Plastics: From cradle to grave and resurrection
A joint meeting between the RSC’s ECG, Toxicology, and Food Groups, and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) was held on 19th June at the SCI building in Belgrave Square, London. There were a variety of speakers as well as posters covering the whole life cycle of plastics, and their positive and negative impacts (Figure 1).
|
The talks in the first session were themed around “Plastics – Use and Abuse”. The keynote presentation was given by Stuart Foster from RECOUP on ”Plastics, Packaging and Politics”. His talk covered many aspects of plastic waste, from a map of world ‘dump sites’ – most of which are coastal (explaining why so much plastic ends up in the oceans) – to a discussion of the ‘Plastic Pact’. He also described the anomalies in the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) scheme, reviewed Local Authority collection rates, and introduced the audience to the term ‘bin juice’.
Ruth Stringer from Healthcare Without Harm spoke about the use of PVC in healthcare and other end uses. The toxicology of phthalates (amongst many other additives) used within PVC and other plastic products was discussed, together with the environmental and health impacts of PVC manufacture. Many interesting examples were presented, including the use of PVC in blood bags, where no replacement has yet been marketed because the phthalates that leach out of the bag enhance the life of the blood by altering the blood cell membranes. The good news is that a prototype replacement is currently being trialled. |
The afternoon session chaired by John
Williams Credit: Tiffany Hionas SCI
|
The final presentation of the first session was on “Microplastics, Risk and Regulation”, by Julius Kreißig (Wood plc.). This talk reviewed the risks from primary microplastics – those intentionally introduced to the environment, for example, in personal care and paint products – and those entering the environment from secondary sources such as wear and tear from tyres and road markings. In addition, potential solutions were discussed, such as capture of microplastics originating from tyres in storm drains, and setting maximum thresholds for fibre release from textiles.
The second session of the morning, “Challenges for Plastics”, consisted of talks by Peter Reineck about ‘Why the Waste Hierarchy doesn’t Work for Plastics and How to Fix it’, and Andrew Dove (University of Birmingham) who introduced us to the topic of Chemical Upcycling of Plastics. Plastics were successfully developed as a light weight, low cost, high performance material to replace animal and mineral products. However, according to Peter Reineck, innovation in plastics recycling has focussed too much on virtue signalling and not enough on solutions. Andrew Dove explained the chemistry behind his work looking at ‘green’ organocatalysts that function at high temperatures. These selectively depolymerise mixed plastic waste, such as polycarbonate and PET, into their original monomers as well as added-value chemicals and materials for 3D printing.
After lunch, during which there was plenty of time to look at the posters on display, the conference continued with the third theme of “Post-use Challenges”. John McGeehan (University of Portsmouth) described “Engineering Enzymes for Biological Recycling of Plastics”. He spoke about elucidating the structure of PETase (an esterase that catalyses the hydrolysis of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) and thereby discovering how it functions, how it evolved and, subsequently, how to improve its ability to break down polyesters to their component monomers through targeted protein engineering. This talk was followed with one by Richard McKinley of Axion, discussing “Challenges in Consumer Use Packaging”. Particularly interesting was the proven recyclability of thin plastic films to make household goods such as detergent bottles.
The final session of the day began with Sally Beken (KTN) updating the conference on the £20 million of funding for plastics announced by the UK government through Innovate UK in 2018. More details about Innovate and KTN’s plastics and circular economy projects, together with the calls for funding, are available on their website (https://ukcpn.co.uk).
Presentations relating to the posters displayed during the breaks formed the final part of the programme.
A prize jointly sponsored by the RSC and SCI was awarded to the best poster and best presentation from the final session. These were presented by John Williams (Sinvestec LLC) who chaired the afternoon session. The winner of the poster prize was Maria Pin-Nó from the University of Nottingham (Figure 2), for her poster ‘Production and Commercialisation of Pinene Acrylates and Methacrylates: A Sustainable Alternative to Common Monomers’. The prize for the best presentation was given to Alvin Orbaek White from the Energy Safety Research Institute (Figure 3) with ‘How to turn Plastic Waste into a Commodity by using Nanotechnology’.
The feedback from the conference was positive with 92% of respondents rating the conference excellent or very good.
A follow-up conference will take place on 9th June 2020 which will build on these themes and further explore the future of plastics.
The second session of the morning, “Challenges for Plastics”, consisted of talks by Peter Reineck about ‘Why the Waste Hierarchy doesn’t Work for Plastics and How to Fix it’, and Andrew Dove (University of Birmingham) who introduced us to the topic of Chemical Upcycling of Plastics. Plastics were successfully developed as a light weight, low cost, high performance material to replace animal and mineral products. However, according to Peter Reineck, innovation in plastics recycling has focussed too much on virtue signalling and not enough on solutions. Andrew Dove explained the chemistry behind his work looking at ‘green’ organocatalysts that function at high temperatures. These selectively depolymerise mixed plastic waste, such as polycarbonate and PET, into their original monomers as well as added-value chemicals and materials for 3D printing.
After lunch, during which there was plenty of time to look at the posters on display, the conference continued with the third theme of “Post-use Challenges”. John McGeehan (University of Portsmouth) described “Engineering Enzymes for Biological Recycling of Plastics”. He spoke about elucidating the structure of PETase (an esterase that catalyses the hydrolysis of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) and thereby discovering how it functions, how it evolved and, subsequently, how to improve its ability to break down polyesters to their component monomers through targeted protein engineering. This talk was followed with one by Richard McKinley of Axion, discussing “Challenges in Consumer Use Packaging”. Particularly interesting was the proven recyclability of thin plastic films to make household goods such as detergent bottles.
The final session of the day began with Sally Beken (KTN) updating the conference on the £20 million of funding for plastics announced by the UK government through Innovate UK in 2018. More details about Innovate and KTN’s plastics and circular economy projects, together with the calls for funding, are available on their website (https://ukcpn.co.uk).
Presentations relating to the posters displayed during the breaks formed the final part of the programme.
A prize jointly sponsored by the RSC and SCI was awarded to the best poster and best presentation from the final session. These were presented by John Williams (Sinvestec LLC) who chaired the afternoon session. The winner of the poster prize was Maria Pin-Nó from the University of Nottingham (Figure 2), for her poster ‘Production and Commercialisation of Pinene Acrylates and Methacrylates: A Sustainable Alternative to Common Monomers’. The prize for the best presentation was given to Alvin Orbaek White from the Energy Safety Research Institute (Figure 3) with ‘How to turn Plastic Waste into a Commodity by using Nanotechnology’.
The feedback from the conference was positive with 92% of respondents rating the conference excellent or very good.
A follow-up conference will take place on 9th June 2020 which will build on these themes and further explore the future of plastics.
Figure 2 Maria Pin-Nó received the prize for the
best poster. Credit: Tiffany Hionas SCI
|
Figure 3 Alvin Orbaek White received the prize
for the best presentation. Credit: Tiffany Hionas
SCI
|
