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 to help develop the commercial success of these developments and build links within the polymer/plastics supply chain.
The sustainability of polymers is not just related to plastics but also to elastomers. Our four sessions at MRE 2024 addressed elastomer sustainability and the effects of microparticles on human health.
Novel bio-sources and green chemistry to produce new elastomeric feedstocks were discussed in the first session chaired by Professor Biqiong Chen. Contributors from The Weir Group, the University of Oxford, Queen’s University, Belfast and the University of Sheffield gave an insight into future sources of elastomers.
Professor James Busfield chaired a session on dynamic cross-linking. The presentations from Aditya Birla Carbon Group, Queen Mary University London, the University of Sheffield, and Bradford University showed that there are ways to manipulate/undo the tricky crosslinks that make elastomers uniquely useful to modern society but very difficult to recycle by changes in the chemistry and structure of rubber during mechanical devulcanization and subsequent revulcanization.
More sustainable tyres were the focus of the session chaired by Professor Sally Beken, Highlighting the amount of tyre wear particulates covered by etsaW and presentations from Queen Mary University and company Velorium showed how we may mitigate the impact of tyres in the future. The role of polymers on human health was covered in the final session chaired by Denise Goldsmith, the data presented on the types of polymers in inhaled microplastics and human fluid, from the University of Hull Microplastics and the University of Lincoln was fascinating! The final speaker James Walker talked about PFAS as an additive and as polymers. The overview of the current landscape was very insightful.
For those that missed our GRIPS Conference at MRE 2024, you can watch the recording: https://vimeo.com/showcase/11151913
We are delighted to announce registration is open for GRIPS 2024 on 19 September at the University of Sheffield. Now in its fourth year, GRIPS 2024 returns, in partnership with the British Plastics Federation, with a focus on the positives of plastics whilst ensuring they are less likely to reach landfill sites, end up incinerated or become fugitive in the environment.
