SOLVE magazine Issue 02 2021 | Page 26

SUSTAINABILITY
RISK AND SECURITY workshop on marine plastic litter , he and colleague Dr Keiron Roberts have been tasked to assess policy options to reach net zero plastics entering the ocean by 2050 under the G20 Osaka Blue Ocean Vision , endorsed by over 80 countries . Their report and recommendations are to be published by the UN Environment Programme ( UNEP ) in 2021 .
Through previous work for the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge , in which Professor Fletcher led a team providing expert evidence to support global agreements to conserve natural ecosystems and combat pollution , he saw firsthand how high-quality science can transform policymaking : “ That ’ s what motivates me to drive Revolution Plastics ,” he says .
Professor Fletcher notes there is a rising level of environmental awareness in Portsmouth among groups advocating sustainability , conservation and plastic waste reduction . The University will support this community action by drawing on its leading research and collaborations with global organisations , including the UN , to provide advice and resources to local groups .
LOCAL-GLOBAL-LOCAL Alliances that establish two-way support between local and global initiatives are already creating momentum and influence . University of Portsmouth researchers have been awarded £ 180,000 from the UK Government ’ s Global Challenges Research Fund for a two-year project to help reduce plastic pollution in developing countries . A team , led by Professor Fletcher and Dr Cressida Bowyer , will work with local communities , businesses and authorities in Nairobi ( Kenya ) and Sylhet ( Bangladesh ) to map waste management systems and identify ways to reduce the amount of plastic waste leaking into the environment .
The University of Portsmouth is also part of a £ 6 million programme to curb plastic pollution in marine ecosystems in South-East Asia . The three-year project , which started in January , brings together researchers , policy groups and community leaders in the UK , Singapore , Indonesia , Philippines and Vietnam .
Closer to home , Netherlands-based The Flotilla Foundation has joined the Revolution Plastics initiative , funding two projects – the establishment of a global Plastics Policy Hub and a citizen science initiative to tackle urban plastic pollution in Portsmouth .
The Policy Hub will seek to create a global network of governments , organisations , business leaders , researchers , campaigners and the public to drive more accountable ocean plastics policies . The citizen science project is built on a partnership between the University and Portsmouth-based environmental technology company Jetsam Tech . The company has developed an app that allows people to submit photographs of plastic waste they come across . The photos then form a heatmap , revealing when and where plastic waste is building up . University researchers will use the data to better understand plastic pollution in Portsmouth . This will create the evidence base for solutions to reduce plastic entering the environment .
PET EATER ACCELERATES A key element of Revolution Plastics is the University ’ s acclaimed engineering of an enzyme that can digest some of the most common polluting plastics , such as plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate ( PET ), which persists for hundreds of years in the environment . This research has continued to progress , with the team , led by Professor John McGeehan from the University of Portsmouth and Dr Gregg Beckham at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US , having now created an enzyme ‘ cocktail ’ that can digest plastic up to six times faster than before .
A second enzyme , found in the same garbage-dwelling bacterium that feeds on plastic bottles , has been combined with the initial PETase to speed up the breakdown of plastic . PETase breaks PET back down into its molecular building blocks , creating an opportunity to recycle plastic infinitely .
For the University of Portsmouth and its research teams behind Revolution Plastics , this typifies the science that will steer the Earth away from its unsustainable path . It is inspiring and it is effective , and as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown , when scientists lead , people and governments can be responsive and collegiate for the sake of everyone .
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DATA DETECTIVE PUTS INFORMATION TO WORK

When you talk about security and risk , nothing comes closer to personal welfare than food safety .

P rofessor Mark Xu knows one secret of modern business success : effective management of the information deluge that floods in via today ’ s smart technologies and digital devices .

On one level it is all about economic efficiency – enabling businesses to use data more effectively to make better decisions . But in the digital world , ‘ big data ’ is the new reality that influences everything , including what we put on our dinner plates .
Xu is the Professor in Information Management and Head of Operations and Systems Management at the University of Portsmouth , and the common theme of his diverse research portfolio is data management , especially when it holds crucial information about the traceability and safety of food .
Millions of tonnes of food enter the UK from all corners of the globe , leaving a vast data trail added to at every step of the production and supply chain .
For Professor Xu , there is an urgent need for a system that utilises this data to enable food traceability to combat
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ISSUE 02 / 2021