Event Details

What it Matters Now: A Pressing Plastic Problem is the latest in a series of public seminars from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) addressing the big issues facing society and business today and tomorrow.

Plastics have been found everywhere, from the deepest oceans to the summit of Mount Everest, to the insides of our bodies. But how can we best use plastics? How can we avoid waste, pollution, and damage to the planet? And should we actually even call them plastics in the first place?

These are among the issues examined at What it Matters Now: A Pressing Plastic Problem. This is the latest in a series of public seminars from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) addressing the big issues facing society and business today and tomorrow.

Members of the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL) project from LUMS and Lancaster University’s Faculty of Science and Technology, alongside an industrial partner, will present insights from their work on consumer attitudes and behaviours towards plastic food packaging

Project leaders Dr Alison Stowell and Professor Maria Piacentini and will chair the event and present an overview of PPiPL; Dr Savita Verma will discuss the roles of businesses across the plastic food packaging supply chain; Dr Charlotte Hadley will examine consumer attitudes towards plastic; Dr John Hardy will look at the complications around post-consumption options; and Ian Schofield, packaging and sustainability expert working with Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses, will present an industry perspective on switching away from non-recyclable plastic packaging.

The event will take place both in-person at Lancaster University Management School, and online via Zoom. It is open to all, and there will be opportunities for questions throughout.