Many people think they are being environmentally conscious by choosing a glass instead of a plastic bottle, or a paper instead of a plastic bag. In her TED Talk ‘Plastic Rehab’, Kim Ragaert points out that opting for the plastic variant can be the better choice. The process of producing and recycling plastic often has a smaller ecological footprint than that of materials such as glass and paper. “Plastic is not all bad,” she says. “But we have to be conscious of how we use it.”

Hot topic

Even as a child, Ragaert was curious about materials, how they are put together and how we can reuse them. Of particular interest was that highly versatile material: plastic. So it is perhaps of little wonder that she was recently appointed professor of Circular Plastics at Maastricht University. She describes her new employer as a young, dynamic institution that offers abundant opportunities.

Within her research field, too, opportunities abound. “When I started this research around 10 years ago, neither industry nor academia had much interest in topics like recycling and sustainable plastic. New European legislation and increased social pressure have since triggered a sea change. Recycling has become a hot topic, but the research is still in its infancy.”

Victim of its own success

Why does plastic have such a bad image, especially when research shows that it’s not all bad? “A lot of disposable stuff is made out of plastic, so we’ve come to see it as ‘junk’. Plastic pollution is also highly visible. Not to mention the negative stories doing the rounds in the media, microplastics affecting our health and the like, though as yet there’s little scientific evidence to back that up.”