News

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the release of our paper in Science: Pathways to reduce global plastic waste mismanagement and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This paper distills over a year's work from our team with the ultimate goal to inform and inspire decision-makers on the global stage during the UN Plastics Treaty process.

Sam Pottinger spent years turning the latest advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning into models and dashboards that supported decision-making at Silicon Valley technology companies. At UC Berkeley, he's building those kinds of tools to turn quality environmental science into accessible, actionable information.

The research is clear, plastic pollution has become a global crisis, with 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste produced by 2015 (Geyer et al. 2017).  Often research alone is hard to put into a usable form for action, but we identified a clear path to make a difference. The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment at Berkeley (Schmidt DSE) teamed up with University of Santa Barbara researchers to build a bridge from a research model to an interactive data visualization tool that can be used by policymakers to form laws on global plastic.

Inviting those engaging in any capacity with the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution to join a webinar sharing first key insights from a research program evaluating the impact that specific policies contained in the INC zero draft could have on curbing plastic pollution.