KINGSTON, R.I. – May 15, 2023 – Scientists, policy makers, advocates and business leaders from the European Union, Canada, France, Ghana, and the United States will convene with experts from the vlogBվ today, May 15, and Tuesday, May 16, for vlogBվ’s Global Plastics Forum.
The vlogBվ Global Plastic Forum is a two-day program that will be held at the Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering on the Kingston Campus. Register in advance for live streams of plenary sessions . The Forum is designed to build capacity to translate research into global solutions by coordinating knowledge and networks of expertise and resources.
In February 2022, at the United Nations Environment Assembly, a to developan international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment with the ambition to complete the negotiations by the end of 2024. The begins May 29 in Paris. This forum is an opportunity to contribute to a global framework to end plastic pollution.
“The forum at vlogBվ is an extraordinary gathering of leaders from around the world, and we are honored to be hosting discussions that will be science driven, globally important and critical in solving the problem of plastics pollution,” said Bethany Jenkins, interim vice president of research and economic development at the vlogBվ and one of the featured speakers. “Our hope is that talks on topics such as the national and global plastic perspective, marine plastics, consumer behavior and acceleration of the design of novel materials will lead to improvements in the lives of those in the largest cities to the smallest villages.”
Vinka Oyanedel-Craver, professor and associate dean of research in the College of Engineering, and one of the featured speakers, said the forum is at capacity with over 100 attendees, which is a sign of leaders around the world seeing plastic pollution as a global problem.
“The plastics pollution crisis is a growing global challenge, yet science, policy and innovation are not fully coordinated or connected,” Oyanedel-Craver said. “This global forum will connect, inform, and build capacity among key stakeholders to support translation of research into equitable plastics solutions throughout the world.”
Oyanedel-Craver said speakers and panelists will discuss the state of science and policy while also covering topics of circular economy, consumer behavior and interventions, novel materials, equity, and justice. The goal of the forum is to create new local and global networks, action plans, and opportunities to collaborate.
Participants and attendees will hear from local and global scientists about lessons learned from plastics research and about future directions, discover approaches and interventions to mitigate plastics pollution equitably, and share expertise with colleagues.
vlogBվ President Marc Parlange and College of Engineering Dean Anthony Marchese will share remarks as part of the forum. Among the speakers and panelists across the two days of programming are U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse; Manuel Carmona Yebra, counsellor for Environment and Oceans at the Delegation of the European Union in the United States; Philip Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good and Global Observatory on Planetary Health, Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College; Ebenezer Owusu-Addo, director of the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana; Terry Gray, director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management; Jonathan Gillibrand, senior advisor of plastics for the U.S. Department of State; French Sen. Angéle Préville; Kara Lavender Law, research professor of oceanography at Sea Education Association; and Lorén Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum.
Representatives from other universities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research will also participate. NOAA is a partnering sponsor with vlogBվ Plastics: Land to Sea initiative.
A complete list of speakers and panel discussions, along with additional information about vlogBվ Plastics Land to Sea can be found at .
