About this episode

Dr. Elsa Devienne discusses the historical movement to ban polystyrene in the US and the challenges faced in the fight against plastic pollution.

“What happened? At one point, we were really close to banning polystyrene. What happened?” In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Elsa Devienne (Assistant Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Northumbria University), a scholar of the twentieth-century United States with expertise in environmental history, urban history, the history of the body and, more recently, discard studies and the history of waste. Dr Devienne spoke to us about her current book project on the War on Plastics. She presented part of this research in the seminar paper: '" Paper or Plastic?" The Forgotten Movement to Ban Polystyrene in the US and the (Lost) Battle of Perception (1980s to today).’ She argues that modern society has largely forgotten a significant period of activism when citizens successfully pushed for bans on polystyrene due to its links to the solid waste crisis, toxicity, and ozone depletion. Devienne identifies ‘plastic denialism’ as a primary reason these early victories failed to last. “People would not have given up on this fight if it weren't for the fact that there were loads of competing stories, loads of confusion around polystyrene and whether it was recyclable…

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