Sewage sludge

The project aimed to make a significant, transdisciplinary contribution to applied research on the prevention of plastic discharges into water bodies via drainage systems from a behavioural and environmental economics perspective.

This project determined sources and sinks of microplastic in the Warnow river basin, as well as relevant dissemination processes on its way to the open Baltic Sea. Separate models were linked so that the resulting model covers the entire river basin including estuary and coastal waters.

In PLAWES, the modelling system of the German national park Weser-Wadden Sea was the first large European river basin that was investigated in detail regarding its microplastic pollution.

The REPLAWA project covered questions of water resource protection in connection with wastewater treatment. The project investigated and quantitatively assessed entry points into water bodies through treatment plants, storm water drainage, and combined sewer overflows as well as swales at treatment facilities and in sewage sludge.

The common element of all investigations in PLASTRAT was the development of solution strategies for sustainable limitation of the spread of plastic residues in the aquatic environment on technical, environmental, scientific and social-ecological levels. The objective consisted of developing a multi-criteria evaluation approach for the environmental compatibility of different types of plastics.