Revolution Plastics

Dr Noorin Khamisani I think that's what's really sad is that the state of our planet right now is that it is drowning under the plastic waste. 

Dr Cressida Bowyer Whether it's macroplastics, microplastics or nanoplastics. We now find these plastics everywhere on the planet. 

Prof Steve Fletcher From the top of the tallest mountain to the bottom of the deepest ocean. 

Prof Alex Ford We're seeing it washing up on our shores all around us as we speak. 

Dr Cressida Bowyer We also find them in our bodies. 

Dr Noorin Khamisani It's out of control. 

Dr Cressida Bowyer The environmental and ecological challenges we're facing are that plastics are interfering with healthy functioning of ecosystems. 

Prof Alex Ford We have a chemical crisis, biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis. 

Esrat Karim It's been estimated that by 2025 there will be more plastics than the fish in the ocean. 

Prof Steve Fletcher Revolution Plastics is the University of Portsmouth's mission-driven research agenda to tackle the negative effects of plastic pollution across the entire plastics lifecycle. 

On-screen Text: We’re on a mission to tackle the plastics crisis for our local community and the wider world.

Dr Fay Cauceiro Collaboration within our group in the University of Portsmouth is absolutely essential to finding how to deal with the problem of plastics. 

Prof Alex Ford We need to be able to live sustainably. And to do that, you need to have those people that understand the different components of how society works. 

On-screen text: From developing sustainable fashion, to combatting microplastics, were putting our research into practice and addressing plastics pollution.

Prof Steve Fletcher Our job is researchers is to build that evidence base and to bring that evidence base to people whose decisions really make a difference in the plastics economy. 

Hugo Lynch Industry is not aware about what the chemical composition of their plastics is, what happens when it breaks down and what the effect of that is when it's made into something else. Researchers leading the direction in terms of gathering knowledge and and sharing recommendations is the only way we're going to move the dial. 

Noga Levy-Rapoport The research has an incredibly important role to offer. We know that political education, when packaged publicly in an accessible way, can totally transform the way that people envision a sustainable future. 

Dr Cressida Bowyer Portsmouth as a case study site is a very interesting place because it's an island city. 

Prof Alex Ford It is a misocosm of what's going on around the UK and what's going on around the globe. 

Prof Steve Fletcher We try and use Portsmouth as a kind of living lab to test out ideas and test out policy options to try and tackle plastic pollution locally, and hopefully we can then take those solutions and apply them to other places and scale them up. 

Dr Fay Cauceiro If you have hundreds, thousands of people collecting data, you can really build up a good picture of what's happening in our environment. 

Prof Steve Fletcher What we're trying to achieve here is to bring people on the journey with us. Whether you're in government, in the private sector, in a campaign group or a member of the public, we all have a role to play in tackling plastic pollution through our Revolution plastics initiative. 

Prof Alex Ford We are accumulating vast amounts of plastic waste. 

Nigel Salter We've produced more plastic in the last ten years than in the previous 100 years. We're currently producing 400 million tonnes of plastic waste per year. That's set to double by 2040. And of that plastic waste only 9% is being recycled. 

Dr Noorin Khamisani We need to be challenging the status quo and we need to transform the way that we work with plastics. 

Noga Levy-Rapoport Our plastic waste is an enormous symptom of our addiction to fossil fuels. This has resulted in a very difficult state for our planet, but crucially, it's resulted in a lot of people feeling like they can't see a way out, a way to live without plastic. 

Dr Cressida Bowyer The abnormal has become completely normal, and people can't actually remember a time when these plastic mountains weren't present. 

Nelmo Munyiri It's very important that everyone takes action right now and not tomorrow and not the day after. Not after a year, after ten years. We need that action right now. 

On-screen text: Revolution Plastics. Inspiring and creating new solutions to end plastic pollution.

Your Time. Your Place. University of Portsmouth.