On Fri 22 November 2024, BBC Radio Four’s Rare Earth Programme turned its attention to plastic and, in the context of our ever-growing reliance on plastic and the challenge of plastic pollution, asked “Who’s in charge: us or plastic?”.
Lancaster University researchers investigating attitudes, behaviours and practices around plastic food packaging have published a suite of reports to highlight their findings and offer recommendations to help reduce the UK’s plastic usage and contribute towards the UK Plastics Pact goals.
Earthshot-nominated start-up Plastic-i has announced that the Plastic-i Observatory, a world first Artificial Intelligence (AI) – powered platform for mapping marine plastic pollution launched earlier this year, is now available for open beta testing.
The Refill Coalition, a major collaborative refillable packaging initiative, has won the Ambient Food Award category in the Environmental Packaging Awards 2024. The Coalition, founded in 2020, comprises leading reuse and refill experts GoUnpackaged, Ocado Retail, Aldi UK, and supply chain solutions company CHEP.
Innovate UK is inviting ambitious companies to participate in its Global Business Innovation Programme for sustainable plastics, which aims to help UK businesses innovating in this field to grow and scale on a global stage through building R&D and innovation collaborations and partnerships.
A call is out to businesses working in the field of bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable materials and products to take part in a survey to inform future support for innovation in this area.
Innovate UK’s GRIPS conference showcases research and innovation from both the academic and industrial community that make polymers more sustainable. The event provides a platform
Next-generation materials company Xampla has been awarded the Innovate UK Smart Grant alongside 2M Group of Companies to support scaled-up manufacturing of its natural, biodegradable Morro materials.
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced that it is expanding its popular ‘Refilled’ scheme for own-brand cleaning and laundry products, in partnership with Reposit, a collaborative reusable packaging platform.
Defra has launched its first Defra R&D Fellowship Programme, open to a broad range of candidates.
