Made to Last, Built to Harm: Reckoning and reimagining our relationship with plastic

The Switzer Foundation was proud to present a collaborative panel with the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice focused on the impact of plastics from cradle to grave. Timnit Kefela moderated this conversation with emerging leaders in addressing plastic pollution: Andresa Oliveira Tavares Lima, Brandon Rothrock, and Paloma Henriques. 

The conversation explored beyond-the-surface questions about visions for redesigning our relationship with plastic, solutions that center the people most impacted by plastic production and waste, gaps between science and policy, and community dynamics and questions of identity in the plastic environment, and what gives these leaders hope in the face of environmental challenge. 

Presenters: 

• Timnit Kefela (2021 Switzer Fellow, Agents of Change Fellow in Residence) is an assistant professor at California State University Channel Islands. An environmental scientist, organizer and educator, Timnit seeks to better understand (micro)plastic pathways, fates and impacts in effort to inform and design liberatory infrastructural solutions for pollution mitigation and waste management.
• Andresa Oliveira Tavares Lima is a PhD student at Northeastern University and Intern at the Silent Spring Institute, who researches how microplastics break down in the environment and the connection between PFAS and microplastics;
• Brandon Rothrock (2024 Agents of Change Fellow) is a PhD candidate at Ohio State University where he studies how queer and disabled Appalachians embedded in nonprofit organizations envision environmental justice and just energy transition in the Ohio River Valley;
• Paloma Henriques (2021 Switzer Fellow) is senior petrochemical campaigner at Friends of the Earth who supports resilient communities working to protect their health and our shared climate and oceans by preventing the construction of new petrochemical plants. 

Watch the conversation here or on YouTube.