Zero Waste Washington

Plastics Summit at the

Tukwila Community Center
Tukwila, Washington
Nicholas Girard
SUS320 Fall A 2017
 Visionary solution
Remove plastics from the
Environment
Field Trip to the Plastics Summit: Dialogue
About Challenges & Opportunities
The plastics summit was a day-long conference designed to bring stakeholders
from business, industry, academia, and the public together to discuss the
challenges, opportunities, and solutions to environmental degradation due to
plastics use and disposal.

Key Points
Microplastics found in the Puget sound 2008- Present
Advancing Microplastic Laboratory Analysis
Plastics Composition contamination/ Recycling Issues/
Composability/ Biproducts
Contamination/ Collaboration
Endocrine Disruptors in Plastics
Development of Greener Consumer Plastics
Plastic Packaging
 Sustainable
Viability & Integrity of Ecosystem
Human & Social Wellbeing
Equitable opportunity for livelihood & Economic activities
Interregional Justice
Intergenerational Justice
 Viability & Integrity of Ecosystems
Fewer plastics in the environment mean there is less non-
biodegradable pollution.
Less disruption in the marine environment due to less microplastic
waste in oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Pollution is decreasing, air, water, and land quality is on the rise,
giving each system a fighting chance to function naturally without
resistance.
A gain economically, socially, and environmentally in the short-term
and long term creates value and a healthier biosphere.
Human & Social Wellbeing
Environment plays a crucial role in peoples physical, mental, and
social wellbeing.
The environmental burden of diseases represents the proportion of ill
health attributed to exposure to environmental factors.
People living in cleaner environments are healthier.
Elimination of toxic, non-biodegradable plastics decreases
environmental burden of disease.
Environmental levels of phthalates are associated with altered DNA
integrity in human sperm (Axe, 2017).
Exogenous chemicals, found in everyday consumer products are found
in 80% of the population.
Bisphenol polymers disrupt estrogen receptors Katie Pelch, Endocrine
Disruption Exchange, University of Missouri.
Equitable Opportunity for Livelihood of
Economic Activities
Investment in microplastic laboratories.
Development of green plastics, composites, additives and
biodegradable alternatives.
Include changes in environmental quality in economic indicators/
Changes in GDP.
Creating market-based approaches to environmental protection
stimulating sustainable livelihood for lower socio-economic
populations.
Sustainable solutions where livelihood is not dependent upon
degradation of the environment, e.g. green bags, reusable fabric
containers, agribusiness uses biodegradable composability, fiber-based
bioproducts.
Interregional & Intergenerational
Policy development includes environmental impact of plastics and
other non-biodegradable products.
Laws and penalties impact manufacturers, distributers, markets,
and consumers.
Eliminating plastics from oceanic regions protects marine life.
Eliminating bisphenols, polymers, phthalates from medical and
pharmaceutical products eliminates biomagnification.
Biomagnification has an additive effect from mother to fetus
impacting future cognitive and neurological development.
Coherent
Every member of society benefits from the removal of toxic
plastics in the ecosystem.
Reusable cloth bags
Reusable steal or ceramic beverage containers
Sustainable paper reusable packaging
Store food in glass containers
No straw please
No zip-lock
Cloth napkins
All of these solution currently exist!
 Tangible &
Plausible
Waste elimination is a lofty idea but
zero-waste is occurring now, if it
can't be reduced, reused, repaired,
rebuilt, refurbished, refinished,
resold, recycled or composted, then it
should be restricted, redesigned or
removed from production (McDaniel,
2007, para. 5).
Recycling autoclave
Composability & Bioproducts
collaboration
Development of Greener plastics
Shaping sustainable packaging
The new plastics economy initiative

Speaker: William Orts, USDA Research, Bioproducts (top)

Katie Pelch, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (below)
Motivational
2-million New Plastics Economy Innovation prize
Tedx- Rethinking the future of plastics
Launch to keep plastics out off the ocean
Reimagining existing liner take-make-dispose economy
https://newplasticseconomy.org
Stakeholder Engagement

Business, industry, academia, and community partners are

engaging in innovative solutions to eliminate plastics:
Resources
Axe, D. (2017). Phthalates: Dangerous chemical toxins that must
be avoided. Available at https://draxe.com/phthalates/
Environmental Protection Agency Europe. (2016). Environment,
health and quality of life: Millennial Ecosystem Assessment.
Available at:
https://www.eea.Europa.eu/soer/synthesis/chapter5.xhtml.
McDaniel, A. (2007). Can we create a world without waste?
Retrieved from
http://www.alternet.org/story/46335/can_we_create_a_world_wi
thout_waste
New Plastics Economy (n.d.). Core Partners [Image]. Available at
https://newplasticseconomy.org/participants
The World Conservation Union (n.d.). Sustainable livelihoods and
ecosystems management. Available at:
https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/gov_livelihoods.pdf
Brochure from the Plastics Summit I
attended