Interdisciplinary Co-Production with Industry
Watch the film to find out more about how the One Bin to Rule Them All project brought academics from a range of disciplines together with industry partners to collectively tackle challenges associated with plastics recycling.
Few people came forward to tell us about participatory research that involved industry partners, science, engineering, or technology. We are exploring the impact that disciplinary language and differences in research culture may have on both the range of practices used in these areas and recognition of participatory approaches and their value.
Industry
A film about co-producing solutions to plastics recycling challenges by researching together across academic disciplines and industry
Useful links and resources
Click on the boxes below to expand them and find out more about the research and people featured in the film
The One Bin to Rule Them All project
The One Bin to Rule Them All project aims to improve compliance with recycling by developing ‘one bin’ to hold all plastic-like items and improving recycling infrastructure to create more usable recycled plastics that can be fed back into a circular economy.
Contributing researchers and partners
The ‘One Bin to Rule Them All project’ is a consortium led by The University of Manchester alongside 17 companies and local and national authorities.
University of Manchester research team:
- Professor Michael Shaver, Professor of Polymer Science
- Dr Helen Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Sociology
- Professor Maria Sharmina, Professor in Energy and Sustainability
- Dr Torik Holmes, Hallsworth Research Fellow (External Engagement and Impact, plastics recycling)
External partners
- Axion
- Biffa
- BP
- Britvic
- BASF
- Co-op
- Defra
- Dsposal (with thanks to CEO and Co-Founder, Sophie Walker for her contribution to this film)
- Ecosurety
- Faerch
- iPac
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)
- Polytag
- Sharpak
- SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK
- Unilever
Publications and resources
- You can watch further films about One Bin to Rule Them All and download the policy report, report for households and report on fly-tipping on the project website. You can also access an interactive hierarchy diagram - The Plastics Hierarchy of Fates. This is an interactive tool that shows how a bin for dry mixed recycling (DMR) waste can be processed.
- Read more about the project findings and recommendations in this article, which describes why the UK recycling system needs a drastic overhaul.
- Professor Michael Shaver and Dr Helen Holmes are Academic Director and Co-Director of the Sustainable Futures research platform. You can find out more about their work there and related projects on the Sustainable Futures website.
- You can access Helen's academic publications and other outputs via her Research Explorer page.