Plastic Waste Colonialism: A Typology of Global Toxicity

This chapter presents a typology of plastic waste colonialism ranging from “classical waste colonialism,” which characterized the formal colonial empire periods, to “waste neocolonialism,” the direct export of toxic waste into former colonial states (and other areas of the economic periphery). This chapter discusses two other modes of waste relations: indirect waste accumulation, or “incidental” waste that arrives on the shores of islands and other areas as part of the broader global capitalist system of production; and the criminal waste trade – illegal, hidden, unreported waste exports/imports, often quite systemic in nature. Both of these are ongoing sources of harm to vulnerable communities, many of which are also engaged in resistance, and occur within the broader context of the colonial relations that have shaped the present international system. Waste colonialism has, arguably, become a central feature of the broader concept of environmental justice (as has plastic justice), but it has also become a source of employment for millions of people living on the periphery of peripheral economies. This chapter ends with a brief discussion of the concept of waste decolonization, intimately tied to environmental justice – which may involve moving beyond the waste exporter-importer relationship but will ultimately demand de-plasticization and the acceptance of limits to industrial growth, a far-off horizon at this stage despite the strong rhetoric and limited policy advances pertaining to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and ongoing negotiations for a new global plastic treaty.