Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
Plastics (polymers) are an ubiquitous material and are used for many applications because of the versatility of the material. Very often, however, plastics are ending up in landfill or worse – in our waterways and oceans. We are exploring the scale of the issue in India, and investigating solutions for reducing plastic waste through a circular economy, where today’s waste can become a resource for tomorrow. In this online discussion, experts from India and Australia share their perspectives on the problem and discuss opportunities and solutions.
Speakers:
Souvik Bhattacharjya is a Senior Fellow and Associate Director in the Integrated Policy Analysis Division of TERI. Souvik has more than 16 years' of rich experience in the field of energy and environmental research and management consulting. He has undertaken and led various consultancy and research assignments for ministries, bilateral and multilateral organisations and multinational corporations. His areas of work include resource efficiency and circular economy, developing policies and strategies along product and service value chains for promoting 6Rs, industrial ecology, material demand/supply assessments, material flow analysis, life cycle analysis, life cycle cost analysis, impact assessments of industrial/infrastructure projects, price build up for environmental goods and services, trade in environment and resources.
Assa Doron's main areas of interest include, urban anthropology, development, environment and public health, media and technology. Much of his fieldwork was carried out in Varanasi where he focused on the ritual economy of the river, a study that was published in the book, Life on the Ganga, (Cambridge, 2013). Doron's collaboration with Robin Jeffrey led to a book on the mobile phone revolution in India, titled, The Great Indian Phone Book (Harvard UP/C. Hurst, 2013). The book received wide media coverage in outlets such as, The Economist, Bloomberg, India Today, Times Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, LA Review of Books, Economic & Political Weekly (EPW), LSE Review of Books, The Australian, and SMH as well as in various academic journals.
Doron & Jeffrey's most recent book Waste of a Nation: Garbage and Growth in India (Harvard 2018), was widely covered in outlets including The Guardian, Times of India, Down to Earth and Quartz. The book was favourably reviewed in Nature, Times Literary Supplement, New Scientist, Public Books, LSERB, The Australian, and The Wire amongst others. Doron is currently working on questions to do with public health, environmental degradation and the crisis of antimicrobial resistance.
Zeenat Niazi, as Vice-President, provides oversight to the policy studies and development action initiatives at the Development Alternatives Group. Her work addresses resilience building in human settlements through Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) strategies, especially green and inclusive circular economy models. She is a third-time member of the Board of the Climate Action Network South Asia, member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC) of the Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme of the UN’s One Planet Network, member of the C&D Waste Sub-Committee of the NITI Aayog on Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Urban Areas, Strategic Steering Committee member of UNEP PAGE Programme in India and the Steering Committee member of the Green Economy Coalition in India.
Heinz Schandl, PhD in Sociology, is a senior science leader at the CSIRO based in Canberra. Heinz leads a research group for Urban and Industrial Transformations in CSIRO’s Land and Water Program and his research looks at economically attractive opportunities for resource efficiency, waste minimisation and greenhouse gas abatement. He leads CSIRO’s Circular Economy Initiative and looks after CSIRO’s global research for understanding the environmental impacts of population and consumption, identifying policies and technologies that guide a transition to sustainable consumption and production.
Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high-temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials.’ In 2018 Veena launched the world’s first e-waste MICROfactorieTM and in 2019 she launched her plastics and green ceramics MICROfactoriesTM. As the founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, she is producing a new generation of green materials and products made entirely, or primarily, from waste. In 2020, Professor Veena won and was made Director of two new research and industrial transformation Hubs: the ARC Microrecycling Hub, and the NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub.
Plastics (polymers) are an ubiquitous material and are used for many applications because of the versatility of the material. Very often, however, plastics are ending up in landfill or worse – in our waterways and oceans. We are exploring the scale of the issue in India, and investigating solutions for reducing plastic waste through a circular economy, where today’s waste can become a resource for tomorrow. In this online discussion, experts from India and Australia share their perspectives on the problem and discuss opportunities and solutions.
Speakers:
Souvik Bhattacharjya is a Senior Fellow and Associate Director in the Integrated Policy Analysis Division of TERI. Souvik has more than 16 years' of rich experience in the field of energy and environmental research and management consulting. He has undertaken and led various consultancy and research assignments for ministries, bilateral and multilateral organisations and multinational corporations. His areas of work include resource efficiency and circular economy, developing policies and strategies along product and service value chains for promoting 6Rs, industrial ecology, material demand/supply assessments, material flow analysis, life cycle analysis, life cycle cost analysis, impact assessments of industrial/infrastructure projects, price build up for environmental goods and services, trade in environment and resources.
Assa Doron's main areas of interest include, urban anthropology, development, environment and public health, media and technology. Much of his fieldwork was carried out in Varanasi where he focused on the ritual economy of the river, a study that was published in the book, Life on the Ganga, (Cambridge, 2013). Doron's collaboration with Robin Jeffrey led to a book on the mobile phone revolution in India, titled, The Great Indian Phone Book (Harvard UP/C. Hurst, 2013). The book received wide media coverage in outlets such as, The Economist, Bloomberg, India Today, Times Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, LA Review of Books, Economic & Political Weekly (EPW), LSE Review of Books, The Australian, and SMH as well as in various academic journals.
Doron & Jeffrey's most recent book Waste of a Nation: Garbage and Growth in India (Harvard 2018), was widely covered in outlets including The Guardian, Times of India, Down to Earth and Quartz. The book was favourably reviewed in Nature, Times Literary Supplement, New Scientist, Public Books, LSERB, The Australian, and The Wire amongst others. Doron is currently working on questions to do with public health, environmental degradation and the crisis of antimicrobial resistance.
Zeenat Niazi, as Vice-President, provides oversight to the policy studies and development action initiatives at the Development Alternatives Group. Her work addresses resilience building in human settlements through Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) strategies, especially green and inclusive circular economy models. She is a third-time member of the Board of the Climate Action Network South Asia, member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC) of the Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme of the UN’s One Planet Network, member of the C&D Waste Sub-Committee of the NITI Aayog on Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Urban Areas, Strategic Steering Committee member of UNEP PAGE Programme in India and the Steering Committee member of the Green Economy Coalition in India.
Heinz Schandl, PhD in Sociology, is a senior science leader at the CSIRO based in Canberra. Heinz leads a research group for Urban and Industrial Transformations in CSIRO’s Land and Water Program and his research looks at economically attractive opportunities for resource efficiency, waste minimisation and greenhouse gas abatement. He leads CSIRO’s Circular Economy Initiative and looks after CSIRO’s global research for understanding the environmental impacts of population and consumption, identifying policies and technologies that guide a transition to sustainable consumption and production.
Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high-temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials.’ In 2018 Veena launched the world’s first e-waste MICROfactorieTM and in 2019 she launched her plastics and green ceramics MICROfactoriesTM. As the founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, she is producing a new generation of green materials and products made entirely, or primarily, from waste. In 2020, Professor Veena won and was made Director of two new research and industrial transformation Hubs: the ARC Microrecycling Hub, and the NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub.
