World Environment Day 2025’s theme could not be more urgent. Hosted by the Republic of Korea, this year focuses on “Ending Plastic Pollution,” (with a special focus on microplastics). While negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty continue into 2025, we have curated a collection of resources on the subject of plastic waste spanning from children’s books, infographics and grassroots initiatives with a focus on Global South perspectives.
A recent review estimates 10–40 million tonnes of microplastics enter the environment each year. But plastic pollution extends beyond environmental and human health concerns, with implications for the economy, intergenerational justice and human rights. Countries across the Global South including Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America are disproportionately burdened by the plastic crisis whereby waste is transported from the Global North to the Global South through “waste colonialism”.
1. Journals Towards a ‘theory of change’ for ocean plastics: a socio-oceanography approach to the global challenge of plastic pollution. Microplastics and Nanoplastics (May, 2025)
Can community engagement help solve the ocean plastics crisis? A recent journal paper explores how communities, defined by shared geography, virtual spaces or experiences, are co-creating solutions with researchers. The authors propose a ‘socio-oceanographic approach’ that unites researchers in both natural and social sciences with community leadership. Case studies from Indonesia, India, Kenya and more highlight how lived experience and local knowledge are vital in challenging power imbalances in research and driving meaningful environmental change.
2. Atlas: The Plastic Atlas Asia Edition – Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung East Asia Office (2021)
The Plastic Atlas Asia Edition (2021) explores 20 key issues around plastic, using powerful infographics. It highlights how the plastics industry shifts blame onto consumers and Southeast Asia, while profiting from exporting plastic waste from the Global North. It demonstrates that waste management efforts alone can not solve a crisis driven by global inequality and industry interests. The Atlas covers important topics such as women’s increased exposure to endocrine disruptor chemicals (see Gender: Unequal Exposure).
3. A-Z Guide: African Resource Book Series: A Guide to Plastics – Sustainable Seas Trust
Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, is home to many of the world’s largest landfill sites, but it also leads with some of the most progressive plastic policies, especially in countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. To support waste management and stimulate a sustainable blue ocean economy across Africa, the Sustainable Seas Trust, a South African organisation working to protect Africa’s seas and communities, has developed the African Resource Book Series: A Guide to Plastics. This practical A–Z guide covers plastic use, pollution sources, and waste policies across the continent. SST also recently launched the African Waste Academy, the first free e-learning platform in Africa focused on community-driven strategies on plastic and waste management.
4. Theatre: Who Knows It Feels It: A Waste Picker’s Perspective for a Just Transition – Kenya National Waste Pickers Welfare Association (KeNaWPWA)
The performing arts can offer a unique way to start meaningful conversations and dialogue in policy-forming. The Revolution Plastics Institute at the University of Portsmouth (UK) have been using theatre, music, and visual arts to engage policy changes in plastic pollution. One example is the 20-minute film, Who Knows It Feels It: A Waste Picker’s Perspective for a Just Transition which highlights the experiences of Kenyan waste pickers who took part in a ‘Legislative Theatre’ project.
Legislative theatre brings together citizens and policymakers in a constructive dialogue about issues and policies that affect local communities. In this particular project, the twelve individuals (KeNaWPWA) shared their daily struggles directly with policymakers during the third round of global plastics treaty talks (INC-3) in Nairobi, November 2023.
5. Four academic books on plastic pollution politics
From colonial legacies to cultural entanglements, these four academic books reveal how plastic pollution is not just an environmental issue, but a political, social, and ethical crisis that demands a deeper reckoning with power, social justice and global inequality.
- Plastic Legacies: Pollution, Persistence, and Politics (AU Press, 2021) explores the global impact of plastic from oceans to politics through academic voices in marine biology, psychology, and Indigenous studies. The authors critique neoliberal approaches to tackling the plastic crisis and also call for political will, cultural change, and better communication to address the crisis.
- Plastic Waste Trade: A New Colonialist Means of Pollution Transfer (Springer Nature, 2024) argues that exporting plastic waste from the Global North to the Global South is a form of modern colonialism. In his book, Turkish marine biologist Sedat Gündoğdu examines both legal and illegal waste trades and their harmful impacts, and devastating impacts on ecosystems, workers, and communities in receiving countries with case studies highlighting environmental and social injustices.
- Pollution Is Colonialism (Duke Press, 2021) shows how scientific research can reinforce or resist colonialism. Focusing on plastic pollution, the Canadian author draws on their work at CLEAR, a feminist, anticolonial lab, which carries out research rooted in Indigenous Métis ethics. In his book, Max Liboirin argues that pollution is not just environmental harm, it is a colonial act that claims Indigenous land. You can read a Q&A with Max Liboirin and watch a video of her work (BabyLegs: a DIY research trawl for monitoring ocean microplastics).
- Plastics environment culture and the politics of waste (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) explores plastic beyond its material form, examining its cultural, political, and environmental ties. Using history, art, and literature, the book reveals how plastics connect to today’s health, energy and environmental crises. This collection highlights why solving the plastic problem requires understanding its cultural roots.
6: A documentary: The Story of Plastic (2019)
Films can be powerful tools for raising awareness and shifting public opinion and The Story of Plastic (2019) is still a provocative example. This Emmy-winning documentary (1h 35m) and short animated film (4m 15s) exposed the real causes and consequences of the global plastics crisis. With a focus on Asia, it debunks the myth that plastic pollution is simply an “end-of-use” issue. Instead, it exposes a toxic global trade system where wealthier nations export plastic waste to developing countries, creating lasting environmental and social harm. At the same time, it highlights local change-makers and innovative community-driven solutions across the region. The film also raises the question: is the focus on plastic pollution diverting attention from the broader challenge of tackling climate change?
7: Children’s Books: Flipflopi (2023) and One Plastic Bag (2015)
Children’s books can spark awareness on global issues, and a sense of social justice in young minds. Flipflopi (2023) and One Plastic Bag (2015) are inspiring true stories for young readers that show how community-led and grassroots action can both tackle plastic pollution and spark lasting change. Beautifully illustrated, Flipflopi, is based on a true story of a boy who builds a boat made of recycled flip-flops that he finds on the beach in Kenya. One Plastic Bag is based on the life of activist and social entrepreneur, Isatou Ceesay, known as the Queen of Recycling, who launched a recycling movement in Gambia.
8: New Animal Study: Effects of Plastic Pollution on Macaques
Microplastics have been detected in more than 1,300 animal species. The effects of plastic pollution on wild animals is being explored by an important collaboration between researchers in Indonesia and the UK (Universitas Hasanuddin/University of Portsmouth). The new animal study, launched in 2024, looks at the effects of plastic pollution on Sulawesi moor macaques, an endangered and protected species of monkey native to Indonesia.
We know surprisingly little about plastic distribution in terrestrial environments and its impact on wildlife. This project seeks to fill that gap by examining how macaques interact with plastic pollution.
Teresa Romero, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Portsmouth
9. Case Study: Argentina
With nearly 5,000 km of coastline, Argentina has adopted some of South America’s most advanced marine plastic policies to defend it’s coast, including research, educational programs, bans on certain single-use plastics and a focus on life-cycle approaches. Argentinian researchers have formed SciEnce for Plastic Impacts Argentina (SEPIA) which is a network that has been actively involved in studying microplastics and their effects on Argentine ecosystems.
Educational initiatives such as Unplastify, founded by sailor and researcher Agustina (Tati) Besada, are challenging schools, companies, and institutions across Argentina and the wider region to design creative solutions for reducing plastic use. Innovative projects are also exploring alternatives to single-use plastics by developing biodegradable materials from fungi, yerba mate waste, cassava starch, and flour. The Manito certification program promotes recycled plastic content in industry to support a circular economy.
10. Photos Essay of the Lives of the Nomadic Sea Community: The Orang Seletar – Wasafiri
This online-exclusive photo essay by Ilya Katrinnada (an educator, researcher, and writer), and Jefree Salim (a self-taught photographer and fisherman from the Indigenous Orang Seletar community in Johor Bahru, Malaysia)—offers a powerful visual journey into the lives of the Orang Seletar, a nomadic sea people living in the straits between Malaysia and Singapore. Published in Wasafiri Issue 116: Shorelines – South East Asia and the Littoral, the piece captures the everyday realities and deep cultural connections of an often-overlooked Indigenous community. Through Jefree’s lens, storytelling becomes a form of resistance and reclamation. “Indigenous storytelling through his images allows for the voices of the Orang Seletar to be heard on their terms,” he writes. One striking image shows villagers bathing in the Skudai River, where trash carried in by the tide collects along the shore revealing the environmental injustices they endure.
We’d like to thank both Cassie Lawrence from Wasafiri magazine (international contemporary writing) and Dr Cressida Bowyer, Associate Professor in Arts and Sustainability and Deputy Director, Revolution Plastics Institute for contributing to this listicle piece.
