4 Transnational Meta-Narratives and Personal Stories of Plastics Usage and Management via Social Media
Shalin Hai-Jew
AbstractDaily, people interact with plastic, a human-made material that may last for generations in the soils, the air, and the water, with health effects on humans, animals, and the environment. What are the transnational meta-narratives and personal stories of plastics on social media—on (1) a mass-scale digitized book corpus term frequency search, (2) social video sharing site, (3 and 4) two social image sharing sites, (5) a crowd-sourced online encyclopedia, (6) a social networking site, (7) a microblogging site, and (8) a mass-scale search term analysis based on time-based associations with correlated search terms? This work samples macro-scale stories of innovation (biodegradable plastics, bacteria that consume plastics), of lowering consumption, of plastic collection and recycling, of skimming the oceans of dumped plastics, and of mass-scale public awareness. There are also countervailing narratives of high consumption, resulting in overflowing landfills, plastics dumping on mountains and in rivers, and microplastics in people’s bodies.
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Key Words
Post-Consumer Plastics, Recycling, Plastics Management, One Health, Microplastics, Social Media, Transnational Meta-Narratives, Transnational Personal Stories
Introduction
Humanity is said to live in the current Plastic Age (Yarsley & Couzens, 1945, as cited in Cózar, et al., July 15, 2014, p. 10239). Indeed, plastic is ubiquitous and a part of daily life for most people around the world. Plastics are integrated into non-durable-goods short-life products and durable goods or long-life products. They are in visible applications like food packaging, jewelry, clothing, and other consumer goods; they are in less visible applications like computers, machinery, flooring, and others. People eat from plastic containers; they store possessions in them. They wear plastic in their clothing and footwear. They decorate themselves with plastic jewelry. They walk on plastic carpets, and they live in houses partially created with plastic
Since 1950, some “6,300 million metric tons of plastic” have been created, with “79 percent of that waste” in landfills and oceans (Daley, May 8, 2019). Annually, some “18 billion pounds of conventional plastic” are released into the world’s oceans annually (Daley, May 8, 2019). A 2014 study by the 5 Gyres Institute resulted in an estimation of “5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing some 269,000 tons…floating on the surface of the sea” (Seltenrich, Feb. 1, 2015, p. 1). An earlier work, based on modeling, points to “5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea” (Eriksen, et al., Dec. 10, 2014). Various plastics are carried by the ocean current hundreds of miles from its point-of-origin (Seltenrich, Feb. 1, 2015, p. 4). The sorbative nature of plastics has meant the soaking in of toxins, which ride with the plastics, which are consumed by both people and animals, whose bodies are exposed to desorbed toxins (Seltenrich, Feb. 1, 2015, p. 6). “Studies have demonstrated plastics’ tendency to sorb (take up) persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances, which are present in trace quantities in almost all water bodies” (Seltenrich, Feb. 1, 2015, p. ) Plastic bags may “look like the jellyfish eaten by turtles” (Seltenrich, Feb. 1, 2015, p. 3). People also, unintentionally, consume plastics through marine plastic pollution (Seltenrich, Feb. 1, 2015).
Definitions
As a term, “plastic refers to a huge variety of materials, all of which are organic (which is to say they are made of a group of compounds based on carbon), solid, and moldable” (Miodowni, 2013, p. 121). As a commonly-used material in the present age, a plastic is defined as follows:
a synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, nylon, etc., that can be molded into shape while soft and then set into a rigid or slightly elastic form. (“Plastic,” Oxford English Dictionary, 2019).
Plastics are human-made from naturally occurring compounds as well as human-made (synthetic) ones.
Plastics, which were invented in 1907 (“Plastic,” Oct. 18, 2019), have long been in the world’s marketplaces, and it has only been of late that plastic recycling has come to the public consciousness and been emplaced into initial practice [1980s and 1990s, albeit with the first plastic waste recycling mill in the world in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania in 1972 (“History of Plastic Recycling,” 2019)]. Public awareness of “plastic pollution” only followed generations after the advent of its widespread usage, with untold effects on people, animals, and the environment. Plastic, as a synthetic product created from various types of natural/organic and synthetic polymers, was found not to break down in the environment but rather to exist for generations in landfills, leaving messes for future populations. Over time, it was found plastics entered the oceans and entangled wildlife and was consumed by wildlife at all trophic levels, leading to health effects and deaths. In terms of the recycling of “common materials,” plastic comes in dead last after the following: paper, metal, and glass, in the U.S. from 1990 – 2015 (“Playing catch-up: Plastics are recycled less in the US than other common materials,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as cited in Tulio, Oct. 6, 2019).
As a product, “plastic” has vastly improved human lives in many ways:
Plastics have an array of unique properties: they are inexpensive, lightweight, strong, durable, corrosion resistant, and with high thermal and electrical insulation properties. This versatility has revolutionised (sic) our life and not least made information technology and electrical goods far more readily available than would have been possible otherwise. They have also contributed to our health and safety (e.g., clean distribution of water and breakthrough medical devices), and have led to substantial energy savings in transportation. Unsurprisingly, with an ever expanding population and our standard of living continuously improving, plastic production has increased from 0.5 to 260 million tonnes per year since 1950 (Heap 2009), accounting today for approximately 8% of world oil production (Thompson et al., 2009b, as cited in Wabnitz & Nichols, 2010, p. 1).
Another definition of “plastic” is “(of a substance or material) easily shaped or molded” (“Plastic,” Oxford English Dictionary, 2019). Some synonyms of “plastic” are words like “elastic, molded, bending, formable, moldable, pliable, resilient, shapeable, supple, (and) workable” (“plastic,” Thesaurus, 2019). There are said to be seven common types of plastic: polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE or Polyester), high -density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethyene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and other.
Something that is “plastic,” by definition, is malleable and moldable and shape-shifting. In terms of “plastic recycling,” both of these meanings coalesce. Here a subset of the plastics substance can be reprocessed back into a version of its native form for re-use, ideally, many times over. “Plastic recycling” or “polymer recycling” has been defined as follows:
…a way to reduce environmental problems caused by polymeric waste accumulation generated from day-to-day applications of polymer materials such (as) packaging and construction. The recycling of polymeric waste helps to conserve natural resource because thee most of polymer materials are made from oil and gas. (Hamad, Kaseem, & Deri, 2013, p. 2801)
There are efforts towards resetting market incentives to encourage plastic recycling. One idea involves making plastic-from-oil much more expensive than plastic-from-plastic, in order to create markets for the recycled plastic and to incentivize the collection of plastics by “rag pickers” in the developing world and elsewhere. (Forrest, Nov. 1, 2019)
For plastic recycling to work, however, people have to be aware of the need to recycle consumer plastics, their necessary role in bringing recyclables to recycling stations, and using their buying power as consumers to buy recycled goods (to create markets). The requisite behavioral role of consumers then suggests that various stakeholders in plastics and environmentalism have an interest in reaching out to the broad public…with transnational messaging…to address this issue. This movement also stands to gain with additional allies and contributors to non-profit advocacy organizations promoting plastics recycling, such as start-ups with new technologies for collecting plastics in ocean gyres and other entities. Plastics management requires post-consumer plastic reuse and recycling.
Research
This research is focused around a central research question:
R1: What is the state of transnational advocacy for proper plastics management globally to prevent harm to humans, animals, and the environment, in a One Health conceptualization, in social media?
R1a: What are transnational meta-narratives?
R1b: What are transnational personal stories?
What is meant by “one health,” broadly speaking? A One Health conceptualization stems from the recognition that “the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the environment” (“One Health Basics,” 2019). As an overarching term, it enables “a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach” to benefit the health outcomes of humans and animals (“One Health Basics,” 2019). This work involves capturing data from seven social media source types, with eight representational social media platforms:
Public messages inform an “authorizing environment” around which the public acts, so understanding the messaging may be important to learning what other messages need to be emerge, which ones need to be supported, and more strategic ways to communicate broadly.
Part 1: Google Books Ngram Viewer (mass book corpus term frequency search)
Part 2: YouTube (social video sharing site)
Part 3: Google Images (social imagery sharing site)
Part 4: Flickr (social imagery sharing site)
Part 5: Wikipedia (crowd-sourced global encyclopedia)
Part 6: Facebook (social networking site)
Part 7: Twitter (microblogging site)
Part 8: Google Correlate (a mass-scale search term correlation w/ other search terms over weekly time in a geographical region)
The main focus of this work then will be on the social media messaging, even though there has been some light review of the academic literature and mass media news coverage of the plastics recycling issue (to provide context). The visuals will be coded manually. Coding social imagery as a method for social exploration of issues (Hai-Jew, 2018). The textual messaging will be analyzed by both close human reading and distant reading (through computational analysis). The videos will be analyzed via their transcripts, using both close and distant reading analyses.
Also, this issue is being addressed in a number of human spaces: global governance, national governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), corporations, municipalities, and others. These other endeavors are beyond the purview of this work. The focus here is mostly on social media messaging to the broad general public to encourage the recycling of post-consumer plastics (as contrasted to post-industrial plastics). However, the transnational environmental movements that activate various entities are discussed lightly in the Conclusion.
Review of the Literature
Virgin polymers can be used to create drinking bottles, but recycled plastics can only generally be recycled about a half-dozen times before it can no longer be recycled and must be discarded. Some of these recycled plastics may retain their quality and be “upcycled” into food-bearing containers. However, additives mixed into plastics in the recycling process make it impossible to recycle after a certain point. Post-consumer plastics may be “downcycled” into “handbags or benches instead of completing the recycling loop by becoming milk jugs, water bottles and Greek yogurt tubs” (Daley, May 8, 2019). Scientists have created recyclable PDKs that may be “infinitely” recycled in the lab (Daley, May 8, 2019). There are advances to recycling methods as well, such as “chemical recycling, gasification or pyrolysis,” as noted by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR).
Transnational Meta-Narratives and Personal Stories of Plastics Usage and Management via Social Media
To set up a baseline for the topic of “plastic recycling,” a skim of academic articles and of journalistic ones was conducted. The first tended towards issues of innovative methods for plastic recycling, for increased efficiencies, based on close readings. Several of the works note that what works in the lab may not be directly transferable to industrial scale efforts. For the latter set, the articles addressed applied plastic recycling for a general reading audience. A “distant reading” approach to the academic articles (as a set consisting of 1,108 pp. and 648,022 words) show top-level themes that are fairly general (material, plastic, polymer, process, products, recycling, sample, system, and waste) (Figures 1 – 3 and Table 1).
Figure 1: Autocoded Top-Level Themes in Academic Articles about Plastic Recycling
Figure 2: Autocoded Top-Level Themes in Academic Articles about Plastic Recycling (3D bar chart)
Figure 3: Autocoded Top-Level Themes and Related Subthemes in Academic Articles about Plastic Recycling
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material |
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avoided material |
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biodegradable materials |
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blast furnace material |
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composite materials |
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contact materials |
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delaminated material |
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different food packaging polymeric materials |
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filling material |
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hazardous materials |
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increased material efficiency |
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interfering materials impurity |
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laminated materials |
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material consumptions |
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material flow analysis modelling |
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material handling system |
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material property |
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material reaches |
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material recovery facility |
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material structures |
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material substitution ratio |
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material type classification accuracies |
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natural materials |
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non-plastic material parts |
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nonplastic materials |
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original material |
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pharmaceutical packaging polymeric materials |
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plastic packaging materials |
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primary material |
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recycled material |
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resistant forest industry materials |
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sample materials |
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scrap material |
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showed material quality appropriateness |
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subsequent material loss |
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target material |
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traditional material |
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tribo charger material |
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unwanted materials |
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valerian materials |
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various microporous materials |
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virgin materials |
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vulnerable materials |
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waste material composition |
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wood-like material |
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plastic |
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¼ plastic bottles |
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398 plastics films |
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410 plastic pieces collectedfromanenclosedbeachonwashburnisland |
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adjacent plastic bottles |
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agglomerated plastic waste |
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american plastics |
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analyzed plastic samples |
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apolar plastics |
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archived plastic samples |
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beach plastic debris |
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collected plastic samples |
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coloured plastic |
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cycle assessment plastic waste |
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different plastic resins |
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different plastic types |
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disposable plastic cutlery |
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extruded plastic string |
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film plastic fraction |
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forward plastic supply chain |
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hard plastic |
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hollow plastic melt |
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industrial plastic pellets |
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ingesting plastic |
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injected plastic |
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international plastic production |
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k∈plastics |
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light plastics |
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marine plastic distribution |
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mixed waste plastics |
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net-collected plastic |
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neustonic plastic studies |
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numerous plastic types |
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ofcommonconsumer plastics |
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ofpelagic plastic |
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packaging plastics |
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pelagic plastic debris |
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pelagic plastic particles |
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pelagic plastic samples |
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plastic bags |
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plastic bottle contour |
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plastic concentrations |
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plastic containers |
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plastic content |
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plastic debris data |
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plastic films |
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plastic form |
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plastic fragments |
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plastic furniture |
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plastic grocery bags |
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plastic marine pollution |
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plastic market |
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plastic moldings |
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plastic nets |
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plastic objects |
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plastic packaging materials |
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plastic particles content |
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plastic pollution increases |
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plastic polymers |
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plastic product groups |
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plastic production market |
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plastic properties |
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plastic recyclables |
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plastic scrap |
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plastic sheeting |
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plastic tanks |
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plastic toy |
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plastic transparency |
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plastic waste characteristics |
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plastic waste fraction |
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plastic waste items |
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plastic waste management schemes |
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plastic waste products |
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plastic waste recycling |
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plastic waste segregation |
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plastic waste streams |
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polar plastics |
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post-consumer plastic packaging waste |
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post-consumer plastic samples |
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producing plastics |
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recycled plastic bottles |
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recycled plastic bridge |
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recycled plastic lumber walls |
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recycled plastic outputs |
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samplesto plastic debris |
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single-life cycle plastic products |
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single-polymer plastics |
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soft plastic particles |
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specific plastics |
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term plastics |
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tertiary plastic |
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virgin plastic source |
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polymer |
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3 polymer recovery |
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578 polymer degradation |
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chloride-containing polymers |
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condensation polymer |
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crystalline polymer |
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immiscible polymers |
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individual polymers |
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non-targeted polymer |
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other1 quality polymer |
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plastic polymers |
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polymer bed |
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polymer contamination |
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polymer design |
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polymer marketplace |
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polymer parts |
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polymer– polymer incompatibility |
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polymer recyclate stream end markets |
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polymer separability |
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polymers chemical |
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recycled polymer |
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regarding polymer type |
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several polymers |
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virgin polymer |
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waste polymers |
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yoghurt bowl polymer |
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process |
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2 processing cycles |
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active density separation process |
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additional separation processes |
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advanced process |
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bid process |
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catalyst process |
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combustion processes |
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ester exchange process |
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experimental process |
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freiberg process |
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general process |
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hiedrierwerke process |
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hydrogenation process |
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innovative processes |
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mechanical recycling processes |
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mirror welding process |
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morphological processing |
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oil refinery process |
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physical processes |
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process conditions |
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process steps |
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processing sites |
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processing temperatures |
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recovery processes |
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tagging process |
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two-stage process |
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products |
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annual production |
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coloured products |
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gaseous products |
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international plastic production |
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main product component |
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moulded product |
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multipolymer products |
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multi-polymer products |
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non-plastic products |
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petrochemical products |
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plastic product groups |
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plastic production market |
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plastic waste products |
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product application categories |
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product colour impurity |
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product designs |
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product life time |
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product lifetime |
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product residues |
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product types |
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pvccontainer waste product application |
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recycled products |
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retail products |
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single-life cycle plastic products |
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slab stock foam production waste |
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thick-walled products |
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wood products markets |
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recycling |
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chemical recycling |
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danish recycling centres |
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dutch recycling system |
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feedstock recycling options |
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mechanical recycling processes |
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net recycling yields |
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open-loop recycling |
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packaging waste recycling law |
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plastic recyclables |
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plastic waste recycling |
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private recycling centers |
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recyclable load |
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recycled bottles |
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recycled fiber |
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recycled fleece |
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recycled foam flakes |
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recycled material |
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recycled oak wood flour oak |
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recycled paper fiber pallets |
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recycled plastic bottles |
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recycled plastic bridge |
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recycled plastic lumber walls |
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recycled plastic outputs |
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recycled polymer |
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recycled products |
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recycled waste rubber powder |
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recycling chain |
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recycling companies |
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recycling concern |
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recycling efficiencies |
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recycling facilities |
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recycling fees |
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recycling indicators |
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recycling journal homepage |
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recycling line |
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recycling machine vision support vector machine |
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recycling method karishma |
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recycling network |
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recycling plant |
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recycling potentials |
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recycling programs |
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recycling purposes |
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recycling receptacles |
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recycling society |
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recycling status |
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recycling studies |
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recycling technologies |
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recycling waterway sediments |
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related recycling quota |
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secondary recycling schemes |
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sample |
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analyzed plastic samples |
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analyzed samples |
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archived plastic samples |
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archived samples |
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beach sample set |
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collected plastic samples |
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different sample |
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first sample |
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fresh clay sample |
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k neighbor samples |
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liquid samples |
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pelagic plastic samples |
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perpendicular sample |
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post-consumer plastic samples |
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primary samples |
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sample collection |
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sample densities |
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sample frequency |
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sample materials |
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sampling campaign |
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sampling integration time |
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sampling scheme |
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sampling sites |
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straightforward sampling method |
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subsequent samples |
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uniform sample |
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whole sample |
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zenith sample |
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system |
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automated sorting system |
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bid system |
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collection system |
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conveyor system |
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coordinate system |
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data-acquisition system |
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detection system |
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dutch recycling system |
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endocrine system |
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equatorial system |
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extensive flue gas cleaning systems |
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french waterway system |
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hysteretic system |
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image vision system |
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in-house bin systems |
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machine vision system |
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market systems |
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material handling system |
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model systems |
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nervous system |
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piping systems |
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prototype system |
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service system |
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sound classification systems |
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structural systems |
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sustainable management system |
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system boundaries |
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waste |
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agglomerated plastic waste |
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building waste |
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cycle assessment plastic waste |
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disposed waste |
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electronic waste |
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european waste policies |
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film waste |
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food waste conversion options |
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furniture waste |
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informal waste collectors |
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main waste stream |
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mixed waste plastics |
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organic waste |
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packaging waste recycling law |
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plastic waste characteristics |
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plastic waste fraction |
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plastic waste items |
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plastic waste management schemes |
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plastic waste products |
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plastic waste recycling |
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plastic waste segregation |
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plastic waste streams |
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post-consumer plastic packaging waste |
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preferred waste management options |
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private waste contractors |
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pvccontainer waste product application |
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recycled waste rubber powder |
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residual household waste |
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rich waste |
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rubber waste |
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sanitary waste |
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sawmill waste hardwood |
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shredded waste |
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slab stock foam production waste |
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solid waste management |
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waste avoidance |
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waste generation |
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waste handling |
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waste hierarchy |
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waste incinerators |
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waste management applications |
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waste management policy instruments |
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waste material composition |
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waste packaging types |
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waste pickers |
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waste pipe |
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waste polymers |
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waste rubber granulate |
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waste transport |
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waste types |
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waste vegetables |
Table 1: Autocoded Topics and Sub-Topics from the Academic Text Set around Plastic Recycling
While a majority of the text is sentiment-neutral, of the text that had sentiment in this academic article set, the sentiment tended towards moderation—moderately negative and moderately positive. (Figure 4)
Figure 4: Autocoded Sentiment Analysis of Academic Articles about Plastic Recycling
The processes of the academic text above were conducted using NVivo 12 Plus. Another run over the same data was conducted using LIWC2015, for additional insights. In terms of general language, the academic works scored high on analytics features (97.35), at the 50th percentile on clout or power scores, low on emotional warmth or authenticity (7.40), and negative sentiment in tone (33.21). (Figure 5)
Figure 5: Scored Language Elements in Academic Literature around Plastic Recycling
In terms of references to biological bodily functions, the academic literature had some small amounts of references, potentially in a health context (Figure 6).
Figure 6: References to Biological Bodily Functions in Academic Literature around Plastic Recycling
In terms of time focuses, the time-based language focused mostly on the present, followed by focuses on the past, and less on the future (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Relative Time Focuses in Academic Literature around Plastic Recycling
Finally, in reference to lifestyle factors, the plastic recycling academic article set showed a focus mostly on work and much less on leisure or home, which seems intuitive (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Plastic Recycling as Mostly a Work Concern in the Academic Literature (in the context of human lives)
This is to say that the academic research is aligned towards solving some of the technological challenges related to plastics and their usage and management. Where the experts have conceptual models of the challenge, non-experts have mental models of the same. In a massmind approach, the general stages to plastic recycling include the following: collection, sorting, washing, shredding, types of processing (physical, heat, chemical, and others), and voila! Some polymer recycling processes result in plastic pellets that can be reconfigured into various objects, others to fuels, and others to polyester yarn (that may be knitted into clothing, carpet, car seats, packaging, shopping bags, and other goods that may be made with “downgraded” or “downcycled” plastics, which cannot be recycled again). (Most industrial processing methods are likely to be registered through the patenting process to protect the rights of inventors to monetarily benefit from the work for a limited time period.) The broad public comes into play with their behavioral role, as consumers and as recyclers.
Plastic Recycling on Social Media
So what is seeable about “plastic recycling” in social media on various platform types?
Part 1: Google Books Ngram Viewer (mass-scale digitized book corpus term frequency search)
Part 2: YouTube (social video sharing site)
Part 3: Google Images (social imagery sharing site)
Part 4: Flickr (social imagery sharing site)
Part 5: Wikipedia (crowd-sourced global encyclopedia)
Part 6: Facebook (social networking site)
Part 7: Twitter (microblogging site)
Part 8: Google Correlate (a mass-scale search term correlation w/ other search terms over weekly time in a geographical region)
Part 1: Google Books Ngram Viewer
In terms of formal book publishing, a search for “plastic” and various types of plastics were run through Google Books Ngram Viewer, with high references to “plastic” as a generic and much lesser of the others, mostly starting in the 1940s. (Figure 9) In terms of “plastic recycling,” that term did not register in the search, which went from the 1800s to 2000. This can be understood as a general proxy for public awareness of the educated classes and parts of the general public for this issue.
Figure 9: An Exploration of “Plastic(s)” and Common Types in Modern Usage on the Google Books Ngram Viewer (English Corpus, 1800 – 2000)
Part 2: YouTube (social video sharing)
On YouTube, the social video-sharing site, a search for videos tagged “plastic recycling” only brought up a webpage and a half of videos on the topic before it transitioned to videos about other topics like glass recycling. The auto-complete in the search box for “plastic recycling” brought some other less general options (in descending order): “plastic recycling machine, plastic recycling business, plastic recycling process, plastic recycling at home, plastic recycling business in bangladesh, plastic recycling machine in bangladesh, plastic recycling ideas, plastic recycling machine price list, plastic recycling products, (and) plastic recycling plant.” A total of 11 video transcripts were captured, with 10 for adults and 1 for children. The transcripts were treated as one text set because when the transcripts were run individually, it was not possible to extract a computational data analysis of the text. The autocoded topics may be seen in Figure 10 and Table 2 (an intensity table).
Figure 10: Autocoded Themes from 11 YouTube Video Transcripts around “Plastic Recycling” (treemap diagram)
| A : bin | B : plastic | C : recycling | |
| 1 : CarbonliteWorldsLargestPlasticBottleRecyclingPlant | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 : DirtyBusinessWhatReallyHappenstoRecycling | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 : HowPlasticRecyclingActuallyWorks | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 : Plastics101 | 0 | 12 | 1 |
| 5 : PreciousPlasticHowtoFinishObjectsfromRecycledPlastic | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 : RecyclingforKids | 5 | 4 | 6 |
| 7 : RecyclingPlasticsResourceEfficiencyOptimizedSortingMethod | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 : SixRoofandPavementTilesfromPlasticWaste | 0 | 15 | 1 |
| 9 : WaronPlasticIsn’tWorkingRecyclingMythsExposed | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 : WhatHappenstoYourRecycling | 4 | 7 | 8 |
| 11 : WhyWereSoBadRecyclingPlastic | 0 | 8 | 4 |
Table 2: Autocoded Themes from 11 YouTube Video Transcripts around “Plastic Recycling”
In terms of the sentiment in the extracted transcripts from the videos, the sentiment across the sets may be seen in Figure 11.
Figure 11: Autocoded Sentiment in 11 YouTube Video Transcripts around “Plastic Recycling”
Part 3: Google Images (social image sharing)
A set of imagery tagged “plastic recycling” (through a combination of folk tagging and machine-based tagging) was captured from Google Images. These resulted in 1,575 socially shared images. The tags for this imageset (for filtering) include the following: “art, infographic, recyclable, creative, diy, pet, melting, environment, paper, waste, ocean, kids, symbol, plastic bottle, clip art, numbers, heat compression, home, hdpe, factory, innovative, design, reuse, chart, step by step, plastic packaging, plastic pollution, mixed, glass, (and) plastic bag”. This imagery seems to provide popular understandings but is not heavy on the actual science. Some of the surface messaging of these images are about getting clean and recyclable plastics from the general public into the plastic recycling system for processing. (Figure 12)
Figure 12: “Plastic Recycling” Image Search on Google Images
These images were coded by people type in depicted roles, possibly evocative of their stakeholder position in relation to plastic recycling. The results of this coding may be seen in the Pareto chart in Figure 13.
Figure 13: People by Roles in the “Plastic Recycling” Imageset on Google Images (1,575 images)
In terms of the percentage of images with people in them, only a small percentage (15%) met that requirement. (Figure 14)
Figure 14: Images with People vs. those Without in the “Plastic Recycling” Imageset on Google Images (237/1,575 images or 15%)
Another count was also conducted. If are multiple people portrayed in an image, they are counted multiply. According to this count, there was an average of about 1.6 persons per image with people in them.
There were two animated gifs. One was of a hand pressing down a bottle, which reconstitutes into a pair of green-and-white striped pants. Another showed a hand depositing a bottle for recycling into a bin.
Finally, a rough bottom-up coding approach was applied to the 1,575 images, to capture a sense of frequency of image types. Generally, stingy coding was applied, which meant trying to code one image to one category only; however, there was some overlap between “logos” and “advertisements” and a few other overlaps, so this work resulted in 2,351 descriptions from a set of 1,575. (Figure 15)
Figure 15: Categories of Social Imagery in the ‘Plastic Recycling’ Imageset from Google Images (1,575)
To elaborate, the “infographics” included a visual of the pricing of recyclable plastics, types of plastics, contamination issues from “commingling,” cross-contamination, statistics data, diagrams, recycling rates across types, scientific applications, the location of the plastic type labeling on a plastic bag, a plastic lump with veins like a rock, “ocean plastic recycling,” a chemical chain, cross-contamination of containers, steps to putting together a standing recycling basket made of plastic, and others. Those coded to “recycling factory” include conveyer belts with recyclables being moved, plastic recycling machinery, building exteriors, bundled recyclables, and others. For “discarded plastics outdoors,” these included beaches with wash-up bottles and piles dumped in outdoors spaces. For “household recycling,” these included household recycling bins on roadsides, a man dropping a full garbage bag into a dumpster, and recycling containers. The “science references” showed references to chemical compounds and science labs. The “workplace recycling” showed recycle bins in office settings. The “outdoor recycling” showed outdoor bins in parks. “Garbage picking” showed people picking through garbage for valuables. The “logos” captured business and other visual symbols. The “signage” category showed various types of messaging: “Not All Plastic is Recyclable,” “trash to cash,” “What Numbers of Plastic are Recyclable,” (not ads), “Soft Plastic Recycling,” “At Home Recycling,” “Methods of Plastic Waste Management,” “Plastic Bottles and Aluminum Can,” “10 Facts about Plastic Recycling,” “Recyclable Plastic Only,” “PET Bottle Washing,” “Keep Calm and Recycle Plastic,” “PET Bottle Washing,” “What Happens to Your Plastic Bottles,” “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” and “Recyclable Plastic Only.” The signs were for blog headers, report headers, and usually contained both an image and text. The catch-all category were general photographs related to plastic recycling: a plastic bag in a shopping cart, a close-up of plastic bottles, plastic bottles on a light table, recycled green hand chairs, stylized photo of positioned bottles, plastic containers, stock image of water poured from plastic bottle into a plastic cup (stylized), studio photos, and others. “Stock images” were their own category, with highly stylized imagery (whether from the photography setup and / or the post-production. “Advertisements” were designed images for the selling of products, services, or brand names. One photo was initially thought not to belong, but on second look, it was a view of a garden with bright tiles, which were likely made from a plastic composite. Certainly, de-contextualized images can be somewhat ambiguous.
To follow on, a search for “plastic” was conducted in Google Images. Interestingly, some of the tags here clearly refer to recycling (bold-faced and underlined): “ocean, recycling, pollution, bottle, water bottle, bag, packaging, waste, beach, ban, environment, fish, turtle, material, cartoon, sea, poster, toy, art, island, food, glass, craft, container, drawing, sea turtle, paper, pipe, sculpture, awareness” (boldfaced and underlined). (Figure 16)
Figure 16: “Plastic” Image Search on Google Images
Part 4: Flickr (social image sharing)
Searches were conducted on the Flickr social image sharing site for both “plastic” and “plastic recycling,” with two resulting imagesets (Figure 17). The tags for images on Flickr are machine-applied and focus on visual senses: red, dark orange, orange, pale pink, lemon yellow, school bus yellow, green, dark lime green, cyan, blue, violet, pink, white, gray, and black…in terms of colors…and then also black and white, low depth of field (shallow focus), minimalist, and patterns.
Figure 17: “Plastic” and “Plastic Recycling” Imagesets on Flickr
In the “plastic” set (150 items), there are images of the following: various types of plastic-wrapped foods, plastic toys, faux food, human hands cuffed by plastic six-pack ties (and others with regular plastic zip ties), a Halloween pumpkin, straws, a plastic Jesus figure, a farm field being tilled with a tractor, empty newspaper boxes with plastic fronts, raincoats, plastic frogs and mallard ducks, packaged drinks, plastic furniture (mostly chairs), a decorative bowl, a sunflower, a white plastic chair, a hippo, a reindeer, an airplane, forks, a water bottle, a mobile trailer, and lacy plastic coasters. There are a few images about plastic surgery, including body contouring, for a different “sense” of plastic.
In terms of “plastic recycling” (1,796 items), there are images of the following: icons indicating different types of plastics, interwoven plastic strands, a person dressed in various types of plastic items, data visualizations (about types of plastics), crafts “recycled” from discarded plastics (baskets, earrings, necklaces, decorative pins, coats, shoes, sculptures, and others), a parking lot filled with plastic or rubber recycling totes, a colorful circular carpet, a bedraggled Christmas tree, transparent bags of recyclables, mobile phone holders, a man dumpster diving to collect recyclables (likely for micro payments), a dragon sculpture made of recyclable materials, woven baskets, crafting, knitted hats, a bicycle cart packed with cardboard and plastic bags of recyclables, inventions, 3D printed figurines, a knitted fruit bowl containing green applies, key rings, a “plastic bottle bank” for collecting recyclables, toys, a discarded styorogoam food container, signage, a recyclables igloo, a sign advertising “BPA-free products,” plastic bottle caps, trucks hauling recyclables, and other variations. There were also depictions of plastic and Styrofoam (a form of plastic) food containers. There were logos and icons related to the topic. Also, there were images of recycling campaigns, with people speaking from podiums. Several photos involved a “recycle yourself” message, which refers to a type of composing burial available in limited release. There were photos of plastic foods. There were images of plastic ropes, factory sites, industrial machinery, and plastic straws.
Finally, a related tags network was extracted around “plastic” on Flickr to understand evocations, and two interrelated groups of tags were extracted. The first (box to the left) evokes various durable goods products related to plastics (cars, cameras, and others), and the latter seems to focus more on toys, dolls, barbie, jewelry, and handmade goods. (Figure 18)
Figure 18: “Plastic” Related Tags Network on Flickr Social Image Sharing Site
Part 5: Wikipedia (crowd-sourced global encyclopedia)
Another social media approach to “plastic recycling” is to explore the article-article networks in the open-source Wikipedia, in particular the English version of this crowd-sourced information source. The article network shows the outlinks from the article “Plastic_recycling” at one degree to other articles on Wikipedia (Figure 19). There are links to various organizations, types of plastics, companies, locations, publications, publisher names, and other references.
Figure 19: “Plastic Recycling” Article-Article Network on Wikipedia (1 deg.)
A trawl of “Plastic” article-article networks at one degree shows even more complexity (Figure 20). The articles on Wikipedia include the following: “Plastic, Timeline of materials technology, Thermoforming, Thermal cleaning, Roll-to-roll processing, Progressive bag alliance, Organic light emitting diode, Light activated resin, Film, Corn construction, Rotational molding, Injection molding, Molding (process), Plastics extrusion, Plastic film, Plastic recycling, Plasticulture, Self-healing plastic, Microplastics, Plastics engineering, Caltech, nuclear arms race, space race, Styrene-butadiene, South East, Asia, Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev, ebonite, Colloid, latex, Natural rubber, soda-lime glass, transparency (optics), plain bearing, Step-growth polymerization, caprolactam, nylon riots, Pantyhose, stocking, silk toothbrushes, Elmer Keiser Bolton, Wallace Carothers, New York City, 1939 World’s Fair, polyamide, mylar, Shrinkwrap, Styrofoam, plastic model, New York state, Belgian-American, Leo Hendrik Baekeland, formaldehyde, phenol, building code, Ontario, firestop, resin identification code, Recycling symbol, plastic container, Society of the Plastics Industry, Royal Artillery Barracks, Water Polo Arena, Olympic Games, Vinyloop, trash-to-energy plant, landfills, Active Disassembly, Labor intensity, future, Phenol-formaldehyde, Geotrichum candidum, Nocardia, Sargasso Sea, ultraviolet, Brevibacillus borstelensis, Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas fluorescens, oligomers, Acinetobacter, Aspergillus sydowii, Aspergillus niger, Lentinus tigrinus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Aspergillus fumigatus, polyhydroxyalkanoates, biodegradable plastic, pseudomonas putida, styrene, methanogenic consortia, pestalotiopsis, polyurethane, aminocaproic acid, nylon 6, flavobacterium, wastewater, ocean pollution, ocean acidification, disposable nappy, plastic cup, polymer degradation, adsorption, absorption (chemistry), alkane, pyrolysis, toxicity, incineration, methane emissions, carbon dioxide, greenhouse gas, ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbon, Montreal Protocol, microplastics, Deutsche Welle, Environmental Science & Technology, Forbes, Ocean Conservancy, amber, chemical decomposition, phthalates, new car smell, volatile organic compounds, plastic wrap, Bis(2-ethylhexyl) adipate, dental sealant, Environmental Health Perspectives, endocrine disruptor, estrogen, bisphenol A, National Geographic Society, carcinogen, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, alkylphenol, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, di(n-octyl) phthalate, diisodecyl phthalate, diisononyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, European Union, toys, phthalate, adipate, plasticizers, plastic colorant, plasticizer, rheology, plasticizer, reinforcing agent, fire retardant, stabilizer (chemistry), chemically inert, zinc oxide, ivory dust, wood flour, chalk, filler (materials), polymer stabilizers, organotin chemistry, inorganic compound, Comparative Tracking Index, UL746A, high voltage arc tracking rate, UL94, Flammability, Underwriters Laboratories, ISO 306, International Organization for Standardization, American Chemistry Council, Germany, Japan, United States, American Chemical Society, Dow Chemical Company, List of largest chemical producers, DuPont, Calico Printers’ Association, Dow Chemical, Giulio Natta, Imperial Chemical Industries, BASF, World War II, World War I, Bakelite, galalith, ivory, alcohol, nitric acid, cellulose, World’s fair, London, 1862 International Exhibition, Birmingham, Alexander Parkes, Parkesine, vulcanization, Charles Goodyear, Industrial Revolution, industrial chemistry, casein, Middle Ages, Mesoamerican, organic polymers, Galalith, collagen, nitrocellulose, natural rubber, shellac, chewing gum, Polydiketoenamine, Polysulfone, Silicone, Furan, cornstarch, lactic acid, Polylactic acid, modified starch, Plastarch material, Kapton, Polyimide, Polyetherimide, Maleimide, Implant (medicine), biocompatibility, polyetheretherketone, Urea-formaldehyde, Formica, Melamine resin, recycle, Formica (plastic), Young’s modulus, phenol formaldehyde, Phenolic resin, Teflon, Polytetrafluoroethylene, acrylic paints, Perspex, acrylic polymer, Acrylic glass, boron trifluoride, amide, amine, epoxy, Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, Saran (plastic), Polyvinylidene chloride, polyvinyl chloride, Polyurethanes, High impact polystyrene, Compact disc, foam peanut, Polystyrene, plastic pressure pipe systems, Polypropylene, Polyethylene terephthalate, garden furniture, Low-density polyethylene, High-density polyethylene, Polyethylene, textile, fiber, Polyester, riot shield, eyeglasses, Polycarbonate, fishing line, nylon, Polyamides, commodity plastics, polycarbonate, global warming, bioplastics, Biopol, Genetic engineering, starch, biodegradable additives, anaerobic digestion, aerobic digestion, environmental degradation, biodegradation, ultra-violet radiation, biodegradable, copper, polyacetylene, conductive polymers, vinyl chloride, crystallization of polymers, intermolecular force, melting point, molecular, amorphous, crystalline, methyl methacrylate, atomic mass unit, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, thermosetting polymer, thermoplastic, elastomer, engineering plastic, biodegradable plastics, conductive polymers, product design, celsius, ionizing radiation, oxidation, chemical properties, glass transition temperature, tensile strength, density, hardness, physical property, cross-link, polyaddition, condensation reaction, halocarbon, polyurethanes, silicones, polyester, acryl group, side chain, chemical structure, side chains, backbone chain, repeating unit, monomer, repeat unit, sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, organic compound, aluminum, plastic deformation, synthetic fiber, artificial membrane, extruded, hot isostatic pressing, casting, plasticity (physics), Greek language, wikt:plastic, plastic recycling, polymer physics, Herman Francis Mark, polymer chemistry, Hermann Staudinger, Nobel laureate, materials science, Leo Baekeland, bakelite, plastic surgery, vinyl siding, plumbing, piping, ceramic, glass, metal, leather, bone, horn (anatomy), rock (geology), wood, petrochemical, molecular mass, organic polymer, polymer, plasticity (physics), molding (process), malleability, organic compound, (and) synthetic polymers. If nothing else, this list shows something of the complexity of plastics and their interwoven-ness in human lives.
Figure 20: “Plastic” Article-Article Network on Wikipedia (1 deg.)
Part 6: Facebook (social networking site)
The Facebook social networking site seemed to have several accounts focused on plastic recycling.
A data capture from the @PlasticPollution account (https://www.facebook.com/PlasticPollution/) of the Plastic Pollution Coalition resulted in a capture of 1,988 posts and 60,425 comments, but multiple attempts to process these computationally resulted in failure, and only autocoded sentiment was captured, showing a majority of neutral text (as is typical with most natural language) but with negative sentiment predominant where sentiment was present (Figures 21 and 22).
Figure 21: Autocoded Sentiment from the @PlasticPollution Poststream on Facebook (treemap diagram)
Figure 22: Autocoded Sentiment Analysis from the @PlasticPollutionCoalition Poststream on Facebook (3D bar chart)
As to the @LessPlasticUK account (https://www.facebook.com/LessPlasticUK/) on Facebook, 25 posts and 29 comments were captured. The top-level topics extracted computationally were “plastic” and “plastic waste.” (Figure 23)
Figure 23: Autocoded Themes from the @LessPlasticUK Poststream on Facebook
This latter account tends much more towards positive sentiment and moderately negative. (Figure 24)
Figure 24: Autocoded Sentiments from the @LessPlasticUK Poststream on Facebook
Part 7: Twitter (microblogging site)
There were four Twitter accounts found to relate to plastic recycling specifically. These are listed in Table 3, with their social statistics included.
|
|
Tweets |
Following |
Followers |
Likes |
|
@plasticrecycles, https://twitter.com/plasticrecycles Worcester, England munchy.com Joined Jan. 2014 |
449 |
135 |
770 |
102 |
|
@PlasticPollutes https://twitter.com/PlasticPollutes World plasticpollutioncoalition.org Joined Sept. 2009 |
18,500 |
6,605 |
44.900 |
13.400 |
|
Alliance to End Plastic Waste @endplasticwaste https://twitter.com/endplasticwaste endplasticwaste.org Joined Dec. 2018 |
— |
7,572 |
76 |
— |
|
RecyclingAssociation @RecyclingAssoc https://twitter.com/RecyclingAssoc Daventry, England Therecyclingassociation.com Joined Sept. 2016 |
872 |
393 |
1,224 |
203 |
Table 3: Four Twitter Accounts Related to Plastic Recycling
An analysis of the four respective Tweetstreams were conducted, showing different dimensions of sentiment, including very negative, moderately negative, moderately positive, and very positive. (Figure 25)
Figure 25: Comparative Sentiment in Four Tweetstream Datasets in Accounts related to Plastic Recycling on Twitter
The autocoded themes from these combined sets may be seen in Figure 26. Run singly, no topics could be extracted, potentially based on the succinct nature of microblogging messages / tweets. The high-level topics were “plastic,” “https,” and “recycling,” which is suggestive of general focuses…but also that there are many references to off-site webpages (via the “https”).
Figure 26: Autocoded Themes from Four Combined Tweetstream Datasets of Twitter Accounts Related to Plastic Recycling
In this space, there are some common hashtags, including #plasticpollution, #endplasticwaste, and others.
Part 8: Google Correlate (a mass-scale search term correlation w/ other search terms over weekly time in a geographical region)
On Google Correlate, “plastic recycling” as a search phrase resulted in no correlates for the following locations: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Viet Nam. This might suggest a wide lack of awareness of the issue, on the one hand, or at least a non-use of Google Search (the world’s leading search engine) using the English phrase for their searches. (There is varying but high penetration of English in most of those listed countries.) For Mexico, there were only two associations: “mina mexico” and “patarroyo” (0.621 and 0.617). (Table 6) In Canada, “plastic recycling” was just linked with “environmentally” (r=0.6001). In Egypt, those search terms were linked just with كتاب اولاد حارتنا (translated on Google Translate as) “book children of our neighborhood” with an r = 0.6015). A listing of the correlations are shown for China, Indonesia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Tables 4 to 8).
|
0.7341 |
консульство |
consulate |
|
0.7325 |
hotel restaurant |
— |
|
0.7315 |
melange |
— |
|
0.7294 |
порт |
port |
|
0.7283 |
россию |
Russia |
|
0.7276 |
qq ubuntu |
— |
|
0.7264 |
tp4056 |
— |
|
0.7264 |
quanjing |
— |
|
0.7246 |
antibacterial activity |
— |
|
0.7241 |
the degradation |
— |
|
0.7217 |
transferred to |
— |
|
0.7215 |
环球 移民 |
global immigration |
|
0.7214 |
梦 见 吃饭 |
dream, see, eat |
|
0.7209 |
carbon sequestration |
— |
|
0.7206 |
chemical constituents |
— |
|
0.7182 |
梦 见 婴儿 |
dream see baby |
|
0.7173 |
muchas |
— |
|
0.7171 |
benoy |
— |
|
0.7169 |
lietou |
— |
|
0.7166 |
s of |
— |
|
0.7164 |
j. am. chem. soc |
— |
|
0.7162 |
food industries |
— |
|
0.7159 |
淘宝 宝 |
Taobao bao |
|
0.7155 |
anthocyanins |
— |
|
0.7155 |
怀孕 几 天 |
pregnant for a few days |
|
0.7152 |
effective in |
— |
|
0.7149 |
superparamagnetic |
— |
|
0.7149 |
i am writing to |
— |
|
0.7147 |
avez |
— |
|
0.7142 |
moevenpick |
— |
|
0.71418 |
0, |
— |
|
0.714 |
jboss as |
— |
|
0.714 |
淘宝 网 |
taobao wang |
|
0.714 |
腰 酸 背 痛 |
backache, back pain |
|
0.7139 |
growth factor receptor |
|
|
0.7139 |
梦 见 牙齿 掉 |
dream see teeth drop |
|
0.7137 |
positive solutions |
— |
|
0.7131 |
www.odnoklassniki.ru |
— |
|
0.7131 |
梦 见 牙齿 |
dream see teeth |
|
0.713 |
findchips |
— |
|
0.7129 |
авиалинии |
— |
|
0.7125 |
梦 见 亲戚 |
dream see relatives |
|
0.7121 |
梦 见 儿子 |
dream see son |
|
0.7118 |
大 团 |
large group |
|
0.7118 |
fenzhi |
— |
|
0.7117 |
anodized |
— |
|
0.7115 |
characterizations |
— |
|
0.7113 |
physicochemical properties |
— |
|
0.711 |
波 尿 酸 |
urinary acid |
|
0.7109 |
刚 怀孕 |
just pregnant |
|
0.7107 |
led 吸 顶灯 |
led sunction lamp |
|
0.7104 |
critically ill |
— |
|
0.71 |
organic acids |
— |
|
0.7096 |
azimut |
— |
|
0.7096 |
区別 |
distinction |
|
0.7095 |
caak.mn |
— |
|
0.7095 |
ubiquitin ligase |
|
|
0.7093 |
auf den |
— |
|
0.7092 |
面包 做法 |
bread practice |
|
0.7088 |
梦 见 同学 |
dream see classmate |
|
0.7087 |
remission |
— |
|
0.7087 |
sonax |
— |
|
0.7086 |
孕 囊 |
gestational sac |
|
0.7084 |
ubuntu 安装 qq |
ubuntu installation qq |
|
0.7084 |
小 产 后 |
small postpartum |
|
0.7081 |
par la |
— |
|
0.708 |
人流 后 |
after the flow of people |
|
0.7078 |
graphene sheets |
— |
|
0.7077 |
梦 见 坟墓 |
dream see the grave |
|
0.7077 |
dynamic response |
— |
Table 4: Weekly-Correlated Mass Search Terms with “Plastic Recycling” in China via Google Search (on Google Correlate)
|
0.6723 |
paper ekonomi |
— |
|
0.6528 |
la culture |
— |
|
0.6412 |
yudha perdana |
Yudha Prime |
|
0.6406 |
bhx |
— |
|
0.6377 |
tempat wisata terkenal di indonesia |
famous tourist attractions in Indonesia |
|
0.6368 |
tipe wanita |
type of woman type |
|
0.6358 |
configure raid |
— |
|
0.6344 |
カラ |
Kara |
|
0.6336 |
ellen portia |
— |
|
0.6302 |
wisata terkenal di indonesia |
famous tour in Indonesia |
|
0.6287 |
haryatmoko |
haryatmoko |
|
0.6284 |
virtual memory adalah |
— |
|
0.6281 |
audio midi |
— |
|
0.6242 |
堀江 |
Horie |
|
0.6228 |
lascaux |
— |
|
0.6227 |
kopertis yogyakarta |
kopertis yogyakarta |
|
0.6217 |
artist film |
— |
|
0.6192 |
midc |
— |
|
0.619 |
dos hermanos |
two brothers |
|
0.6188 |
water balance |
— |
|
0.6184 |
i veta |
in knowing |
|
0.618 |
star wars toys |
— |
|
0.618 |
intel 8086 |
— |
|
0.6165 |
atac |
— |
|
0.6164 |
changkat |
changkat |
|
0.6145 |
ketidaktahuan |
ignorance |
|
0.6138 |
archimedes law |
— |
|
0.6131 |
angelina sonda |
— |
|
0.6121 |
sump filter |
— |
|
0.6105 |
kyocera indonesia |
— |
|
0.6088 |
makalah keamanan jaringan |
network security papers |
|
0.6087 |
topps |
— |
|
0.6084 |
txl |
— |
|
0.6051 |
lirik lagu laskar cinta |
lyrics of love |
|
0.605 |
f10a |
— |
|
0.6037 |
website bumn |
bumn website |
|
0.6033 |
direktorat bea dan cukai |
directorate of customs and excise |
|
0.6032 |
vietnam news |
— |
|
0.6024 |
badan pusat statistik surabaya |
surabaya statistics center |
|
0.6024 |
after world |
— |
|
0.6013 |
indo balau ume |
indonesian ume |
|
0.601 |
music camp |
— |
|
0.601 |
embosser |
— |
|
0.6004 |
巴西 |
Brazil |
|
0.6002 |
decoder parabola |
— |
Table 5: Weekly-Correlated Mass Search Terms with “Plastic Recycling” in Indonesia via Google Search (on Google Correlate)
|
0.6213 |
mina mexico |
my mexico |
|
0.6176 |
patarroyo |
patarroyo |
Table 6: Weekly-Correlated Mass Search Terms with “Plastic Recycling” in Mexico via Google Search (on Google Correlate)
|
0.8765 |
developments |
|
0.8717 |
park plaza hotel |
|
0.871 |
college of food |
|
0.8703 |
home loans |
|
0.87 |
letter writing |
|
0.8699 |
nuffield hospital |
|
0.8699 |
itil |
|
0.8692 |
reed employment |
|
0.8691 |
cluttons |
|
0.868 |
calculators |
|
0.868 |
novotel |
|
0.8677 |
crowne plaza hotel |
|
0.8667 |
cipd |
|
0.8665 |
estates |
|
0.8662 |
spanish translations |
|
0.866 |
surveying |
|
0.866 |
international property |
|
0.8651 |
holiday inn, |
|
0.8644 |
travel inn |
|
0.8641 |
up my street |
|
0.8638 |
law society |
|
0.8633 |
marriott |
|
0.8631 |
commercial properties |
|
0.8628 |
seasons hotel |
|
0.8628 |
investments |
|
0.8628 |
application forms |
|
0.8627 |
patio hotel |
|
0.8627 |
jurys |
|
0.8624 |
hilton, |
|
0.8621 |
travel inn manchester |
|
0.862 |
derwentside |
|
0.8619 |
cover letters |
|
0.8619 |
covering letters |
|
0.8616 |
fish 4 |
|
0.8615 |
sage line 50 |
|
0.8615 |
fish4jobs |
|
0.8612 |
prospects |
|
0.8611 |
my street |
|
0.8607 |
surveys |
|
0.8605 |
line 50 |
|
0.8604 |
bupa hospital |
|
0.8601 |
eversheds |
|
0.86 |
four seasons hotel |
|
0.8599 |
neate |
|
0.8598 |
wolfrace |
|
0.8598 |
map.co.uk |
|
0.8598 |
bda |
|
0.8597 |
birmingham college of food |
|
0.8591 |
dreweatt |
|
0.8588 |
generators |
|
0.8587 |
hsa |
|
0.8587 |
sussex council |
|
0.8587 |
estat |
|
0.8586 |
cis |
|
0.8586 |
generics |
|
0.8585 |
recycling plastic |
|
0.8584 |
commercial agents |
|
0.8583 |
dreweatt neate |
|
0.8581 |
salaries |
|
0.8579 |
quality hotel |
|
0.8579 |
synergy |
|
0.8579 |
planning office |
|
0.8579 |
hilton hotel |
|
0.8576 |
commercial mortgages |
|
0.8574 |
maternity rights |
|
0.8573 |
training in |
|
0.8573 |
homes.co.uk |
|
0.8571 |
4 jobs |
|
0.8569 |
& co |
|
0.8568 |
registrars |
|
0.8568 |
astate |
|
0.8567 |
nuffield hospitals |
|
0.8563 |
trada |
|
0.8562 |
radisson hotel |
|
0.8562 |
upmystreet |
|
0.8561 |
www.ryanair |
|
0.8559 |
conversions |
|
0.8558 |
weight conversions |
|
0.8557 |
art centre |
|
0.8556 |
translations |
|
0.8556 |
properties |
|
0.8552 |
wholesaler |
|
0.8552 |
dept |
|
0.855 |
advise |
|
0.8549 |
french dictionary |
|
0.8548 |
tulip inn |
|
0.8548 |
dfes |
|
0.8547 |
limousines |
|
0.8547 |
div |
|
0.8547 |
youth service |
Table 7: Weekly-Correlated Mass Search Terms with “Plastic Recycling” in United Kingdom via Google Search (on Google Correlate)
|
0.8907 |
recycling plastic |
|
0.8817 |
earth friendly |
|
0.865 |
green products |
|
0.8631 |
recycled |
|
0.8616 |
plastic recycle |
|
0.8566 |
recycle paper |
|
0.8483 |
recycling containers |
|
0.8447 |
eco-friendly |
|
0.8399 |
environmentally friendly |
|
0.8397 |
green.com |
|
0.8355 |
recycle |
|
0.8279 |
get lyrics |
|
0.8248 |
green companies |
|
0.8248 |
green seal |
|
0.8218 |
solar hot |
|
0.8179 |
recycle logo |
|
0.8178 |
microsoft sam |
|
0.8178 |
juliet lyrics |
|
0.8163 |
recycled paper |
|
0.816 |
wind power |
|
0.8138 |
solar hot water |
|
0.8136 |
bank national |
|
0.8129 |
green company |
|
0.8124 |
dansen |
|
0.8098 |
organic clothing |
|
0.809 |
0mx lookup |
|
0.8083 |
recycle symbols |
|
0.8082 |
green hotels |
|
0.8079 |
wind generator |
|
0.8063 |
lsit |
|
0.8041 |
recycle bins |
|
0.8037 |
shopping bags |
|
0.803 |
solar water |
|
0.8028 |
paper recycling |
|
0.8026 |
solar cell |
|
0.8017 |
sigg bottles |
|
0.8014 |
runescape cursors |
|
0.8007 |
turbines |
|
0.8005 |
smoke weed all day |
|
0.7998 |
green construction |
|
0.7994 |
food costs |
|
0.7993 |
environmentally |
|
0.7992 |
sigg water |
|
0.7987 |
solar power |
|
0.7984 |
foreclosure home |
|
0.7984 |
composters |
|
0.7978 |
green homes |
|
0.7978 |
rad7 |
|
0.7974 |
foreclosure list |
|
0.7967 |
new hip hop singles |
|
0.7966 |
eco-friendly clothing |
|
0.7966 |
green business |
|
0.7962 |
myhotcomments.com |
|
0.796 |
recycle containers |
|
0.7946 |
sigg water bottles |
|
0.7946 |
over now |
|
0.794 |
0awn |
|
0.7936 |
black diamond university |
|
0.7936 |
lil wayne pics |
|
0.7932 |
tppc |
|
0.7928 |
recycled plastic |
|
0.7928 |
photovoltaic |
|
0.7926 |
kindercare learning |
|
0.7926 |
mxi |
|
0.7916 |
tribal war |
|
0.7916 |
bank owned real estate |
|
0.7915 |
forever the sickest kids lyrics |
|
0.7915 |
safe water |
|
0.7908 |
life.org |
|
0.7906 |
green product |
|
0.7905 |
global solar |
|
0.7902 |
democrat.com |
|
0.7901 |
real estate owned |
|
0.7899 |
calorie count |
|
0.789 |
green living |
|
0.7889 |
ww.hotmail.com |
|
0.7886 |
green shopping bags |
|
0.7884 |
green office |
|
0.7883 |
dumper |
|
0.7882 |
maps.live |
|
0.7881 |
hi5 .com |
|
0.7879 |
home foreclosures |
|
0.7874 |
irvine housing |
|
0.7874 |
list.com |
|
0.7872 |
green builders |
|
0.7872 |
streaming anime |
|
0.7867 |
compost bins |
|
0.7865 |
esx server |
|
0.7865 |
world group |
|
0.7864 |
green stocks |
Table 8: Weekly-Correlated Mass Search Terms with “Plastic Recycling” in the United States via Google Search (on Google Correlate)
The mental conceptualizations of “plastic recycling” clearly differ between China, Indonesia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in substance and in rank order of association based on time associations.
Discussion
To recap, the main research question and the two sub-research questions follow.
R1: What is the state of transnational advocacy for proper plastics management globally to prevent harm to humans, animals, and the environment, in a One Health conceptualization, in social media?
R1a: What are transnational meta-narratives?
R1b: What are transnational personal stories?
The transnational advocacy around plastics recycling is piecemeal, mostly focused in developed countries, although there are occasional messages about such efforts in developing countries. There are some development projects that motivate plastics collections from rivers for micropayments, in the news. Anecdotally, there are stories of misuses of plastics. One involves farmers reusing plastics that used to contain pesticides…for food storage, resulting in human ingestion of toxins. In others, plastic is burned locally by street sweepers, releasing potential toxins into the air.
If advocacy requires messengers, and cognoscere mentem, cognoscere hominem (“know the motive, know the man”), then it may help to sketch out possible stakeholder communicators and their respective central motives in broad strokes:
- Plastic manufacturers stand to gain by encouraging plastic recycling so that plastic itself is not painted with a negative broad brush given its many benefits. There is an important place for plastic in human lies until an improved and practical substitute is available one day, if then. Professional groups have their lobbies promoting particular ideas and practices.
- Consumers appreciate convenience in their everyday lives, and they prefer low costs, and they prefer to be guilt-free. They also have concerns around One Health: human, animal, and environmental health. They want healthful lives and toxin-free environments.
- Plastic recyclers want a constant stream of recyclable plastics, properly cleaned and sorted, for processing. The more pre-arrival efficiencies that can be addressed, the less they have to operationalize. They also want a market for their processed plastics, so that the cycle pre- and post- is available.
Based on the social media messaging and interactions, the content seems to also mostly originate from the West into the larger world because of the locations of the respective social media accounts around this issue, the types of photos shared, and the types of social messaging. The “regime of meaning” comes from a Western social hand, with ready access to recycling containers and collection sites, ready access to information in English and diagrams, and so on. Plastic recycling is portrayed in the context of general approaches to recycling of electronics, batteries, paper, glass, and other products, so it is not an issue handled in isolation.
From a social media sense, the broad public has a general sensibility about plastic recycling, but the public knowledge (if informed only by the textual and visual and video postings on social media and the occasional mass media journalistic article) seems superficial, something quite amateurish, but sufficient to motivate constructive behaviors. These social messages help create public awareness and public narratives—of what conscientious world citizens do to live peaceably in the world and within its systems and in alignment with nature. Certainly, the will is a start, but the will has to be backed up by smart decision making and constrained and smart consumption.
This work involves collected information from (1) a mass-scale digitized book corpus term frequency search, (2) a social video sharing site, (3 and 4) two social image sharing sites, (5) a crowd-sourced online encyclopedia, (6) a social networking site, (7) a microblogging site, and (8) mass-scale search and time-based associations, around “plastic” and “plastic recycling”. This trawl through social media collects glimpses of transnational meta-narratives and personal stories around “plastic recycling”. So what are some potential “transnational meta-narratives”? There are general stories:
- The plastic management challenge is a global one, with depictions of plastic waste in developed and developing countries, in the oceans, and in peoples of the world.
- Human over-consumption is a problem in the world and is irresponsible and harm-causing. There is no impactless consumption, even though “0-carbon” and light environmental footprints are aspirational ideals. Green virtue is an important goal.
- Scientific research may provide some limited contribution to a solution, with biodegradable plastics (and other compostable packaging), bacteria that consume plastics, new plastics that may be recycled ad infinitum, and other approaches. These include work by materials scientists, biological engineers, chemical engineers, environmental scientists, and others. A recent discovery by an amateur beekeeper was that waxworm caterpillars can digest plastic, “even polyethylene, a common and non-biodegradable plastic currently clogging up landfills and seas” but which resulted in a “toxic substance” excreted; current research continues in the mechanics of the caterpillar interaction with the microbes in its digestive tract and in how this finding may be applied and scaled to help solve this issue of plastic waste (Hunt, Mar. 4, 2020).
- Plastic recycling it not simple. It requires savvy consumers and industrial approaches that maximize the arriving consumer-used plastic (with various adulterations, “mixed recycling” contaminants, and other challenges). Much plastic is not recyclable and end up in landfills, based on the original feedstock used to create the original plastic and other processes along the way. Much plastic can only be “downcycled” to make products like bags and clothing and carpet, and not “upcycled” to remake clear-plastic bottles for carrying food products and drinks.
- Plastic recycling is not costless. There are inputs required in terms of collection, transportation, processing, and others, that are required to actualize this in the world. There are various inputs into whether recycling plastics is worth the resources (Brueck, Oct. 8, 2019).
- Also, there are effluents as a byproduct of plastic recycling (Santos, Teixeira, Agnelli, & Manrich, Oct. 2005). Such waste products, if untreated with “a typical physical-chemical treatment” at their source before discharge stand to affect the larger environment negatively. (Santos, Teixeira, Agnelli, & Manrich, Oct. 2005, p. 159)
- In the plastic lifecycle, there are human livelihoods at play. Livelihoods are part of human well-being.
- Perhaps modern life can involve more purposive consumption of materialia that does not entail such environmental costs on human, animal, and environmental health. (Some lurid images include dead sea life with the plastic contents in their stomachs displayed. There are images of microplastics in the human bloodstream, depicted in diagrams.)
These stories help mitigate potential tunnel vision in addressing the challenges. They inform of a more complex context, when taken together. In terms of the “personal stories” (at the lived level) about plastic recycling on social media, a few may be discerned and extracted.
- People can make decisions about what they consume, use, recycle, and discard. They can take responsibility for what they learn and remember and apply to their own lives. They can play a critical role in plastic usage, recycling, and management. Their self-determined awareness and behaviors are important. There is a virtue in being frugal and green. People are empowered agents in the choices they make.
- How people respond to plastic recycling, through their own creative repurposing of plastics, may be an extension of their self-expression. On social media are repurposed artworks, clothing, jewelry, knit bags, knit baskets, and other items, and these may result in lessened usage of other materials for those same types of products (less use of wood, less use of natural fibers, etc.). These acts and creations are also about awareness of plastics usage and so have an educative purpose.
Certainly, other transnational meta-narratives (macro-level) and personal stories (micro ego-level) may be understood from these collected (strung-together) informational contents, with top-down types of coding as well as bottom-up. Additional questions are relevant:
- Are the transnational meta-narratives and personal stories around plastic recycling sufficiently coherent for the mass public’s for understandings?
- Are they sufficiently motivating to encourage the desired pro-social actions?
A reasoned “green” (environmental) approach suggests that recycling is part of the most constructive One Health-based path, to protect human, animal, and environmental health. To actualize and operationalize this, people will have to make behavioral changes, manufacturing ones, scientific and technological advances, policy changes, and applied and practical changes. A read-through of the mass media coverage of this issue does show advances in each context. (Figure 27)
Figure 27: A Simplified Consumer Plastics Lifecycle (with off-path variants)
In a lived sense, if people consumed less, fewer plastic items have to be manufactured or created. If less plastic went unconsumed and went straight to a landfill, that would save on wastage. If they used items consciously and avoided waste, that would also be important. If they repurposed plastics, that would mean less in the landfills (or at least slowing the time-to-landfill). Or if they recycled more, or more efficiently, there would be less plastic going to landfills. In the visual, there are a number of exit points, resulting in plastics in landfills. To solve such a challenge will require a whole of humanity approach, involving economic incentives, policy updates, disciplined lifestyles, scientific research, factory innovations, political will, and compelling ideologies. [Some narrative threads of the importance of recycling have already been part of naturalist religions like the worship of Gaia (earth, nature, fertility), and they have also been integrated by various thinkers into Christianity (a monotheistic religion) and Buddhism (a belief system about the human condition and the ability to achieve nirvana), along various lines of argument. A core idea involves stewardship.] Perhaps there are strengths and weaknesses in each social context, in knowing of how to approach these challenges. Also, there may be substitutes for plastics that are also sufficiently practical and efficient to use. (A simple one is to use washable dishes and tableware). Whatever changes are advanced, these have to be balanced against people’s livelihoods. Changes in one area may have implications on others, whether intended or unintended.
In the West where plastic recycling has been operationalized initially, people use recyclable machine-washable straws. Some restaurants have stopped enabling access to plastic straws while others enable access to paper straws. Plastic bags for grocery shopping are forbidden in some states in the U.S. Recycle bins capturing used consumer plastics are prevalent as are recycling centers. Municipalities have taken on recycling as a city service.
Future Research Directions
“Plastic recycling” in social media does seem to convey a fairytale about how recyclable plastics are or how easy it is to participate in the process (“mixed recycling” totes that do not require sorting). Ideally, people would clean out their plastics; ideally, they would soak off labels; ideally, they would bring their recyclables to a recycling station and not mix and cross-contaminate various materials. Still, to achieve awareness and buy-in, perhaps the fairytale sensibility is required.
Future research in this space may include other types of social media, such as particular user accounts, particular corporate accounts, and others, across multiple social media platforms. Perhaps additional platforms in the following explored types may be reviewed for this topic:
(1) a mass-scale digitized book corpus term frequency search, (2) a social video sharing site, (3 and 4) two social image sharing sites, (5) a crowd-sourced online encyclopedia, (6) a social networking site, (7) a microblogging site, and (8) a mass-scale search term analysis based on time-based associations with correlated search terms.
Or particular regionalisms may be explored, such as the senses of “plastic recycling” in urban vs. rural areas, or in a particular locale (municipalities, countries, regions, or others)…or within a particular culture…or within people groups. This issue would benefit from being mapped out in different ways.
Perhaps various social symbolism—visual, textual, and other modalities—may be explored in this space. What are analogies made to excessive plastic consumption? Plastic dumping? What is a symbol of a recycled object? How can the abstraction of frugality and self-denial and non-spending be portrayed as a luxury choice or a pious religious choices or a self-fulfilling healthy choice through symbols (like string bracelets and others shown on social media)?
Also, within this movement, are there “filter bubbles” (limitations of messaging intake) that may lead to extreme actions? Mass blame of others? Violent actions? And if so, what are the potential implications? What are ways to lessen extremist ideas in this space?
Conclusion
Mass attention is expensive to acquire, and it seems to be capture-able only a moment at a time. As to how people live ethically, there are many insights about this, across a range of topics and behaviors and choices. While the dumping of plastics seem like a physically local issue, it is actually a transnational and borderless one with plastics in the oceans (affecting all land masses via beaches, via weather cycles), with the costs and externalities of creating plastics, with health effects from ingested and inhaled microplastics, and other factors. The lifecycle of plastics involves various externalities. The world is as-yet far from any sort of “net zero” way of using plastic—even as there are creative ideas for plastics re-use and recycling and “rationing” and non-use. The current state of equilibrium is of mass consumption and limited mitigations.
International environmentalism is bolstered by the “international networks for communication, the sharing of information, and the sharing of resources among environmental NGOs” (Dalton & Rohrschneider, 1999, p. 16). Nations that are less green regarding this issue may adopt the standards “of their richer, greener grading partners” in what has been termed the “California effect” (Vogel, Dec. 1997, p. 556). Transnational environmental groups do better with a “big tent” approach, even among members with “internal conflicts and debates over core ideological questions” which are normal for larger organizations (Doherty, 2006, p. 860). Writ large, researchers suggest that there are “three principal kinds of environmental movement, the post-material movements strongest in the United States and Australia, the post-industrial movements that are strongest in Europe and the post-colonial movements of the South” on global scale (Doherty & Doyle, Nov. 2006, p. 697). People groups en masse arrive at different understandings and capabilities related to environmentalism in different contexts, and collaborations across those spaces will require empathy and accommodations on all sides to each other’s differences. The environmental identity is abstractly positive across a range of contexts, but on-ground, it is a highly contested role (and sometimes very dangerous for those with the environmentalist identity because of the sense of potential differentiated interests from other industries and practices—like farming and ranching). There is a fine balance between freeing types of intersectional collaborations and over-step into arrogance, given the importance of sovereignty.
There are environmental protection endeavors at the global level (the United Nations Environment Programme), transnational levels (many dozens of non-governmental organizations), national organizations (public and private sector organizations), and local ones. Each have different and sometimes overlapping constituencies, and social media play a critical role in their engagement. People on Earth have an important role to play to lessen the usage of plastics and to recycle what they use, within the limits of what is technologically possible. Social media inducements to engage constructively are potentially relevant to human awareness and motivations. However, at present, the plastics used in nondurable goods are mostly landfilled, with a small amount recycled (“Plastics: Material-specific data,” 2019).
Plastic or polymer recycling is inherently a transnational issue. The environmental and animal and human impacts cross borders, as do the supply chains, trade, and cross-border plastics recycling in bulk. Waiting for time and micro-organisms to potentially address the plastics issue, at least partially, is a non-starter because that timeline is too slow for the pace of human consumption, especially if it is to be sustainable and less-contaminating of the environment. Solving this issue of consumer plastics dumped into the world’s landfills and oceans is a hard problem that will require much more effort, coordination, resources, technologies, and time, to solve.
Ironically, plastics seem as popular as ever. Recent news accounts have highlighted the building of 3D-extruded plastic houses being built in the developing world, which also means that plastics will be much more common in the larger natural environment (Delbert, Dec. 12, 2019). Their low cost makes them the go-to choice for 3D printing and not other more biodegradable materials.
As to the social media aspect, some messaging is already being targeted toward children and youth, the upcoming generations. What can be compelling for those populations, and how can the messages be made appealing to individuals in these various groups? What mediated outreach campaigns can be more effective for such transnational advocacy? How can angel investors be encouraged to contribute to plastic recycling efforts through such social messaging? Practically, how can words and images and videos compel prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors to improve “one health” in terms of recyclable plastics or biodegradable plastics or lessened usage of plastics altogether?
References
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Daley, J. (2019, May 8). This new plastic can be endlessly recycled. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved Oct. 17, 2019, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-plastic-can-be-recycled-endlessly-180972130/.
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Doherty, B. (2006). Friends of the Earth International: Negotiating a transnational identity. Environmental Politics, 15(5), 860 – 880.
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Key Terms
Feedstock: Raw material for an industrial process
Microplastic: Small pieces of plastic resulting from the disposal and breakdown of plastic as well as created objects for consumer goods
Plastic (noun): A synthetic substance created from organic or synthetic polymers
Pyrolysis (gasification): Decomposing of a material through high temperatures
One Health: The concept of the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health across a range of health challenges
