Name: Lars Olsen

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Environment: Plastic Pollution

Date of Fieldwork: January 31, 2019

Name of Organization: EPA

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Michael Hiscock

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

Our group interviewed Michael Hiscock.

What I learned:

Michael Hiscock taught us that even though plastic is bad, the solutions to it are just as bad if not worse. Using wood will lead to deforestation. If using metal metal would become finite. Plastic is easy to make and won’t run out for a long time.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that sometimes to change a problem, you have to make a solution that the people of America feel to be convenient. You can’t ban all plastic because millions of jobs will be lost. Even though it would help the world, people wouldn’t except this for our economy. I also learned that the EPA is not doing much on the plastic topic. While they might be doing a lot of small things, all they need to do is just fund the recycling centers and we will be able to recycle everything.