PhD Studentship: Establishing a Roadmap to Circular Lab Plastics

This 3.5 year PhD is fully funded; home fees are included and a tax free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£18,622 in 2023/24). This project is for UK students only. Plastics play a pivotal role in scientific research, enabling activities across diverse disciplines due to their consistent, sterile, and versatile properties. However, the current linear economic model of producing, using, and discarding lab single-use plastics has created alarming levels of environmental impact and waste. Addressing this challenge is hindered by significant academic knowledge gaps on the properties of waste Lab Plastics and alternative economic models. This multidisciplinary project (physical sciences, manufacturing, circular economy) will address these knowledge gaps to enable the more circular use of Lab Plastics and unlock fundamental insights into the circularity of plastics. This PhD studentship will focus on the evaluating plastics decontamination processes, understanding the properties and quality of recycled Lab Plastics and determining the environmental footprint of different approaches. As such this PhD will involve the use of analytical chemistry, plastics processing, plastics characterisation, life cycle assessment and multidisciplinary collaboration. The project will also involve close collaboration with companies from across the plastics recycling supply chain. Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s in materials science, chemistry or a related discipline. Experience with either polymer chemistry, polymer engineering or sustainability principles is desired. Please contact Dr Tom McDonald before you apply at thomas.mcdonald@manchester.ac.uk.