Sustainable polymers: A report from the Interdisciplinary Symposium in Tübingen, October 9, 2025

Plastics play a major role in daily life, with unprecedented levels of usage. As anthropogenically produced polymers should be optimized with regard to biodegradability and biocompatibility, green chemistry strategies offer promising pathways. In this context, the symposium on sustainable polymers in Tübingen presented a comprehensive overview of recent advances in polymer research, addressing synthesis and degradation pathways along with environmentally benign catalysts. These developments benefit not only industrial efficiency but also resource conservation and environmental protection. Beyond these sustainability-driven concepts, innovative approaches to biocompatible biomaterials for medical applications and advanced polymer systems for therapeutic drug delivery were highlighted. This conference report presents current polymer research, including contributions from the medical, pharmacological, and ecological fields. To foster interdisciplinary exchange on sustainable polymers, the Tübingen Symposium was initiated by the interdisciplinary faculty College of Fellows: Center for Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Studies at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, on October 9, 2025, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Ernst von Sieglin Lecture Hall.