Our oceans continue to fill with toxic waste and plastics as nations struggle to manage the growing amount of consumer generated debris. In facing this particular challenge, the global community has become aware of how this issue disproportionally impacts marginalized communities and requires international solutions that are ultimately grounded in local realities. Certain grassroots organizations on the frontlines of the global waste crises have chosen to form coalitions with powerful international actors, based on the assumption that doing so is necessary for successful campaigns. These international actors can, in turn, take the lead in unilaterally managing local campaigns, or they can work as support mechanisms that encourage local activists to take the lead. What is at stake in such approaches for developing environmental justice? Do transnational organizations empower communities to build long-term mechanisms of sustained environmental justice, or do they undermine this broader goal? In this dissertation I argue that international coalition partners, rather than unilaterally directing local organizations and actors on how to achieve justice should pay more attention the insights and ideas of the frontline communities they support. Based on such insights, I find that coalition strategies that support organizing and capacity development help local stakeholders confront the causes and symptoms associated with waste’s negative impacts; whereas mobilizing coalition partners around centrally developed approaches to environmental justice are suited primarily to addressing the symptoms.

To underscore this argument I trace the history of two leading transnational environmental non-governmental organizations (TENGOs) fighting toxic waste—the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and Greenpeace. In this analysis I pay particularly attention to how their ideas on environmental justice have evolved and how changes in their support strategies produced different outcomes for marginalized communities. My analysis utilizes primary and secondary documents and is based on participant observations and over 70 semi-structured interviews conducted in California, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and France with GAIA, Greenpeace and their coalition partners. Ultimately, this study reinforces my claim that developing long-term community organizing and empowerment are fundamental for addressing local and global injustices related to waste management and other issues of environmental equity.