In autumn 2022, a worldwide gathering of plastic experts is taking place in Portsmouth, UK.
Image Credit: University of Portsmouth
PlasticsFuture 2022 has been hosted by Revolution Plastics at the University of Portsmouth to find creative solutions to global plastics pollution by embracing policy, science, and the creative arts.
Our aim is to create a conference unlike any other. Technology doesn’t have all the answers and we want to look at alternative untapped sources to solve the global plastic crisis. By bringing together a spectrum of disciplines under one roof, we hope to provoke creative solutions that will provide decision makers with a rich evidence base on which to build policy.
Steve Fletcher, Professor and Director, Global Plastics Policy Center, University of Portsmouth
The mission-driven conference will concentrate on dividing research and initiatives from an extensive range of stakeholders, inclusive of activists, researchers, industry, community members, non-governmental organizations, policymakers, and practitioners from all over the world. Global thought leaders will share their understanding, talk about recent advancements, and disclose stimulating new insights into the measures to end plastic pollution.
PlasticsFuture 2022 will help build a proof base to excite change. Professor Steve Fletcher is one of the keynote speakers and he states:
The transdisciplinary nature of the conference will allow a more rounded holistic approach to confronting plastics problems—and include expertise from all subject fields. Ultimately, PlasticsFuture 2022 will bring a new philosophical outlook to tackling plastic pollution.
Steve Fletcher, Professor and Director, Global Plastics Policy Center, University of Portsmouth
There will be an arrival of experts and practitioners to Portsmouth from throughout the world. Keynote speakers include Von Hernandez from the Philippines, known to be one of Asia’s leading environmental activists, and the Global Coordinator for the “Break Free from Plastic” movement.
Nelson Munyiri is traveling from Kenya to share his thoughts at the conference. Being born and raised in the informal settlement Mukuru in Nairobi, he is the founder of the Mukuru Youth Initiative which occupies young people to be the agents of change inside their communities.
Nelson is a recording and performing artist with an aim on human rights and social change, thereby motivating people to act on problems such as plastic pollution via music.
Professor Judi Wakhungu is known as Kenya’s Ambassador to the French Republic, Portugal, Serbia, and the Holy See and will also be speaking at PlasticsFuture 2022. From 2013 to 2018, she served as Kenya’s Minister of Environment & Natural Resources. Plastics legislation at the time of her tenure as Minister is unmatched throughout the world.
This includes the 2017 law banning the “usage, manufacturing and importation” of plastic bags in Kenya.
PlasticsFuture 2022 will occur between 1 to 3 November at the University of Portsmouth. Registration opens in July. Currently, organizers are preferring abstracts, short talks, posters, performances, and performances as well as proposals to run workshops, or chair a panel discussion at the conference.