Overview

Plastics in the environment are an increasingly serious challenge. As macroplastics deteriorate, such as through tire abrasion, the resulting microplastics can enter the aquatic environment through a variety of entry points. As vehicle traffic increases, there is an inevitable increase in microplastics from worn tires ending up in the environment.

Textiles made of synthetic fibres can lose microparticles during household washing, which can then enter rivers, lakes and oceans. The goal of Textile- Mission was to reduce the related environmental impact. The project pursued an interdisciplinary approach with partners from the Sport Goods Industry, research, the detergent and household aplliance sectors, and environmental protection.

The idea and goal of Innoredux was to develop and implement innovative packaging solutions in distance and stationary retailing using a living lab research approach in order to avoid or reduce plastic waste along the value chain.

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.

In order to legitimise political decisions on the problem of plastic emissions into the environment, it is necessary to formulate a quantitative emission target. The budget approach for plastic emissions was developed within the framework of this project. The research work was guided by the following questions: What amount of plastics in the environment is still acceptable?

Consumers buying products made of or wrapped in plastic play a decisive role in plastic consumption in Germany. A complete avoidance of plastic in everyday life, while unlikely to occur in full, would only be possible with extremely high restrictions. Moreover, many consumers are not aware of how much plastic is put into circulation or into the environment by buying a product.

The aim of the project was to develop concepts and preliminary planning for the implementation of an infrastructure for the collection, ship-based treatment, and marketing of plastic waste in order to reduce the input of plastic waste into the environment and marine ecosystems. The project's target regions were primarily less developed countries in the Global South.

The goal of this project was to set up a markerbased system for sorting and recycling that involves every stage from packaging development and sorting technology to high quality material reuse. The MaRek project demonstrated the usefulness of fluorescent markers for waste management applications.

In view of climate change, environmental pollution, population growth, and resource dependency, the transition from a linear economy to a closed-loop economy is both ecologically and economically necessary. Within the ResolVe project, a logistics and an industrial plant concept for the economic use of polystyrene waste as a raw material for high-quality new plastic products were developed.

As part of the revolPET project, a solvolytic recycling process for waste PET plastics (Polyethylene Terephthalate) from multilayer and other mixed materials was elaborated and experimentally tested.

This project systematically detected emissions of plastics into wastewater from relevant industries. Emissions levels were analysed along all points of the value chain (production, transport, processing, and cleaning of synthetic materials).

Within the framework of this project, plastics with environmentally optimised decomposition behaviour were developed, which can degrade faster and in a more eco-friendly manner while maintaining the same stability.

Within the framework of this project,  a first-ever accounting of macro-, meso- and microplastics released into the German part of the Danube river basin was achieved, with measuring stations at its main tributaries. Microplastic particles (particles < 5 mm) were examined by using various, complementary analytical methods.

The spread of microplastics in rivers showed that along a given waterway there are sources as well as sinks. Thus, dams and reservoirs constitute important but until now hardly investigated parts of a water system that serve as examples for risk vs. usefulness of sedimentation of microplastics.

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.

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.

This project developed representative investigation methods and strategies for an integrative system understanding of relevant plastic entry paths into the environmental compartment water.

The methods currently available for the analysis of microplastics in environmental matrices were primarily designed for particles in the size range of 1 μm to 5 mm. Smaller particles below 1 μm were hardly detected. However in contrast to larger particles, these are able to enter cells and have a higher potential for adsorption of pollutants due to their relatively larger surface.

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.