Plastic blindness: Lifting the blindfold through citizen science

IF 5.2 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Science & Policy Pub Date : 2025-10-03 DOI:10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104218

Kate Whitman , Cressida Bowyer , Marta Nieto-Garcia , Georgios Georgiou , Tegan Evans , Stephen Fletcher

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of a nationwide citizen science campaign on participants’ plastic waste behaviours, environmental attitudes, and political engagement. Drawing on three integrated data sources, The Big Plastic Count (a citizen science initiative involving over 160,000 UK households), a linked attitudes survey (N = 8130), and a natural experiment tracking petition signatures, we analyse how participation influenced awareness and action. Despite many participants reporting efforts to choose recyclable packaging, soft plastics, rarely recycled in practice, were the most frequently discarded items. Participants also significantly underestimated their overall plastic consumption, a disconnect we term plastic blindness, particularly pronounced among those shopping online. By making plastic waste visible, the campaign increased awareness, concern, and support for circular economy practices such as reuse and refill. Participation was also associated with a marked increase in petition signatures, suggesting that citizen science can not only be used to collect data and drive behavioural change, but also mobilise political action. This suggests that citizen science participation can serve as a catalyst for policy engagement, influencing public support for international environmental negotiations, such as the Global Plastics Treaty.

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可塑性失明：通过公民科学揭开眼罩

本文考察了全国公民科学运动对参与者塑料废物行为、环境态度和政治参与的影响。利用三个综合数据来源，即“塑料大统计”（涉及超过16万英国家庭的公民科学倡议）、相关态度调查（N = 8130）和跟踪请愿签名的自然实验，我们分析了参与如何影响意识和行动。尽管许多参与者报告说他们努力选择可回收的包装，但实际上很少回收的软塑料是最常被丢弃的物品。参与者还严重低估了他们的整体塑料消费，我们称之为“塑料失明”，这种脱节在网上购物中尤为明显。通过让人们看到塑料垃圾，该活动提高了人们对循环经济实践（如再利用和再填充）的认识、关注和支持。参与还与请愿签名的显著增加有关，这表明公民科学不仅可以用于收集数据和推动行为改变，还可以动员政治行动。这表明，公民科学参与可以成为政策参与的催化剂，影响公众对《全球塑料条约》等国际环境谈判的支持。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Environmental Science & Policy 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

10.90

自引率

8.30%

发文量

332

审稿时长

68 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Science & Policy promotes communication among government, business and industry, academia, and non-governmental organisations who are instrumental in the solution of environmental problems. It also seeks to advance interdisciplinary research of policy relevance on environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity, environmental pollution and wastes, renewable and non-renewable natural resources, sustainability, and the interactions among these issues. The journal emphasises the linkages between these environmental issues and social and economic issues such as production, transport, consumption, growth, demographic changes, well-being, and health. However, the subject coverage will not be restricted to these issues and the introduction of new dimensions will be encouraged.