Factsheet 17: Preventing plastic waste locally

Plastic waste poses significant problems for many municipalities: Overflowing rubbish bins and carelessly discarded single-use plastic products or packaging cause direct inputs into the environment or via drains into wastewater. In factsheet 17, the researchers from the joint project InRePlast explain how much influence municipalities have on solving the problem and how measures can be designed and role models can be set.

The InRePlast project examines and classifies the occurrence of plastic parts of at least 1 mm in size in sewage treatment plants and road drainage systems in the municipalities of Aachen, Roetgen, Simmerath and Stollberg. Surveys and a laboratory experiment support the analyses. Based on this, proposals for environmental policy instruments to prevent the inputs are developed.

Factsheet 17 is available for download here.