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.