Co-founder and CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition, Dianna Cohen, spoke on two panels on the Planet Tech stage at the international Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on Nov. 7. The first panel, ‘Plastics: reuse, recycle, redesign’ featured Cohen and Rosario Dawson, Actress & Founder, Studio 189; Tim Brooks, Head of Environmental Responsibility, LEGO; Mark Kaplan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Unilever; and was moderated by Jan Piotrowski, Environment Correspondent, The Economist.
Cohen also spoke on ‘How we can stop killing our oceans’ with European Commission’s Carlos Moedas, Good Impact Foundation’s Alexandra Cousteau, and moderated by National Geographic’s Jon Bowermaster, a noted filmmaker.
More than 60,000 people from 170 countries converged in Lisbon for Web Summit, an annual conference that brings together speakers, startups, tech investors, and international media.
“We are trying to change the conversation about plastics from ‘cradle to grave’ to ‘cradle to cradle’ and be really innovative about that,” said Rosario Dawson. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to talk about how we can transform our relationship to our planet, so we can stop killing ourselves.”
“This is such a great opportunity at Web Summit to challenge companies that are here to look at ways we can address plastic pollution upstream and not just as something we need to ‘clean up,’ said Cohen on the ‘Plastics: reuse, recycle, redesign’ panel. “Plastic is a valuable material, but when we design things with intended obsolescence, or for a single ‘disposable’ use, we are using a valuable material in an irresponsible way. Our oceans are now a plastic soup. Let’s think about ways from the beginning of design where we are using plastics in a way that is nontoxic and that doesn’t negatively impact our health, oceans, and environment.”
