URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2021_M

URI’s First Signature Research Initiative PLASTICS: LAND TO SEA

written by DAVE LAVALLEE ‘79, MPA ‘87

talent across the entire University, to contribute to global efforts aimed at protecting a sustainable environment and to improve the quality of life for countless communities across the globe. URI’s interdisciplinary network includes more than 50 faculty working with state, regional and international governments, universities, and agencies around the world. In just the past two years, the initiative has either directly or indirectly

attracted $4 million in private, state, and federal funding, and URI has invested in five new faculty members with expertise critical to plastics research. Plastics play an important role in society and can be lifesaving, but they were not seen as a pollutant when they were developed. Yet, the environmental and economic reality of plastics pollution is a global crisis that has outpaced our understanding of its impacts on our waterways, food web, air

URI Initiative Plastics: Land to Sea SPRING | 2021 Page 13