UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub
A systems approach to growing the UK repair economy (D Purkiss et al., 2024).
This paper takes a systems approach to understanding the UK repair economy, identifying key policy and regulatory aspects and opportunities for action and development across global, national, and local contexts.
Big Repair Project: using citizen science to better understand the factors affecting household maintenance and repair of home appliances and electronics across the UK (P Pencheva, D Purkiss et al., 2025).
Using a citizen science approach over a 32-month period from January 2022 to September 2024, the Big Repair Project collected 5,958 survey responses and 473 detailed logs of repair activities from people geographically spread across the UK. The data was analyzed to better understand issues that currently exists with household maintenance and repair of home appliances and electronics.
The Big Compost Experiment: Using citizen science to assess the impact and effectiveness of biodegradable and compostable packaging in UK home composting (D Purkiss et al., 2022).
Following analysis of the Big Compost Experiment results we conclude that home composting is not a viable waste disposal route for compostable and biodegradable packaging.
The use of phase change material as an actuator in linkage fabric structures (C. Partik et al., 2023)
Research on linkage fabric structures and the potential for use by people with different mobility needs.
A Review of Sorting and Separating Technologies Suitable for Compostable and Biodegradable Plastic Packaging (N. Tanipanichskul et al., 2022)
Analysis of different identification and sorting technologies for biodegradable and compostable plastics.
Improving compostable plastic disposal: An application of the Behaviour Change Wheel intervention development method (Allison et al., 2022)
Labelling and communication intervention development to reduce compostable plastic waste.
The environmental dangers of employing single-use face masks as part of a COVID-19 exit strategy (UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, 2020)
An evidence based assessment of the role of single use and reusable face masks, and their environmental impact.
Biodegradable plastics: An assessment of their role in the plastic waste crisis (UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, 2019)
A multidisciplinary report on the current system for biodegradable and compostable plastics in the UK.
Ossification and Plasticisation
Ossification & Plasticisation: The Embodiment of an Iconography of Security in Japanese Clay-Walled Storehouses (Hatje Cantz, 2014).
Using the material characteristics of plasticisation and ossification, this article creatively reconsiders the material and cultural associations of the obsolete kura storehouse typology, and explores the underlying structure of risk perception present in their manufacture, use, and destruction.
