Role of Informal Laws in Tackling the Plastic Crisis

Abstract

Plastic pollution is a global catastrophe, simultaneously contaminating ecosystems through chemical leaching and physically through structural disruptions. To reverse this crisis in a coordinated and cooperative manner, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted a resolution in 2022 to negotiate and develop a legally binding treaty addressing the plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. While the envisaged treaty and state laws that will implement the treaty once adopted (collectively formal laws) will be pivotal in tackling plastic pollution, this paper argues that these formal laws will inevitably operate alongside an often overlooked yet influential body of informal norms and practices comprising among others, customs, ethics, beliefs and religious practices. Thus, while formal laws’ authority, clarity, and enforceability is critical to addressing the crisis, embracing and utilizing these informal norms provides an important opportunity to ending the plastic crisis as their interplay with formal frameworks will shape societal responses and significantly influence the implementation and effectiveness of plastic related laws. Further, given the pervasiveness and ubiquity of plastics in our modern life, the associated effects of plastic pollution on daily human lives and the radical behavioral change required to end the crisis, informal norms (unofficial laws) may provide more powerful and effective incentives or frameworks to deal with plastic pollution than official law.