Partnership against Plastic Pollution

Partnership against Plastic Pollution is a chameleon exercise in that it can be used for a variety of purposes: It can be used at the beginning of a training to get people used to role plays, it can be used after discussing two-party negotiations to introduce multiparty negotiations, or it can be used to explore specific concepts around coalition-building, fairness, power, and/or the need for process management in negotiations (and specifically in multiparty contexts).

In the exercise players are assigned to represent an Environmental Non-Governmental Organization (ENGO) in a negotiation for a contract to remove plastic pollution from oceans. But to secure the contract, a player must work with at least one other ENGO, or both, if they choose to. While the awards for the joint contract are fixed, the amount each ENGO receives is up for negotiation. Two decisions must be made: which contract will be selected, and how the benefits will be shared. This game by design has an unstable equilibrium, in which one party is always able to provide a more lucrative proposal to another player to avoid being cut out of the deal. If two parties make a deal, the third always has an opportunity to disrupt, highlighting a problem where the group must find a way to equitably split proceeds instead of devolving into an unproductive dynamic of parties undercutting each other. This three party game was originally developed by Howard Raiffa and adjusted here as an environmental application.