The purpose of this research is to set forth a review of literature on politics within the environmental dispute-resolution process. The plan of the research will be to explore such processes between institutions such as government, industry, and environmental interest groups, and to show how such processes evolve within specific dispute situations.
One aspect of environmental disputes on which most commentators agree is that the issues surrounding them are highly complex. Citing the limited information and limited understanding under which consumer, government, and industry interest groups act and react to environmental issues, Stuller explores the myriad difficulties of recycling plastic packaging and wastes versus allowing them to degrade, noting that even environmentalists do not uniformly agree on the "best" way to recycle plastics. There is a kind of internecine rivalry between interests that wish to be considered pro-environment. Meanwhile, states have rushed to regulate disposal of "environmentally friendly" packaging, although most state laws deal with "only a small portion of the problems surrounding the idea of environmentally friendly products and packaging" (1990, p. 42). The paradoxical good news is that enormous business opportunities exist in plastics recycling because there is a seemingly permanent supply of plastic waste available in the world.
Where environmentally complex issues tread, economic issues are not far behind. This has historically led less to consensus than confrontation or competition. Enslow (1990) notes the creation of cooperative committees comprising environmentalists and industrialists in such areas as recyclable versus degradable plastics; she also notes the potential for confrontation between the vested interests of plastics manufacturers (e.g., oil companies) and agribusiness manufacturers of degrading agents (e.g., corn-starch producers), as well as the states in which such co...