• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Get in touch
  • FAQs

Reading Sustainability Centre

education project, eco centre, exhibitions

  • Who we are
  • What we do
    • Refill in Reading
    • Resourceful Reading
  • What’s happened
  • What’s coming up

Don’t blame plastics!

25/02/2018 by Paul Ducker Leave a Comment

A timely article from Chris Cheeseman, Professor of Materials Resources Engineering at Imperial College London and an Associate of the Grantham Institute. He stands up for the versatility of the plastics that have made them such a central part of modern life, but have also resulted in them ending up in places they shouldn’t.

Part of the challenge is to improve recycling rates. Not only in the UK but also amongst the 2 billion people in the world for whom there is no waste collection system. But it is also for designers, product developers and materials engineers to do more to design for recycling and for entrepreneurs to find ways to make more from waste in moves towards a circular economy.

Public concern about plastic pollution, partly catalysed by Blue Planet II, coupled with China’s decision to ban imports of low grade plastic waste for recycling, has created a ‘golden opportunity’ for change that needs to be grasped. Politicians have responded by promising regulations to reduce plastic waste and some companies have announced how they are reducing single use plastic in their products. But, Chris argues, the biggest impact will come from innovations in materials and design that helps create a more circular economy. He also argues that we desperately need to support the development of proper waste management in developing countries.

Read the full article ‘Don’t blame plastic, blame poor waste management‘ (19 February 2018), which contains lots more evidence and references, on the Grantham Institute web site.

WasteAidUK is a charity working to address waste management problems in developing countries and the challenges of the circular economy across the world.

Find out more about the Grantham Institute’s work on Plastic pollution in the ocean.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Plastic pollution, Spotted on the web, Waste Tagged With: circular economy, plastic pollution, recycling

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Reading Sustainability Centre

We are an education project linked to Transition Town Reading and Reading Hydro. Our goal is that Reading is recognised as a leader in practical action on sustainability, as well as a great place to live.

We are mostly virtual at the moment, but are working with a variety of partners to support the development of local sustainability experiments as well as ‘pop-up’ exhibitions and events. So please do keep checking back, or sign up for updates below. If you’d like to get more directly involved just drop us a line.

There is more about Reading Sustainability Centre on our Who we are page.

Recent Comments

  • Tony on New Beginnings open a fridge to the community
  • Mary Paul on No need to #refusethestraw in Hong Kong: Drinks come with a metal straw as standard
  • Paul on No need to #refusethestraw in Hong Kong: Drinks come with a metal straw as standard
  • Chris Rhodes on How resourceful is Reading?
  • Paul Ducker on How resourceful is Reading?

TRSC on social media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

TRSC on Twitter

My Tweets

Footer

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Tags

behaviour change buildings business case study circular economy cities climate change collaboration communities community-led electric vehicles energy food food system food waste fuel poverty guest post health innovation international micro-generation micro-grid mitigation photovoltaics plastic action plastic packaging plastic pollution plastic straws plastic waste policy pollution recipes recycle recycling renewable energy resilience resource use reusable straws reuse SDGs single use plastic strategy sustainable development training waste

Quick links

  • About
  • Projects
  • News and views
  • Events
  • Downloads
  • Useful links
  • Privacy Policy

Get in touch

Do you have a question? Would like to get involved? Have you got a project to share? We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line.

Stay in touch

Get occasional updates. Not often. Just when we've got something to share!

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in