What Does Going #plasticfree Have To Do with Racial Justice?
With #plasticfreejuly in full swing, you may be wondering if it’s just another capitalist ploy to distract you from the things that really matter - like actually dismantling the racist patriarchal extractive systems that oppress people and planet. GOOD QUESTION FRIEND. Way to be looking beneath the surface and thinking twice about the actions that are held up as the pinnacle of a “good” environmentalist. Keep it up.
While I believe wholeheartedly in the personal benefits of going plastic free - as well as the environmental necessity of it - I often ask myself what the bigger impact is, and if it’s the best place for my energy to go. I am always striving to integrate my values of ecologically healthy living and my values of social and racial justice (spoiler alert: they’re actually the same thing!) and find actions that create impact at the intersection of social and environmental damage.
My critical education in environmental justice made me hyper-aware that not all eco-actions are created equal, and that often the things that I (as an educated, well-resourced White person) was told and sold to do to help the environment were either elitist in their inaccessibility or were downright harmful to Black, Indigenous and/or People of Color and their communities. It made me suspicious of a lot, particularly calls for individual action to fight climate change, especially if it involves buying something (though I do love a cute new plastic free accessory).
I’ve always felt strongly that plastic/waste free living was a social as well as environmental action, and the more I learned about waste the clearer that became. In mainstream environmental circles are often educated to think about the impact of our waste on the planet, and going #plasticfree is mostly framed as an ecological action. However, the information and education around the impact of our waste on human beings - specifically Black, Brown and Indigenous human beings - is much less front and center in the conversation and trend of plastic free living. Let’s pause here and acknowledge that THAT in and of itself is a profound expression of racism.
So, how can you ground your #plasticefreeliving in racial justice?
Away is a Place and People Live There
When you throw things “away” you may grudgingly imagine the landfill to which your trash is headed, an ominous mountain of waste. You may try not to think about the toxins seeping into the soil and water or the emissions being released into the air. But landfills don’t exist in vacuums, human beings live near them. Children go to school near them. Babies are born near them. And - yep, you guessed it - the people who live, work and play near landfills, recycling centers, and toxic waste dumps are predominantly Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrants and poor people. In the United States, more than half of the people who live within 2 miles of waste facilities are People of Color. In Australia, the environmental justice data is less robust, but the trend holds - Aboriginal people, immigrants and poor people bear the brunt of the waste burden.
When you reduce your waste, whether it’s trash destined for a landfill (hello methane, CO2, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide emissions) or a recycling plant (lookin’ at you noxious gas emissions from toxic plastics and more CO2) - you are not just reducing your impact on the planet. You are also reducing your contribution to the serious - often deadly - health impacts for the people who live near, and work in, these facilities.
So, find out where your trash and recycling goes. Who lives there? We should all know where things go when we throw them “away” and who is experiencing the consequences of that. Open the can of worms and notice how your relationship to your waste changes.
Perfectionism is A Tool of Racial Capitalism
Just say no to perfectionism. Remember, perfectionism is a fundamental characteristic of white supremacy and that shit has no place here (byeeee). Audre Lorde has never been wrong about anything and so we must remember - the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. You’re probably doing your best right now. And if you’re not, you are the only one who can know that and step it up. Our economy is designed to produce massive amounts of waste, particularly plastic (it’s a $1.2 trillion market globally). There is a ceiling to your power here. There are things you might need need that require plastic - a cell phone, a computer, a car, a wheelchair, even bottled water if your water has been poisoned or privatized by predatory capitalism. This is where we take deep breaths and try to toe the line between personal responsibility and actually being victims of a violent system. Be honest with yourself about what you have choice over and what you don’t. And give yourself a break, like a real, true, deeply forgiving and loving break about the things you genuinely can’t change yet.
Your capacity for choice is obviously going to depend a great deal on your level of privilege too. Black folx, Indigenous folx, People of Color, LGBTQIA+ folx, immigrants, poor folx and other people with marginalized and oppressed identities have been (and still are) systematically targeted by economic and social forces that not only make healthy and sustainable options less accessible to them, but also dump the majority of the waste those of us with more privilege create in their communities. We all have different ceilings. Push against yours, and be gentle with yourself while you do. Be gentle with others too. Perfectionism breeds hierarchy. Hold up if you find yourself feeling like you’re better than someone buying bottled water at the store, or feeling ashamed and guilty that you have to. Shame is never a tool of liberation.
keep your eye on the system & watch for victim blaming
While I love all the #plasticfree energy flowing this month, and I love the personal impacts plastic free has had in my life, I also worry about change narratives that focus on personal action. I’m all about personal action, I believe it’s incredibly important, impactful, energizing - love it! AND - systemic problems require systemic solutions. Hyper-individualism and privatization are foundations of the crises - ecological, social, political and cultural - we are facing right now. We cannot buy our way out of these crises, even if the products we’re buying are plastic free, non-toxic, giving back, etc. Remember that ceiling we just talked about? We can’t smash it alone. We can only smash it together.
So watch for tunnel vision here, and notice if you begin to feel like your inability to completely cut plastic out of your life is the reason we haven’t solved the climate crisis yet. Remember that going plastic free is a step on the path, not a box to check for cookies. It doesn’t excuse any of us from the lifelong work of actively dismantling systems of oppression. Don’t let the media convince you that you’re either a saint or a failure based on your plastic free report card. Remember (and remind your friends) that 71% of waste produced globally comes from big corporations and industries. Plastic free living can be a form of divestment from oppressive systems - stay grounded in intersectionality, connection, and collective action.
I want to end here by noting that while I believe our approach to #plasticfree can be grounded in values around racial justice, it is not a substitute for anti-racism work. Going plastic free does not mean you’re anti-racist. I am merely offering touchpoints for how these issues are connected, and how we can begin to bring more awareness and conversation about racism into the plastic free movement. Working at the intersections means we get to pull on many levers at once. Siloing disconnects us and often even pits us against one another. There’s no time for that. Our personal actions and lifestyle choices can be seeking to address many issues at once, we just need to keep looking for the connections - they are always there.
Onward!