Plastic littering

Alles, was in Bächen, Flüssen und Strömen landet, kann mit dem Wasser in die Meere und Ozeane geschwemmt werden. Plastikmüll zum Beispiel. Dort gefährdet er Tiere und gelangt in die marine Nahrungskette. Das Vorkommen von Plastikmüll in und an deutschen Fließgewässern ist jedoch vielerorts noch unerforscht. Die Citizen-Science-Aktion „Plastikpiraten – Das Meer beginnt hier!“ für Jugendliche zwischen 10 und 16 Jahren trägt dazu bei, diese Lücke zu schließen.

The project aims 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 PLAWES, the modelling system of the German national park Weser-Wadden Sea is the first large European river basin that is investigated in detail regarding its microplastic pollution to.

Since it is technically and economically impossible to reduce the amount of plastic waste in oceans, solutions to cut the entry of such substances into the environment must be developed. Developing countries, however, often lack land-based approaches to such solutions.

revolPET aims to develop a solvolytic recycling process for materials made of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) in multilayer or mixed materials and to carry out experimental trials. Inactive patents for solvolysis of single-variety PET waste form the basis for this research: those solvolytic processes will be enhanced into a continuous waste treatment concept that can recycle PET waste.

The common element of all investigations in PLASTRAT is 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 consists of developing a multi-criteria evaluation approach for the environmental compatibility of different types of plastics.