State and local pressures drive plastic pollution compliance strategies

Environmental harm from plastic pollution partly results from compliance failure at the individual level. Three prevalent non-compliant motivations for polluting plastics include economic gains, ignorance of the rules and unlikely penalization from inadequately enforced rules. Given compliance is pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental management 2021-06, Vol.287, p.112281, Article 112281
Main Authors: Willis, K.A., Hardesty, B.D., Wilcox, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Compliance strategies
Economic rationality
Environmental Pollution
Municipal government
Plastic pollution
Plastics
Policy change
Population Density
Situational crime prevention
Theory of planned behaviour
Waste Management
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Summary:Environmental harm from plastic pollution partly results from compliance failure at the individual level. Three prevalent non-compliant motivations for polluting plastics include economic gains, ignorance of the rules and unlikely penalization from inadequately enforced rules. Given compliance is primarily the responsibility of local waste management, we conducted interviews to gain insights to the factors driving changes in the crucial on-ground controls of plastic pollution. We expand on non-compliant motivations and provide a theoretical framework to test the aforementioned. We show that compliance strategies are strongly driven by state judicial and economic controls, specifically new plastic legislation and levies. Furthermore, the priorities of waste managers and the socio-economics and population density of their constituents drove changes in local management efforts. Our findings support the view that the growing global attention on plastic pollution shapes not only what happens at a state level, but also importantly on-ground at the local level. •Plastic pollution is a global issue with local waste strategy solutions.•We provide a theoretical framework to test plastic pollution compliance strategies.•Compliance strategies are strongly driven by state judicial and economic controls.•Local socioeconomics and population density pressures shape compliance strategies.•Global attention on plastic pollution impacts what occurs on-ground at a local level.
ISSN:0301-4797
1095-8630
DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112281