Our relationship with plastic is complex. While the societal benefits of plastic are undeniable, plastic has also come to occupy a central role within a culture of waste and disposable living that constitutes a significant problem for health and the natural environment. Public awareness of the harms asociated with plastic is high, thanks, in part, to a range of sustained media exposure. This, however, has so far failed to materialize in any significant global reduction in plastic pollution. Meaningful regulatory change that adressess the harms of plastic at the point of production is curiously absent, while some apparent gains have been rolled back—against a backdrop of a global pandemic and a rehabilitation of plastic. This article highlights the assemblage of media, government and corporate interests that performs the role of what we identify as the “Environmental Crisis Industry” (“ECI”), which perpetuates stasis in the face of environmental catastrphe. The ECI manages our anxieties through media discourses of precarity and danger, while at the same time, offering us attainable “solutions” that exist well within the logic of consumer capitalism—in effect, compelling us (at least morally) to become eco-consumers. In this way, the political energy of grassroots climate resistance is “pre-corporated,” so to speak, into the product design of major corporations, dissipating the chance of real progressive change in favor of a new green spirit of capitalism.

我们与塑料的关系很复杂。虽然塑料的社会效益是不可否认的，但塑料在垃圾和一次性生活文化中也发挥了核心作用，这对健康和自然环境构成了重大问题。公众对与塑料相关的危害的认识很高，这在一定程度上要归功于一系列持续的媒体曝光。然而，到目前为止，这未能在全球塑料污染的任何显着减少中实现。奇怪的是，没有在生产环节解决塑料危害的有意义的监管变革，而在全球大流行和塑料复苏的背景下，一些明显的成果已经倒退。这篇文章强调了媒体的组合，政府和企业利益扮演着我们认定的“环境危机行业”（“ECI”）的角色，在面临环境灾难时会长期停滞不前。ECI 通过关于不稳定性和危险的媒体话语来管理我们的焦虑，同时为我们提供可实现的“解决方案”，这些解决方案很好地存在于消费资本主义的逻辑中——实际上，迫使我们（至少在道德上）成为生态消费者. 通过这种方式，草根气候抵抗的政治能量被“预先组合”到大公司的产品设计中，从而消散了真正进步变革的机会，转而支持新的资本主义绿色精神。ECI 通过关于不稳定性和危险的媒体话语来管理我们的焦虑，同时为我们提供可实现的“解决方案”，这些解决方案很好地存在于消费资本主义的逻辑中——实际上，迫使我们（至少在道德上）成为生态消费者. 通过这种方式，草根气候抵抗的政治能量被“预先组合”到大公司的产品设计中，从而消散了真正进步变革的机会，转而支持新的资本主义绿色精神。ECI 通过关于不稳定性和危险的媒体话语来管理我们的焦虑，同时为我们提供可实现的“解决方案”，这些解决方案很好地存在于消费资本主义的逻辑中——实际上，迫使我们（至少在道德上）成为生态消费者. 通过这种方式，草根气候抵抗的政治能量被“预先组合”到大公司的产品设计中，从而消散了真正进步变革的机会，转而支持新的资本主义绿色精神。