Plastic waste is often explained as the result of littering, poor recycling, or bad consumer choices. This lesson asks students to think differently. Drawing on Max Liboiron’s Pollution Is Colonialism and Ali Kadri’s The Accumulation of Waste, it shows that plastic pollution is connected to deeper systems of power: colonial control over land and capitalist production for profit. Students will learn how waste is made, who benefits from it, who is burdened by it, and why technical solutions alone are not enough.
#PlasticWaste #PlasticPollution #Colonialism #Capitalism
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
Describe why plastic waste is not just a consumer problem.
Identify the main ideas of Max Liboiron and Ali Kadri.
Explain how colonialism and capitalism shape pollution and waste.
Analyse plastic waste in relation to land, labour, and profit.
Discuss why recycling is not a sufficient solution on its own.
Reflect on what meaningful responses to plastic pollution could look like.
Plastic waste as a structural problem.
Colonialism and pollution.
Capitalism and waste production.
Disposability.
Permission to pollute.
Pollution as a property right.
Externalisation of social and ecological costs.
Health, sickness, and profit.
Solidarity and difference.
The lesson is organised into five main parts:
Introduction and framing: plastic waste as a structural problem.
Key terminology: capitalism, imperialism, colonialism.
Max Liboiron: pollution as colonialism.
Ali Kadri: waste as part of capitalism.
Conclusion: reading both texts together and drawing out implications for action.
The lesson is divided into five parts. Most parts consist of four components:
Einstimmung/Warm-up: A short question or activity to activate your prior knowledge and prepare you for upcoming content.
Darum geht es/Main Content: Lesson content with short texts and guiding questions that help you understand the topic step-by-step.
Aufgabe/Task: A written activity in which you apply the ideas from the section to an everyday plastic object of your choice. Each task builds on the previous one so that by the end of the lesson you develop a fuller analysis of your object using the perspectives of Liboiron and Kadri.
Kapitel Abschlusstest/Test: At the end of the lesson, you complete a final test. This gives you feedback on your understanding of the key concepts, arguments, and connections developed across the lesson.
