Date of Award
8-2025
Level of Access Assigned by Author
Open-Access Thesis
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Anthropology and Environmental Policy
First Committee Advisor
Cindy Isenhour
Second Committee Member
Lisa Neuman
Third Committee Member
Darren Ranco
Additional Committee Members
Michael Haedicke
Christine Beitl
Abstract
Recent disruptions in global recycling markets and growing environmental and health concerns surrounding plastics have ignited renewed interest in packaging waste management. Questioning the viability of the current recycling system to contend with the ever-growing disposable packaging waste stream, policymakers are increasingly turning to circular economy policies such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR holds producers accountable for their products’ end-of-life management. The underlying assumption is that greater responsibility will incentivize producers to reduce costs by designing more environmentally friendly packaging. Despite EPR schemes existing for decades and increasing recycling rates, little evidence suggests they are driving upstream design changes. Moreover, environmental justice advocates are concerned that industry will co-opt EPR policies to advance chemical recycling technologies that disproportionally harm low-income communities and communities of color. Addressing the lack of research on the justice implications of circular policies, this dissertation explores the shifting geographies of power, equity, and access as packaging materials are re-valued.
As new circular economy policies emerge across North America, this dissertation examines the politics around disposable packaging, analyzing how packaging EPR policy is conceptualized, negotiated, and contested across time and space. Specifically, I examine how the new measurement systems emerging in these policies are negotiated, paying attention to the ways in which power relations are disrupted or reproduced. The dissertation draws on 24 months of ethnographic research, including event ethnography, a Delphi survey, public discourse analysis, and interviews. Two qualitative case studies (in Maine and Ontario) examine these debates around packaging and their potential environmental justice implications.
Overall, this research extended theories around power, knowledge, and action in environmental policy. It contributes to discard studies by challenging common understandings of waste, disposability, and circularity. In addition, this study contributes to theory in the anthropology of policy by exploring how trust and transparency shape calculative practices within neoliberal market-based approaches to environmental governance. This research has practical implications for policymakers and waste managers seeking more effective and just policies. Waste laborers, frontline workers, and fence line communities should be included in the design of EPR programs to avoid simply shifting the environmental and socio-economic burdens of packaging elsewhere.
Recommended Citation
Victor, Erin K., "The Politics of Disposable Packaging: An Ethnographic Analysis of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Policies in the United States and Canada" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4279.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/4279
Included in
Environmental Policy Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Public Policy Commons, Science and Technology Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social Justice Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons