Lecture Plastic's Legacy: Tracing the Path from Single-Use to Sustainable Solutions

• Date: 02 April
• label.tijd 19:00 uur - 21:15 uur
• Location: LUC Room 2.02Wijnhaven

Free public lecture, everyone welcome! Please register below

The Future of a Plastic Bottle: How Biology Could Contribute to Solving the Plastic Problem

Jo-Anne Verschoor MSc, PhD candidate Moleculair Microbiology, Leiden University

Plastics are crucial in our society due to their versatility and wide range of applications. However, their durability and diversity make disposal and waste management challenging, leading to significant pollution and ensuing environmental issues. Luckily for us, many microorganisms appear capable of partially degrading some plastics. In recent years, research into the biological degradation of plastics has increased, offering insights into nature’s response to plastic pollution. With these natural solutions emerging, pressing questions arise: Can these microorganisms provide a feasible solution to our current pollution problem, and if so, how? In this lecture, Jo-Anne Verschoor presents her PhD research into plastic degrading enzymes.

Single-Use Plastics: The History and Future of Disposability

Prof.dr. Katarzyna Cwiertka, Professor of Modern Japan Studies, Leiden University

On March 4, 2024, a provisional compromise was reached between the European Parliament and the European Council on EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which is to replace the current legislature. The new sustainability requirements will include packaging minimization, reusable and refillable packaging, and the ban on single-use packaging, which is primarily made from plastic materials. When implemented, the PPWR will mark the first step away from the veneration of disposability that since the 1950s has guided daily routines of citizens of Europe.

The disentanglement of single-use plastics from the social fabric of everyday life is very likely to be at least as complex an operation as the processes of their integration which had in the early twentieth century. In this lecture, Katarzyna Cwiertka will explore these developments, paying particular attention to the factors that made disposability a taken-for-granted, almost “natural” practice in our lives today.

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