Neal Stephenson's Plastic Island: How Our Throwaway Culture

1.1 Introduction Waste regulation in the United States did not always consist of large green Groot trucks arriving weekly on Fridays, strict EPA environmental protection laws, and the widespread implementation of teaching children to “save and recycle” in schools. In fact, the US has a long and disheveled history with waste management, with some infamous disasters longing to be forgotten. Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac, a self-dubbed “eco-thriller,” tackles in a fictional setting some of these waste management dilemmas using politicians, industry/company leaders, media, and technology. Stephenson’s 1988 novel was published at a time of heightening public consciousness of waste management and addresses the core factors of regulating this crisis,

Activists frequently purchase airtime to influence individuals so much many even proceed to become activists themselves. One example of an issue that the media has highlighted is the case of “Plastic Island,” an island of trash that has formed in the North Pacific Ocean due to currents and weather conditions. One article is titled, “Plastic Island: How Our Throwaway Cultures is Turning Paradise into a Graveyard” (Nick Walsh, 2017). The pathos of the title induces emotion – specifically, anger, confusion, and sadness – over the actions of humans that destroy habitats and form a disgusting pile of trash in the ocean. In fact, the trash aggregated in that area is speculated to affect and potentially endanger the survival of several species of birds and current restoration efforts have been largely unsuccessful due to lack of funding and the extreme measures required to resolve the problem. Nowadays, social media has also taken a prominent role that is rapidly replacing newspapers, if having not already replaced. Hashtags and trending news stories are shared across communities, garner intense interest from media in other forms, and inspire or bandwagon many people into joining the environmentalist