurisdictions, with firms
creating loopholes, missing deadlines and limiting the scope of reforms
– also reveals innate weaknesses of bottom-up, ad hoc norm diffusion as
a way of improving marine governance. These weaknesses are heightened
when economic stakes are high, solutions are complex and costly,
authority is fragmented across jurisdictions and corporate resistance is
strong.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LIF8aDtH5IjejTsWtIhcSi0Li5cGEOs1
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2018.1449090

The post The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads appeared first on One Earth - One Ocean e. V..

The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads,

Environmental Politics, DOI:
10.1080/09644016.2018.1449090

ABSTRACT

Emerging environmental norms gain strength and diffuse more quickly when
scientific evidence of harm is consolidating, when activism is
intensifying, and when political and corporate resistance is relatively
weak. The anti-microbead norm – that plastic microbeads should be
removed from personal care products – has been gaining global influence
since 2012; witness the upsurge in anti-microbead activism, public
concern, voluntary corporate phasedowns and governmental bans. By 2018,
the world was on track to eliminate microbeads from ‘rinse-off’ products
within a decade, reducing microplastics flowing into oceans by 1–2%.
This confirms the power of environmental norms, but how and why this
phaseout is occurring – unequally across jurisdictions, with firms
creating loopholes, missing deadlines and limiting the scope of reforms
– also reveals innate weaknesses of bottom-up, ad hoc norm diffusion as
a way of improving marine governance. These weaknesses are heightened
when economic stakes are high, solutions are complex and costly,
authority is fragmented across jurisdictions and corporate resistance is
strong.
KEYWORDS: Global environmental governance, environmental norms,
transnational corporations, marine pollution, plastics, microbeads

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LIF8aDtH5IjejTsWtIhcSi0Li5cGEOs1

The post The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads appeared first on One Earth - One Ocean e. V..

Morals, money or the master: The adoption of eco-friendly reusable bags, Marine Policy, 2018,

ISSN 0308-597X,

Abstract:

Plastic pollution is rampant in oceans across the globe. Our
project in Indonesia seeks to understand and measure the effectiveness
of non-monetary interventions that can help to reduce plastic bag
consumption. A natural field experiment with 60 local shops was set up
and three different persuasion strategies to measure shop owners’
likelihood to participate and sell them to customers were applied. In
all treatment conditions the reusable bags were offered to the shop
owners at a subsidized price along with explanations about the harm
plastic bags do to the environment. Additionally and according to their
randomly assigned treatment, they got either information activating a
pro-environmental social norm (arguing that distributing the reusable
bags helps support the wellbeing of their society); Indirect monetary
incentive (arguing that their business can save money by reducing the
amount of free plastic bags) or; authority endorsements (the head of the
village showing his support of the idea to distribute the reusable
bags). Our results support the conjecture that local leaders play an
important role in the Indonesian context.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AdwURlTkyJor4cYybkADC8rkqVhylkCp

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2018.01.029.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17304852)

The post Morals, money or the master: The adoption of eco-friendly reusable bags appeared first on One Earth - One Ocean e. V..

Morals, money or the master: The adoption of eco-friendly reusable bags

Marine Policy, 2018, ISSN 0308-597X,

Abstract:

Plastic pollution is rampant in oceans across the globe. Our project in Indonesia seeks to understand and measure the effectiveness
of non-monetary interventions that can help to reduce plastic bag consumption. A natural field experiment with 60 local shops was set up
and three different persuasion strategies to measure shop owners’ likelihood to participate and sell them to customers were applied.

Inall treatment conditions the reusable bags were offered to the shop owners at a subsidized price along with explanations about the harm
plastic bags do to the environment. Additionally and according to their randomly assigned treatment, they got either information activating a
pro-environmental social norm (arguing that distributing the reusable bags helps support the wellbeing of their society);
Indirect monetaryincentive (arguing that their business can save money by reducing the amount of free plastic bags) or;
authority endorsements (the head of the village showing his support of the idea to distribute the reusable bags).

Our results support the conjecture that local leaders play an important role in the Indonesian context.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17304852

The post Morals, money or the master: The adoption of eco-friendly reusable bags appeared first on One Earth - One Ocean e. V..