End of life at the top of the world—stakeholder perspectives for plastics and circular transitions in the Arctic

Abstract

Plastic pollution is a growing global concern. Although the pollution itself is transboundary and knows no borders—the accumulation of plastics can have a more detrimental impact depending on where it is. In this study, we focus on the Arctic, an area where fragile ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from human-made products such as plastics. Although plastic pollution takes place on a global scale, it will be up to the regional and local levels to implement solutions that work in practice. In light of this, we held a participatory stakeholder workshop in the town of Longyearbyen on Svalbard to identify local perceptions from sectors directly affected by and affecting plastic use and growing mitigation efforts on Svalbard. This was followed by a dialogue on best practices and roadblocks to shift towards a circular economy (CE) in the Arctic. We used a qualitative approach facilitating our workshop by building a group model with stakeholders in various sectors living and working in the Arctic coupled with semi-structured interviews that gain a more detailed understanding of the opportunities and pitfalls of the model. Our main goal was to better understand how the currently negotiated treaty to end plastic pollution may be better implemented at the national and local levels, starting with input from a smaller Arctic community heavily impacted by plastic pollution. In the end, participants stated a strong desire for top-down guidance to make it easier to implement changes at the local levels. Moreover, like that of the ongoing treaty negotiations, the importance of having the same definitions for a CE and its components was deemed vital to enact positive change.