Shaping EU Plastic Policies: The Role of Public Health vs. Environmental Arguments
Ecologic Institute, 10717 Berlin, Germany
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(20), 3928; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203928
Received: 19 September 2019 / Revised: 10 October 2019 / Accepted: 14 October 2019 / Published: 16 October 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plastic Pollution)
Few other environmental problems have received as much public attention and criticism in recent years as plastic pollution. Accordingly, in recent years, a number of plastic policies have been adopted at the national and supranational level in the EU and worldwide. In the U.S., health risks were repeatedly raised in the decision-making process of these policies and scholars have pointed out the crucial role of these arguments for the adoption of plastic policies. Hence, this article uses a structuring qualitative content analysis to investigate the parliamentary debates of two recently adopted plastic policies in the EU—namely the EU Plastics Strategy and the Single-Use Plastics Directive—and to assess the relevance of public health and environmental arguments for the EU debate. The analysis reveals broad support for plastics regulation among Members of the European Parliament, who most often use environmental arguments to corroborate their support for the policies in question. In contrast, health concerns do not seem to be crucial for the adoption of plastic policies in the EU.
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Keywords:
plastics; plastic policies; plastic pollution; EU; case study research; qualitative content analysis; policy formulation; EU Plastics Strategy; single-use plastics
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MDPI and ACS Style
Mederake, L.; Knoblauch, D. Shaping EU Plastic Policies: The Role of Public Health vs. Environmental Arguments. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 3928. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203928
AMA Style
Mederake L, Knoblauch D. Shaping EU Plastic Policies: The Role of Public Health vs. Environmental Arguments. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(20):3928. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203928
Chicago/Turabian StyleMederake, Linda; Knoblauch, Doris. 2019. "Shaping EU Plastic Policies: The Role of Public Health vs. Environmental Arguments" Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16, no. 20: 3928. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203928
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