News

The stakeholder engagement event on microplastics was organized by Fraunhofer UMSICHT and UNESCO-IHP under the LimnoPlast project on “Microplastics In Europe’s Freshwater Ecosystems: from sources to solutions” on 16th of February 2023.

The LimnoPlast project aims to bring environmental, technical, and social sciences together with the vision to transform a new understanding of microplastics to innovative solutions.

The objective of the stakeholder roundtable is to discuss technical, political, societal and behavioural measures on microplastic emission reduction and disseminate these measures to stakeholders, who are involved in the value chain in related sectors. Aimed at translating science into practice, the roundtable will provide a platform to bring together stakeholders to discuss efficiency and effectiveness of these measures, and to identify key actors for each intervention.

For this roundtable, two sectors were selected as sources of microplastic emissions to the environment: tires; synthetic textile clothing; and expanded polystyrene (EPS)-based building insulation materials. 18  participants from producers, researcher, NGO and policy-makers were join into the thematic sessions. The preliminary results from this event were shared at the final “LimnoPlast” conference in Paris in March 2023 and the researchers will continue to draw on the results of the dialogue event within the “LimnoPlast project”.

At the Berlage Lyceum in Amsterdam (NL), a high school for pre-university education, the subject of sustainability is included in the 3^rd year curriculum. Marja Lamoree (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam) gave a lecture on microplastics in the environment and humans, providing background on different types of microplastics and polymers, the analytical techniques used to analyze them, different sources of microplastics (e.g. clothing) and their distribution in the environment and humans. The work done by ESR Öykü Sefiloglu, who analyzed Amsterdam tap water but also water from the Amsterdam canals and surrounding surface waters, was highlighted.

Over the course of my Ph.D. studies, I had the pleasure of talking to high school students about plastic pollution several times. My lectures started with basics about plastic pollution, and polymer properties and went into detail about microplastics and my own research on their potential toxicity in fish. Lastly, we concluded with interactive sessions where students took the roles of citizens, politicians, and the industry to develop ideas to reduce microplastics in the environment. Whether virtually or in person at local high schools in Sweden, the students were extremely interested and engaged in the topic. I was surprised by the awareness of the issue and their ideas to battle plastic pollution. I am very grateful to be able to reach young citizens who can make a change in the future.

LimnoPlast ESRs had the opportunity to be part of the award ceremony of the Volvo Environment Prize 2022.

Tamara Galloway, Penelope Lindeque and Richard Thompson were awarded for their groundbreaking research in the field of microplastics.

In the last scientific training event, our ESRs had the chance to learn about the basics of polymer chemistry at the University of Bayreuth. Next to lectures, they also practiced in the lab.

The second Network Meeting in person took place mid of October in an old castle close to Bayreuth, Germany. We had two fully packed days. The ESRs gave an update about their progress, we had lively discussions on how to finalize all Deliverables and also time to enjoy time together, including a lively pub quiz.

The art event Late Night Group Therapy Unter Uns which took place on November 10, 2022 at the WUK in Vienna, Austria focused on the topics of fashion, waste and microplastics. The guest speaker for the event was Maja Grünzner, a PhD student in environmental psychology at the University of Vienna and part of the H2020 LimnoPlast project who specializes in studying human perception and consumer behaviour with a particular focus on microplastics and fashion. While clothing serving as a functional purpose of protecting us from the elements, it also serves as a means of expressing ourselves. However, it is clear that many of us own more clothing than we actually need, and the fashion industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental issues. Therefore, the event aimed to address these issues and provide insight into how to navigate these dilemmas and paradoxes with an active audience. Attendees had the opportunity to explore their own attitudes and behaviours towards fashion and were able to reflect on them with professional guidance.

We are happy to announce the first speakers at our conference:

Lila Durix – Sabine Pahl – Bethanie Carney Almroth – Aude Vidal

Bart Koelmans – Christian Laforsch – Richard Thompson

UNESCO – EU H2020 LimnoPlast Conference

Diving into freshwater microplastic pollution: Connecting water, environmental and social sciences

WHERE: UNESCO – Paris, France
WHEN: 06 – 08 March 2023

Join us and share your experience and ideas. The conference will be free of charge. For more information and to register visit the homepage and follow us on twitter
@LimnoPlast.

Our ESRs put together some lectures for school kids.
You can book our ESRs to teach your students about: General Microplastics, Environmental Engineering, Toxicology, Social Science ar Chemistry.

Approach us at any time: Link

LimnoPlast @ European Researchers’ Night in Trondheim – Martin Wagner Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet

Martin Wagner from NTNU’s LimnoPlast team “speed dated” with high school students at the 2022 edition of the European Researchers’ night. He answered questions around plastic pollution, its environmental impacts as well as potential health consequences, and discussed with several groups of 5-10 student solutions to the problem. In general, the students were very aware of the plastic problem and eager to do something about it. Many talked about clean-up campaigns at the coast they had participated in and said that they want to cut down their plastic footprint. The groups also discussed more systemic solutions, such as circularity.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) organizes a local Researchers’ night in Trondheim. This year, more that 1000 high schoolers from the region of Trøndelag participated. More 200 NTNU scientists from diverse disciplines presented their research in with presentations, exhibitions, experiments, and discussion rounds. More pictures on Facebook.