Plastic pollution emission factors measurement and modelling for macro-plastic waste

塑料污染现在被认为是我们这个时代全球可持续发展的主要挑战之一。联合国环境大会（UNEA）最近就一项具有里程碑意义的决议达成一致，该决议旨在制定一项全球条约，以“结束塑料污染”-被誉为“自巴黎气候雅阁以来最重要的国际多边环境协议”。在这方面，发展与释放到环境中的塑料相关的基础科学和工程将至关重要。利兹大学的研究团队一直致力于在各种尺度上量化塑料污染的最前沿，尽管模型和数据采集以及系统评估方法相结合，这些方法在世界各地广泛使用：https://plasticpollution.leeds.ac.uk/越来越多地采用建模来发展我们对这种复杂现象的理解，其中包括军事属性，地理，环境和人类社会行为的相互作用。例如，在《科学》杂志上发布的“塑料到海洋”（P2 O）模型将循环经济与废物和资源管理以及泄漏到环境中结合起来，提供了一种整体方法。它被提出该决议的国家用作该决议草案的核心证据。SPOT模型为宏观塑料物品提供了最先进的本地到全球塑料污染量化，并由联合国人居署使用，并在联合国环境数据中心（GPML）中报告，以提供关于世界各地城市如何管理其废物的第一次全球评估（SDG 11.6.1）。然而，主要的量化问题仍然悬而未决。这提供了一个为重大科学和工程突破做出贡献的机会。特别是，该项目将重点关注排放因子--宏观塑料物品泄漏到环境中的速率;以及它们如何移动，具体取决于环境和作用于它们的力。候选人将设计和进行实验台和大规模实验，使用专业设备（相机，无人机）和分析基于传感器的数据沿着地理信息系统，以首次量化此类排放因子。

Plastic pollution is now recognised as one of the major global sustainability challenges of our times. The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) have recently agreed on a landmark resolution for a global treaty to "end plastic pollution" - heralded as the "most important international multilateral environmental deal since the Paris climate accord". In that respect, developing the fundamental science and engineering associated with the plastics released in to the environment will be critical. The research team at the University of Leeds have been working at the forefront of quantifying plastic pollution at various scales, though a combination of models and data acquisition and systems assessment methodologies, which are widely used around the world: https://plasticpollution.leeds.ac.uk/ Increasingly, modelling is employed to develop our understanding of such a complex phenomenon, with interaction of martial properties, geography, environment and human societal behaviour. For example, the Plastics to Ocean (P2O) model released in Science, is coupling circular economy with, waste and resource management and leakage into the environment to offer a holistic approach. It has been used as the core evidence for the proposed resolution by the countries that put it forward. The model SPOT offers cutting edge local to global plastic pollution quantification for macro-plastic items and is used by the UN-Habitat and reported in the UN Environment Data Hub (GPML) to provide the first global assessment of how cities around the world are managing their waste (SDG 11.6.1). However, major quantification questions remain open. This provides an opportunity to leave contribute towards major scientific and engineering breakthrough. In particular, the project will focus on the emission factors - the rate of macro-plastics items leaking into the environment; and how they move, depending on the environment and the forces acting upon them. The candidate will be devising and conducting hands-on bench and large scale experiments, using specialist equipment (cameras, drones) and analysing sensor-based data along with Geographical Information Systems, to quantify such emission factors for the very first time.