Activism, public health, and global plastics treaty negotiations at ‘The Anthropology of Plastics’ symposium in Aarhus

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After the Single Use researcher Cat Acheson presented a paper titled ‘Reframing plastic as a health emergency: the role of clandestine activism at the global plastics treaty negotiations’ at ‘The Anthropology of Plastics: Ontologies, Socio-Materialities, Political Ecologies’ symposium at the University of Aarhus.

The informal symposium, organised by Gauri Pathak and Aarti Laktar in the Department of Global Studies, brought together researchers exploring anthropological perspectives on plastics and environmental change. Other After the Single Use contributors included Alice Street and Dani Farrow.

Cat’s presentation examined how civil society organisations have helped reframe plastics from an environmental waste issue into a broader public and planetary health emergency within negotiations surrounding the proposed UN Global Plastics Treaty. The research explored how health-based arguments have strengthened calls for ambitious treaty measures, including caps on plastic production and restrictions on single-use plastics and harmful chemicals.

Drawing on participant observation at treaty negotiations, interviews with civil society representatives, and document analysis, the paper explored how advocacy groups have navigated political resistance from petrochemical-producing states and competing visions for the treaty’s scope and purpose.

The presentation argued that civil society groups have played a central role in reshaping global understandings of plastics and in mobilising what Acheson described as a “planetary health bloc” advocating for action across the full plastics lifecycle.