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Capstone Final: Single-Use Plastic Discussions in the Community of Samara

Anna Lewis

Professor Latika Young

INR 3932

1 October 2019

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Introduction: Is it my interest or the community’s?

While taking the Global Scholars Pre-Departure class, my original intentions were to study

the purpose and results of an elementary school curriculum focused heavily on environmental

studies and compare it to other public schools in Samara and back in Tallahassee, Florida. It

wasn’t until I was having a discussion with my director at the Samara Pacific School, which I

volunteered for, that I realized my plans for my research and capstone were not a concern of the

community.

This reminded me of our Edge materials in Unit 2, Slide 6: “The Reductive Seduction of

Other People’s Problems”. This slide explained how we might come into a space with

predetermined beliefs on what a community needs or what we should do in our role in that

culture/group. I was reminded, yet again, of the importance of communicating with the locals to

understand what was most important to them and what had to be done to create real change or

solve the issue at hand.

After speaking with my director about the impressive accomplishments Costa Rica was

achieving in environmental protection, she made me aware of the quickly worsening issue of

single-use plastic, and how the largest consumer-driven countries were continuing the worldwide

expansion of the plastic industry to smaller countries, like Costa Rica.

Social Issue: What is the problem and why?

When researching on Costa Rica, it is easy to find the endless articles describing it as a

“green country” or that it is extremely environmentally conscientious. Whether it be housing

0.5% of the world’s biodiversity, still boasting 50% forest coverage throughout the country, or

producing enough renewable energy to power 97% of the country, Costa Rica has a stigma of

being an eco-friendly nation. Yes, I realize that in comparison to many other nations around the

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globe, Costa Rica has been a “trail blazer” for green advancements and social/cultural support

for more environmentally friendly living. I held similar opinions and expectations for this

country before I even arrived. However, through conversations with locals of Samara, Costa Rica

and further research sparked by my curiosity, it is apparent that the country does have a pressing

environmental issue, which is an increasing consumption of single-use plastic. The country is

considered to be “plagued by plastic” because of an easy and excessive process of production,

distribution, and sale of these plastic materials. Home to Central America’s most polluted river,

Grande de Tarcoles, Costa Rica has 550 tons of plastic dumped daily within its borders.

Unfortunately, 80% of this ends up in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, with 11% ending up in

landfills and 9% being recycled (Alvarado). The small coastal town of Samara that I lived in for

two months was fairly clean and the trash was usually well kept off the streets. After speaking

with some of my Costa Rican friends of my same age, they explained how the tourism industry

in Samara (and all of Costa Rica) was so important to their survival; therefore, the majority of

the town worked together to keep the streets clean. Even though Costa Rica boasts great

environmentally friendly advances, their plastic industry still causes immense issues due to a

lack of laws to regulate the production, distribution, and importation.

Single-Use Plastic: Detriment to the Environment

Before getting into detail on different perspectives on this social issue, we must address

the problems that come with the production, use, and distribution of single-use plastic on a

global scale. Even though I am focusing my observations on Samara, the problem originated

from multinational corporations headquartered in different nations all around the globe,

distributing cheap, plastic products haphazardly to smaller, less economically stable countries

who eventually depend on these plastic items in everyday life. Three hundred million tons of

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plastic have been produced around the world since the creation of the material, meanwhile none

of it has disintegrated; this is the equivalent to the height of 900 Empire State buildings. Given

this statistic, 32% of all plastic products around the globe escape the trash collection systems put

in place (MacArthur). The most common type of plastic found around the world is plastic food

packaging (26% of all plastics), which is used once but sits in landfills for hundreds of years.

72% of all the plastic that is recycled is not recovered at all with 40% of it going to landfills and

32% escaping collection systems and flows into waterways or sits in the ground for hundreds of

years before it ever completely disappears. In addition to this, 8 million tons are leaked into the

ocean each year at a rate that is exponentially growing (MacArthur). Even the most recycled

item, plastic beverage bottles, have a 7% rate of traveling all the way through the collection

process and making out as another new item (MacArthur). Another appalling statistic shows that

1 trillion single-use plastic bags are used annually all over the world (“Fact Sheet: End Plastic

Pollution”). These bags serve one purpose that lasts about a maximum of a few hours and are

thrown away never to be seen again. More than 500 million straws are used and thrown away

every day (“Fact Sheet: End Plastic Pollution”). Disposable plastic is an easy commodity;

however, never goes away. Just within the last two decades, we have produced more plastic than

in the last century alone (Piñar). As seen, the recycling process may definitely be flawed;

however, our use of plastic packaging or plastic bags that are used only one time can be cut

down tremendously to help end the pollution that these items cause. The environmental problems

that plastics put on our world are severe but are not the sole problem that arises from their use.

Plastic production, use, and distribution is an extreme, linear economic waste, losing trillions of

dollars each year because of the small life these plastics possess. This vicious system of

production, distribution, and consumption of single-use plastic has reached outside of the large

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economically powerful countries where the companies were born and reside in. These patterns of

distribution have reached out to smaller countries around the world, exploiting them for their

citizens to become new consumers of their product.

Single-Use Plastic: Detriment to the Economy

Not only are the environmental problems detrimental, but also are the economic issues.

There will potentially be $40 billion dollars in future damages with the way we are currently

living (MacArthur). The pattern of linear consumption, which is used once and thrown away

immediately, sends around $2.6 trillion dollars’ worth of time, energy, material, and effort

straight to landfills. The plastic industry also takes up 20% of all oil production and 15% of our

annual carbon budget (MacArthur). It is obvious that this social norm of single-use plastic

creates negative effects for our environment and a wasteful situation for economies all over the

world.

Host Partner’s Perspectives: Education for a Brighter Future

As stated previously, my capstone project idea began once I spoke with my director at the

Samara Pacific School about Costa Rica and their efforts towards 100% renewable energy, etc. I

could tell simply from day-to-day conversations and lesson plans in the Environmental Science

classes how passionate my volunteer coordinator (director) was for the single-use plastic issue.

Being an American-born citizen, she and I could easily communicate and relate on the problem

that big American corporations bring onto smaller developing nations when it comes to

advertising and selling these consumer goods made of or sold in plastic material. I could see the

impact that our country had on Samra, Costa Rica. Plastics from Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and other

large companies were found all over the ground or in recycling bins in Samara. These

companies, headquartered in the U.S., had not reached Costa Rica until a few decades ago. Now,

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Coca-Cola is the world’s most recognized label/brand name. How does one advocate to the

citizens of Samara (or other towns in Costa Rica) that these companies must be boycotted or

banned when these plastic products are more recognizable than good that was fabricated in Costa

Rica? Her greatest goal and perspective on the issues that come with single-use plastic is to

educate the youth in Costa Rica and all over the globe about the effects of human-kind’s plastic

consumption on our present and our future. Her curriculums were designed to press this

knowledge about the destruction of our environment on all grade levels in school, whether it be

1st grade or 6th grade. She established a concept called “eco-bricks”, where students would take

their plastic trash after snack time or lunch and stuff the trash into two-liter plastic bottles. Once

a bottle was fully packed with plastic materials, this would create a “brick” that could be used to

build something. The ultimate goal for my volunteer coordinator was to create an amphitheater

area in the future using only eco-bricks filled with single-use plastics. By furthering the younger

generation’s education on the consequences of our plastic use, my volunteer coordinator was

making the most impactful efforts towards the social issue of single-use plastics.

Community Perspectives: 3rd Grade Environmental Science, What the kids see as

environmental problems

Knowing my volunteer coordinator’s passion for this topic, I wished to conduct a class to

see the knowledge and concerns that these children had on the issue. I asked them the open-

ended question, “What do you think are some of threats to our natural environment.” In broken,

bilingual “Spanglish”, we all carried on a conversation for a few minutes before having a

creative activity. The children shot up their hands and immediately mentioned the issue of plastic

straws affecting sea turtles and other wildlife in the oceans and on land. I thought it was

astounding how the kids already knew how this issue was pressing their coastal community.

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Perhaps, it was because they live right next to the ocean and get to see the impacts on the natural

landscape every day. They also mentioned pollution of the air (CO2 from cars and trucks, etc.),

and I was able to explain to them how creating plastics uses a lot of our natural gases and causes

even more of this pollution – adding on to what vehicles emit into the atmosphere. Even the 3rd

grade students knew about the issue at hand and it was unique to hear how important and

prominent this issue was in their lives.

(Lesson with 1st grade Environmental Science on the types of native animals to the area around Samara)

Community Perspectives: Ex-pat, French bakery owner

My friend and fellow Global Scholars fellow, Wendy Edwards, and I were visiting a

small bakery in Samara one afternoon, when I noticed the cover of a pamphlet that highlighted

Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate change activist. This spurred our conversation about

how she moved here from France to live a slower paced life to retire and relax, yet she found

herself becoming more and more aware of this environmental issue of single-use plastic. Her

business that once provided plastic cups and spoons switched to metal silverware and paper

plates. It was special to see the impact that the small community of Samara had on an ex-pat

from half-way across the globe.

Community Perspective: Ice cream shop, other small local stores

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I was also able to speak with a few Ticos and Ticas (native Costa Ricans) who were

business owners, as well. They explained how they have tried to switch to wooden or

biodegradable silverware and spoons so that they may keep their beaches and waterways clean

because of the ways it helps keep the tourism industry high. They also expressed sadness for how

their country was continually gaining more and more plastic items from large corporations in

other countries and they wished to change something about this.

Other Stories and Viewpoints

A topic from Unit 8, Slide 4 of our Edge material, “The 7 Plagues”, reminded me of how

not everyone was able to support this plastic free lifestyle. Often, community service and

development projects are proposed and run by elites in the community or by outsiders/foreigners

placing their views on what is good for the overall community. I could see this being a plague to

real change throughout all of Costa Rica (and in countries all over the world) because the

wealthier people in the community could afford to avoid single-use plastic foods and items,

whereas the poorer families couldn’t afford to support that lifestyle.

Unfortunately, single-use plastic is most commonly used to package processed, cheap

food items. A new supermarket that was built in Samara only a few years ago was a hot topic of

discussion for a lot of the locals. Palí, a large chain grocery store similar to a Walmart in the

U.S., distributes processed foods in multiple layers of plastic. These items are cheaper than what

is offered in the local market and by local restaurants and pop-up vendors. Families began to

flock to this grocery store, eating unhealthier foods and consuming/wasting more single-use

plastic. Half of the community (typically the economically poorer) expressed their excitement

about the Palí, while the more economically stable families expressed deep concerns for this idea

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of fast, easy access to packaged and processed foods. They were concerned that this would ruin

the small coastal community’s cuisine and culture of recycling/upcycling.

Multimedia Project

In order to incorporate my volunteer coordinator’s passion for educating her students on

these single-use plastic issues, I created a project idea for my 1st and 4th grade students to help

complete for my final capstone presentation that would help represent the issue of plastic use in

Costa Rica, as well educate the students on how much plastic they are using and creative

alternatives to for their plastic instead of just throwing it away.

The ultimate goal for the multimedia project was to show all of the different types of

animals living in Costa Rica and to then show how plastic is consuming the country. The first

step was having the first grade class discuss with me some different wildlife that lived in/near

their community. After our discussion, they got to color the different animals for the project.

(1st grade coloring their animals for the multimedia project)

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Once the animals were finished, fourth grade helped me to paint the board and glue the

plastic onto it that the whole elementary school had collected. I believe this really made the

students aware to how much plastic they really consumed on a daily basis just during snack and

lunch times.

(4th grade helping glue on the collected plastic)

For the completion of the project, I used the board for one more lesson for the 1st grade

students, where they got to explain how the animals, lands, and oceans would be in great

danger/detriment if plastic consumption continued. The teachers and parents were kind enough

to let me photograph the students, and I believe they had a great time with the project, as they

would love to sit and talk about the board together, proud of the artwork they created and the

environmental issue they helped advocate for.

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(1st graders, Jesus and Leonardo, talking about the artwork they worked on)

(Final project)

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(Single-Use Plastic Facts)

(1st grade class posing with the project after our last day of class)

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Recapping My Time in Samara

At the end of my time in Costa Rica, I reflected back multiple times on how much I had

learned and was unaware of on this topic of single-use plastic. When searching back in the

Omprakash Edge materials, I came upon Unit 8, Slide 3: “The World Bank Weighs In.” I really

enjoyed this slide because of the information it provided on the importance and positive impact

of a community movement to helping solve the issue at hand. Here, in Samara, I can see this

issue of single-use plastic being attacked by all sides of the community. It is truly an issue that

affects their tourism here, as well as the environment and human health. Because it has been an

issue the community is passionate about, the affects of efforts towards stopping this plastic use

have been greater. I see that in almost all the restaurants here, there is not any plastic provided –

especially straws. The grocery stores also give you biodegradable bags for your items, but many

people bring their own reusable ones.

Living in this community for two months has me extremely passionate about our global

use of plastic, especially in the U.S. We have the two highest global plastic producing companies

headquartered in our country, one being a short five hour car ride away from us in Tallahassee.

Coca. Cola and Pepsi produced 85% of all plastic picked up on shorelines on the annual Coastal

Cleanup day in 2015. That is all the plastic picked up in one day around the world. There is an

issue with this, and it begins in our country. We must do something to fix that.

However, before I attempt to attack the single-use plastic system in the U.S., I will use

the information from this Unit and this slide to careful observe our community in Tallahassee,

and understand why or why don’t the community members use plastic. What are the benefits and

negatives for them and why? Before addressing the same issue I see here in another country also,

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I must do my research and see what the community thinks to be a problem, attacking the single-

use plastic system in a way that the community of Tallahassee could grab hold of.

Solutions

However, there is hope for stopping these large corporations from coming into the town

of Samara and other small towns across Costa Rica. According to the UN Environment’s

“Single-Use Plastic: A Roadmap to Sustainability”, the Costa Rican government announced on

World Environment day that the government would phase out all forms of single-use plastic by

2021, endangering large multinational corporations (Giacovelli). Multiple solutions to the culture

of single-use plastics are being created each day. Costa Rica announced its goal to be completely

plastic-free by 2021 (Vaughn), as well as breaking a Guinness World Record for the most

recycled materials in 8 hours (Zuñiga). Economically feasible and intelligent methods of

recycling and reusing old plastic are formed every year. There are positives to recycling and

opportunities for real jobs positive economic growth through correct recycling processes.

Achievements are arising because of dedicated efforts from ground-up movements in local

communities like Samara, Costa Rica. Grass-roots movements also inspire individuals like me

and many others to become inspired on an issue they never knew was so important, detrimental

to our Earth, and time-crucial.

Conclusion

Overall the experience and trip for me was amazing and enlightening and I am ever

grateful for the dialogue I shared and people I was able to meet and get to know and now call

great friends. All the unique and differing opinions on one social-issue opened my eyes to how it

is difficult to attack these large-scale problems and benefit every individual in a community,

especially when the social issue and the community is large. Thanks to the lovely smiling faces I

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met day in and day out, I learned so much and became so much more aware of issues of the

community that I never would have learned about if I had not asked and carried on a

conversation. Because of my volunteer coordinator introducing me to the issue and the local

business owners inspiring me to use less plastic, I have taken what I learned in Costa Rica back

to the U.S. to try to help shed light on the social-issue here, as well. Compared to Costa Rica, we

here in the United States hold the largest plastic producing companies in the world and are

largely to blame in the cause and continuation of this detrimental social-issue. The issue is

obviously bigger than just in Samara or in Costa Rica. We too in the United States have an

extremely large role to fill as advocates for the problems we are causing for ourselves and our

environment now and in the future. I am grateful for all that I could do at the elementary school

in Samara and in the community; however, I feel that this project and this social-issue has

enlightened me on what we can do to improve our own country more than anything, and I am

ever so grateful for that introspection.

Word Count: 3395

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Works Cited

Alvarado, Laura. “Plastic is the Third Largest Industry in Costa Rica.” The Costa Rica Star, 10

June 2018, https://news.co.cr/plastic-industry-the-third-largest-in-costa-rica/73658/.

“Fact Sheet: End Plastic Pollution.” Earth Day Network, 13 March 2018,

https://www.earthday.org/2018/03/07/fact-sheet-end-plastic-pollution/.

Giacovelli, Claudia. “Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap to Sustainability.” UN Environment,

2017.https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25496/singleUsePlastic_su

stainability.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1.

MacArthur, Dame Ellen, et al. “The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics.”

World Economic Forum, January 2016,

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Plastics_Economy.pdf.

Piñar, Juan Carlos. “Costa Rica’s plastic invasion.” The Tico Times, 5 June 2018,

https://ticotimes.net/2018/06/05/costa-ricas-plastic-invasion.

Vaughn, Carol. “Could Costa Rica Become the World’s First Plastic-Free Country?” The Costa

Rica Star, 11 October 2018, https://news.co.cr/could-costa-rica-become-the-worlds-first-

plastic-free-country/76639/.

Zúñiga, Alejandro. “It’s official: Costa Rica sets world record for recycling.” The Tico Times, 29

January 2019. https://news.co.cr/could-costa-rica-become-the-worlds-first-plastic-free-

country/76639/.