Tonight in Birmingham (Wednesday 27th February), UK, environmental campaigners A Plastic Planet will go head-to-head with leading figures from the plastics industry during a major debate.
The Big Plastics Debate will home in on the future of packaging in the UK and beyond as part of the Packaging Innovations Fair 2019. Two teams of experts will thrash out discussion on plastic packaging and the need to go plastic-free. The main topic will focus on: ‘This house believes plastic packaging will always be fundamental to our everyday lives.’
A Plastic Planet co-founder Sian Sutherland and Iceland Foods Packaging Manager Ian Schofield will be challenging the motion, while British Plastics Federation Plastic Packaging Group Director Barry Turner and Heriot-Watt University Professor of Materials Chemistry David Bucknall will be in favour of it.
Founded in 2017, A Plastic Planet has built a formidable coalition of global support for a plastic-free future. A Plastic Planet is a grassroots movement launched in January 2017 with a single goal – to turn off the plastic tap.
Speaking with Ecologist, founder Sian Sutherland said: “The Big Plastics Debate is vitally important. Our audience comprises the people who have the power to design our packaging without indestructible toxic plastic. There are already so many alternative materials and we need to accelerate the switch to them. Of course, everything comes down to one thing – money.
“Plastic pollution is the most pressing environmental challenge of our time and very rarely do people get the opportunity to see those on both sides for and against plastic come together in one place to discuss their opposing views.