Join us for our next forum exploring the impact of plastic pollution on the environment. Plastic pollution is a rapidly growing problem that poses a serious threat to our planet and its ecosystems. Every day, millions of tons of plastic waste end up in our oceans, rivers, and landfills, causing harm to wildlife, ecosystems, and human health.

In this event, we will hear from experts on the impacts of micro and macro plastic pollution on our environment, including our soils and coastal environments. 

This event is free for IES members, for non members there is a £25 fee. 

Our speakers

Dr. Jon Burton is the Managing Director of Oracle Environmental Experts Ltd (OEE), a company that provides expert environmental advice and support particularly with respect to the mitigation and assessment of environmental impacts, risks and liabilities associated with pollution incidents and historically contaminated land. Jon has nearly 25 years of experience in the environmental sector having worked with regulators and with specialist consultants and remediation contractors. He has a PhD in contaminant hydrogeology and has extensive experience in spill response, site investigation and land remediation. Jon is a Member and Chartered Scientist with the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), and is an Accredited Expert Water & Environment Witness. Jon is also a board director for the International Spill Accreditation Scheme (ISAS) which provides independent accreditation of the knowledge, experience and capabilities of spill response firms operating from the UK and Ireland. For the last two years, Jon has worked on the Plastic Pollution Working Group of the UK & Ireland Spill Association and is passionate about addressing our obsession with plastics and reducing the impact that plastics have on our environment and our health.  

Denise M. Mitrano is an Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich in the Environmental Systems Science Department. As an environmental analytical chemist, her research focuses on the distribution and impacts of anthropogenic materials in technical and environmental systems. She is particularly interested in developing analytical tools to systematically understand the mechanisms and processes driving the fate, transport and biological interactions of particles, such as engineered nanomaterials and nano- and microplastics. In this context, her research group uses these results to assess risks of anthropogenic materials across various ecosystems and scales. An interest in a “safer by design” approach for both nanomaterials and plastics is exemplified by working on the boundaries of environmental science, materials science and policy to promote sustainability and environmental health and safety of new materials. Her work has recently been recognized by the Swiss National Science Foundation Marie Heim Vögtlin Prize for Outstanding Young Woman Researcher of the Year (2022), the 2022 James J. Morgan Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Environmental Science from ES&T and the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry, and the 2022 Emerging Investigator in Atomic Spectroscopy Award.

Shudan Xue is a third-year PhD student in physical geography at Queen Mary University of London. Her work focuses on assessing the impacts of eroding historic landfills on adjacent surface sediments and the marine environment.