Team:Virginia/Public Engagement
Educating 22K+ People Across the Globe
Synthetic biology is changing the face of research by democratizing scientific innovation. Virginia iGEM believes that to democratize science, we also need to democratize information. Mindful of the barriers that block access to information, our outreach team was determined to design an educational initiative that was easily accessible. We approached the Data Science Institute at the University of Virginia with this goal in mind and were led to a simple, yet impactful solution: Wikipedia, the largest web-based, open-source encyclopedia in the world.
Wikipedia is often perceived as an unreliable source, as its editors could quite literally be anyone. Still, Wikipedia links are generally the first to be listed in a Google search and, as a result, are viewed by 374 million different people every month as of 2015. The encyclopedia actually relies on a verified community of knowledgeable individuals and data scientists who maintain the integrity of the pages. As students conducting in-depth research on plastic waste, biodegradable plastics, and sustainable materials, we felt it was our responsibility to update related pages with accurate details.
We decided to edit the “Biodegradable Plastic” Wikipedia page. There were 3 disclaimers describing how the page was underdeveloped, unorganized, and missing a substantial number of citations. Additionally, there are many misconceptions about biodegradable plastics that were not clarified on the page. This was alarming considering the page is in the top 1% of most viewed Wikipedia pages in the United States.
We have listed all of the additions and modifications we made to the page below.
Additions
- Distinguished between “biodegradable plastics,” “compostable plastics,” “bioplastics,” and “oxo-degradable plastics”
- Role of genetic engineering and synthetic biology in biodegradable plastic production
- European standards on biodegradability
- Factors that affect biodegradation
- Greenwashing
Modifications
- History of Biodegradable Plastics
- Reorganized types of biodegradable plastics
- Reorganized environmental benefits and concerns
- Edited definition of biodegradable plastics
Total Edits: 75
Words Added: 6.03K
Educational Impacts
- People are falsely led to conclusions about the differences between biodegradable plastics, compostable plastics, bioplastics, and oxo-biodegradable plastics, leading to unproductive and sometimes harmful disposal practices by consumers. Our modifications clarify the differences.
- Clearly defines the benefits of using biodegradable plastics and includes counters to common concerns.
- Addresses greenwashing, encouraging industries to be more careful when labeling “sustainable” plastics and warning consumers to be more aware of the products they buy.
- Introduces synthetic biology and genetic engineering efforts in optimizing biodegradable plastic production, possibly driving related research.
ASTM Standards for Revision Proposal
While editing the Biodegradable Plastic Wikipedia page, we realized that there are a few discrepancies between international and national standard terminology in the plastics material category. Specifically, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) definition of biodegradable plastic does not include mineralization, which we believe to be an essential detail.
The international standards established by ASTM are products of collaboration between various experts, businesses, and organizations. Thus, ASTM encourages contributions from all interested individuals. With our newfound knowledge about biodegradable plastics, we decided to contribute by suggesting a revision to the current definition.
Current Definition of Biodegradable Plastic in ASTM:
biodegradable plastic, n — a degradable plastic in which the degradation results from the action of naturally-occurring microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae.
The ASTM Standard Terminology Related to Plastics page can be found here.
Revision Proposal:
Add: “...and results in mineralization into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass.”
Purpose: This new definition avoids “oxo-degradation” from being equated to “biodegradation.” Although oxo-degradable additives serve to facilitate biodegradation, plastics with these additives are not fully biodegradable due to the formation of microplastics. These fragments are indigestible by microbes, thus preventing complete assimilation into nature. The current definition of biodegradable plastic may encourage companies to wrongly label oxo-degradable plastics as biodegradable and make them seem sustainable, when in actuality, their degradation results in negative environmental consequences.
Educational Impacts
- Informs industries that materials considered “biodegradable” must assimilate back into nature
- Standardizes the scientific definition of biodegradable plastic for companies to prevent mislabeling of products
- Ensures that oxo-degradable plastics are not identified as entirely biodegradable
Polystyrene Food Service Container Ban
Because our project focuses heavily on reducing polystyrene waste, we were interested in complementing our research with legislation that proposes local bans on the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) food containers in the state of Virginia. Food scraps in Styrofoam take-out boxes are expensive to clean, contributing to accumulating polystyrene waste that is difficult to recycle. Once it is used for food, it is contaminated and cannot be reused.1 This ban would take care of the polystyrene waste that could not be used for our device. There are over 100 ordinances in the United States across various states that have banned EPS food containers in individual cities or counties. In fact, recently the entire state of Maine established this ban. However, Virginia has had no such legislation - and we want to change that.
We reached out to a number of Virginia delegates (elected legislative representatives) and were advised by the legislative aide of Delegate Chris Hurst (12th District) to draft a policy brief outlining reasons for banning EPS food containers in Virginia. This includes a detailed description of the issue, counter arguments, and statistical evidence for its urgency. To address the many layers of our policy brief, we engaged in an array of human practices.
Efforts Informing our Policy Brief
- Meeting with the Science Policy Initiative at the University of Virginia to draft one-pagers and the policy brief in an organized and concise manner
- Proposing the ban at a Charlottesville Council Meeting and educating Charlottesville constituents
- Communicating with delegates from Virginia and Maine to guide our process
- Attending the Sustainability + Public Policy Networking Event in Washington DC to learn the most effective steps for writing sustainability-related legislation
- Interviewing several small businesses to gauge the impact of a polystyrene food service container ban
- Speaking with the President of the UVA Chapter of the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition to understand our best approach as students
- Conversing with GreenBlue, a nonprofit organization bringing stakeholders together in the pursuit of creating innovative sustainable material solutions
- Distributed one-pagers and policy brief to incumbents and new candidates for the upcoming General Assembly elections
Science Policy Initiative
The Science Policy Initiative (SPI) is an independent organization at the University of Virginia dedicated to bringing science and engineering students together in the pursuit of influencing science policy. We were fortunate to meet Sarah Goggin, the President of SPI, at a joint meeting with the Data Science Club. After explaining our goal of writing an informative and persuasive policy brief, she offered to hold a workshop for us. At this workshop, Sarah explained how to develop visually-appealing one-pagers to share with delegates and organizations around Virginia and to cater to each region we approach. These one-pagers would act as precursors to our 4-page policy brief. We used this feedback to create 3 different one-pagers that highlight the impact of EPS food containers on coastal, mega-landfill, and Northern Virginia regions.
Charlottesville Council Meeting (August 5, 2019)
As students at the University of Virginia, we are residents of the city of Charlottesville. Thus, we felt it was important to present our idea to the Charlottesville Council to receive feedback from local legislators and see whether passing the ban at a local level would even be a possibility. We also wanted to educate the general public about the pressing issue of polystyrene waste accumulation in hopes of sparking the realization that Styrofoam is unsustainable on many fronts.
During our speech, we received vocal support from the constituents. In fact, one of the constituents in the audience recommended that we approach Dr. Sally Hudson, a candidate for the upcoming congressional election and professor at the University of Virginia. We also learned about Dillon’s Rule and how that would prevent us from passing a local ordinance for our ban. Dillon’s Rule expresses how localities may only conduct legislative action permitted by the state government. Currently, local councils in Virginia cannot pass ordinances related to prohibiting the use of single-use plastics. Learning about Dillon’s Rule led us to research more about Virginia legislation related to single-use plastics and approach Virginia General Assembly Representatives.
Delegates from Virginia and Maine
After speaking at the City Council Meeting and communicating with the office of Delegate Chris Hurst, we reached out to other delegates who seemed to put environmental issues on the forefront. Mr. Truman Braslaw from the office of Delegate Gooditis (10th District) referred us to Delegate Guzman (31st District), who had recently introduced a bill addressing single-use plastic use in Virginia. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Christopher Fleury from Delegate Guzman’s office offered to discuss the potential of the EPS food container ban as well as ways we can engage in efforts to support Delegate Guzman’s bill.
From our conversation, we realized that our goal very closely aligns with that of Delegate Guzman: to encourage localities and businesses in Virginia to adopt more sustainable material practices. Mr. Fleury expressed how a statewide ban may not be possible at the moment, since our initial goal was to propose a ban for all of Virginia. The first step is to pass a provision that would allow localities to pass ordinances prohibiting single-use plastics. He emphasized that the only way the entire state of Maine was able to enact the ban was because many of its cities and towns had already passed such ordinances. Therefore, if a statewide ban is the end goal, the local communities should be targeted first. This insight led us to shift our course from proposing a statewide ban to calling support for Delegate Guzman’s bill and the ultimate movement towards an EPS-free commonwealth through local action.
To create the strongest argument for this ban, we contacted Delegate Zeigler, who was the prime sponsor of the bill banning “disposable” polystyrene food service containers in Maine. He provided us with a list of opposing arguments that he encountered during the process of passing the bill:
- The studies that link cancer and all health issues to polystyrene are flawed (they have industry funded studies to counter)
- The release of toxic chemicals that occurs when introduced are minimal
- There are no options that are affordable
- Polystyrene can be recycled
- The paper alternatives use more energy to produce
We addressed these concerns in our policy brief.
Additionally, as suggested by a constituent at the City Council Meeting, we met with Dr. Sally Hudson to discuss the possibility of presenting our policy proposal to committee post-election.
Sustainability + Public Policy Networking Event
Our team attended the Sustainability + Public Policy Networking Event in Washington D.C. hosted by the UVA Career Center. There, we had the opportunity to meet with the keynote speaker and Chief Sustainability Officer at Skanska, Elizabeth Heider. Skanska is a project development and construction group that is increasing their efforts in building more environmentally sustainable structures. Ms. Heider recommended the following sustainability-related policy strategies to us for our policy brief:
- Tailor language to audience/ the legislators being approached
- Place more emphasis on long-term effects relevant to issues important to legislators
- Understand the point-of-view of stakeholders
This conversation guided our one-pagers and encouraged us to contact multiple local restaurants to understand how our proposed ban would impact their business.
Small Business Inquiry
