Researching a New Future for Plastics Policy
With a legally binding global treaty to address plastic pollution on the horizon, what are the potential risks and opportunities for the UK? PoliticsHome sat down with Professor Steve Fletcher, Director of the Revolution Plastics Institute at the University of Portsmouth and UKRI Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) UK Plastic Pollution Agenda Setting Fellow, to learn how world-class research can position the UK as a global leader in the future of plastics.
The world is on the cusp of a major change in how it tackles plastic pollution and its impacts. The United Nations is currently moving towards finalising the text of a legally binding international agreement to tackle pollution across the plastics life cycle. It is a Treaty that some believe could be the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
One man who will play a critical role in helping the UK navigate those impending changes is Professor Steve Fletcher, Director of the Revolution Plastics Institute at the University of Portsmouth. Fletcher is also the UKRI NERC UK Plastic Pollution Agenda Setting Fellow. It will build on R&I funded through UKRI’s £60 million smart sustainable plastic packaging (SSPP) challenge, delivered by Innovate UK and NERC. It is a role that furnishes him with a granular understanding of the potential impact and opportunities for the UK to provide leadership on this critical issue.
Fletcher told PoliticsHome that the growing awareness of the range of risks posed by plastic pollution means that coordinated action across government, the research community, campaign groups, consumers, and businesses is now essential.
“The environmental cost is what first came to the public's attention and positioned plastic pollution as an issue that requires action,” he explains to PoliticsHome. “But we're increasingly seeing evidence that plastic pollution can affect human health too, with absolutely enormous social impacts.”
As the Plastic Pollution Agenda Setting Fellow, Fletcher has a critical role in working across the research and business community to ensure that innovation and research are directed at giving businesses, government, and consumers the data, evidence, and tools they need to succeed in a rapidly changing environment.
“There are so many moving parts in the plastics policy, business, and research spaces,” he explains. “We know that decision-makers and policymakers in government will need evidence to make new policy and to monitor the effectiveness of existing policy.”
Part of the challenge Fletcher faces, he tells us, is the sheer breadth of the ways that plastics impact different areas of public policy. Although the focus to date may primarily have been on the environmental impact of plastic pollution, Fletcher is clear that it is only by taking a holistic and interdisciplinary approach that we can really begin to address the complexity that sits behind the industry.
“I'm afraid that plastic pollution is often seen as just a chemistry problem,” he explains. “But it is much more than that. In reality, it's also a health, economic, social, legal, political, and international relations problem. We need to see it in a much more rounded way. And that's what my Fellowship is doing.”
Fletcher’s immediate task is to bring increased coordination to a research and policy area that is often fragmented. Although the post is hosted by NERC, Fletcher’s remit cuts across all nine UKRI funding councils including Innovate UK which supports business innovation.
As a result, the priorities he identifies and the recommendations he makes could inform future activities in areas as diverse as engineering, economics, technology, and environmental science. That new level of clarity will help to ensure value to both policymakers and taxpayers, supporting researchers to focus on those areas that deliver the maximum impact to the nation as a whole.
“I’m trying to find a shared agenda that works across research councils and Innovate UK in such a way that generates an evidence base that is as useful as possible for both domestic and international plastics policy,” he says. “But also, that is impactful and generates good value for the UK taxpayers who are supporting this research.”
Fletcher believes that a prioritisation process will not only enable the UK to respond to changes in the global policy environment but also to play an increasingly important leadership role on the world stage.
“In the UK we have some of the best researchers in the world and dynamic innovative businesses that are pushing at the forefront of what is currently possible in plastics,” he says. “With the right incentives, we could really make a difference to the plastic pollution crisis, both in the UK and globally.”
Those incentives at a policy level could deliver what Fletcher describes as “an enormous strategic opportunity” for UK businesses to draw upon research and innovation to develop more sustainable plastic solutions that the global market will need.
“There are big opportunities for UK businesses to lead in the innovation of the materials, products, and systems in which those materials and products exist,” Fletcher tells us. “Progressive small businesses and startups can lean into that space and come up with some really exciting and interesting solutions.”
Fletcher’s role as Agenda Setting Fellow will seek to accelerate that process by connecting university-led research to policymakers and businesses. That interface is critical in ensuring that all of the different stakeholders who will play a role in a more sustainable plastics future have a voice in shaping the interventions that can support progress.
A series of roundtables is planned later this year which will provide an opportunity for those diverse voices to feed into discussions about a plastic pollution research framework when it comes to supporting the transition to a different plastics future. Fletcher hopes that MPs with an interest in policy around plastics, science, and research can attend.
“There needs to be a political drive that recognises the UK has got a potential role to play,” he says. “These roundtables will provide an opportunity for policymakers, legislators, researchers, and businesses to come together to develop a shared vision of where research and innovation investment should be targeted.”
With the United Nations treaty due to be finalised at the end of the year, it is a timely opportunity for the UK to put a foundation in place that can position the nation as a thought leader. That can help generate the focused research essential to thrive in a very different plastics future.
For further information please contact: steve.fletcher@port.ac.uk
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