Portsmouth Football Club Magazine July 2020 | Page 5

Tackling plastic
together
POST LOCKDOWN, THE UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
AND LOCAL SCHOOLCHILDREN WILL BE TEAMING
UP WITH THE FOOTBALL CLUB TO HELP CLEAN THE
BEACHES OF PORTSMOUTH.
Throughout the football season, the
University works closely with the Football
Club to deliver motivational talks at junior and
secondary schools within a 20 mile radius, in
the Portsmouth and Isle of Wight area.
Like football, school visits have been
suspended during these unprecented times
but from September, renewed plans for
primary and secondary schoolchildren to
gather safely at Eastney beach to collect litter
with some of the Football Club’s players will
take place. They will also be joined by The
Final Straw, a non-profit community interest
company working with local communities and
businesses to highlight the impact of plastic
pollution on our environment.
The children will be tasked with separating out
items for recycling and they will also attend
workshops to learn more about the impact of
plastics on our oceans and wildlife.
Researchers at the University of Portsmouth
are busy tackling plastic pollution with
science at the University’s Centre for Enzyme
Innovation (CEI). The Centre is working with
industry partners to advance the circular
recycling of plastics.
Professor John McGeehan, Director of the CEI,
said: ‘It’s crucial that young people are
educated about the impact of plastic on the
environment so they can help address one of
the most pressing problems facing the world.
This beach clean initiative ties in perfectly with
the University’s Revolution Plastics project,
which will speed up our progress towards
finding a solution to the huge environmental
challenge of plastic waste.’
The Centre was recently awarded £5.8
million from the Research England Expanding
Excellence Fund, which will be used to find
enzymes capable of breaking down different
types of plastic and then engineering these to
be fast enough to be deployed at industrial
recycling facilities.
Meanwhile, the Club is working to reduce
its’ plastic usage, Christian Burgess explains:
‘We’ve recently gone plastic free at the
Training Ground, which is a big project to
reduce our waste. The next step is making
Fratton Park plastic-free on a matchday and
we need to make it easier for fans to help
them make small swaps to reduce their usage
of single-use plastic and recycle that will go
a long way to improve the environment for
future generations.’
‘WE’VE RECENTLY GONE PLASTIC
FREE AT THE TRAINING GROUND’
‘IT’S CRUCIAL THAT
YOUNG PEOPLE
ARE EDUCATED
ABOUT THE IMPACT
OF PLASTIC ON THE
ENVIRONMENT’
Motivational school visits
with the University and the
Club have reached 1,500
pupils in one season.
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