Take a look at a report from Dr. Alice Horton & Dr. Sally Beken on the challenges of microfibres.
The workshop ‘Addressing the Challenge of Microfibres’ was held on Thursday 17th December 2020. It was co-hosted by the UK Circular Plastics Network and the UK Microplastics Network. The event was funded and enabled by KTN. The aim of the workshop was to bring together key players across academia, industry, NGOs and government, both nationally within the UK, and internationally, to discuss some of the unique challenges posed by microfibres. The presentations and discussion group topics were selected to cover a broad range of perspectives and promote discussions surrounding product design, handling of materials, prevention of fibre shedding, loss to the environment and the potential for environmental and ecological hazard posed by fibres as an environmental contaminant.
The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the key outcomes of the workshop, and the proposed considerations for future research and innovation in this field, resulting from discussions had on the day. This document is not intended to provide a roadmap or concrete recommendations for next steps, but should give an overview of the main points that were raised, based on the views of those present.
This report is not comprehensive, and so not all points raised have been detailed here, but those that stimulated further discussions, were raised by multiple delegates or were considered to be the main workshop outcomes are included.
A recording of the workshop can be found here.
