In May 2023, the University of Rhode Island (URI) hosted its inaugural Global Plastics Forum, bringing together more than 80 local, national, and international experts from organizations tackling the impact of plastics throughout the world. The event served as a sounding board for researchers and decision-makers to devise real-world applications for their research and policy around the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution.
“We can’t solve the plastic problem by ourselves, and we have seen the commitment at the University of Rhode Island to advancing our thinking on this topic, regionally and across the United States,” says Professor Bethany D. Jenkins, vice president of Research and Economic Development at URI. “I am excited that we can foster these conversations and ideas.”
The University already has a critical mass of faculty and students investigating the impacts of plastic pollution. Victoria Fulfer, a URI Ph.D. graduate, has found that Narragansett Bay sediments are a basin for tons of plastic waste, while Jaime Ross, assistant professor at URI’s George and Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience and Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is examining the potential hazards of plastics exposure to our brains.
Through a recent study on mice exposed to microplastic beads, Ross and her team found that the material broke through the blood brain barrier and entered into their brains, causing increased spontaneous motion.
“We can’t solve the plastic problem by ourselves, and we have seen the commitment at the University of Rhode Island to advancing our thinking on this topic, regionally and across the United States.”Bethany D. Jenkins
“Our lives are becoming inundated with micro- and nanoplastics,” Ross stated at the forum. “About 30 percent of dementia cases, for example, can be affected by adjusting modifiable factors. Environmental toxins like microplastics are one of those factors.”
Additionally, through the University’s Plastics: Land to Sea initiative, more than $200,000 has been awarded to six faculty members conducting research on plastic pollution and its real-world impacts, from examining how microplastics affect human liver tissues to addressing inequitable impacts of pollution on marginalized communities.
The inaugural Global Plastics Forum drew over 100 participants from across the globe.
The University continues to support these conversations through the Empowering Plastics Solutions seminar series. Rebecca Altman, a writer and sociologist focusing on the history of plastics, kicked off the series this past October. Topics also included: evolving recycling techniques, community-centric solutions, ecosystem insights, and the circular economy of plastics.
For more information, visit www.plastics.uri.edu.