Our Mission
The Birmingham Plastics Network is an interdisciplinary network of over 60 researchers at the University of Birmingham, which aims to engage with the plastics waste problem comprehensively, utilising a whole-systems approach and enabling widespread impact which considers economic, environmental, social and ecological impacts.
Birmingham has a rich history with plastics, dating back to the mid-19th century. The city’s journey with plastics began with Alexander Parkes, a Birmingham-born artisan and chemist, who invented Parkesine, broadly considered to be the first man-made plastic, in 1862.
Since its invention, Birmingham’s contributions to the plastics industry have been significant, including its role in the production of Bakelite in Tyseley, and the development of a broad range of innovations. At the Birmingham Plastics Network, we believe that Birmingham now possesses a civic responsibility to present the innovations and solutions required to create a more sustainable plastics future.
The Birmingham Plastics Network | University of Birmingham
Challenge
Since plastic became widely commercialised in the mid-20th century, the world has produced over 10 billion tonnes and thrown away almost 8 billion tonnes. Of the plastic in the UK, 37% has been sent for recycling, 44% incinerated for energy recovery, and 19% has gone to landfill.
While over the last 50 years plastic’s high performance, low cost, lightweight nature and durability has solved many problems but, in doing so, it has contributed to many serious environmental crises. To date, we have only scratched the surface in our understanding of the scale of the potential impacts and dangers of plastic particles within our environment.
Despite being essential components of our lives, we face growing pressures to create a plastic-free world, but this may not be realistic.
Vision
In an ideal world, plastics would perform their functions at reasonable energy and financial cost; emit little or no CO2 during their entire lifecycle; inflict no health or environmental damage if they escaped into the environment; and be capable of sustainable recycling at the end of their useful lives. However, initial research shows that we are unlikely to be able to have our cake and eat it – difficult decisions and compromises will need to be found.
The Birmingham Plastics Network aims to create a sustainable future for plastics that enhances the positive contributions they make to our social, economic and environmental well-being whilst minimising the negative impacts across their life cycle. In turn, plastics would be compatible with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Mission
Plastics is one of the largest challenges we face today, yet many solutions provided to date have been ‘quick-fix’ in nature, largely focussing on eradicating plastic in its entirety. Whilst these solutions are well meaning, they lack the nuanced insight into the wide-ranging use of plastic in our everyday lives and the breadth of positive and negative impacts associated with this.
This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, artists, writers, lawyers, and experts in many other fields, to address the global plastics waste problem in its entirety.
We will engage with the plastics waste problem comprehensively, utilising interdisciplinary methods of research to ensure and enable widespread impact, considering economic, environmental, social and ecological impacts, and ultimately creating innovative solutions to an issue which has seen the same low-impact solutions and challenges be presented for decades.