Conference programme

Programme 7 October

12.00
LUNCH

13.00
Welcome and Introduction to the Conference
Professor Rajni Hatti Kaul, Lund University

13.15
TBA
Anna Jöborn, Chief Executive Officer på Mistra, Stiftelsen för miljöstrategisk forskning

Plenary session: Towards Sustainable Plastics
Session Chair: Lars Fogh Mortensen, EEA and STEPS BOARD

13.30
Perspectives and insights from the OECD
Kumi Kitamori, Head of Division, Green Growth and Global Relations, Environment Directorate, OECD

13.50
Environmental and climate impacts from plastics and pathways towards circular plastics – a perspective at the start of a new European policy cycle
Daniel Montalvo, Head of Group Clean and Circular Economy, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark

14.10
TBA
Professor Bethanie Carney Almroth, Gothenburg University

14.50
COFFEE

Session Chair: Professor Lars J. Nilsson, Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University

15.30
Plastics in the materials transition – where do we go from here?
Per Klevnäs, Material Economics, Stockholm, Sweden

15.55
TBA
Ulf Johansson, IKEA – To be confirmed

16.15
In Search of Common Ground? Towards a Global Plastics Treaty
Johannes Stripple, Associate professor, Department of Political Science, Lund University, Karl Holmberg, PhD student, Lund University and Tara Olsen, research assistant, Lund University

16.40
TBA

Programme 8 October

Biobased building blocks, Polymers and Polymer Design

Biobased Building Blocks
Session Chair: Rajni-Hatti Kaul, Professor in Biotechnology at Lund University

09.00
TBA
Merja Penttilä, Senior Scientist VTT, & Research Professor, Aalto University

09.25
TBA
Nick Wierckx, Professor, Forschungscentrum Jülich

09.45
Biorefining of wood: Opportunities for monomers and polymer additives
Bernhard Michael Stadler, UPM Biochemicals GmbH, Leuna

10.05
A New Carbon Economy: Innovating to a Post Pollution Future
Johanna Häggström, Vice President, R&D Operations, LanzaTech, USA

10.30
COFFEE BREAK

Biobased Building Blocks
Session Chair: Sören Hvilsted, STEPS Board

11.00
Unleashing the Potential of Enzymes for Green Furan-Based Polymer Synthesis
Katja Loos, Professor at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen

11.25
Challenges of lifting supply chains for a biobased society - biopolymers from waste management services
Alan Werker, Wetsus, European centre of excellence for sustainable water technology

11.45
TBA
Rajni Hatti Kaul, Professor in Biotechnology, Lund University, Sweden

TBA
Baozhong Zhang, Senior Lecturer, Center for Analysis & Synthesis, Lund University

12.30
LUNCH

13.30
COFFEE AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS

Polymer Design
Session Chair: Katja Loos, Professor at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen

15.00
How can we balance properties with recyclability?
Karin Odelius, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, Stockholm, Sweden

15.20
Bio-based aromatic building blocks exploited for the preparation of functional materials
Anders Egede Daugaard, Associate Professor in Polymer Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, DTU, Denmark

15.40
STEPS Young Researchers

16.00
PANEL DISCUSSION
Moderator: Leif Nilsson

19.00
CONFERENCE DINNER

Plastics Governance

Beyond the Bag: Plastics and Cultures of Consumption in Grocery Stores
Moderator: Johannes Stripple, Associate professor, Department of Political Science, Lund University

09:00
This session focuses on the intricate relationship between plastic usage and consumer culture within the context of grocery stores. Through foregrounding the normalised use of plastics in packaging, display, and transportation of goods, the different presentations will highlight both how these practices are entrenched in consumer expectations and market dynamics, and how they have become contested.

The development of the self-service store 1945-60: Creating the space for (plastic) disposability
Karl Holmberg, PhD student, Department of Political Science, Lund University

The farm shop and the city: The store as an emotional space
Håkan Jönsson, Senior lecturer, Associate professor, Researcher, Division of Ethnology, LTH

Prefiguring a zero-waste world
Johannes Stripple, Associate professor, Department of Political Science, Lund University

10.20
COFFEE BREAK

10.50
Session two: Nordic Panel: an inside view on plastic governance from Nordic environmental agencies
Moderators: Professor Teis Hansen and postdoctoral researcher Stine Hach Juul Madsen, University of Copenhagen

This session will focus on the role of the Nordic countries in the European and global plastic transition; focusing on priorities, challenges and expectations in relation to the governance of plastics.

Panel participants

• Åsa Stenmarck, The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

• Rasmus Eisted, The Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

• Representative from the Norwegian Environment Agency

12.30
LUNCH

13.30
COFFEE AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS

15.00
Exploring upstream challenges and opportunities for more sustainable plastic
Session Chairs: Lars J Nilsson, Professor, Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University

Fredric Bauer, Associate Senior Lecturer, Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University

19.00
CONFERENCE DINNER