Dr. Jenna Jambeck, en prisvindende miljøingeniør og nu Morgan Stanleys seniorforsker i plastaffaldsresolution, taler i en ny artikel om sit arbejde med plastikaffaldskrisen og vejen til mulige løsninger.
Når alt kommer til alt er det et enormt problem: plastik tegner sig for 85 % af alt havaffald – og i 2040 vil verden tilføre op til 37 millioner tons plastikaffald i havet om året med en potentiel 100 milliarder dollars i årlige økonomiske risici.
Morgan Stanley besluttede at hjælpe med at forhindre, reducere og fjerne 50 millioner tons plastikaffald inden 2030. Siden starten af plastaffaldsresolutionen for næsten tre år siden har virksomheden nået mere end 5 millioner tons af dette mål ved at mobilisere kommercielle løsninger, indgå i vigtige partnerskaber og reducere plastik i egen drift.
For at sikre, at deres forpligtelse til at reducere plastaffald er centreret om videnskabelige fakta, har de udnævnt Dr. Jenna Jambeck, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering ved University of Georgia, til deres første Plastic Waste Resolution Seniorforsker.
Jambeck er en prisvindende videnskabsperson M/K med mere end 20 års erfaring med at fokusere på problemer med fast affald og havaffald.
Her er et udsnit, af den samtale, som hun har haft med Morgan Stanleys Chief Sustainability Officer, Audrey Choi, om, hvordan virksomheder, borgere og systemtænkning kan hjælpe med at dæmme op for plastikaffaldskrisen.
Læs mere her:
Choi: What is the role of corporations in dealing with this crisis and advancing innovation? IKEA, for example, is replacing Styrofoam with packaging made of mushrooms that can be reused or biodegraded. Are such bio-alternatives scalable?
Jambeck: Solutions like IKEA’s are exciting, but we can’t think of them in a vacuum. We need a bigger-picture, systems approach to change, based on green chemistry and green engineering principles, two concepts that my research uses. Alternative materials are part of the solution but so is preventing waste in the first place.
Choi: This brings us to Morgan Stanley’s role, which we see as mobilizing finance for systemic solutions. All the entities in the plastics value chain—chemical and consumer goods companies, governments, individuals—are our clients. Since launching our Plastic Waste Resolution in 2019, we’ve acted as joint underwriter for the IPO of threadUP, which reduces plastic waste from fast fashion; we’ve worked with Pepsi to reduce virgin plastic in their supply chain; and we launched a popular product for individual investors focused on plastic reduction. We are also thrilled to partner with you. How has our collaboration made a difference to your work?
Jambeck: Morgan Stanley’s support of Debris Tracker, a free mobile app for citizen scientists to log litter, has helped us expand the initiative tremendously in recent years. Over 5 million items have been recorded globally, helping us track plastic waste flows and impacts. Part of my role with Morgan Stanley is also to experiment, and one way we’ve done that is to put GPS trackers on a plastic bottle in the Mississippi River. It hitchhiked from St. Louis to Baton Rouge attached to a barge, providing unexpected evidence of how U.S. barge traffic is moving plastic debris around.
https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/plastic-pollution-solutions-jenna-jambeck
