Teaching the sustainability aspects of polymers

In the frame of the EUCLIDES Network, consisting of 4 European Universities: the  University of Girona, the University of Antwerp, KU Leuven, and Hochschule Merseburg, an annual training programme called International Weeks is organized on different topics. This year the title of the programme is Circularity of Polymers, the host is the University of Girona, and they offered unique training opportunities for 21 graduate and post-graduate students from the Network.

The training provided an inside into the complexity of plastics usage from different aspects, while at the same time enabling them to find new approaches and come to solutions for plastics pollution so urgently needed in Europe.

UNESCO Chair, represented by Prof. Pere Fullana and doctoral candidate Ilija Sazdovski, presented the sustainability aspects and environmental impacts of plastics usage and recycling in different systems. Prof. Fullana presented the tools for assessing the sustainability of plastics with a focus on Life Cycle and Social Assessment. Ilija Sazdovski focused the lecture on the difference between bio-based and fossil-based polymers and changes in their qualitative properties in multiple recycling cycles.

The programme is co-funded by the European Union through their Erasmus+ programme.