Bridging Science, Systems and Society to Rethink the Future of Materials
Dr. Patricia Stathatou
Asst. Professor of Chemical | Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Tech
Dr. Patricia Stathatou
Asst. Professor of Chemical | Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Tech
Patricia Stathatou, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at Georgia Tech. Her research, which focuses on developing and assessing sustainable water and energy systems, has been featured in news outlets such as Forbes and WSB-TV.
In parallel, she is engaged in bioremediation using microbial cells to remove emerging contaminants from drinking water and recover critical materials.
Christos Athanasiou is a mechanician, physicist, educator and inventor who envisions the massive production and wide-spread adoption of sustainable structures. Currently, he is an assistant professor at Georgia Tech directing the Daedalus Lab.
Christos works on designing sustainable structures using renewably sourced and recycled materials in order to decarbonize construction and future communities.
Gracy Wingkono leads Coca-Cola’s sustainable materials strategy as Director of Corporate R&D, driving innovation, supply chain management and sustainability initiatives.
With a PhD & MS in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and an MS in Sustainable Energy & Environmental Management, her expertise spans sustainability science and policy. She oversees technology development and global collaborations to advance climate, water, agriculture and materials circularity goals.
Dr. Realff's research focuses on process design, simulation, and scheduling, with an emphasis on minimizing waste and recovering useful products from waste streams. He is particularly interested in carbon capture processes from flue gas and air, as well as the design of biomass-based processes. His work explores sustainable solutions to environmental challenges, including waste reduction and the utilization of biomass inputs for process optimization.
In this dynamic panel hosted by Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute, four leading voices from academia and industry came together to challenge conventional thinking on sustainability. Dr. Patricia Stathatou and Dr. Christos Athanasiou, both assistant professors at Georgia Tech, were joined by Dr. Matthew Realff, a longtime faculty fellow in chemical engineering and Gracy Wingkono, Director of Corporate R&D at the Coca-Cola Company. Together, they unpacked the complex realities of circular design, recycling standards, and stakeholder engagement, offering a fresh, pragmatic vision for the future of sustainable materials.
Shifting the Narrative: From Circularity to Spirality
To move beyond idealistic visions of perfect circularity, the panel introduced the concept of “spirality”—a more pragmatic model that acknowledges materials degrade over time but can still be reintegrated into high-value applications. They also explored the idea of “elliptical economies,” which emphasize that sustainability strategies must account for the diverse timelines and pathways of materials in real-world use and disposal. These frameworks reflect a shift from closed-loop idealism to systems-level realism in sustainable design.
Standards, Recycling and the Limits of Measurement
One panelist highlighted their work on the Recycled Material Standard (RMS), which addresses the ambiguity and complexity of recycling claims. One major challenge is how to account for chemically recycled content, especially when it is blended with virgin material, as in the case of nylon carpets. Traditional regulations have required strict physical separation to label content as recycled, which has discouraged investment in recycling infrastructure. RMS introduces “mass balance” accounting, enabling companies to make proportional claims about recycled inputs without full segregation.
Meanwhile, mechanical recycling—still the most common method—faces its own technical limitations. Variability in feedstock due to degradation and contamination makes it difficult to predict material performance. To tackle this, the same panelist is developing AI tools that analyze performance data and enhance predictive models, allowing for better design of recycled components and more reliable end products.
These efforts rely heavily on robust life cycle assessment (LCA) methods. Another speaker cautioned that LCA is not a plug-and-play solution.
Critical methodological choices—such as setting system boundaries or defining functional units—can greatly alter sustainability outcomes.
They illustrated this with a study in which downcycling multi-layer plastics, typically seen as a lesser option, actually outperformed closed-loop recycling in terms of overall sustainability.
Communication, Trust and Social Buy-In
Public skepticism about recycling and corporate green claims was another central theme. One panelist acknowledged the difficulty of gaining public trust, especially around chemical recycling. The panel pointed to the evolution of the “How2Recycle” label, which had introduced geo-targeted QR codes to improve clarity for consumers. However, licensing issues between partners stalled its broader rollout, illustrating how promising innovations can falter due to institutional friction.
Another speaker emphasized that successful sustainability efforts must go beyond lab results. In a direct air capture project, they collaborated with social scientists to engage with local communities, learning that perceptions of manipulation or harm could derail even the most technically sound initiatives. These interactions shifted their own approach, reinforcing the need for two-way communication and deeper stakeholder involvement in technology development.
Toward a More Nuanced Path Forward
Throughout the session, the speakers dismantled common narratives around recycling and sustainability. Rather than striving for a perfect circular economy, they urged the audience to embrace spirality, elliptical design and data-driven trade-offs. True sustainability, they argued, requires the integration of advanced material science, rigorous systems thinking, and inclusive dialogue with the public and industry.
By connecting technical innovation with policy, perception and community insight, the panel demonstrated that the future of plastics is not just a materials challenge—it is a societal one.
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