Circularity and Plastics: Proceedings of a Workshop (2025)
Chapter: Workshop Overview
Workshop Overview
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Plastics convened a workshop to explore circularity and other approaches for sustainable life cycle management of plastic materials to mitigate plastic pollution. Roundtable co-chair LaShanda Korley shared that the roundtable, a multi-sectoral forum that was created to examine issues related to national efforts to reduce plastic pollution, has discussed circularity and connections across various sectors as a critical and key theme throughout the past year.
This workshop specifically addressed areas of both high plastic production and waste, namely packaging, textiles, and building material sectors. The discussions aimed to:
- Share common principles of circularity and define current challenges in plastics circularity across key sectors.
- Explore sectoral synergies and the interconnected roles of industry, policy, and innovation.
- Discuss a desired future state of plastics within a circular economy framework.
- Suggest possible actionable pathways to achieve this vision through collaboration, policy evolution, and technological advancements.
Throughout, participants considered solutions including rethinking, redesign, and reuse; the use of these synergies and strategies to minimize impacts on plastic waste; and the associated effects on human and environmental health.
