Newsletter 2023/02

Film from the gathering June 8th. Produced by LOOP – contact: Mari Tjora.

Nyhetsbrevet på norsk

Work is progressing in the REDUCE project, and on June 8th, we had a large gathering with many of the partners where we discussed preliminary findings from the various work packages. We have conducted focus groups with consumers, analyzed how the plastic problem is discussed politically, and developed methods to map the systems in which plastic is involved. During the gathering, we generated new perspectives in several workshops. Present were LOOP, KTH, BIR, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, ULU of Norway, Friends of the Earth Norway, Consumption Research Norway (SIFO/OsloMet), and the Institute of Product Design (OsloMet). This newsletter summarizes some of the discussions we had.

We discussed the ambiguity of plastic as both dangerous and protective. It protects us from the unpleasant and from infection, but at the same time, it is dangerous to us when it ends up in the environment and finds its way into our bodies. Furthermore, we delved into issues related to conscience and responsibility regarding handling plastic products. Many consumers feel guilty about their plastic consumption but find it difficult to do anything about it. Much of the responsibility falls on women. They desire systems that facilitate better opportunities to reduce consumption.

Politically, we have identified different ways in which plastic has been discussed as a problem in the last decades. Initially, plastic littering was highlighted as a visual problem, which led to a focus on the need to collect and recycle plastic. Thus, plastic waste became a valuable resource for recycling companies in line with the principles of a circular economy. Today, the issues related to plastic in the oceans and microplastics have become central in the debate, connecting plastic to the health and livelihood of humans and animals. In the ongoing work towards a global plastic agreement, there is a move toward curbing production, shifting the focus from managing already produced plastic to reducing production volumes. We believe that the new connection between health and plastic through microplastics may have contributed to this shift. The focus on the plastic problem as a littering problem diverts attention from health and volume and directs it toward consumers. Furthermore, municipalities are blamed for capacity issues in waste management. However, it now seems the EU is redirecting attention to the plastic industry. So, what about the perspective of the plastic industry? It projects high growth curves and engages in lobbying activities against threatening regulations from the EU.

At the same time, it is politically challenging to find tools with significant effects in a world where consumer needs have become what governs and legitimizes all new products. In Sweden, the plastic tax on plastic bags, which now costs 7 NOK, has caused outrage, and the new government plans to remove it. The extensive attention given to plastic bags can easily result in little more than greenwashing while shifting the focus away from the plastic industry’s responsibility. Additionally, plastic is associated with a cheap lifestyle, and not everyone can afford to avoid plastic, which can also lead to a class discussion. Simultaneously, plastic-free trends may result in many of the existing plastic products being replaced and ending up in the trash. So why don’t we just ban the most harmful plastics? To some extent, we have done so with single-use products in the food service industry, but this only applies to a fraction of all plastic products. We managed to ban smoking in public places with the help of smoking laws, so why not plastic? Perhaps because we don’t have good enough alternatives where the product did not exist before.

The plastic problem is, in this way, a complex problem where it is not enough to pull on one end of the tangle without investigating what may tighten elsewhere as a result. We must consider feedback mechanisms. Therefore, the systemic perspective in the project is so important. Through systemic design, we develop ways to understand the systems in which plastic consumption is involved to find points of influence for change. During the gathering, we all engaged in collaborative system mapping and reflection. By working together to identify and analyze complex systems, we could explore different understandings of plastic consumption and identify potential intervention points. The insights that emerged will be further utilized in the project.

In the next semester, we will conduct a netnography in which we aim to study how frontrunners reduce their plastic consumption. In this context, we define a frontrunner as a person who is particularly concerned with reducing their plastic consumption and makes an extraordinary effort to achieve it. This involves developing and using strategies, doing things differently, enduring disadvantages, perhaps sacrificing something, and maybe paying more, to be able to reduce their plastic consumption. The person has an above-average level of knowledge about plastic and sees it as an environmental problem. The person communicates about plastic through social media, books, or other channels that reach people, with the purpose of encouraging others to reduce their plastic consumption as well. The person may engage in work that contributes to plastic reduction, either as an employee or as an entrepreneur. We will also continue the systemic mapping of plastic consumption and further develop the methods for this.

The next major gathering will be in 2024, but we will stay in touch until then. Many of you have contributed through participation in interviews, input, and discussions, providing case studies for students, as well as writing, research, and consultancy work this year. Thank you!

The REDUCE team at SIFO wishes everyone a wonderful summer!

Newsletter 2022/01

The first six months of the project have passed and we are well underway. The workshop in April with our partners in business and other organizations yielded a lot of interesting discussions and gave our researchers much to work with in preparing for and conducting the research activities that are going on this year. Thanks to the inclusion of the experimental method “A day with plastics” in our workshop, our researchers working on WP2 Plastic Practices, got a lot of valuable feedback and insights. Particularly related to the level of direction that should be aimed for in the instructions for participants. For instance, regarding when and where images of plastic items should be made.

“A day with plastics” is a method that we are developing to create new knowledge on how plastic products are integrated into our everyday life, and what they mean to our everyday practices. It is a qualitative participatory research method, meaning that participants are taking part in gathering data through photographing the plastic objects they encounter during a normal day. The method will be applied when conducting focus groups in September/October.  Since Nina is going on parental leave in August, our new colleague Atle When Hegnes will step in for her and lead WP2 while she is away.  We are also happy to welcome PhD candidate Ayse Kaplan, who is coming to join the project in August/September this year.

There has also been a lot of activity in other work packages as well. In WP1 Policies & Regulations, we are currently compiling relevant political documents on the EU level and developing a framework for analysis. Unsurprisingly, many of these documents address packaging and single use plastic in general. Microplastics and textiles are the most recent topics added to the plastics discourse. In WP3 Systems Oriented Design, we are currently collaborating with HTS BeSafe, CleanCup and Friends of the Earth Norway to bring REDUCE into the master level course Visualizing Complexity that is running at OsloMet this fall. The idea is that students will get the opportunity to work on issues of interest both to themselves, to the partners of REDUCE and the project itself. The course is about gathering as much knowledge about a topic as possible, visualizing that knowledge as elements of a system (in a Giga Map), and then using that visualization to improve the knowledge through co-creation. Below you can see a Giga Map that OsloMet design students did last fall in collaboration with REDUCE. Read more about it and view the map in detail here.

Giga Map by design students

By using the map as a starting point for discussion – all relevant stakeholders can have their say and suggest changes to the map. In this way, we can arrive at a map that more accurately describes the current state of a system. The aim is to use this knowledge to find intervention points for improvements – to identify problems that are currently unknown or not properly understood, and finally to suggest new solutions. If this sounds interesting to some of our partners currently not involved in this part, please drop us an email, and we can talk.

Now the project is having a break over the summer holidays and will recommence in August. We thank all contributors for their valuable work so far, and look forward to continuing the collaboration on finding viable avenues for reducing the consumption of plastics.

How to reduce the problem of plastic pollution from artificial turf pitches?

In the course Visualizing Complexity the three masterstudents in design Marianne Dale, Thomas Rokstad and Fredrik Hope Knutsen have worked on the issue of artificial turf pitches that are made from plastic granulates. There are environmental problems connected to these pitches because large amounts of granulates are escaping the fields and ending up in nature. The students have mapped the problem extensively by designing a Giga Map showing the system(s) in which these granulates and related problems exist. The mapping has included desk top research and interviews of key actors. The map can be viewed more in detail for its insights and conclusions if you click the link below.

Atle Wehn Hegnes joins REDUCE

Atle Wehn Hegnes

We are happy to welcome our new colleague at SIFO, Atle Wehn Hegnes, to the REDUCE research team. Atle will be filling in for Nina as WP2 leader while she is on parental leave from August 2022. He is a sociologist leaving his position as researcher at NIBIO to return to his previous place of work at SIFO. Atle has recently published on a variety of topics i.e. sustainability risks in bioenergy, European urban agriculture, urban food systems and circular bioeconomy. We are looking forward to working with him in REDUCE.

REDUCE at EU Design Days

Julia Jacoby presenting REDUCE

REDUCE was presented to an international audience at the EU Design Days in Brussels June 10th by head of studies Julia Jacoby. The event is an initiative of the ERRIN Design & Creativity Working Group, which aims at promoting design and creativity as tools for innovation. Project leader Marie Hebrok was there as part of a group from the Department of Product Design and the Section for Research and Development at OsloMet. We were excited to be joined by the Research Director of OsloMet Yngve Foss. Marie also participated in a workshop on multi-stakeholder roleplaying for the Green Competences based on the GreenComp report.

Jostein Kandal Sundet, Nenad Pavel, Zacharias Andreadakis, Julia Jacoby, Marie Hebrok, Arild Berg, Yngve Foss.

We welcome PhD Research Fellow Ayse Kaplan

Ayse Kaplan

We are happy to welcome Ayse Kaplan to our team as a PhD Research Fellow. Ayse is arriving from Ankara in August, and will work on WP3 – taking a systemic design approach to the reduction of plastics consumption. She will be employed at the Department for Product Design at OsloMet, but also spend some time at Consumption Research Norway. Ayse has a master’s degree from the Department of Industrial Design at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. She also worked as a research and teaching assistant for three years in the same department at METU. Her main research interests are Design for Sustainability, sustainable consumption, social innovation, and alternative food networks.

We need to talk about plastics

Norwegian

At Kulturhuset in Oslo on April 21st , we met to talk about plastics. Participating in the workshop were the project partners from business and other organizations and OsloMet researchers from SIFO and the Department of Product Design. In particular, we were going to talk about the scope of plastic products in everyday life. What do we surround ourselves with every day, which is not packaging, but still made of plastic? What role do these products play in our lives? What is visible and invisible plastic? Where does plastic make sense and where is it superfluous? What political processes and ways of talking about plastic affect consumption? And how would we do without plastic? These questions are at the heart of our research project REDUCE.

Researchers are now calling for a cap on global plastic production. «It is the only thing that works,» says Martin Wagner at NTNU. We must therefore reduce the amount of plastic that is produced, in order to be able to cope with the environmental and health problems associated with plastic products. If you have followed the plastic theme in the media and in political discussions so far, the impression is probably that plastic is primarily packaging and disposable products, such as straws, bags, q-tips, cups and cutlery – that the plastic problem equals plastic in the sea – and that the solution is recycling. Of course, these products and the environmental problems they cause in the ocean are a huge problem, and a very visible one. In the REDUCE research project, we are concerned with the more invisible plastic, which surrounds us in almost everything we do, but which we do not notice as much, and which does not create as much media attention. There are products that cannot be recycled, such as clothes, toys, various sports and children’s equipment and menstrual products. The large amount of plastic in these products leads to problems with micro-plastics, leakage of chemicals, large amounts of waste and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions are constantly increasing because low value and short lifespans lead to overproduction and overconsumption. The bottom line: we need to find better ways to use plastic.

We look at plastic consumption as built into today’s consumption system – and reducing plastic as a systemic design challenge. Therefore, we are more concerned with the preconditions for plastic consumption than we are with consumer power and consumer responsibility. If everything is set up for increased plastic consumption – and the alternatives do not exist or create economic and practical disadvantages – we cannot expect the individual to be the primary driver for change. The change must take place on many levels simultaneously in the system.

This day dedicated to talking about plastics finally gave us the opportunity to be in the same room and get to know each other. There were many interesting conversations during the day that gave us new ideas for collaboration opportunities.

We are looking forward to the continuation.

Here is more on what we talked about during the workshop:

Strategies for reducing the consumption of plastics

Plastics & Everyday life

Plastics & Politics

What if…?

REDUCE kick-off meeting

The REDUCE consortium gathered for the first time on Zoom on the 11th of February 2022. We had an inspiring day of listening to and discussing each others perspectives and experiences, and are looking forward to embarking on the numerous tasks of REDUCE. This was our agenda: