Bad, but how bad? Assessing the impacts of plastic pollution on human and ecosystem health

Plastics have rapidly come to shape life on earth, with their versatility and durability revolutionizing healthcare, food storage, technology, and beyond. At the same time, the explosion in plastic production and consumption has led to billions of tons of waste. During the last few decades, researchers have confirmed that plastic waste degrades slowly, is widespread but accumulates heterogeneously across the land and oceans, and exists in almost all organisms on earth. As public consciousness grasps the scale of this problem, research is turning to the unanswered questions to inform concrete policies and effective actions: What is the fate of the smallest plastics and the unknown additives we have been historically unable to detect? How exactly and to which degree does the widespread plastic waste affect the health and functionality of our ecosystems? What are the direct and indirect consequences of plastic pollution on human health? This forum highlights the gaps in our understanding of how plastics affect human and ecosystem health and explore what needs to be done to close them – a prerequisite for devising meaningful solutions.

Keynote speaker Nanna Hartmann (Technical University of Denmark) is joined by an interdisciplinary panel featuring Philip J. Landrigan (Boston College and Centre Scientifique de Monaco) and Imari Walker-Franklin (RTI International).

Forums on Sustainability bring together speakers from across disciplines and around the world to drive conversations on key sustainability challenges forward. Be sure to suggest a question for our distinguished panel to discuss during the session when you register.