Student Showcase: Confronting the Plastics Crisis

Curious about how Duke University undergraduate and graduate students are contributing to applied research and outreach on the plastics crisis? Join us for snacks and a compelling program featuring insights from students in engineering, biology, law, economics, environmental management, and fine arts.

This event will be moderated by (soon-to-be-Dr.) Zoie Diana (she/her), a doctoral candidate in the Nicholas School of the Environment’s marine science and conservation division and integrated toxicology and environmental health program. Diana is the founder of the Plastic Pollution Working Group, an interdisciplinary group of more than forty scholars across Duke who are working on this issue.

Presentations will include:

• Is Plastic Clean-Up Technology Working? Gaps in Measures of Clean-Up Effectiveness and Ecological Impact (Madison Griffin T '23, she/her)
• Strengthening the Evidence Base for Local Interventions to Reduce Plastic Pollution: The Plastic Pollution Intervention Evaluation Tool (Coral Lin T '25, she/her; Deven Stewart T '24, he/him; Anne-Elisabeth Baker MEM '24, she/her)
• Reducing Single-Use Plastics in North Carolina (Christian Laspada MEM '23, they/he)
• The Dumpster Dive Short Documentary: Using Humor to Talk about Microplastics (Laura Asherman MFA ‘23, she/her)
• Duke Advanced Recycling Center: Recycling Plastic On Duke’s Campus (Rushil Yerrabelli E ‘25, he/him; Arnav Singh E'25, he/him)

Presentation descriptions and speaker bios are below.

This event is organized by the and the at Duke University.

***** TIP: You might also be interested in registering for From Enzymes to Art, From Fashion to Policy: Generating Transdisciplinary Solutions to the Plastics Crisis on Thurs., March 23, 12-1:30 p.m. ET.

ABOUT: This project, based at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, builds on a Duke-authored paper analyzing emerging technologies that prevent and/or collect plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems. The project, which will be published in an academic journal, includes a literature review to add more technologies to the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Collection Technology Inventory (now up to 109 technologies) and analyze the effectiveness of these technologies. Spoiler alert: only about half of the technologies in the inventory have effectiveness data and for those that do, the reporting methods used are inconsistent and vary across technology types.

PRESENTER: Madison Griffin T '23 (she/her) is a Durham native and biology major with minors in environmental science and policy and education. Madison has spent the past two years working with the Plastic Pollution Working Group (including Nicholas Institute experts) studying plastics policy and clean-up technologies. Madison has also been working to increase diversity in STEM fields for two years by developing curriculum for the Health and Environment Scholars Program (HESP), which is co-led by Nicholas Institute staff. Outside of class and research, Madison is a member of Lady Blue, one of Duke’s all-female identifying a cappella groups.

ABOUT: As plastic pollution continues to grow, governments, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and other stakeholders are carrying out interventions to reduce plastic pollution—but evidence regarding the impact of these efforts is often lacking. This project, led by Nicholas Institute and Plastic Pollution Working Group members, focuses on developing a tool that can help practitioners better evaluate the socioeconomic and ecological outcomes of interventions at the local level (i.e., cities and counties), and make adjustments accordingly. Upon completion in summer 2023, the Plastic Pollution Intervention Evaluation Tool will be tested locally in Durham, North Carolina.

PRESENTERS:

Coral Lin T '25 (she/her) is a public policy and economics major and environsmental policy minor originally from Newton, MA. She has been working on this project since May and is passionate about local solutions to plastics pollution, environmental justice, and climate change. Outside of class and research, she also is a member of Our Urban Future (Duke’s urban studies club), the Duke Undergraduate Environmental Union, and Momentum Dance Company.

Deven Stewart T '24 (he/him) is a public policy major focused on the intersection between policy and environmental sciences. Deven has worked with the “Empowering Youth Civic Action on Plastic Pollution” project team—part of Duke's Bass Connections program— assisting in the creation of a plastic pollution intervention rapid-assessment tool.

Anne-Elisabeth Baker MEM '24 (she/her), originally from Houston, Texas, is pursuing a master’s degree in environmental management. Her background is in industrial design, and at Duke she is interested in exploring the intersections between plastics policy, circularity, and environmental justice.

ABOUT: The Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic has been working with our client since 2019 to urge the North Carolina Governor to enforce policy to reduce the use and sale of single-use plastics in North Carolina. This presentation summarizes the clinic’s research done on North Carolina’s plastic pollution, governance, and policy measures.

PRESENTER: Christian Laspada MEM '23 (they/he) is a student consultant for the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, an interdisciplinary clinic at Duke Law School. Christian is pursuing a master’s degree in environmental management, with a focus on ocean policy for plastic pollution reduction and sustainable fisheries management.

ABOUT: The Dumpster Dive is a short documentary in which a pair of animated cockroaches investigate the downfall of humankind via microplastics. Incorporating interviews with real scientists, stop-motion animation, and the antics of live cockroaches, director Laura Asherman uses absurdity to reach audiences in unexpected ways.

PRESENTER: Laura Asherman MFA ‘23 (she/her) is a documentary filmmaker and sculptor who is pursuing a master of fine arts degree in experimental and documentary arts. Her work has been featured on PBS, VICE, and HBO. Laura’s thesis film was funded by a “Facing the Anthropocene” grant from Duke’s Kenan Institute of Ethics, and explores the boundaries of documentary and fiction, employing stop-motion animation and elements of absurdity to address microplastics in the human body.

ABOUT: Our team plans to create a plastic recycling center at Duke University, where plastic waste will be turned into plastic products that have value to the local community. The center will aim to mitigate Duke’s contribution to plastic pollution and serve as an educational resource for the Duke and Durham community on small-scale plastic recycling. The center will include a workspace with machines that shred, melt, extrude, and mold plastic. We envision this workspace to be self-sustaining, with the sale of recycled plastic products creating a circular stream of revenue to support operations. Moreover, we see this workspace as a driver for educational and research opportunities to study ways to further decrease plastic pollution and increase sustainability on campus. Similar endeavors have proven successful at universities such as University of Monash and Ohio State; that said, we see potential for the center to position Duke as an influential innovator among its peer institutions.

PRESENTERS:

Rushil Yerrabelli E ‘25 (he/him) is a biomedical engineering major from West Hartford, Connecticut. Rushil enjoys building and creating, and has a strong motivation to find solutions that can help the environment. He is also involved in computational biology research focused on the immune system. Rushil is also a bassist in the Duke Jazz Ensemble.

Arnav Singh E'25 (he/him) is a Durham native and biomedical engineering major. He loves to create devices that can have a direct and immediate impact on his community. Arnav is involved in campus organizations such as QuadEx, where he serves as president of Wannamaker Quad, and Vertices academic journal, where he is senior editor.

Host or Publisher Nicholas Inst. for Energy, Env't & Sustainability