APEC guideline: Avoiding plastics in the environment through organised waste management
The Oceans and Fisheries Working Group (OFWG) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has published a guide to provide smaller cities and municipalities in the Asia-Pacific economic region with the knowledge to set up reliable waste collection systems to help reduce the land-sourced discharge of waste into the oceans. Using successful projects, the guide aims to show how waste can be collected and recycled at source very efficiently and cost-effectively using technologically simple means. WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature, was also involved in an exemplary pilot project in the Vietnamese city of Tan An.
Read more … APEC guideline: Avoiding plastics in the environment through organised waste management
Interview: “Stop discharges directly at source”
Dr. Bernhard Bauske has been active in the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Germany since 1993 and has been Project Coordinator for "Marine Litter" in the Marine Conservation department since 2017. His work focuses on coordinating projects to reduce plastic waste, improving waste management systems and packaging design. Before joining WWF, the biologist completed his doctorate at the Institute of Soil Science in Hamburg.
EU funds "SeaClear2.0" project for waste disposal in the sea
The EU is contributing around eight million euros to the "SeaClear2.0" project, with which a group of European scientists aims to combat marine pollution among other things with the help of an autonomous robot system. The four-year project will involve three major pilot tests in the Mediterranean Sea before the autonomous system is deployed.
Read more … EU funds "SeaClear2.0" project for waste disposal in the sea
Ocean Cleanup intends to use new System 003
According to reports from "The Ocean Cleanup", participants in the project carried out by the Dutch initiative that was launched ten years ago are now preparing to introduce a new system for cleaning the oceans of plastic waste. It will reportedly be three times larger than the "System 002" used so far. The floating barrier, which will then be nearly two and a half kilometres long, is designed to remove waste from the water more efficiently – above all in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Outlook for 2023: BKV project to prevent pellet losses
As part of its focus on "Plastics in the Environment", the BKV intends in 2023 to continue working on the topic of pellet losses. In doing so, the BKV will follow on from its "Special report on pellet losses", which was published in 2022 and presents for the first time a volume-related estimate of the pellets discharged into the environment in Germany. The findings are now to be deepened and extended in cooperation with the plastics value chain, including the recyclers. The aim is to derive measures from this that the companies can apply and implement in order to prevent pellets being discharged into the environment. To support this, the findings are also to be made usable for national and European standardisation work.
Read more … Outlook for 2023: BKV project to prevent pellet losses
Study by the University of Tel Aviv on microplastics
In a recent study conducted by Tel Aviv University in collaboration with the Israeli Research Centre for the Mediterranean Sea, a research team investigated the extent of microplastic pollution along the Israeli coast. The scientists collected sand samples from six beaches between Haifa and Ashkelon. According to the study, the Israeli coastline is polluted with more than two tons of microplastics, with Tel Aviv and Hadera beaches said to be the worst affected.
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New findings on the monitoring of plastic waste in rivers
A research team from the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) has, in a study carried out with partners from the Netherlands and Australia, examined conventional assumptions as to what quantity of plastic waste is present in rivers, and how this plastic litter is further transported. According to their results, the quantity of plastic litter actually present in rivers could be up to 90 percent larger than previously assumed. The new findings from the study should help to improve the monitoring of plastic litter in rivers and to remove it from the waterways.
Read more … New findings on the monitoring of plastic waste in rivers
BMUV funds further projects to combat marine litter
As part of the programme "Marine Debris Framework – Regional hubs around the globe" (Marine:DeFRAG), the German Federal Environment Agency (BMUV) is to fund for the third time projects that actively contribute to sustainable production, marketing and utilisation of plastic products and thus to preventing the discharge of waste into the seas. For this, the Ministry will provide 25 million euros a year.
Read more … BMUV funds further projects to combat marine litter
”LIFE BLUE LAKES” project combats microplastic in lakes
In 2019, the Global Nature Fund (GNF), together with the Lake Constance Foundation and several Italian partners, launched the project "BLUE LAKES" to prevent the discharge of microplastic into freshwater ecosystems. Funded by the European Union's LIFE program, the project partners are working at several levels to reduce microplastic discharges into German and Italian lakes. As a central instrument, a “lakes paper” was developed in cooperation with the affected districts with a voluntary commitment to protect the waters from the input of microplastics. This lake charter is also to serve as a template for water protection worldwide.
Read more … ”LIFE BLUE LAKES” project combats microplastic in lakes
"Microplastics have also arrived in our lakes"
Udo Gattenlöhner is an agricultural scientist and managing director of the Global Nature Fund (GNF), a non-profit foundation for the environment and nature founded in 1998 with its head office in Radolfzell on Lake Constance. The foundation coordinates among other things the international network Living Lakes, which has 135 member lakes, and operates worldwide for the protection of lakes and waterways. The Global Nature Fund, together with the Lake Constance Foundation and several Italian partners, founded the project "BLUE LAKES", which is actively supported among others by the plastics producers at Plastics Europe. The project is focused on the avoidance and reduction of the discharge of microplastics into lakes (see the report "Project "LIFE BLUE LAKES" fights microplastic in lakes").