Priorities in the UN Global Plastics Treaty Negotiations
At the halfway point of the UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, this article explores the rationale for a treaty and the prospects for an impactful legally binding instrument.
Spring 2024: Plastic
Volume 38, Issue 4
Features
The Politics of Plastics: Is Misinformation Preventing Our Path Toward Progress?
To effectively combat the plastic waste crisis, policymakers must differentiate fact from fiction, transcend polarized perspectives, and find common ground to develop progressive yet pragmatic soluti…
Our Recycling Problem
Relying on a strategy that pursues recycling as the singular solution to our plastic problem is risky.
Plastic Material Management: Beyond Resin Codes
Eliminating plastic waste can be addressed by additional focus in the intentional design of plastic formulation to account for post-use end-of-life considerations.
Using Taxes to Control Plastic Pollution
As the largest contributor to global plastic pollution, the United States should consider using environmental tax strategies to reduce production and use of single-use plastics.
Optimizing TSCA’s Potential to Reduce Plastic Waste
EPA’s implementation of TSCA is frustrating circularity and sustainability by undermining the commercial viability of advanced recycling while achieving no greater human health or environmental prote…
Impact of Canadian Plastics Regulation on U.S.-Canada Trade
Plastic bans and regulation in Canada directly affect American businesses given the interconnection of North American supply chains across the Canada-United States border.
Structural and Legal Challenges for Managing Plastic Wastes in the United States
Although the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans will require unprecedented international cooperation and innovation, the United States has existing legal frameworks that can be used to take m…
Rights of Nature: Concerted Action to Fight Ocean Plastic Pollution
The Rights of Nature movement contributes moral considerations for protection, management, and knowledge of the social and environmental justice issues arising from the plastic pollution in marine ec…
Study vs. Action: Developing a Road Map for Addressing Pacific Ocean Plastic
Although the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans will require unprecedented international cooperation and innovation, the United States has existing legal frameworks that can be used to take m…
Environmental Activism on Plastics through Clinical Legal Education
As the market turns its back on the most polluting plastics, traders must be prevented from making spurious claims regarding the environmental credentials of their products.
Departments
Vantage Point
We are facing a triple planetary crisis of interlinked issues: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. This issue is devoted to pollution related to plastic.
Perspectives: A Terrifying Pollutant
However necessary in some instances, plastic is a terrifying pollutant, and environmental and energy attorneys must be prepared to engage in plastic policy development, litigation, and pollution miti…
Literary Resources
Book reviews of Rosewood: Endangered Species Conservation and the Rise of Global China; California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid; and Our Co…
The Back Page: Energy Transition
At its core, the focus of the energy transition is moving toward zero- or low-carbon energy consumption across industrial sectors, including electricity generation, transportation, and manufacturing,…
Insights
Waters of the United States Regulations, Part V
In August 2023, the EPA and Army Corps revised their January 2023 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rules to reflect the Sackett decision; will this fifth attempt survive?
Congressional Efforts to Minimize the Impacts of Wildfires
The year 2023 saw the deadliest wildfire in the history of the United States. This article addresses federal legislative actions aimed at combatting this escalating problem.
Pore Space: The Final Frontier
With carbon capture and storage becoming more prevalent, subsurface pore space ownership rights is the next frontier in property and energy law.
Impacts of WOTUS Rule on the Arid West
The revised definition of Waters of the United States will change the scope of the Clean Water Act in ways that are yet to be clarified, particularly for the Arid West.