The “Wickedness” of Trashing the Plastics Age: Limitations of Government Policy in the Case of the Philippines Kunesch, N. and Morimoto, R Working paper No. 231 December 2019 The SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper Series is published electronically by SOAS University of London. ISSN 1753 – 5816 This and other papers can be downloaded free of charge from: SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper Series at http://www.soas.ac.uk/economics/research/workingpapers/ Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) electronic library at https://ideas.repec.org/s/soa/wpaper.html Suggested citation Kunesch, N and Morimoto, R (2019), “The “wickedness” of trashing the plastics age: limitations of government policy in the case of the Philippines”, SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper No. 231, London: SOAS University of London. Department of Economics SOAS University of London Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, UK Phone: + 44 (0)20 7898 4730 Fax: 020 7898 4759 E-mail:
[email protected] http://www.soas.ac.uk/economics/ © Copyright is held by the author(s) of each working paper. The “wickedness” of trashing the plastics age: limitations of government policy in the case of the Philippines Kunesch, N* Morimoto, R† Abstract Characteristics of “wicked” problems have been applied to guide policymakers address complex, multi-faceted dimensions of social-environmental challenges, such as climate change and ecosystem management. Waste management exhibits many of these characteristics, however, literature which frames waste as a “wicked” problem is absent. Addressing this gap, this paper explores the extent to which institutional and legislative frameworks reduce waste generation, and highlights various challenges policymakers face when addressing waste management.