Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EUROqCHARM (EUROpean quality Controlled Harmonization Assuring Reproducible Monitoring and assessment of plastic pollution)
Période du rapport: 2022-05-01 au 2023-10-31
Plastic pollution is widely recognised as a planetary threat, affecting many marine and freshwater ecosystems. Plastic pollution manifests itself as beach litter, floating in water bodies, sinking to the seafloor, as well as in soils and sediments. Microplastics have been detected in edible consumables, air samples, and biota. Conserving our oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development, preserving recreational areas on land by curbing plastic waste and littering, and driving innovation and investment towards circular plastics solutions are of global concern.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically address plastic pollution in SDG 14 Life Below Water (SDG 14.1.1b Plastic debris density). Other SDG goals do not have specific targets for plastic pollution but are indirectly impacted. The need to address the impacts of plastic pollution is being included in European environmental regulations and the EU Plastics Strategy. However, plastic pollution research is a relatively young discipline and methodologies are continuously developing and are not yet standardised. This makes tracking the evolution of environmental indicators in time or comparison difficult. Therefore, there is a strong need to harmonise and standardise all aspects of environmental monitoring (sampling, analysis and data treatment), with QA/QC being the driving force. There are currently no harmonised protocols to measure indicators for plastic pollution. Developing methods, protocols, tools, and indicators for society to measure plastic pollution in a quality assured way are at the core of the EUROqCHARM project’s activities.
The overall objective of EUROqCHARM is to develop optimised, validated, and harmonised methods for the assessment and monitoring of plastics in the environment, as well as blueprints for standards and recommendations for policy and legislation.
EUROqCHARM’ s specific objectives are:
1. To identify state-of-the-art methods for sample collection, sample preparation and analysis of plastics (nano-, micro-, macro-) in four different environmental matrices (water, soil/sediment, air and biota) currently in use.
2. To identify state-of-the-art protocols, recommendations, and guidelines, which are currently being used for monitoring and assessment of plastics in different environmental matrices by European member states, through a systematic review of current practices of international working groups and institutions.
3. To harmonise sample preparation, analysis, and data reporting formats as recommendations for standards.
4. To harmonise monitoring methods that can be used by stakeholders to formulate and implement policy and legislation at European and international levels.
5. To promote capacity building to facilitate and accelerate adoption of developed standards and guidelines by EU policy and legislation.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically address plastic pollution in SDG 14 Life Below Water (SDG 14.1.1b Plastic debris density). Other SDG goals do not have specific targets for plastic pollution but are indirectly impacted. The need to address the impacts of plastic pollution is being included in European environmental regulations and the EU Plastics Strategy. However, plastic pollution research is a relatively young discipline and methodologies are continuously developing and are not yet standardised. This makes tracking the evolution of environmental indicators in time or comparison difficult. Therefore, there is a strong need to harmonise and standardise all aspects of environmental monitoring (sampling, analysis and data treatment), with QA/QC being the driving force. There are currently no harmonised protocols to measure indicators for plastic pollution. Developing methods, protocols, tools, and indicators for society to measure plastic pollution in a quality assured way are at the core of the EUROqCHARM project’s activities.
The overall objective of EUROqCHARM is to develop optimised, validated, and harmonised methods for the assessment and monitoring of plastics in the environment, as well as blueprints for standards and recommendations for policy and legislation.
EUROqCHARM’ s specific objectives are:
1. To identify state-of-the-art methods for sample collection, sample preparation and analysis of plastics (nano-, micro-, macro-) in four different environmental matrices (water, soil/sediment, air and biota) currently in use.
2. To identify state-of-the-art protocols, recommendations, and guidelines, which are currently being used for monitoring and assessment of plastics in different environmental matrices by European member states, through a systematic review of current practices of international working groups and institutions.
3. To harmonise sample preparation, analysis, and data reporting formats as recommendations for standards.
4. To harmonise monitoring methods that can be used by stakeholders to formulate and implement policy and legislation at European and international levels.
5. To promote capacity building to facilitate and accelerate adoption of developed standards and guidelines by EU policy and legislation.
EUROqCHARM has critically reviewed the state-of-the-art analytical methods and taken harmonisation one step further by validating them through an interlaboratory comparison (ILC) study. This brought together key European laboratories and raised capacity for the analysis of plastics litter in environmental samples. This was one of the largest ILC studies for the analysis of microplastic in environmental samples, and showed that the results between laboratories varied considerably, especially for more complex samples (sediment, sand). The work with ILC studies will continue through the NORMAN Network and QUASIMEME to further assure the quality of analysis of microplastics in environmental matrices.
EUROqCHARM has taken the lead in producing reference materials (RMs) for microplastic analysis by developing a new concept to make and use RMs containing low but environmental realistic levels of microplastic. Three certified RMs were produced to be marketed for at least three of the four target matrices (water, soil/sediment, biota) during and after the project’s completion.
EUROqCHARM has worked closely with standardisation organisations (ISO/CEN) and monitoring organisations (MSFD-TGML, OSPAR, ICES, AMAP) to harmonise methods for plastic litter using the technical readiness level (TRL) assessment of the analytical methods. Here, EUROqCHARM contributed to the development of the ISO/CEN standards for microplastics (water and solid matrices). EUROqCHARM’s RMs will be used for the validation of the method of the IS method for water sampes. EUROqCHARM has also actively taken part in discussions with the Technical Working Group on Marine Litter (TGML) on the inclusion of plastic litter in the Marine Strategic Framework Directive (MSFD). Concerning harmonisation of reporting of plastic litter data, including micro to macro plastic litter, EUROqCHARM has worked closely together with EMODNet attended workshops led by EMODNet and ICES to synchronise reporting on an international level.
EUROqCHARM has put much effort into capacity building through online events and a hands-on workshop. Capacity building events included two workshops for participants in the ILC study, where laboratories exchanged information under the guidance of EUROqCHARM partners. In regions with less capacity, more specifically around the Black Sea, a hands-on training workshop was organised and supported by several stakeholders.
EUROqCHARM has taken the lead in producing reference materials (RMs) for microplastic analysis by developing a new concept to make and use RMs containing low but environmental realistic levels of microplastic. Three certified RMs were produced to be marketed for at least three of the four target matrices (water, soil/sediment, biota) during and after the project’s completion.
EUROqCHARM has worked closely with standardisation organisations (ISO/CEN) and monitoring organisations (MSFD-TGML, OSPAR, ICES, AMAP) to harmonise methods for plastic litter using the technical readiness level (TRL) assessment of the analytical methods. Here, EUROqCHARM contributed to the development of the ISO/CEN standards for microplastics (water and solid matrices). EUROqCHARM’s RMs will be used for the validation of the method of the IS method for water sampes. EUROqCHARM has also actively taken part in discussions with the Technical Working Group on Marine Litter (TGML) on the inclusion of plastic litter in the Marine Strategic Framework Directive (MSFD). Concerning harmonisation of reporting of plastic litter data, including micro to macro plastic litter, EUROqCHARM has worked closely together with EMODNet attended workshops led by EMODNet and ICES to synchronise reporting on an international level.
EUROqCHARM has put much effort into capacity building through online events and a hands-on workshop. Capacity building events included two workshops for participants in the ILC study, where laboratories exchanged information under the guidance of EUROqCHARM partners. In regions with less capacity, more specifically around the Black Sea, a hands-on training workshop was organised and supported by several stakeholders.
EUROqCHARM has established the technical readiness of existing methods to measure plastic litter through systematically assessing the state of the art of methods to measure macro to nano plastic litter in environmental samples. Here, EUROqCHARM has developed a new concept to assess current methodologies by establishing ‘reproducible analytical pipelines’ (RAPs) that cover all elements of the analytical chain. Each element of the RAP is assessed in terms of its Technological Readiness Level (TRL) using a SWOT approach to establish the readiness of methods for international monitoring or the needs for further research and development. This approach has drawn much attention from the international community and the TRL output is currently being implemented in working groups to further standardise methods for microplastics.
EUROqCHARM developed a tool for local communities to identify problematic areas for marine litter in Europe using the MFSD threshold for macro litter and a provisional threshold for microplastics. This tool was tested on citizen science data from beach surveys and microplastic monitoring data from the European database EMODnet.
The work of EUROqCHARM will support several EU directives as part of EU’s Green Deal including the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, the Sewage Sludge Directive, the environmental quality standards directive, and the upcoming revision of the Drinking Water Directive in January 2024. The implementation of EUROqCHARM’s TRL assessment and the usage of EUROqCHARM’s reference materials in the development and validation of two ISO/CEN standards shows the wider impact of the project.
The work of EUROqCHARM will contribute to behavioural changes in the society by putting forward tools to monitor the effectiveness of pollution control and remediation actions. Thus, increasing scientifically based awareness on the scale of plastic pollution in Europe related to environmental quality, as well as across the different environments and regions of Europe
EUROqCHARM developed a tool for local communities to identify problematic areas for marine litter in Europe using the MFSD threshold for macro litter and a provisional threshold for microplastics. This tool was tested on citizen science data from beach surveys and microplastic monitoring data from the European database EMODnet.
The work of EUROqCHARM will support several EU directives as part of EU’s Green Deal including the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, the Sewage Sludge Directive, the environmental quality standards directive, and the upcoming revision of the Drinking Water Directive in January 2024. The implementation of EUROqCHARM’s TRL assessment and the usage of EUROqCHARM’s reference materials in the development and validation of two ISO/CEN standards shows the wider impact of the project.
The work of EUROqCHARM will contribute to behavioural changes in the society by putting forward tools to monitor the effectiveness of pollution control and remediation actions. Thus, increasing scientifically based awareness on the scale of plastic pollution in Europe related to environmental quality, as well as across the different environments and regions of Europe