Photo credit: BBC Science Focus

Instant Genius Podcast: Solving the world’s plastic pollution problem

How widespread plastic pollution is – and what we can do to finally tackle the problem.

Published: September 22, 2023 at 7:00 am

Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. And in this episode, we're exploring the surprising new science of plastic pollution.

We humans depend on the Earth’s natural resources for our very existence so it’s vital that we take as good care of them as we can. However, it’s abundantly clear that the environment isn’t in great shape at the moment.

As part of our special six-part sustainability series, we explore the different factors affecting our natural resources, investigate their current state, and discuss what we could be doing to take better care of them.

Thanks to its ease of manufacture, versatility and durability plastic can be used for making everything from packaging and building materials to children’s toys and clothing. But the material’s great success comes with an equally big downside – how do we dispose of it once we finish using it?

In this episode, we catch up with Dr Costas Vellis, a lecturer in resource efficiency systems at the University of Leeds. He tells us how widespread plastic pollution is, how we have reached this point and what we can do to solve the problem.

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