49. Worshipful Company of Horners, Ralph Anderson Memorial Lecture, 23rd February 2023


Court Assistant Allan Barton and Thames Warden Martin Bigg represented the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators at the 25th Horners’ Ralph Anderson Memorial Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine.  Professor Edward Kosior gave a talk on "Advances in technology to fast-forward the circular economy” which focused on the reuse, recycling and recovery of plastics.

In his talk Professor Edward Kosior explored how waste management sits at the heart of climate change, with global waste generating more than 1.3 billion tons of CO2e annually and described the cutting-edge technologies that are coming on stream to help the world turn plastic waste into a valuable resource.

He mentioned how the challenge of post-consumer food-contact single use plastics and flexible films is met by highly efficient sorting systems and unique decontamination processes.

His talk generated may questions on the move from the use of simple plastics in packaging, which can be easily recycled to managing complex layers of plastic, paper and metal foil.  We all should take more responsibility for the plastics we produce and use.

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