Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials & Society at UCL, will explore the challenges of redesigning products to support a circular economy. Drawing on examples from his research group, Professor Miodownik will share how he and his team collaborate with manufacturing companies to address the issue of plastic waste. The lecture will conclude with a drinks reception.

The death of consumerism and how we engineer a more sustainable future

To deal with issues such as plastic pollution and climate change all materials and products in future will need to be part of a circular economy – they need to be designed primarily for repair and reuse, with recycling as the last resort. But how far away is that future? Almost all current products and materials in our homes and cities fail this circularity test. Thus, the task is enormous and means that we will need to redesign practically everything - and do it fast.

In this talk I address the challenges of this paradigm shift and show that one of the striking implications is that consumerism as an economic model is incompatible with climate and biodiversity goals. I give examples from my research group where we have been working with manufacturing companies to tackle plastic waste, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increase repairability. In each case the importance of taking a systems approach emerges and brings with it the added complications of working across disciplines, from psychology to economics. One of our strong conclusions is that the word ‘consumer’ is no longer a useful way to describe the role of people in a sustainable economy.

 

Speaker bio:

Mark Miodownik is the UCL Professor of Materials & Society. He received his PhD in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford University and has worked as a materials engineer in the USA, Ireland and the UK. For more than twenty years he has championed materials science research that links to the arts and humanities, medicine and society. This culminated in the establishment of the UCL Institute of Making, where he is a director and runs the research programme.

Mark also recently set up the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub to carry our research into solving the environmental catastrophe of plastic waste dealing with topics such as biodegradable plastics and product reuse and repairability.

Mark is the multi-award winning author of New York Times bestselling book Stuff Matters. He regularly presents BBC TV and radio programmes on materials science and engineering. In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2018 he was awarded an MBE for services to materials science, engineering and broadcasting.

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