Pervasive Plastics (also advertised as Plastics, Everywhere?) explores the impact of plastics on modern life, highlighting their benefits, challenges, and future role in society through insights from GVSU organic chemistry professor Matt Hart and a few of his students. Discover exciting developments in plastic recycling, such as GVSU’s upcoming program to recycle PLA cups into a cleaning product. Throughout this class, we’ll explore: What types of plastics are the hardest to recycle and why? What exactly are microplastics? Are some types of plastic more prone to becoming microplastics? Are there any good solutions on the horizon like plastics-eating microbes or new biodegradable plastics? Walk away with an understanding of how to avoid unnecessary plastics, make sustainable purchasing decisions, and engage with recent innovations in plastic recycling.

About the Speaker:

Matt Hart is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at GVSU. In addition to his research on organic synthesis to make novel molecules, his collaboration with the GVSU Chemistry Club investigates a program to recycle PLA cups in a “green” cleaning product for the university community, thereby reducing the university’s overall budget. The program will increase the lifecycle of lactic acid in the PLA cups already being used on campus and provide a useful cleaning product for students and staff to use.