Plastics governance

About the event

Currently, one of the most damaging activities to the environment's health is the release of plastic into terrestrial and marine environments. The need for timely action to minimise environmental impacts from plastic cannot be over-emphasized. Projections for 2050 suggest that there could be more plastic in the world’s waters than fish, although microplastic concentrations likely exceed this indicative ratio, already.

This interdisciplinary event aims to evaluate the emerging trends for plastic governance and evaluate what is currently being done to prevent plastic pollution.

This event is brought to you by the Environmental Law and Sustainability Research Group (ELSRG).

About the speakers

Dr Ben Williams

Ben Williams has 17 years of experience in environmental sampling, measurement, analysis and apportionment of air pollution and other airborne components. His PhD focused on the development of a method for the source apportionment and mapping of fugitive PM from industrial facilities using geochemical fingerprinting and environmental forensic approaches. 
He worked as an environmental consultant for 5 years, developing and undertaking novel source apportionment investigations for industry and regulatory authorities, and between 2018 and 2020, was seconded into the Environment Agency (England) to aid in the development of the UK's next-generation air quality monitoring networks. He is currently PrincipaI Investigator  of the UKRI-funded Homes Under the Microscope study, an airborne microplastics co-creation and citizen science project.

Dr Sam Varvastain

Sam Varvastain is a lecturer at Cardiff University and a comparative legal scholar. His works focus on global environmental problems, public health, human rights and justice. He has more than 20 scholarly works that explore law and policy issues in air pollution, plastic pollution, climate change, soil contamination, emerging medical technologies, food supplements and tobacco products. His work covers international law, European Union law and comparative national law. He is particularly interested in the role of courts in the development of law and the relationships between law and life sciences.

Dr Austin Nwafor

Austin Nwafor is a Lecturer and active member of the Environmental Law and Sustainability Research Group (ELSRG) at Bristol Law School (UWE Bristol). He is a former Associate Professor at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He has teaching and research interests in plastic pollution governance and international commercial law. He is currently working on airborne plastics regulation in the UK. He has been awarded several prestigious fellowships including the International Ocean Institute Fellowship (IOI Canada) (2018) and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Blue Charter Fellowship (2020) and (2021). 

Schedule of events

14:00: Welcome and registration.

14:10-14:30: Airborne microplastic measurement: putting people at the heart of the measurement (Dr Ben Williams, Senior Research Fellow: Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE Bristol).

14:35-14:55:  Legal framework for airborne plastics governance in the UK (Dr Austin Nwafor, Environmental Law and Sustainability Research Group, School of Law, UWE Bristol).

15:00-15:20: The role of courts in plastic pollution governance (Dr Sam Varvastian, Lecturer in Law, Cardiff University).

15:30-16:00: Further questions and networking opportunity over refreshments.