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Global Circular Plastics Economy

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Project Description

This workshop provides us with an excellent opportunity to initiate multidisciplinary discussion on circular economy approaches to minimising the environmental impact of plastics in the context of a global economy by bringing together both physical and social scientists from leading institutions in the UK & China. The key, equally weighted objectives are to (1) design new biodegradable plastics to replace polyolefin (eg polyethylene) type plastics which take centuries to degrade (the UK has landfill site issues, and China is struggling to cope with recycling vast amounts of waste); (2); encourage in-depth discussions between very different disciplines and stakeholders, for example social, physical scientists and end users in order to build mutual understandings of needs and expectations for new types of plastics; (3) identify leaks in the global circular plastics economy in order to devise new pathways to prevent plastics being dispersed into the environment.

Equally importantly, we have three wider objectives which will have a legacy beyond this workshop:
(1)To establish a formal structure for the network & collaborative research; a UK-Chengdu Plastics Alliance.
(2)To enrich the experience of early career scientists, enhancing international understanding, networking and employability in a key social and environmental materials domain.
(3)To provide research programs with Key Laboratories in China through new collaborations which will have a broader cultural impact, contributing to emerging Sino-UK scientific relationships.

Project Acronym 2019-RLWK11-10194
Status Project Complete
Value £21,600.00
Project Dates Feb 1, 2020 - Dec 31, 2021

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