Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LimnoPlast (Microplastics in Europe's freshwater ecosystems: From sources to solutions)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-11-01 do 2023-12-31
While there is political motivation to solve the MP issue most activities focus on marine environments. In contrast, most plastic litter is produced on land and emerging research demonstrates that freshwater ecosystems are affected by microplastics pollution.
Since freshwater microplastics emerge as major future challenge for Europe’s freshwater ecosystems and the latter are fundamental to public health and economic activities, the intention of the EU-funded International Training Network LimnoPlast is to close knowledge gaps on the issue of freshwater microplastics and provide the necessary evidence to enable and inform effective prevention and mitigation measures.
LimnoPlast was extremely successful in transferring the outcomes to European decision makers, stakeholders and the public. The harmonised methods to analyse freshwater MP in water and sediments as well as to determine the degradability of plastics are publicly available and are already applied in several laboratories across Europe and beyond.
LimnoPlast generated comparative data on the sources of freshwater MP, the toxicity, and degradability of conventional and biodegradable polymers as well as removal technologies. This new knowledge was and is used to inform the policy framework and relevant stakeholders in publicly available reports, workshops and conferences, such as the UN water conference or the LimnoPlast final conference in Paris together with UNESCO.
The scientific results were presented in over 75 conference contributions. LimnoPlast organized its final conference together with UNESCO, which had a high political profile and attracted societal actors from Europe and beyond. The key-messages are publicly available, were transferred to the UN water conference and resulted in a high media coverage (>190 reports in the media). The LimnoPlast results are further scientifically exploited in several highly renowned scientific publications such as Nature Communications. Committed to the idea of Open Science, all articles are open access.
The innovative method for separating nanoplastics (NP) in industrial wastewater using electrostatic fields has already been patented.
LimnoPlast aimed to develop novel biodegradable polylimonene carbonate polymers, using orange peel waste and CO2. A variety of variants with different modifications have been developed, however, the degradation tests indicated that the biodegradability of the modified novel polymers was too slow for practical applications. Nevertheless, the results achieved in LimnoPlast may pave the way for future developments.
LimnoPlast provided four communication strategies against microplastics pollution (emotion evoking impact messages, instruction-based reflections, connecting sources to action, counter perceptions of distrust) as well as a recommendation on political and legal intervention options.
LimnoPlast explored the international and European legal framework applicable to plastic and microplastic pollution by adopting a life-cycle approach. As a result, gaps and opportunities for improvement were identified for each one of the numerous legal instruments relevant to the field of plastic production and consumption, plastic waste management and trade, and plastic pollution. The results were disseminated in publicly available reports, workshops and conferences, such as the UN water conference or the LimnoPlast final conference in Paris together with UNESCO.
This is emphasized by the aim to develop novel environmentally friendly biodegradable polymers and by the novel developed technique to separate nanoplastics from industrial wastewater. Hence, in concordance with the EU Plastics Strategy LimnoPlast contributed directly to develop a vision for a circular plastics economy, recognizing existing opportunities to reduce the emission of MP into Europe’s freshwater and developing more sustainable practices for a new plastics economy. The transdisciplinary generated toolbox of LimnoPlast was transferred to the relevant actors using a target group-specific dissemination strategy and will help European decision makers defining operational measures for mitigating the plastics pollution. The comprehensive LimnoPlast approach strengthened collaboration beyond academia in Europe, and thus, result in joint future research initiatives, additional career opportunities for early stage researchers and innovative solutions.