Costas Velis

I am a Lecturer in Resource Efficiency Systems at the School of Civil Engineering (SoCE), University of Leeds. As Principal Investigator I lead a team with core research focus on enabling a sustainable circular economy and on preventing plastics pollution.

My research portfolio is spread all over the world and covers innovation for closing the materials loop and recovering value for secondary material resources and energy (after-use items, waste) – I set up the Circualr Economy & Resource Recovery network, as part of the Cites University Theme. I conduct interdesciplinary research, funded by UK research bodies (UKRI, NERC, EPSRC, ESCR, British Council, Innovate UK, BBSRC, Royal Academy of Engineering) and international organisations (The World Bank, GIZ, UN Habitat, UNESCAP, The PEW Charitable Trusts, ISWA, Grid-Arendal, SYSTEMIQ).

I lead the ISWA Task Force on Marine Litter established by the International Solid Waste Association to prevent plastics pollution from mismanaged solid waste in the Global South. Recently my research team led or substantially contributed to the development of a suite of models to quantify plastics pollution (P2O, WFD, ISWA Plastic Pollution Calculator, SPOT).

My research collaboration outputs are in receipt of prestigious international awards, including those from the CIWM James Jackson Award (2015), the ICE Thomas Telford Award (2014) and twice the ISWA Publication Award (2015 and 2013).