Symposium: Unpacking Plastic
| When: | Tu 20-05-2025 14:30 - 17:00 |
| Where: | House of Connections, Grote Markt 21 |
Plastic is everywhere—woven into our daily lives, embedded in our environment, and even present in our bodies. But what does this truly mean?
Unpacking Plastic is an event that delves into the complex role of plastic in our modern world, exploring its presence across multiple scales, from global pollution concerns to its impact on personal health and daily behaviors. Through an engaging keynote, hands-on workshops, and interactive activities, this event brings together knowledge and action, helping us rethink our relationship with plastic and discover practical steps toward change.
This event is part of the ZonMW project Microplastics & Citizens, and is organized by the Environmental Humanity Network, the Interdisciplinary Group on Microplastics and the Rudolf Agricola School fo Sustainable Development.
Date: 20th May 14:30 to 17:00
Location: House of Connection, Grote Markt 21
Programme
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14:30 - 15:20
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Lecture
Concrete and Plastic: Thinking through Materiality By Prof. Kylie Crane from the University of Rostock This talk considers the multiple scales of plastic as emerging from and contributing to modernity, for the ways plastic has become synonymous with pollution (or not), as well as its entanglements in the everyday. Bringing concrete to the conversation about plastic aids in comprehending materials as materials, that is, for the ways disparate places, people, ideas and things are connected. |
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15:30 - 16:15
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Parallel workshops
Explore how microplastics enter our respiratory system and what this means for human health
Investigate the surprising presence of plastic pollution in remote ecosystems and its broader environmental impact
Discover which innovations researchers are developing to create more sustainable polymeric materials
Find out how the general public view (micro)plastics and learn practical strategies for tackling this new type of pollution through everyday actions |
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16:15 - 17:00
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Closing session
Drinks and walk-in activities Enjoy our networking drinks and test your knowledge with a pubquiz (by the GreenOffice), play a boardgame on synthetic clothes & fast fashion (by UG staff), test a new video games on microplastics (by Hanze students) or discover how children are learning about plastic in primary schools (by ScholierAcamie). |