Plastics, key players in the global ecological crisis
Embedded in a system driven by overproduction and planned obsolescence, plastics have come to underpin our consumer societies.
The inaugural session of the “Plastics: A Systemic Poison” conference series brings together Baptiste Monsaingeon, sociologist and waste specialist, and Henri Bourgeois Costa, Director of Public Affairs at the Tara Ocean Foundation and co-creator of the series. Together, they will examine how plastics became the unseen foundations of our economic model.
At the end of the discussion, you will have the opportunity to ask our guests any questions you may have.
Baptiste Monsaingeon is a sociologist specialising in science, technology and the environment. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne and seconded to the CNRS within LISIS. For more than ten years, he has been studying the relationship between contemporary societies and waste, with a particular interest in plastics and their socio-technical trajectories. His publications include Homo detritus. Critique de la société du déchet (Homo Detritus: A Critique of the Waste Society) with Éditions du Seuil. In 2024, he was awarded the CNRS bronze medal.
Henri Bourgeois Costa is a specialist in ecosystem geography. After working for NGOs since 1997, he developed expertise in water, biodiversity and the industrial environment (eco-design, plastics processing, recovery). Since 2019, he has been working at the Tara Ocean Foundation, where he advocates for the circular economy, particularly with regard to plastics and toxic substances, and raises these issues at the international level in the context of UN negotiations.
Organised in partnership with the Tara Ocean Foundation, the series ‘Plastics: a systemic poison’ explores a form of pollution that has become global. Since the 1970s, scientific research has revealed the extent of the problem: from the oceans to the mountains, invisible microplastics are entering our bodies and disrupting ecosystems. The humanities and social sciences complete this picture by analysing the economic and social mechanisms of our dependence on plastics.
As the seventh round of negotiations for an international treaty opens this year, these meetings bring together researchers and civil society to share knowledge and inform public decisions. The aim is to collectively rethink our relationship with plastics and the environment.
Series "Plastics: a systemic poison"
Tuesday 17 March 2026
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
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FMSH
54 boulevard Raspail
Paris 6
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