| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/S025200/1 |
| Title: |
RE3 - Rethinking Resources and Recycling |
| Principal Investigator: |
Shaver, Professor MP |
| Other Investigators: |
| Hoolohan, Dr C |
Sharmina, Dr M |
Evans, Professor J |
| Garforth, Dr A |
Azapagic, Professor A |
Turner, Professor NJ |
| Mativenga, Professor PT |
RAVEENDRAN NAIR, Professor R |
Sampson, Professor WW |
| Hardacre, Professor C |
Browne, Dr A |
Boons, Professor F |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Mechanical Aerospace and Civil Eng |
| Organisation: |
University of Manchester, The |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research |
| Starts: |
01 January 2019 |
Ends: |
31 December 2020 |
Value (£): |
826,551
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Synthesis & Growth |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Chemicals |
Electronics |
| Energy |
Retail |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
| Panel Date | Panel Name | Outcome |
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29 Oct 2018
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UKRI Creative Circular Plastic
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Announced
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
As individuals, our daily routines rely on plastics in their many shapes and forms, whether as long lasting components of our homes and vehicles or as essential elements of important advances in medicine, water purification and infrastructure, or as packaging for cosmetics, food, drink, toiletries, cleaning products and healthcare products. These plastics are unrivalled materials: they are inexpensively synthesised, lightweight, recyclable and often deliver unmatchable performance. However, our love of plastics comes at a significant cost, as the environmental impact of these materials is massive, and growing. Genuinely sustainable plastics will need new forms of resource efficient materials, smart supply chains, and sustainable business practices, requiring holistic and integrated solutions.
This proposal brings together diverse groups from across The University of Manchester to tackle this grand challenge of plastic waste. We seek solutions to the challenge of plastics pollution through an integrated approach that explicitly couples Manchester's strength in sociotechnological understanding and influence to our industry-guided solutions across chemistry, safety, materials, engineering and social sciences. The goal is to create a concerted, focussed consortium of diverse individuals who will lead stakeholder conversations, pitch multi-disciplinary projects that build from our strengths, and incubate these projects into translatable solutions. Through these collaborative efforts we will develop 6-12 projects building from our diverse expertise in urban recycling, sustainable business models, invisible plastic waste, valorising waste plastic streams, and new degradable polymers, and through them aim to:
i) reduce the need for plastic by addressing demand,
ii) improve the materials used to deliver better performance and clean degradation,
iii) demonstrate new methods for recycling soft and mixed plastics/non-plastic films (currently very difficulty) and removal of micro plastics from source; and
iv) create smart circular economies that allow users to take ownership of and reduce plastic waste.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers at The University of Manchester will lead a portfolio of projects to tackle this grand challenge. Activities will be aligned with the first-of-its-kind Greater Manchester plan to drive down single-use plastics by 2020 and use the city-region as a living lab to innovate at speed and deploy solutions at scale.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.man.ac.uk |