Lecture | Studium Generale
Plastic’s Legacy: Tracing the Path from Single-Use to Sustainable Solutions
- Date
- Wednesday 18 September 2024
- Time
- Address
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 3.46
Together with Jo-Anne Verschoor MSc and prof.dr. Katarzyna Cwiertka, Studium Generale explores two dimensions of plastic and its legacy. Join us in Wijnhaven 3.46 for a thought-provoking evening!
Everyone welcome! Entrance is free, but please register here.
Programme
Jo-Anne Verschoor MSc, PhD candidate Moleculair Microbiology, Leiden University
Plastics are crucial in our society due to their versatility and wide range of applications. However, their durability and diversity make disposal and waste management challenging, leading to significant pollution and ensuing environmental issues. Luckily for us, many microorganisms appear capable of partially degrading some plastics. In recent years, research into the biological degradation of plastics has increased, offering insights into nature’s response to plastic pollution. With these natural solutions emerging, pressing questions arise: Can these microorganisms provide a feasible solution to our current pollution problem, and if so, how? In this lecture, Jo-Anne Verschoor presents her PhD research into plastic degrading enzymes.
Prof.dr. Katarzyna Cwiertka, Professor of Modern Japan Studies, Leiden University
On March 4, 2024, a provisional compromise was reached between the European Parliament and the European Council on EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which is to replace the current legislature. The new sustainability requirements will include packaging minimization, reusable and refillable packaging, and the ban on single-use packaging, which is primarily made from plastic materials. When implemented, the PPWR will mark the first step away from the veneration of disposability that since the 1950s has guided daily routines of citizens of Europe.
The disentanglement of single-use plastics from the social fabric of everyday life is very likely to be at least as complex an operation as the processes of their integration which had in the early twentieth century. In this lecture, Katarzyna Cwiertka will explore these developments, paying particular attention to the factors that made disposability a taken-for-granted, almost “natural” practice in our lives today.