Bio-based and bio-degradable plastics are becoming more popular as a way to address environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and depletion of natural resources. Biodegradability is seen as a key property that plastics should have to reduce environmental impacts, but it is not the ultimate solution to the problem of mismanaged plastic waste.…
Last 5th and 6th of April, a workshop about Modeling was conducted in Villefranche sur Mer. The workshop aimed to achieve two key objectives: rReview of the protocols and methods developed by Sorbonne University for in situ plastic incubations, and for laboratory experiments on particle drop rates in a settling column. Discussion about the experimental…
Just finished the second week offshore collecting microplastic samples for the North Sea Plastic project. Storms threatened some of the planned sampling stations, but researchers eventually made it to a quieter station. For some of the researchers, this was their first time at sea. Some of the techniques used included the ‘snow catcher’ and the…
The LABPLAS Project has exciting news to share: the first week of the North Sea expedition is now complete! Despite encountering some obstacles along the way, the team of eleven researchers has made progress in their objective of collecting plastic samples from different locations in the North Sea. The expedition set sail on February 4th…
From December 2022, LABPLAS is accepted as part of the EU mission “Restore our Oceans and waters” What is the mission? With a 2030 target, the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters” aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments. The…
The 2nd sampling campaign was successfully completed by our German team on July 2022. At the end of June/beginning of July 2022, the second sampling campaign of LABPLAS in the Elbe River took place. The same sites as the winter campaign were sampled including the estuary (Cuxhaven), the tidal part of the Elbe (Hamburg and…
In January 2022, the German team successfully completed its first sampling campaign in the Elbe river. Sampling sites Sampling sites at Elbe river basin 13: Elbe estuary (coincides with HOTMIC sampling site) 14: Central Hamburg (urban) 15: Elbstorf: Downstream tidal limit 16: Dömitz upstream tidal limit 17: Tributary: Mulde/Elbe confluence: industrial influence 18: Klöden: rural…
In January 2022, the UK team at the National Oceanography Centre successfully completed their first sampling campaign in the River Thames. Sampling sites Sampling sites at Thames river basin Lechlade (rural upper reaches) Dorchester on Thames (rural with urban influence) Upstream tidal limit (Hampton Court) Downstream tidal limit (Richmond) Central London (urban) Thames estuary Campaign…