Lowell Lecture
Reversing the Tide of Plastic Oceans
Date & Time
Dec. 11, 2014
Location
IMAX Theater at New England Aquarium
1 Central Wharf Boston, MA 02110
Driving Directions
Speaker(s)
Dr. Mike Biddle, founder & director, MBA Polymers, Inc.
Presenting Organization
Topics
Plastics provide us with many lifestyle as well as economic, health and environmental benefits. And because of this, plastics have become one of the major material categories in use on the planet, with over 500 BILLION pounds produced each and every year around the world. Unfortunately, very little of this plastic is re-used and much of it ends up either burned or buried, with potentially negative environmental impacts and lost economic opportunities. Even more concerning is the fact that billions of pounds of plastics enter the oceans each year, sometimes with devastating impacts on sea-life and the overall health of our oceans.
Dr. Biddle will discuss why plastics is the last major material category to be recovered from end-of-life products on a large scale; the impact it is having on our oceans and beyond; and what is required to propel this last-frontier of recycling forward on a global scale. He will also discuss the development of breakthrough technology for the 'above-ground mining' of plastics from highly mixed waste streams and why this is important for economic as well as environmental reasons.