Over 275 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced every year. Plastic used in packaging of food items accounts for one of the largest contributory groups of plastic packaging waste. In the UK, adults throw away 16.5 billion plastic trays, at an estimated 250,000 tonnes. From the UK grocery market, fruit and vegetable packaging accounts for 38,000 tons per year. Building on our success in developing cutting edge, sustainable and compostable materials, the development of the PlantSea-Punnet, the first seaweed-based fully compostable, food-safe sustainable packaging concept for fresh produce, can prevent 22,800 tons of plastic reaching landfill and polluting the environment. PlantSea-Punnet is also a low carbon solution to plastic. Emissions from the life cycle of plastic are expected to reach 6.5 billion tonnes CO2e per year. Using our innovative approach and expertise is sustainable material production, PlantSea-Punnet could save 990,000 tonnes CO2e per year. Having produced prototypes in our laboratory, this project enables us to refine its material composition and work with our key partners to ensure delivery of this concept at scale. This will enable us to provide a functional solution that can make a significant impact in reducing plastic waste.

"The Government's Faraday programme is supporting an important new research project to improve the safety of batteries for use in electric vehicles and as stationary power sources. Businesses Jaguar Land Rover, Denchi Power, 3M, Potenza, Lifeline and Tri-Wall are pooling resources with academics and experts at the University of Warwick and the Health and Safety Executive to ensure public safety in the age of electric motoring. Electrically-powered vehicles and battery storage installations thankfully have a good safety record in the UK, but engineers and academics involved in battery design are taking no chances. Lithium-Ion battery cells have the potential to catch fire aggressively, and with consumers demanding that batteries give them further range and faster charging, there is an urgent need to develop an understanding of how such ""thermal runaway"" (TR) events may be triggered, suppressed and contained. The use of improved prevention materials, methods and mechanisms and a focus on identifying and detecting all early signs of risks, will ensure that fires can be prevented, or if necessary isolated and suppressed before they spread. Project LIBRIS seeks to improve understanding of the range of potential causes of TR in individual battery cells and through scaling up tests and scientific understanding, develop better computational models for assessing the spread of TR within battery packs. The team will use real vehicle and stationary Lithium-Ion battery designs and applications to model theoretical work and will take forward the most effective innovations into newly designed packs which will be tested to make sure that the inventions actually work. The group will then use this experience to develop standard tests for assessing the effectiveness of any future battery fire prevention mechanisms, thus assisting the next generation of work on this vital issue. The project will lead to better battery pack design and control software, better fire sensing equipment, more use of innovative flame-retardant materials and better packaging for batteries in transport and during storage. It will create business opportunities and investment in the UK, whilst also contributing to public safety. It will also build UK public sector capability to influence future international safety standards and regulations, so that safety remains paramount, but is science-based and not used as an artificial excuse for trade barriers."