Name: Dillon DalalSurana

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):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?:

My group and I interviewed Erica Cirino who is the Communications Manager at Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC). She and her team work with 1000+ different organizations and businesses around the globe to lower our plastic consumption. During our interview, we learned some shocking facts about plastic and how we can work together to help combat this ever growing problem. She gave us some new and interesting information relating to what PPC does and how they’ve been very successful. One thing I learned is that micro and nano-plastics are everywhere including in humans and that we eat plastics involuntarily which was kind of scary and also sad. This is also the case for lots of marine animals like whales that take in a lot of water with fish, with plastic in it and then digest plastics involuntarily and unknowingly. During the interview, we found out that PPC is partnered with a few organizations here in NYC and one of them helps schools get rid of single use plastics like utensils and other items. She stated that we need to find alternatives to recycling in the world because many types of plastics can’t be recycled. In the US, only 5-6% of recycled items are actually recycled. It would be better if the plastic recycling percentage was higher, however the plastic production and consumption needs to be lowered or as Erica put it, “We need to turn off the tap of plastic production.” Despite the numbers being grim, Erica was optimistic that we as the human race can turn this problem around.