Category: 2023 Plastics Seminar Series

Watch! Rebecca Altman launches URI Plastics Seminar Series: “Empowering Plastic Solutions” 

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Event sponsored by URI Plastics: Land to Sea and Rhode Island Sea Grant

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Nineteenth-century industrial plastics, though derived from natural sources like cellulose or latex, foreshadowed contemporary concerns, posing significant implications for human health, human rights, and the environment. Then, as now, plastics relied on toxic solvents and additives, as well as exploitative raw material extraction, which led to occupational and community hazards, displacement, resource depletion, human rights violations and deforestation.

Writer and sociologist Dr. Rebecca Altman‘s talk, “Then As Now: How Plastics Histories Can Inform Present Efforts to Reduce Future Plastic Pollution,” is the first of the “Empowering Plastics Solutions” seminar series, organized by URI Plastics: Land to Sea. This discussion will bring this little-known history to bear on contemporary policy efforts to reduce the evolutionary and planetary pressures plastics presently exert.  

Altman(she/her) is the daughter of a former plastics maker, a URI chemical engineering alum. She now holds a PhD in environmental sociology from Brown University and writes about plastics (as well as PFAS) history for the public. Recent essays have appeared in Science, The Atlantic, The Washinton Post, and Aeon Magazine. She also has guest-edited a series of four acclaimed essays on plastics and petrochemistry for the environmental literary magazine, Orion. Rebecca lives in Providence, serves on the Board of Directors of the Science and Environmental Health Network, and is finishing work on her first book, The Song of Styrene: An Intimate History of Plastics, to be published by Scribner Books and Oneworld (UK). 

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Watch! Circular bioeconomy, Advanced Recycling & Composting: “Empowering Plastics Solutions” talk with Novamont

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Event sponsored by URI Plastics: Land to Sea and Novamont

Novamont is an Italian company, international leader in the bioplastics sector and in the development of biochemicals

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As one of the world’s leading companies in the bioplastics sector, Novamont provides information on different types of bioplastics, how they are manufactured and which applications they are currently being used. The team will share end of life solutions for some of these materials such as industrial composting and their role in helping to divert municipal food waste from landfill to composting and how this can help alleviate global warming and increase soil health. Plus, learn about new developments on advanced recycling and what happens if they are leaked into the environment.

Novamont emphasizes the importance of collaborations in their work across the supply chain from the upstream farmers and material manufacturers to the downstream consumer brands and retailers. They will provide some working examples where policy can have an impact on these types of materials and reference the Whitehouse Executive order on ‘Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bio-economy’ and the impact on future job creation.

Paul joined Novamont in 2015 as the UK & Ireland Area Manager before transferring to the Novamont North American division in 2018 based in Connecticut as VP of Marketing.  His responsibilities include new application development of the Mater-Bi bioplastics product line working closely throughout the supply chain from converters to brand owners plus also municipalities and the waste management sector.

Paul also represents Novamont on the BPI (Biodegradable Plastics Institute) board of Directors and previously on the advisory board of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic’s Economy.

He has prior experience working in water treatment, paper manufacturing and plastics applications for global specialty chemical companies plus has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Liverpool.

Dan Martens is the North American VP for Novamont, a global leader in the research and production of biopolymers. Novamont, headquartered in Novara, Italy is a certified B Corporation ranked in the top 4% globally, and has been awarded the “Best for the World” designation for the last two years. Novamont North America is headquartered in Shelton, CT. Dan consults with food scrap collections with the cities of New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto. He has assisted California and Washington State regarding policy. As part of the NRDC Food Matters program in 2019, Novamont hosted 5 U.S. cities on a tour of Northern Italy food waste prevention, collections and processing systems. Dan serves on the following boards: Canadian Compost Council, BPI, PIA – Bioplastics (Chair). Dan serves as an advisory board member to SCRI, a USDA-funded 5-year study of plastics in agriculture with Washington State, Nebraska State, and the University of Tennessee. He was invited to be a team member with Canadian federal level workgroups with the Ministry of Environment in Ontario and the ECCC. Additionally, Dan enjoys volunteering as founding Board Member with PCCI (Park City Composting Initiative), a UConn Master Composter and with his local Town Sustainability Group.

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Marine Debris with Purpose: “Empowering Plastics Solutions” talk with Laura Ludwig

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When: Thursday, March 7, 2024, 5:30-7 pm

Where: Higgins Welcome Center, 45 Upper College Road

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Fishing gear such as nets, rope, lines, buoys and traps, most of which is made from plastic, can be lost, abandoned or discarded at sea. The resulting debris, also known as ghost gear, litters our seas and breaks down into smaller pieces, adding to the problems created by plastics and microplastics. Removal of ghost gear is costly, challenging and, in the US, largely coordinated by nonprofits or volunteers. Laura Ludwig, director of the Center for Coastal Studies’ Marine Debris & Plastic Program, is a key player organizing teams of commercial fishermen, artists and volunteers to address the issue. She will join us on 3/7 in the Higgins Welcome Center and present a talk on the impacts, removal, and repurposing of plastic marine debris including fishing gear, consumer debris, and storm-created infrastructure debris, and will share some innovative partnerships with artists who leverage the materials to create beautiful works of art to bring about awareness. 

“Over the course of nearly twenty years spent removing abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear from the ocean, I’ve come to understand the value of collaborating with commercial fishermen, researchers, managers and recycling companies. Add artists to that list, and now you’ve got the best and highest use of otherwise unusable material. ”

Laura Ludwig, director of the Marine Debris & Plastics Program at the Center for Coastal Studies, focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to investigate and respond to abandoned, lost, discarded or end-of-life fishing gear, beach debris, microplastics, and other marine plastic debris issues. Since beginning the program in 2012, she has grown a 400-person volunteer “Beach Brigade” which supports an active year-round shoreline cleanup and debris data collection effort on Cape Cod.

Laura has directed at-sea fishing gear removal and recycling programs in Maine and Massachusetts since 2009, working with hundreds of commercial lobstermen, shellfishermen, and other fishermen to properly dispose of thousands of lost, abandoned or discarded lobster traps and more than 90 tons of fishing gear debris, including fixed, mobile and aquaculture gear recovered from the ocean floor.

Since 2006, Laura has worked as a “debris broker”, providing hundreds of tons of old or discarded rope, nets, and other plastic beach debris to craftsmen and artists who re-purpose the material, diverting it from the waste stream to be used in sculpture, artwork or doormats.

Laura has presented on her work at state, regional and international conferences, including the 5th, 6th and 7th International Marine Debris Conferences in 2011 (Honolulu), 2018 (San Diego) and 2022 (Busan, South Korea). She regularly presents on fishing gear, marine debris and plastics issues and consults regionally on municipal plastic reduction initiatives.

Threads of Change: Solutions to Microfiber Pollution, “Empowering Plastics Solutions” discussion

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When: March 22, 2024, 12PM

Where: Online only

Speaker: Panel Discussion with 5 Gyres Institute

Event sponsored by 5 Gyres Institute

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Join URI and 5 Gyres Institute on World Water Day (March 22 at 12PM) for a virtual panel discussion with leading experts to discuss innovative solutions. Microfiber pollution from textiles is pervasive in ecosystems around the world, found in habitats, wildlife, and increasingly in our own bodies. In late March 2024, join The 5 Gyres Institute and URI in a discussion on innovative solutions, and the collaboration that is needed to address microfiber pollution. To learn more about practical steps and access to resources and virtual events, sign up for the 5 Gyres’ pledge!

Learn more on the seminar series website.