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Description
Island beaches reveal the increasing problem of marine plastic pollution, revealing the fact that what is carelessly thrown away turns up somewhere else, adding to the pressure on island communities to find sustainable ways of dealing with others’ waste as well as their own.
How might we think about waste differently? Can rubbish be reimagined as a resource?
In this session we hear about the challenges and opportunities some island communities have experienced in dealing with waste in different forms and explore innovative ideas for reusing and recycling materials.
This session is intended as an opportunity for knowledge sharing and discussion and presenters are invited to pose a question/problem/challenge to the rest of the panel/audience about island/marine waste.
Speakers
Howie Firth is a writer and broadcaster who has directed Orkney Internmational Science Festival for the past 30 years. As the director of the first Edinburgh Science Festival in 1989 he created the science festival format that is now followed worldwide. He worked for 11 years for the BBC as the head of Radio Orkney, one of the UK’s first community radio stations. His background is in mathematical physics and he has a deep interest in the history and philosophy of science. He is also chair of the Resource Use Institute and the innovation company Going Nova, which is working on a project developing a new strategy to tackle island waste.
Dr Katharina Vones is a lecturer in Jewellery and Metal Design at the University of Dundee. Trained at the University of St.Andrews (2001), the Edinburgh College of Art (2006), the Royal College of Art (2010) and the University of Dundee ( 2017), her research focuses on sustainable craft practice centred on novel materiality and how digital jewellery that possesses biomimetic characteristics can be brought to life through the use of smart materials. Katharina actively blogs about her practice as a way to encourage craft practitioners to participate in open and sustainable communities of making at www.smart-jewellery.com.
I’m an applied marine ecologist with a primary interest in conservation management, biodiversity restoration and enhancement. My recent research at Aberystwyth University focusses on enhancing the biodiversity of marine artificial structures for the Ecostructure project, but I have worked on coral reef, seagrass, mangrove and kelp systems previously. I work at the interface between research, policy and practice to try to drive evidence-based implementation of biodiversity enhancements in marine planning. Upcoming consultancy: www.sea-hab.co.uk – watch this space!
Franziska Elmer PhD is a research fellow with School for Field Studies at the Center for Marine Resource Studies in South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands, the Lead Field Scientists at Seafields and the Executive Producer of the Sargassum podcst. She has spent much of her career in the Caribbean, including volunteer work and an internship at STENAPA in St. Eustatius and faculty positions at CIEE in Bonaire and SFS in South Caicos. Furthermore, she serves as treasurer for the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean and is an Island Innovation Ambassador. Her research focusses are on coral recruitment, stony coral tissue loss disease and the impact of Sargassum beaching events on ecosystems and local communities.
In 2020, Franziska gave TEDx talk in Luzern: How a Marine Biologist Became a Climate Pirate. Since January 2020, Franziska has been on a climate change sabbatical in which she volunteers for various projects working help to solve this crisis.
I guess you could say I am a citizen scientist , I was to study Marine Zoology, instead I followed a path if fine art, now expressing my finds of the sea and it’s plastics within, telling tales of how it is.
I have beach combed all my life. Came to Tiree 37 years ago, lived here the last 16yrs; my home on and off during that time. I have watched the plastic become endemic.
I have lost count of the number of beach cleans I have organised or carried out, 100’s, walked every stretch of our coast. Over the last three years I have endeavoured to deep clean out beaches and identify what is here, to search for a cause, bring light to the situation and in some way work towards rectifying it.
Previously I have worked with GP UK Actions, for several years.
I am a self build, literally, converting an old church to be both my residence and studio, design and most of the construction carried out by myself.
I am a self employed artist, with a shop and studio. I am also a Volunteer fire fighter with Scottish Fire and Rescue here on the island. A steering group member of Solar, our food poverty action group set up at the beginning of lockdown.
I have previously chaired our DofE group and the Tiree Windsurfing club, both for several years.
I also have been the IJB Unpaid Carer Rep for Argyll and Bute. I have a severely Autistic daughter.
I am presently supported with beach cleaning equipment/insurance from Surfers Against Sewage and Marine Conservation Society. I was awarded Beach cleaning Hero by SAS in 2019-20.
Our beaches cleaned fill up again, each walk taken bringing in between 10-20kg each time.
There is too much to do and too small a population, larger cleans collect tonnes, ADLFG being the main component.
Elizabeth is currently a director with the Scottish Islands Federation and the development officer for the Raasay Development Trust.
Elizabeth has a background in environmental science and has a masters in coastal zone management. After graduating Elizabeth has used her knowledge and skills to support community development in Island communities. Elizabeth is working with the Raasay community on 3 large infrastructure projects due for completion within the next 18 months. The projects include affordable housing, hydro power and the installation of a pontoon.
Through growing up as a lighthouse keepers daughter, and through her studies and lived experience, Elizabeth has a high awareness of coastal issues is keen to use her knowledge to tackle the issue of marine litter and the discarded plastics that impact or our coastal ecosystems.
Sponsored by:
It’s the oldest science festival anywhere outside Edinburgh, and in its 30th year welcomes the challenge of going online as an opportunity to reach out worldwide. Speakers have included Jane Goodall and Nobel laureates Peter Higgs, Brian Josephson and Sir Paul Nurse, and the Festival has a particular interest in cutting-edge ideas, and in the connections between science and history, music, and the arts generally. Astronomy and archaeology are also featured strongly. From the start it has highlighted Orkney’s energy potential, and the old island challenge of turning waste into resources. It is also involved in several innovative upcycling projects. It wants to share the skills of creating a science festival and will next year launch an online course for communities seeking to develop their own. It opens in the week before the Virtual Island Summit, with events over the seven days of 3-9 September. On the preceding weekend, 29-30 August, it features events from a new Foraging Fortnight in Scotland. After the session that it’s hosting on Wednesday 9 September, it warmly invites all Summit attenders to continue the discussion at its closing ceilidh, with traditional music too. Everything can be accessed through its website www.oisf.org, or email [email protected]
