Europe’s Marine Plastic Crisis: Why We Are Failing to Address It
In this Sea and Society Talk, Stefano Longo and Borja Nogué Algueró explore Europe’s role in the global plastic crisis. As both a major producer and consumer of plastics, Europe faces significant challenges in managing marine pollution.
Plastics are everywhere—from the highest mountaintops to the deepest ocean trenches, and even inside our bodies. Despite increasing awareness and waste-management efforts, plastic pollution continues to grow. In this seminar, Stefano Longo and Borja Nogué Algueró will discuss how plastic usage soared throughout the 20th century, and why waste-management efforts haven’t kept pace, and how industry and policy decisions have shaped our current plastic crisis.
The talk will highlight how industry and policy decisions have shaped the crisis and argue that sustainability science and policy must shift focus upstream in the plastic production chain. Finally, it will argue that we need to address the political-economic dynamics driving plastic crisis: the economic growth and commodification imperatives.
About the speakers
Stefano B. Longo is a Professor at the Department of Sociology and Work Science at University of Gothenburg. He's studying global development processes and the social drivers of ecological change. The research analyzes the interactions between social and biophysical systems with an emphasis on political-economy and sustainable development. A central component of his research program has examined food systems, economic development, and environmental change. An important goal of the work is to better integrate sociological approaches and social theory into interdisciplinary research in sustainability.
Borja Nogué Algueró holds a PhD from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). In his work, he draws from the fields of political ecology, ecological economics, and environmental sociology in linking marine sustainability concerns with debates on the degrowth/post-growth concepts, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean. He is specially interested in developing emprically-grounded critical perspectives on the emerging Blue Economy paradigm and in exploring more just and sustainable ways of relating to the sea.
About Sea and Society Talks
Sea and Society Talks is a lunch seminar series for researchers and ocean professionals, focusing on the challenges for a sustainable development and management of coasts and the sea.
Link to Webinar
Link to zoom webinar will be sent out after registration.