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Hosted by the College of Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering

Abstract

Plastic debris and its impacts in the environment have been widely documented, but the quantity entering the ocean from land was previously unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density and economic status, Jambeck made the first estimate of plastics entering our ocean globally. Cumulative global plastic production reached eight billion metric tons in 2017. Of that plastic production, 6.4 billion metric tons has become waste, overwhelming waste management systems around the world unable to match infrastructure with economic growth. In addition, the global trade of plastic waste intended for recycling has influenced what countries can do with plastic as a recycled material with economic impacts worldwide. Shifting to where the burden of plastics is carried, the community level, Jambeck and her team created the Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP). CAP is a rigorous, cost-effective toolkit for assessing materials management systems at the community level, which has been used in 51 cities in 14 countries. Jambeck will not only discuss the methods and results of her research but also impacts and related policies around the world. She will present an intervention framework to reduce plastic ending up in our environment while sharing stories of integrating technology and citizen science, science communication and community-level efforts to address plastic pollution around the globe.

Biography

Jenna Jambeck is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia, a 2022 MacArthur Fellow, Founder of the Circularity Informatics Lab in the New Materials Institute and a 2018-2021 National Geographic Explorer. She has been conducting research on solid waste issues and marine debris/plastic pollution for two decades. Her work has been recognized by the global community and translated into policy discussions by the High-Level Panel for the Ocean, in testimony to Congress, in G7 and G20 Declarations and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She has conducted public environmental diplomacy as an international informational speaker for the U.S. Department of State since 2017. This has included multiple global programs of speaking events, meetings, presentations to governmental bodies and media outreach around the world including Chile, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Vietnam, Jordan, Israel, South Korea, India, Taiwan and China. She has won awards for her teaching and research in the College of Engineering and the UGA Creative Research Medal, as well as a Public Service and Outreach Fellowship, and in 2024 she won SEC Professor of the Year. In 2014 she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with 13 other women in eXXpedition to sample land and open ocean plastic and encourage women to enter STEM disciplines. In 2019 she co-led the first ever women-led expedition team for National Geographic conducting comprehensive research on plastic pollution in the Ganga River Basin. She and her research team lead the science component of the Mississippi River Plastic Pollution Initiative along with the mayors along the Mississippi and UNEP North America. She is co-developer of the mobile app Marine Debris Tracker, a tool that continues to facilitate a growing global citizen science initiative. The app and citizen science program has documented the location of over eight million litter and marine debris items throughout the world. She is the host of a podcast called Aquathread on WUGA NPR station and co-author of a book from Plastics (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series).