The University of Portsmouth is using theatre, photography, film and music to highlight the links between plastics and climate, and bring the expertise of informal waste workers to delegates attending COP31
Professor Cressida Bowyer, Co-Director of the University’s Revolution Plastics Institute will work alongside waste pickers from the International Alliance of Waste Pickers to highlight their role in tackling plastic pollution and explore how their expertise can help tackle climate change.
The event, Inclusive Plastics Action: Climate, Nature and People, is being co-hosted by the University of Portsmouth’s Revolution Plastics Institute, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the World Economic Forum. It takes place in the Blue Zone in the UK Pavilion on Monday 16th November and can be viewed online.
The session will use theatre, photography, film and music to reveal the human stories behind plastic pollution and help delegates understand how it contributes to climate change.
Professor Bowyer will work with waste pickers from a number of countries to develop forum theatre scenes exclusively for the event. The scenes will explore the important role of the informal waste sector in mitigating climate impacts, and how this can be accelerated through creating a fair, just and inclusive circular economy.
Plastic pollution is threatening the health of planet and people, contributing directly to climate change and exacerbating climate impacts.
Waste pickers are among the people doing the most important work in tackling plastic pollution and the related climate impacts, yet their knowledge and experience are too often missing from the decisions that shape the future of waste management. We want to give delegates the opportunity to hear and engage with their stories. Using creative approaches such as theatre, photography, film and music helps bring their experiences to life and challenges us to think differently about whose voices should shape a more inclusive circular economy.
More than 20 million people work as waste pickers worldwide. They are responsible for recovering around 60 per cent of post-consumer plastic waste globally, making a major contribution to keeping plastic out of the environment.
Professor Bowyer said: "Waste pickers are among the people doing the most important work in tackling plastic pollution and the related climate impacts, yet their knowledge and experience are too often missing from the decisions that shape the future of waste management. We want to give delegates the opportunity to hear and engage with their stories. Using creative approaches such as theatre, photography, film and music helps bring their experiences to life and challenges us to think differently about whose voices should shape a more inclusive circular economy."
The event will bring together representatives from government, business, academia and civil society to explore how partnerships across different sectors can support a circular economy for plastics while delivering benefits for climate and nature.
Keynote speakers are Stephen Morgan MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at Defra, and His Excellency Ambassador Julio Cordano, Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution.
Professor Bowyer has previously worked with waste pickers at international policy gatherings, including the UNEP Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, the seventh United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) and the Academic Council on the United Nations System's annual meeting. Through these collaborations, she has used creative methods to highlight the precarious conditions in which waste pickers work, amplify their expertise and encourage policymakers and other delegates to consider how to integrate just and fair approaches to waste management in order to improve their livelihoods.
The event reinforces the importance of recognising the people at the heart of the plastics economy. Tackling plastic pollution requires action that not only protects the climate and nature but also recognises and supports the workers whose contribution is essential to making a circular economy possible.
Please click here to view the livestream for this event.
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