Knowledge Exchange Event: Packaging Responsibility in the UK & Malaysia: Policy, People & Waste Management Practice
The issue of responsibility for plastic packaging is both urgent and complex, requiring a careful balance between functional value of plastics and the pressing environmental and social imperative to reduce waste. This knowledge exchange event brings together experts from academic and industry to explore how responsibility is defined and distributed. Spanning policy frameworks, everyday consumption and waste management practices, the event will examine how different national contexts shape the ways responsibility is understood, enacted, and shared.

Hosted by the International Platform for Communication of Food Plastic Packaging (ICP) team, the event builds on collaborative UK and Malaysian research into household use and waste practices related to food plastic packaging. As Malaysia prepares to implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the UK continues to evolve its packaging regulation, the event provides a timely forum to share insights and explore new directions. Participants will engage with key findings from the UK Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL) Project: Rethinking the Consumer Attitude Behaviour Gap and the PPiPL Malaysia Pilot

The programme includes a keynote from Dr Alexandra Harrington, Chair of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) Task Force on Plastic Pollution, and academic at Lancaster University; Richard Hudson, Technical Manager at the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) and expert in sustainable resource management – alongside contributions from other leading academics and industry experts. This event offers opportunities to connect with others working at the intersection of plastic packaging, sustainability, and systems change.

This event is part of the UKRI-funded project Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL), led by Lancaster University Management School. Over three and a half years, 12 academics and 11 partners collaborated to generate insights helping policymakers and industry rethink the consumer attitude–behaviour gap in reducing plastic packaging.

Agenda
10.00am -10.15am Welcome and opening of the event. Professor Maria Piacentini, Dr Alison Stowell
10.15am -10.45am Dr Alexandra Harrington Chair of IUCN WCEL on Plastic Pollution.
10.45am -11.15am Richard Hudson Technical Manager at CIWM
11.15am -11.25am Break
11.25am -11.55am Malaysia & UK Household Consumption –Professor Alex Skandalis, Dr Pei Boon Ooi
11.55am -12.25pm Malaysia & UK Waste Management – Dr Lenka Brunclikova, Dr Lai Ti Gew
12.25pm -12.30pm Break
12.30pm -12.55pm Discussions: Future Directions - Dr Alison Stowell
12.55pm -13.00pm Wrap-up and close - Dr Alison Stowell