Curious Minds "Sustainable materials and the circular economy"

Sustainability is key in driving the circular economy. Lightweight materials like plastics and composites are key players in reaching sustainability goals, but their usage follows a linear pathway and they mostly end up in landfill harming the planet. To bring circularity, recycling needs to be built-in to materials at the design stage. Do we know how to do that?

Dipa Roy is Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Chair in Sustainable Materials. Her main research interests are converting waste materials (plastics and glass fibre wastes) into value-added products, various recycling technologies and biocomposites.