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The CPE is an interdisciplinary team of RIT faculty and students who are working on understanding the generation, input, transport, fate, and effects of, and solutions to plastic pollution. ​The way that plastic enters, moves through, affects and is affected by the environment is a complex systems problem that cannot be understood from the perspective of a single discipline. Members work together to understand the full life cycle of plastics starting, from the design, production, and manufacturing of polymers and products through the waste generation and environmental release, to the transport, degradation, biological interaction, human exposure, and mitigation, which requires coordinated expertise in environmental science, chemistry, materials science, mathematical modeling, engineering, sustainability, microbiology, education, and public and government engagement. 

You can see the data collected from our storm drain traps on our data dashboard.