Working Towards a Zero Waste World: Plastics

While plastics have revolutionized modern society in numerous beneficial ways, the benefits of plastics have come at a rising environmental and health cost. Because of their intrinsic properties, and low cost of production, it is unlikely plastics will ever be completely replaced, though work to reduce plastic waste has accelerated in recent years. Work in plastic waste reduction consists of many research topics, including producing plastics from biobased sources, improving the recyclability of plastics, and chemical breakdown/recycling of discarded plastic waste. This multi-pronged approach is necessary due to the gargantuan scale of plastic production (and plastic waste discarded). In this workshop, experts will discuss their approaches to sustainability in plastic production and recycling.
Speakers and Topics:
Alex Balzer, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Delaware
Tracking polymer chain transformations during polyethylene deconstruction
Luiz Falcon, Recycling I&T Platform Leader, Braskem
An industrial perspective on plastic recycling
Aaron Sadow, David C. Henderson Professor, Chemistry, Iowa State University
Upcycling polyolefins via selective catalytic conversions
Facilitated by IGS faculty affiliates Eric Cueny and Malika Jeffries-EL.
Co-hosted by the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, Energy & Sustainable Technologies Lab, and the College of Engineering.
For more IGS events, including other workshops in this series, visit www.bu.edu/igs....