Ten Things I learned from Taking Break Free From Plastic’s Toxic Tours

Break Free From Plastic recently launched Toxic Tours, a storytelling and mapping journey through 22 towns in ten different countries. Each stop on the tour is a community impacted by different parts of the plastic manufacturing lifecycle, such as oil and gas extraction and transportation, refining, and chemical processing.

While I’ve spent the last four years researching the impacts of oil, gas, and petrochemicals, doing the mapping for this project was unique in many ways, and I learned a lot from taking the tour. Here are the ten takeaways that stood out and will stay with me in my work and everyday life:

1. The petrochemical industry brings dramatic changes to the environment that are evident over the course of just one generation

Many of the people interviewed in the Toxic Tour recount changes that have occurred within their lifetimes.

M.K. Elampazhuthi lives in the city of Chennai in eastern India. He shares his memories of going to the Buckingham Canal and seeing fish swimming in the water and boats carrying food and firewood into the city. “What was such a thriving Buckingham Canal is almost dead today …This is particularly because of the chemical factories that were established at Manali, Ennore and Tiruvottiyur.”

In Eloor, India, a fisherman named Shasi paddles in the Periyar River, recounting the change he’s seen in his lifetime: “In my childhood, there were many people who depended on fishing for their subsistence as well as for trade. The next generation may only hear of the Periyar River from our memories.”

Fishermen in Ingeniero White, Argentina tell a similar story. Hector Seijas says, “It was beautiful, it was always beautiful to fish… You could live well… Fish no longer come here unless they have to and if they do come they get sick.” Fifty-two fishermen brought a case to court about this issue, and experts affirmed their stories: fish in this estuary were found to have extremely heavy metal concentrations, causing reproductive issues that depleted their population and made them inedible.

3. The petrochemical industry takes away traditional job opportunities and ways of life

Living in Pennsylvania, a major gas producer, I know how the industry has failed to provide sustainable jobs for locals. Yet I didn’t appreciate the extent to which the petrochemical industry is destroying traditional job opportunities and local economies around the globe before taking this tour.

In Eloor, outside the city of Kochi, India, a resident named Ajitha, explains, “The women who once worked with me are now working for employment guarantee schemes and in domestic work. With no fish in sight and the arrival of retail fishing markets, local trade has slowed down immensely.”

The Turkana people are pastoralists and live a nomadic lifestyle in Turkana County in Kenya. Their lives have been disrupted by Tullow Oil. On this stop on the tour, you learn how differing perspectives on land ownership between the Turkana and the oil company are creating fear amongst the community. You hear from Lowoi Ikweel, who explains, “we need our land title deeds so that we cannot be sent away by the government and oil companies…the oil companies only value the deeds. We need the title deeds for our community land.” Community representatives Wilson Nakauron and Julius Loyolo add, “This is why we say we fear the Tullow oil project, because they are going to snatch land from us, cut down trees, and the gas flaring will result in air pollution which may affect people living in the region.” Another person, Asekon Ewoi shares, “The company doesn’t employ people because when they fall sick because of the hazardous waste, they need to seek medical attention.”

Break Free From Plastic’s Toxic Tours