Queen’s University Belfast awarded £1million to tackle plastic waste

Queen’s University Belfast has been awarded a £1million grant by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to work on a project that will re-think plastics waste. 

The project, called ‘Advancing Creative Circular Economies for Plastics via Technological-Social Transitions’ (ACCEPT Transitions), aims to create a sustainable plastics circular economy in the UK by keeping resources in use for as long as possible.

The project will do this by taking on three elements. Firstly, understanding consumer behaviour and attitudes towards plastic use and plastic waste; secondly, assessing the current industry supply chain so that hotspots can be identified and managed; and thirdly, working with industry to design and prototype building products that use significant quantities of recycled plastic waste.

Professor David Rooney, from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s, is project lead. He said: “The world-leading, state of the art facilities at Queen’s make the university the ideal place to carry out this project. These facilities include the Polymer Processing Research Centre (PPRC), a market driven research centre which has been collaborating with industry since 1996.

“The outcome of the research carried out here at Queen’s is to create a sustainable and resilient plastics circular economy that will change how we deal with plastic waste, with the ultimate goal of creating a sustainable environment for future generations.”

The grant awarded to Queen’s is part of £8million in funding allocated by the Government as part of its Resources and Waste Strategy. You can read more about this here.