Focus on sustainable plastics
On 1 March 2019 the Royal Society of Chemistry held a roundtable discussion meeting on sustainable plastics.
The environmental impact of plastics is currently a hot topic in the media, and is attracting increasing concern from the public and from policy makers. There is also a growing body of evidence on the environmental impacts of plastic waste.
With this in mind, the RSC Materials Chemistry Division held the discussion with the aim of developing an informed and expert view from the chemistry community, to help shape future activities and recommendations. The participants were all experts in plastics, including polymer chemists from academic institutions across the UK, representatives of the RSC Water Science Forum and Macro Group UK, as well as RSC staff and representatives from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Discussion topics included how we define plastics, the environmental impact of plastics and their alternatives, and the role of chemistry in finding solutions to deliver greater sustainability in our use of materials. The attendees identified several examples of chemistry research that might help support a transition to more sustainable technologies and allow us to incorporate plastics into the circular economy, as well as the policy and educational measures that can help citizens to make more sustainable choices.
We have produced a summary of the discussion, which you can read here. We have also submitted the report to the recent Parliamentary Enquiry on plastic food and drink packaging.
It is essential to bring different perspectives on the complex challenge of plastic persistence to the table to ensure that we develop holistic solutions. It was great to participate in such an RSC meeting to ensure that we, as chemists, are presenting a unified message around the importance of plastics and the potential of sustainable interventions.
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