The Plastics Addiction: New book uncovers the disasters and broken promises of an era-defining utility

23 May 2023 --- Ahead of the UN’s second International Negotiating Committee (INC-2) on establishing a global plastic pollution treaty, German investigative journalists Benedict Wermter and Jacqueline Goebel have published a book – “The Plastics Addiction” – detailing how one of the world’s most useful and abundant resources has drawn society into a “damaging and unnecessary” dependency threatening human and environmental health.

Through years of research, the book asserts that while plastics of various forms can be useful – even “the defining material of our era” – current production, consumption and waste management practices throughout the world are exacerbating the climate crisis and harming human well-being – the full extent of which is still unknown. 

The authors detail how they see our relationship to plastics as analogous to drug and alcohol dependencies and offer a 12 step program for recovery. While the book’s (published in German) authors look for an English translation, we speak to Wermter about its key findings. 

He explains how the packaging industry can remain “pro plastics” while resolving entrenched issues such as petrochemical expansion, organized environmental crime, greenwashing, waste colonialism and circular economy failures.

Can you explain the book’s title – how are we “addicted to plastics”? 
Current plastic production, consumption and waste management practices exacerbate the climate crisis, the authors flag.Wermter: Our book is called The Plastics Addiction because we have researched all current, important studies that have been conducted on how plastics are made and disposed of and what impact this has. We have investigated stakeholders throughout the plastics supply chain and have concluded that humankind is nowadays heavily reliant on single-use plastics and FMCGs made of plastics. 

We can say that we live in the age of plastics – eras are determined by the tools that we use and dispose of and that build layers in the soil. Future generations will likely look back and determine us by the polymers left in the earth. 

There was the stone age, the bronze age and the iron age. Now we are in the plastics age. Overall, societies depend on plastics. Plastics are good – they brought us to the moon and made everyday life more simple and secure. We’re not here to bash plastics per se, but we see that certain products – specifically packaging – have a heavy environmental burden, and overall in our social and industrial dependence, we see an addiction. 

We have investigated greenwashing and fraudulent waste disposal, and we take into account oil and gas and petrochemical sectors – we look into the beginning, those that open the plastics tap, and find heavy demand for increasing production worldwide. 

We name the big companies involved and critically see production’s impact on human and environmental health. We have exclusive insights into companies greenwashing their waste management processes and see that the prevalent narrative of the need to fight ocean plastics pollution is actually being spread by the companies causing the pollution. 

Can you say more about the prevalent pollution narratives and their faults? 
Wermter: There are lots of free-rider, Western-led organizations taking advantage of poorer countries where infrastructure and legislative parameters are lower, and they take profits from these regions while providing little to no solutions. In our book, we have investigated such enterprises and how they operate in the field. 

Unfortunately, we came to the conclusion that such businesses and initiatives rather fuel the plastic crisis and help their clients to greenwash their products than adding value along the recycling supply chain. 

We’ve looked at big players in the circular economy, such as the Ellen MacArther Foundation, its network and the progress it claims to have made. It is interesting to see the development within the sector. But can we trust the promises big plastics players have made? We have also made exclusive findings on the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and its projects in Indonesia and Thailand, and we can say that the actual impact of those projects is at best questionable.

The book’s authors determine an overall social and industrial dependence on plastics.Who is ultimately responsible for this “addiction,” and how can it be treated?
Wermter: If you ask who is responsible for plastics addiction, in the first place, it is us consumers and our choices. However, it is also certainly the commercial sector that determines how we shop. Petrochemical companies and packaging producers are pumping material into the market, and they are responsible for overproduction, which they are now trying to remedy through circular economy initiatives. 

Realistically, there is an operational mismatch if we look into the increasing production capacities versus the attempts to keep resources in a loop. So we address the consumer and contribute to an understanding across the whole supply chain but ultimately look at responsible industries. 

Our 12 step program is taken as a correlation to the Alcoholics Anonymous program. We know that plastic addiction is not a physical addiction like certain drugs and alcohol, but we see several steps – strong legislation, harm reduction, prevention and therapy – as comparable treatment methods for the plastics economy and its harms. 

These four pillars are used in global drug policies. Therapy means recycling – design for recycling and improved recycling infrastructure. Harm reduction means cleanups. 

The most important pillar, however, is prevention. Digitalization and connected packaging technologies are key elements of this, and we’ve come across major examples and believe that if more steps are taken in this direction, we can cure the addiction. 

How can industries be held to account? 
Wermter: All eyes are on the upcoming INC-2 in Paris, and our book is coming shortly before the negotiations. We hope our findings can contribute to stronger legislation. We see a focus on increased recycling, which is a step in the right direction, but ultimately there must be a taxonomy of materials, a ban on certain plastics and a cap on production. 

We see there is a development around the UN treaty where FMCGs are talking about these measures, but we detail in the book a history of broken promises, and we have the impression that a lot of lobbying is going on and we will see if the claims being made now by the industry will ever come to fruition. 

I am afraid that industries know the criticisms coming from civil society and play both sides to avoid confrontation and please their opponents. 

We are pro-plastics. I am happy that my phone and electronics, and parts of my clothes and furniture are made of plastics, but these are durable and long-lasting. We want to see long-lasting plastics used responsibly and get away from these bales of waste and microplastics already out there. 

“Die Plastiksucht – How transnationals earn billions and make us addicted” was published by Finanzbuchverlag today.

By Louis Gore-Langton