Name: Paloma Sherak

Social Justice Group: 2022-2023, Environment: Microplastics

Date of Fieldwork: January 20, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Erica Cirino, the Communications Manager for Plastic Pollution Coalition

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On January 20, 2023, our group met with Erica Cirino via google meet. Erica Cirino is the Communications Manager of the Plastic Pollution Coalition and has even written a book on the huge problem of microplastics, which is called Thicker Than Water. She has been working with plastic for a long time, and it was really nice meeting her. She taught us a lot about microplastics that we weren’t aware about. She also gave us a bit of insight on her own experience with microplastics and what compelled her to work in fighting pollution.

Erica explained about the impact of microplastics to living creatures. She explained about all the creatures that have been hurt because of microplastics. She also told us about the impact on our health, which was something that was mentioned before, but not very talked about. Not only did she speak about all of the animals that are eating plastic, but she spoke about humans themselves which eat plastic as well. She gave us more sources so that we could get even more information. It was really interesting to hear all that she had to say.