Meet Dr. Jenna Jambeck – a distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia and a National Geographic Fellow. With over two decades of experience researching solid waste and plastic pollution, Jenna’s passion for her work is undeniable. She has authored numerous groundbreaking papers, co-authored a book, delivered talks across the world and co-developed the innovative Marine Debris Tracker app.
Jenna’s connection with eXXpedition goes back to 2014, when she joined our inaugural Atlantic voyage as a crew member. Since then, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating closely with her, implementing her Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP) in various locations worldwide, including during our Maldives SHiFT project. Her Marine Debris Tracker app continues to be an essential tool, empowering people globally to log and monitor litter and marine debris.
Jenna’s expertise, innovation, and dedication make her a true force of nature in the fight against marine pollution, and we were thrilled to catch up with her and share her remarkable journey and insights with you!
Tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Jenna and I’m a professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia. I grew up between two worlds, a small rural town in Minnesota and the beaches of Florida, which gave me an interesting combination of experiences as a child.
Photo Credit: Dorothy Kozlowski
When I was young, I read ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ by Madeleine L ‘Engle. There’s a part in it where the kids look at their mum and she is in her laboratory connected to their house, stirring stew over a Bunsen burner. For some reason that always stuck with me. Before that, I knew I wanted to be a scientist, but I also knew I wanted to be a mum. I wasn’t sure if I could be both because I had not seen examples of how a woman would juggle being a scientist and a mum, but that moment of the book inspired me to imagine it is possible to integrate these two roles. I am grateful every day that I get to be both a researcher and a mom to two amazing kids!
How did you become an environmental engineer?
As a child, I did not know what an engineer did or that I could even be one, but I picked environmental engineering science as my major because I wanted to do environmental science so I figured that was close enough. I really had no idea what the engineering aspect of that was going to be. And it was much harder than I anticipated, but luckily I always loved math. Because I never intended to take engineering as a major, I call myself an ‘accidental engineer’.
“Growing up I also remember this feeling of ‘if they can do it, I can do it’.”
Growing up I also remember this feeling of ‘if they can do it, I can do it’. If someone was doing something like getting their PhD or taking a hard class and passing it, I couldn’t see a reason why I couldn’t do it too – and it certainly never crossed my mind that I couldn’t do it because I’m a woman.
I was inspired by one of my professors to do a PHD focusing on solid waste management.
In lectures, he would discuss current events with solid waste and I was fascinated by how there was this complex human component to managing solid waste. It was more than just what I perceived as engineering, and often what I was learning in my classes – pipe and slope design, for example. I realised that many people have an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ perspective with waste. We’ve engineered amazing systems to put our waste or recycling into bins and it goes away – but there is no ‘away’ and waste is always having an impact. I kept asking questions like, how can we better understand our generation and perceptions of waste, and how can we reduce its impact?
How did your work become more ‘ocean-focused’?
At the start of my PhD, I heard about plastics ending up in the ocean through Charles Moore’s work and I immediately connected it to land. Many associated the waste with materials dumped into the ocean, but I thought instead that something must be wrong on land for our waste to be leaking out.
I approached a professor in marine science to discuss pursuing this idea… imagine this conversation in the year 2000. I was in my 20s. I prepared everything I wanted to say and how I felt compelled to dedicate my work to this. After I passionately explained all my reasons, he looked at me, took a pause, and said “nobody cares about that.” I was speechless – this was not how I imagined the conversation would go.
Honestly, he was right. Not many did care at the time, there wasn’t a specific scientific field to understand it, and the general public didn’t know much about it at the time; but I still cared. Hearing someone tell you that nobody cares about the thing you’re most passionate about was my fuel to keep going, and I am glad to say today that people not only care but are working around the world to prevent plastic pollution.
Where did Emily come into your journey?
In the summer of 2014 my tweets lit up as Apple had released a video at the Worldwide Developer Conference featuring our app – and Emily using it!
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From then we connected and a I signed up for a future eXXpedition journey (the inaugural one was full), but a few months later just before they were about to set sail I got an email saying a last minute spot had opened up… this was it – a moment in time to take the fork in the road. It seemed like it was not meant to be since I had very young kids at home. I called up my husband to joke about being gone for 4 weeks, but to my surprise he became very serious and said quietly, “I think you should do it.” Although I doubted myself, he encouraged me to at least explore it.
I needed to check with my university. In the back of my mind I figured everyone would say ‘no’ but everyone just kept saying yes, and that this was a great opportunity to further my work! At that moment, instead of hearing ‘nobody cares’ all I could hear was people saying “Go! You should do this!”
In the commencement address I gave in 2024, I said before this moment it felt like there were red lights slowing me down, but now it felt like every light was green – and things were falling into place. The trip completely changed my life in so many ways. It was such a turning point because it was probably the hardest work I had ever done, both physically and mentally.
“8 million metric tons of plastic was leaking into the ocean every year from mismanaged waste on land.”
And then your paper was published? How was it received?
When I got back, I found out our paper was accepted and was going to be published in Science. I knew it might get some attention because we had estimated the quantity of plastics entering the ocean from land for the first time. The estimate was that 8 million metric tons of plastic was leaking into the ocean every year from mismanaged waste on land.
Nothing could fully prepare me for the press or the attention this paper got. It was on the CBS evening news the week it launched. It was covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and many more media channels – I lost track of how many interviews I did. Later that year, I was asked to speak at the Our Ocean event, which was hosted by John Kerry and gave a talk at a Washington, DC event hosted by the Prince of Wales. These were the first of many speaking events to present the topics in this paper.
“I learned that there may be people who warp what you’re trying to communicate, so it is important for you, as the scientist, to discuss it and take responsibility for it.”
I felt a responsibility to communicate it as the science it was, and not how it was being covered, in some cases. I learned that there may be people who warp what you’re trying to communicate, so it is important for you, as the scientist, to discuss it and take responsibility for it. The importance of this paper was that it also sparked more work and catalysed more action to address plastic pollution around the world.
What is the circularity assessment?
After the impact of our paper being published in 2015, I started being hosted by the US State Department in their Public Diplomacy Program. I was hosted by embassies in 14 different countries through 2022. In all cases, there was great discussion, and in some, even disagreement, over the paper results and I welcomed it all. Many countries had new access to resources they did not have before, were making commitments to reduce plastic pollution entering the ocean, and collecting their own data. The State Department brought me in to teach and lecture, but it was always a two-way street and I learned so much from each new country and person I spoke with. I am so grateful for those trips and that time.
On some of these trips, after I had spoken in a community, the municipality asked what they could do. Often I had only been in their 24-48 hours, so I said that they were the experts and knowledge holders of their community and that is the information that is most important. However, I saw that they were lacking data – data to inform their decisions based upon their own culture and context. The data was what I was seeing as soon as I landed in a city with new eyes – what is for sale in the stores and how is it packaged? What do the trash cans or recycle bins look like? What is ending up on the ground?
That’s when we came up with the Circularity Assessment Protocol, or CAP for short. It is a hub and spoke model of seven components in a community including from what comes in (in stores and is used in restaurants) to what is used and forms of packaging, to how materials are collected and managed and what leaks out of the system. Data is collected through both quantitative and qualitative methods. Policy, governance, and economics are drivers. For example, if retail plastic bags are banned (enforced) then you won’t find them offered in stores, you won’t see them in the waste stream, and you will likely see less in the environment, with less ending up in the ocean. The context in the community is very important to be able to decide if a policy is right for them (e.g., retail plastic bags are banned in Hawaii, USA).
We work collaboratively with communities to collect data and then they can use that data. Local implementation partners (LIPs) who get funds from the project work with us to collect the city data. This means community experts have input into the entire process. The data is also open and will be available to everyone on an updated Circularity Informatics Lab website coming out in 2025. We present the framework, the tools, and people use the data in the best way they see fit, and the Debris Tracker all is also a part of it. The use of CAP has grown and has been applied in 56 cities in 16 countries to date.
Photo Credit: Malin Jacob
Have you felt a shift in people’s attitude towards plastic pollution?
Yes, 100%. It’s only been 24 years since I was told that ‘nobody cares’ and an entire scientific discipline was formalised, plastic pollution (alongside marine debris). And now the UN countries are discussing a legally binding global agreement to address plastic pollution. I find that so amazing. This leads me to the equation that I came up with for my commencement address: Persistence + Patience = Perseverance. There are always obstacles. Some, we just need to figure out how to get over it by being persistent. Some obstacles force you to pause by creating a reason not to pursue something. But if you’re persistent, you might just need to be patient first. Because we get everything almost immediately nowadays through online, delivery, on-demand shows, etc., patience feels kind of rare in our world – but I still seem to have a heavy dose of it – maybe that’s one of my superpowers.
You could also say that patience and persistence are in tension with each other. Patience is waiting, and persistence is pushing forward through whatever is in front of you. So it’s a dance between the two, but put these two together and you can persevere!
How did the voyage impact you?
It was hugely impactful. At the start we did a beach cleanup in the Canary Islands. I saw all these fragments washing in from the ocean, every wave was a confetti of plastic. I remember thinking “the ocean is literally spitting this material out back at us.” And we must protect the ocean from this material.
When we were at sea, I would find myself gazing out at this endless pristine sea, and yet whenever the net was pulled up we often saw plastic. It was no longer just a model or numbers on a page.
Supporting women in underrepresented disciplines has always been a passion for me too and the voyage showed me the strength of women. It hasn’t been easy being a woman in engineering. When I first started at the institution I’m with, there were only two other women – but now we have 17. Now there’s five women’s offices in a row in my hallway, whereas before, there weren’t even five women in the whole college.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
When I was trying to decide if I should do my PhD, a professor said “If you can avoid your PhD, you should” At first, I had no idea what he meant… until I was working to finish my dissertation. I realised the only direction I could see in front of me was through it. I really valued that advice, and it’s something I now often share with my students. Otherwise, when things get hard, you might just jump off that path, but not if you only see one way, and that is through it. Kind of like being on the boat – once we set sail there was only one way to get to the other side of the ocean – on that boat!
What is your superpower?
Earlier I said patience, but I think it’s optimism in equal measure. These qualities can work in harmony together to push you in the right direction.
I also think creativity. Engineering is effectively problem-solving, which is helped so much by being creative. I do firmly believe that my creativity has allowed me to be the unique ‘accidental engineer’ that I am!
What keeps you feeling hopeful about the future of the ocean?
That there are lots of people actively working to help the ocean, and even more people who also care! I’m grateful that the legacy I’ll leave behind with my research is something that may help others to push science and solutions forward. In 24 years, we’ve gone from nearly nobody caring about plastics in the ocean, to people agreeing there is a problem and negotiating a global agreement to address it – that is a big change!
Photo Credit: Malin Jacob
If you could give one message to the world, what would it be?
Even when things feel eternally broken, don’t sit back and ‘hope’ things will work out. Hope is good, but I would say we need optimism to get through that. Stay optimistic and you will not give up.
