Volumetrics and Plastic Waste: The Contradictions of Microplastics in the Circular Economy

Keywords: volumetric theory, plastic waste, Thailand, sustainability
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Plastic waste in Southeast Asia poses increased risks to human and ecosystem health through microplastics, toxins, and other disposal challenges. Ranked 6th in its contributions to global marine plastic waste, Thailand proposed a solution: a plastic circular economy (CE) that produces no environmental damage. I define the CE as a set of capital accumulation logics that capture the value of waste and serve as a vehicle for financing green investment and wealth. Volumetric thinking challenges the disproportionate focus on surface and horizontal planes and draws attention to under-examined volumes of capital and materiality. Plastic waste solutions, I argue, that do not exist outside of sustainability capitalism risk limiting meaningful changes in plastic production. Improved waste management and market solutions that ‘unlock material value,’ such as upcycling predominate over grassroots-backed regulations. This focus on downstream solutions and post-consumer plastics over other volumes (e.g., microplastics) fails to account for plastics with no profit motive for collection. By drawing on recent scholarship in volumetrics, I illuminate a critical socio-ecological contradiction– namely, how plastics without practical use value are excluded from solutions, even as they inflict environmental harm. This presentation draws on semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and archival analysis in 2019 and 2022 to examine how Thailand navigates global pressures such as the U.N. treaty on plastic waste. A volumetric lens shows why the financialization of waste is insufficient to address plastic pollution. Through this work, I reveal the problematic character of Thailand’s CE.