Driving the Plastic Circular Economy with Advanced Technology

The government has recently outlined a strategy to minimise waste and promote a circular economy for the United Kingdom. A particular area of concern is plastic waste, which has been classified as high risk. This classification has been attributed to a combination of factors including a reduction in number of waste reprocessors/exporters, difficult domestic economic market conditions and a reduced willingness to accept waste in developing nations. I hope to utilize my Chemical Engineering knowledge of polymers and passion I have for technological process and combine that with skills acquired from the field of Human-Computer interaction. An interdisciplinary approach may give rise to solutions that otherwise be missed when applying a single disciplinary approach.

Transition to a circular economy for plastic can be supported by improvements in data collection, management, and use/presentation. Three key areas of interest are maximising the quantity of data gathered, maximising the quality of data gathered and by expressing data in ways that are more useful. This will require application from various Human-Computer interaction fields including Persuasive Technology, HCI experimental research methods, and the Internet of Things as well as other areas such as statistical analysis and Machine Learning. This list is not exclusive. Having knowledge and understanding of the advantages of plastics and linear manufacture will allow me to target the use of these applications. I hope to collaborate closely with industry to establish a number of side projects throughout the programme. The incentives for industry may be economic, environmental and reputational, whilst the research team will benefit from education and data application.

Questions:

1) What technologies can aid transition to a plastic circular economy?
2) How and where will these technologies prove most successful?
3) Are there opportunities to collaborate directly with industry and how will this be achieved?
For each venture, I will consider:

1) Who are the stakeholders?
2) How can we assess the impact of this intervention?

Aims:

1) Evaluate existing technologies and explore the plastic circular economy. This will include a review of software, technology and practices as well as current initiatives and policies. This will include applications from the fields of both Chemical Engineering and Human-Computer interaction.
2) Explore conceptually and potentially develop novel systems, proposals or applications to aid transition to a plastic circular economy.


For each topic, I will begin with conducting a thorough evaluation of literature; this will provide with me insight into current research initiatives. I will liaise with waste management companies and industry experts to appreciate current conditions. A combination of techniques will provide a broad insight. As the project progresses documentation will become more formal. The nature of subsequent tasks are dependent on early factors identified and availability of side projects. It is likely that both quantitative and qualitative data gathering will be required. Qualitative studies will consist of interviews and focus groups before analysing using thematic analysis. Quantitative data will likely involve either data gathering from a system using sensors, manual field based experimentation, user data obtained from system prototyping or surveys. This project has great potential. This is partly due to technology evolving at rapid pace combined with increased public interest in transition to carbon neutrality and a plastic circular economy. At this stage, it is difficult to determine the direction of industrial collaboration although early discussions appear promising.