God and Nature Fall 2020
Food, Water, Waste
By Mike Clifford
At the University of Nottingham, academic staff are arranged into Research Groups. Some groupings are more natural than others, whereas some are quite specific, such as Advanced Optics. Since my research traverses several subject areas, finding a Research Group has often proved to be a difficult task—and, naturally, Research Groups are reorganised every three years or so as research priorities change. This has caused some concern for Ph.D. students, who, like faithful sheep, must follow their shepherd/supervisor into his/her Research Group. For instance, Maria, who was studying the incidence and severity of burns from cooking amongst Malawian children under five years old, found herself in Composites. This caused some raising of eyebrows at the Research Group’s annual poster competition, at which Maria confessed she didn’t know what a composite was, let alone if they had any relevance to her area of study.
My nomadic journey has taken me from Composites to Dynamics, then to ePAD (an acronym standing for something which, I must confess, I can’t remember), and finally to Food, Water, Waste (FWW). According to our webpage, FWW is “a newly formed interdisciplinary group aiming to deliver sustainable and resilient solutions to global challenges in the areas of food, water and resource security.” Whilst much of the research is UK-focused, waste and resource management is of critical concern to many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
On my first visit to Africa, ten years ago, I was impressed by the reuse of materials. Sheet metal found second or third lives as makeshift roofing material, car tyres were made into soles for sandals, and printed material such as newspapers were upcycled into little paper bags to hold the spices sold in the local markets. However, over the last decade, the picture has changed dramatically. In the past, plastic containers such as water bottles could be reused, but as packaging technology has improved, the resulting thinner and thinner plastic bottles and plastic bags are strictly single-use items.
A year ago, the Kenyan Government banned the sale of plastic bags, with the threat of large fines or even prison sentences for companies that continued to manufacture and sell them. This is having a limited positive effect, but the damage already done to the environment is considerable. Plastic waste is polluting rivers and has found its way into the food chain. A recent study found that over half of the cattle near urban areas had plastic bags in their stomachs. Recycling facilities are often non-existent in sub-Saharan Africa, and away from the cities, waste disposal services are rare. As a consequence, rubbish accumulates at roadsides or in rubbish pits, where it is burnt.
My latest research project in Malawi is looking at sources of household air pollution (HAP). Traditional interventional approaches have concentrated on replacing traditional cookstoves, since these can be a major source of particulate pollution, which, according to the World Health Organisation, causes over 4 million unnecessary deaths a year via respiratory diseases. However, we’re keen to approach the HAP problem in a more holistic way. Depending on the location, ambient pollution caused by burning rubbish and crop residues may contribute significantly to HAP; replacing the cookstove may not be sufficient to reduce people’s exposure to harmful pollution. I’ve also seen thin plastic bags used as firelighters for cooking—an easy but dangerous solution to humankind’s first scientific challenge: what’s the easiest way to light a fire?
Eliminating plastic waste will take strong action at Government and international level, but in the meantime, finding safe ways to dispose of the world’s contaminated plastic waste is a research topic worthy of our attention.
Mike Clifford is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham. His research interests are in combustion, biomass briquetting, cookstove design, and other appropriate technologies. He has published over 80 refereed conference and journal publications and has contributed chapters to books on composites processing and on appropriate and sustainable technologies.
By Mike Clifford
At the University of Nottingham, academic staff are arranged into Research Groups. Some groupings are more natural than others, whereas some are quite specific, such as Advanced Optics. Since my research traverses several subject areas, finding a Research Group has often proved to be a difficult task—and, naturally, Research Groups are reorganised every three years or so as research priorities change. This has caused some concern for Ph.D. students, who, like faithful sheep, must follow their shepherd/supervisor into his/her Research Group. For instance, Maria, who was studying the incidence and severity of burns from cooking amongst Malawian children under five years old, found herself in Composites. This caused some raising of eyebrows at the Research Group’s annual poster competition, at which Maria confessed she didn’t know what a composite was, let alone if they had any relevance to her area of study.
My nomadic journey has taken me from Composites to Dynamics, then to ePAD (an acronym standing for something which, I must confess, I can’t remember), and finally to Food, Water, Waste (FWW). According to our webpage, FWW is “a newly formed interdisciplinary group aiming to deliver sustainable and resilient solutions to global challenges in the areas of food, water and resource security.” Whilst much of the research is UK-focused, waste and resource management is of critical concern to many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
On my first visit to Africa, ten years ago, I was impressed by the reuse of materials. Sheet metal found second or third lives as makeshift roofing material, car tyres were made into soles for sandals, and printed material such as newspapers were upcycled into little paper bags to hold the spices sold in the local markets. However, over the last decade, the picture has changed dramatically. In the past, plastic containers such as water bottles could be reused, but as packaging technology has improved, the resulting thinner and thinner plastic bottles and plastic bags are strictly single-use items.
A year ago, the Kenyan Government banned the sale of plastic bags, with the threat of large fines or even prison sentences for companies that continued to manufacture and sell them. This is having a limited positive effect, but the damage already done to the environment is considerable. Plastic waste is polluting rivers and has found its way into the food chain. A recent study found that over half of the cattle near urban areas had plastic bags in their stomachs. Recycling facilities are often non-existent in sub-Saharan Africa, and away from the cities, waste disposal services are rare. As a consequence, rubbish accumulates at roadsides or in rubbish pits, where it is burnt.
My latest research project in Malawi is looking at sources of household air pollution (HAP). Traditional interventional approaches have concentrated on replacing traditional cookstoves, since these can be a major source of particulate pollution, which, according to the World Health Organisation, causes over 4 million unnecessary deaths a year via respiratory diseases. However, we’re keen to approach the HAP problem in a more holistic way. Depending on the location, ambient pollution caused by burning rubbish and crop residues may contribute significantly to HAP; replacing the cookstove may not be sufficient to reduce people’s exposure to harmful pollution. I’ve also seen thin plastic bags used as firelighters for cooking—an easy but dangerous solution to humankind’s first scientific challenge: what’s the easiest way to light a fire?
Eliminating plastic waste will take strong action at Government and international level, but in the meantime, finding safe ways to dispose of the world’s contaminated plastic waste is a research topic worthy of our attention.
Mike Clifford is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham. His research interests are in combustion, biomass briquetting, cookstove design, and other appropriate technologies. He has published over 80 refereed conference and journal publications and has contributed chapters to books on composites processing and on appropriate and sustainable technologies.