COP26: Turning 'peels to plastics' and 'what's the problem with polymers?'

The UK is hosting the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow from 31 October – 12 November 2021.

The COP26 summit brings parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The fifth day (5 November) is dedicated to youth and public empowerment with an event focusing on the health of the ocean and global support for the protection of at least 30% of all oceans by 2030 will also take place.

Aston University's Professor Paul Topham, Dr Matthew Derry and Dr Kinana Aliko discuss research being done at the University, which sees plastics made from renewable sources such as vegetable waste like potato peels, used tea leaves and tomato carcasses, turned into things such as plastic bottles and designing them to be either biodegradable or reprocessed back into useful materials.

They also discuss polymers - and why plastics aren't as 'evil' as they seem.

Professor Paul Topham