Since the 2018 Chinese plastic waste import ban, the global plastic waste trade has been increasingly problematized, especially considering the correlated global environmental issue of marine plastic pollution. Therefore, governance approaches are required to curb marine plastic pollution and regulate the plastic waste trade to prevent situations of “waste dumping” in Global South countries. This thesis will examine the connection between the 2019 changes Basel Convention as a global governance approach and the tendency of Southeast Asian countries to implement import regulations due to an increase in plastic waste exports to the region and resulting environmental concerns.  The empirical context of both plastic problems and the central theoretical concepts of waste distancing and environmental justice associated with a postcolonial, environmental theory approach are discussed in the literature review. The 2019 changes to the Basel Convention will be first examined with a content analysis and then the changing international context resulting in national import regulations will be studied with a process-tracing approach focused on the cases of Malaysia and Thailand. To conclude the Basel Convention provided a regulative framework for certain plastic waste imports and can also be related to the Southeast Asian countries’ response of repatriating illegal imports.

The incomplete degradation of bio-based and biodegradable plastics (BBPs) in soils causes multiple threats to soil quality, human health, and food security. Plastic residuals can interact with soil microbial communities. We aimed to link the structure and enzyme-mediated functional traits of a microbial community composition that were present during poly (butylene succinate-co-butylene adipate (PBSA) decomposition in soil with (PSN) and without (PS) the addition of nitrogen fertilizer ((NH4 )2SO4 ). We identified bacterial (Achromobacter, Luteimonas, Rhodanobacter, and Lysobacter) and fungal (Fusarium, Chaetomium, Clonostachys, Fusicolla, and Acremonium) taxa that were linked to the activities of ß-glucosidase, chitinase, phosphatase, and lipase in plastic-amended soils. Fungal biomass increased by 1.7 and 4 times in PS and PSN treatment, respectively, as compared to nonplastic amended soil. PBSA significantly changed the relationships between soil properties (C: N ratio, TN, and pH) and microbial community structure; however, the relationships between fungal biomass and soil enzyme activities remained constant. PBSA significantly altered the relationship between fungal biomass and acid phosphatase. We demonstrated that although the soil functions related to nutrient cycling were not negatively affected in PSN treatment, potential negative effects are reasoned by the enrichment of plant pathogens. We concluded that in comparison to fungi, the bacteria demonstrated a broader functional spectrum in the BBP degradation process

Plastic pollution is one of if not the biggest threat against earth’s ecosystems. Almost 400 million tons of plastic is produced every year and most of it is discarded outside of the recycling systems. Marine ecosystems are extra exposed due to microplastics which are plastic smaller than 5 mm. The most common type of plastic is PET. Plastic in general is very chemically stable and hard to degrade but scientists have found a bacterium named I.sakaiensis that can degrade PET with a two-enzyme system called PETase and MHETase. Due to being exo-enzymes, they have to be secreted to function, the thermostability of these enzymes are very low so most research has been focused on increasing the thermal stability with its enzyme activity. This report focuses on what structures are important for the PET degrading ability of MHETas and PETas and how they can be applied to cleaning marine ecosystems. A key to solving environmental issues is creating environmentally aware students through the education system. Studies about Context based education have indicated that it sparks motivation and interest in students and the lessons seem more relevant. This report is also about how context-based education can be used to create an environmental perspective in secondary education.

This study examines the relationship between proposed desalination plants and increased plastic pollution along the Texas Gulf Coast. It specifically focuses on their expected impact on communities in the area and was conducted for Society of Native Nations. The goal was to gather information about environmental ideologies and experiences from different environmental experts and scientists to educate community members and inform policy recommendations. The study relied on semi structured interviews and archival research to understand how environmental experts and scientists envision the future, how they interpret the impact of desalination plants as related to plastic pollution. Ideas that guided this research include decolonial methodologies, political ecology, Indigenous research agendas, environmental justice and knowledge, cultural hybridity, and the anthropology of the borderlands. This research provides actionable steps and recommendations to improve environmental education in Texas Gulf Coast communities on the U.S./Mexico border and to reduce plastic pollution in order to ensure that these communities have ample amounts of water supply without relying on desalination plants.

In this thesis project I try to make visible the complex problems behind the plastic pollution crisis, the skewed ideas of synthetic plastic and recycling we as consumers are taught, and in what way architecture can help make these systems visible. This is achived through a design method of growth and transformation using plastic waste to create a building that uncovers what would otherwise not bee seen.

Microplastics are an emerging environmental contaminant. One of the ways microplastics can get into the environment is by the breakdown of larger plastics. These plastics can come from industrial practices, discarded fabrics, agriculture, and general plastic waste. As these plastics are broken down microplastics leach into the environment. The widespread use of plastics has resulted in the spread of microplastic contaminants all over the world. Microplastics have been reported to be in drinking water, so this paper is looking at the presence of microplastics in local communities of different demographics and socioeconomic statuses. In other studies of different drinking water contamination, minority, and low-income communities had worse quality water. In this paper, methods for sampling, extraction, and analysis with Laser Direct Infrared Spectroscopy were used. Out of Cities A, B, and C, City A, with the largest population, higher percentage of minorities, and worse off socioeconomic status, had the highest particle count. More research is needed in this field to find how socioeconomic status can affect exposure to microplastic contamination.

This project deals with the concepts of care, contentedness and self-reflection in light of the ecological plights that face our planet and the way that my artistic practice reflects this. It achieves this by focusing on marine forms of plastic pollution along Cape Town’s coastline as well as on the water resources during Cape Town’s water crisis that started in 2017. To unite these areas of interest, the conceptual platform and the visual associations of “a low tide” were used to navigate material and practical considerations of my chosen alternative photographic media and how they can best address such interests. / Art and Music / M.V.A.

[pt] O oceano é um ecossistema fundamental para a sobrevivência dos humanos e não humanos. Todavia, vem sendo explorado de forma desordenada e sufocado com poluição plástica, como demonstram diagnósticos recentes, elaborados na Década do Oceano, inclusive em relação ao cenário brasileiro. Nesse período, pretende-se alavancar ações para alcançar um oceano saudável e produtivo, entre outros atributos, mediante integração e colaboração entre diversos atores, inclusive as instituições financeiras, que dispõem de recursos para financiar sua execução. O presente trabalho objetiva demonstrar como o Planejamento Espacial Marinho, cujo estudo para implementação do Projeto-Piloto na região sul do país será apoiado pelo Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), poderá, além de servir de base para a adequada regulação do uso sustentável do oceano, também acelerar o combate à poluição plástica nesse ecossistema, induzindo a ampliação de ações voltadas à gestão de resíduos sólidos, nele planejadas. Esse efeito adicional poderá ser alcançado porque esse planejamento será desenvolvido com base ecossistêmica e observando a integração entre as políticas públicas marinhas e terrestres já existentes, além de considerar todas as questões que afetam o oceano. A Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre Diversidade Biológica definiu a base ecossistêmica como uma estratégia para a gestão integrada da terra, da água e dos recursos vivos, que promove a conservação e o uso sustentável, de um modo equitativo. No âmbito do referido financiamento, deverão ser produzidos cadernos técnicos setoriais, entre os quais sobre meio ambiente e mudança do clima, analisando, inclusive, a poluição marinha e como esse problema ambiental e social pode afetar o uso econômico do oceano. Assim, aliando essa iniciativa a outras que já são apoiadas, em linha com sua missão socioambiental, o BNDES irá induzir transformações relevantes, ao colaborar para a efetividade da Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos, necessária para o desenvolvimento da Economia Azul e a consequente sustentabilidade do oceano. / [en] The ocean is a fundamental ecosystem for the survival of humans and non-humans. However, it has been exploited in a disorderly way and suffocated with plastic pollution, as shown by recent diagnoses, elaborated in the Ocean Decade, including in relation to the Brazilian scenario. During this period, the intention is to leverage actions to achieve a healthy and productive ocean, among other attributes, through integration and collaboration between different actors, including financial institutions, which have resources to finance its execution. This work aims to demonstrate how the Marine Spatial Planning, whose study for the implementation of the Pilot Project in the southern region of the country will be supported by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), may, in addition to providing for the regulation of ocean use, also accelerate the combat against plastic pollution in this ecosystem, inducing the expansion of actions aimed at solid waste management in Brazil. This additional effect can be achieved because this planning will be developed based on ecosystem and observing the integration between existing marine and terrestrial public policies, in addition to considering all issues that affect the ocean. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defined the ecosystem base as a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. In this financing, should be produced a sectoral notebook about the environmental and climate change, including analyzing marine pollution and how this environmental and social problem can affect the economic use of the ocean. Thus, combining this initiative with others that are already supported, in line with its socio-environmental mission, the BNDES will induce relevant transformations, by collaborating for the effectiveness of the National Solid Waste Policy, necessary for the development of the Blue Economy and the consequent sustainability of the ocean.

This research provides a novel outlook on the emergence of norms in world politics. Guided by a constructivist theoretical framework and a process tracing methodology, it tests Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink's pioneering life cycle model of norms (1998) with an unexplored case study. By investigating the processes that led to the legally binding Plastic Waste Amendments of the Basel Convention, it evaluates the model’s main mechanisms and studies the question of ‘How can we explain the emergence of a norm on plastic pollution within the scope of the Basel Convention?’ To do so, it combines an in-depth analysis of the international relations literature, official reports, and carefully selected interviews with actors involved in the global governance of plastic and the World Ocean. This research shows that co-construction processes between ideas, agents, and structures are at play in the emergence of norms. It offers a detailed understanding of the processes of norm emergence in world politics, original insights for the global governance of plastic pollution in the World Ocean, and opportunities to answer the challenges brought by transnational environmental issues. The findings of this research will likely be of particular interest for global environmental governance scholars and to those looking for pathways to foster global cooperation. / Cette recherche offre une perspective nouvelle sur l’émergence des normes en politique mondiale. Guidé par un cadre théorique constructiviste et une méthodologie basée sur le traçage des processus, elle teste le modèle de cycle de vie des normes de Martha Finnemore et Kathryn Sikkink (1998) par l’entremise d’une étude de cas inexplorée. En étudiant les processus qui ont menés aux amendements juridiquement contraignants sur les déchets de plastique de la Convention de Bâle, elle évalue les principaux mécanismes du modèle de cycle de vie des normes et étudie la question suivante : « Comment expliquer l’émergence d’une norme sur la pollution des plastiques dans le cadre de la Convention de Bâle ? ». Pour ce faire, cette étude combine une analyse approfondie de la littérature des relations internationales, des rapports officiels et des entretiens soigneusement sélectionnés avec des acteurs œuvrant dans la gouvernance globale du plastique et de l'océan mondial. Cette recherche montre que des processus de co-construction entre idées, agents et structures contribuent à l'émergence des normes. Cette recherche offre une compréhension détaillée des processus d'émergence des normes en politique mondiale; des perspectives originales pour la gouvernance globale de la pollution plastique dans l'océan mondial; et des opportunités pour relever les défis posés par les enjeux environnementaux transnationaux. Les résultats de cette recherche seront probablement d’intérêt pour les spécialistes de la gouvernance environnementale globale et pour ceux qui cherchent des moyens pour renforcir la coopération mondiale.

In the past decades, there has been an alarming increase in the amount of toxicity on earthdue to pollution and consumerism and the natural environment is faster than everdisappearing due to the extensive activity of humans on planet earth (Nations United,2020; United Nations, 2020). The increased amount of rubbish and non-natural waste hasbeen identified as a major issue in the supply chain and waste management inhumanitarian organizations across the board. This thesis has reviewed existing academic research and identified the five commonthemes: Management – training and standardization – stakeholders and donors -transparency - climate change and development, in which the ability to become moresustainable is present. United States Agency for International Development (USAID) hasbeen showing environmental accountability and for that reason, its environmental policyand supply chain have been addressed to understand its waste management and if it issupporting the three sustainable dimensions. Plastic pollution is addressed as a humanitarian crisis and arguing that the devastatingeffects that microplastics are having on our ecosystem and it is clearly showing that it iscausing harm to the environment, the economy, and the social effect. Haiti has since theearthquake in 2010 received a variety of aid, majority from USAID but the sustainableaccountability in their action have been hard to identify. Reviewing the work of USAID and their collaboration with environmental protectioncompanies makes you likely to say that they are supporting the three sustainabledimensions but with further assessment, it is obvious, that humanitarian waste is doingharm and there must be improvements within the organization’s perspective onwaste/plastic while attending a crisis.