Social Dimensions of Plastics: Providing Innovate UK funding for a studentship in Plastics, Communications, Behaviours and Social Change

Research areas

Technical solutions alone cannot solve the plastics crisis and public engagement and behaviour plays a key role. Influencing consumer behaviour is becoming a priority in global environmental policy as well as for business and industry who are seeking to bring about sustained changes and shape pro-environmental behaviours.

Key areas of research include:

Interdisciplinary collaborations bringing together social scientists with natural and physical scientists, government, business, and industry and sharing insights from humanities and social sciences to develop robust research focused on social aspects of plastics

Mapping the socio-cultural global context of plastics and society including public understandings of plastics; upstream (designing out waste) and downstream (recycling) solutions.

Creating evidence-based interventions which address the lived experience of communities and how they interact with plastics from design to use.

Mobilising insights and evaluating novel interventions using diverse methods transferred from other complex problems (e.g., AMR).

Analysing population heterogeneity and the inequalities of the burden of plastic waste alongside challenges of empowering people and communities. Providing an evidence base for circular economy initiatives involving policy makers, business, design and industry.