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How can plastic litter in the seas be avoided?
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Dear Readers,
It is common sense that the washing of textiles made of synthetic fibres releases microplastic particles that subsequently get into the wastewater and sewage. It is possible, however, that the quantities that finally end up in the environment are overestimated. The final report published after three and a half years of work on the consortium project "TextileMission" shows that the filters in wastewater treatment plants retain up to 97 percent of the abraded fibres, which means that, at the end of it all, the volume actually released is between 0.1 and 1.3 tonnes a year (in Germany). The final report also makes suggestions on how this quantity can be further reduced. A summary of the report is given in this marine litter newsletter.
You may also be interested in the comprehensive analysis written by a research team at the Helmholtz Institute of the numerous proposed solutions on how plastic discharges can be prevented, measured, analysed and finally also removed. What is worrying here is the small number of projects that are actually being realised. The authors of this analysis have also investigated why this is so, and they subsequently make suggestions for improvement.
This and plenty more can be found in this newsletter. The topics of marine litter and plastics in the environment will presumably accompany us for a long time – even longer than the never-ending coronavirus pandemic. We will therefore report again on the latest scientific findings and look at successful projects for preventing the discharge of plastics into the environment. We will be pleased if you find our information interesting and even helpful. Should you have any ideas or comments – also of a critical nature – we will be pleased to hear from you.
We will contact you again in the coming months with the next issue of the report.
With very best regards,
BKV GmbH
FCIO Austrian Chemical Industry Association
GKV German Association of Plastics Converters
IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V. – German Association for Plastics Packaging and Film
PlasticsEurope Deutschland e.V.
VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery
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The report published in April is now also available in English. It is a further development of the model "From Land to Sea", which has been repeatedly updated in the last few years because expert discussion is now also very much concerned with discharges into the environment and where they finally end up. The BKV will therefore again be updating the discharge pathways model "From Land to Sea" with new data this year.
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From research and science
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After a good three and a half years of research, the joint project "TextileMission", which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has been concluded and the results have been published in a detailed final report. The report says that, in Germany, around ten tonnes of microplastic are released every year through the wearing and washing of sportswear such as fleece jackets and sports shirts and vests. 93 to 97 percent of the particles smaller than 5 millimetres and larger than 5 micrometres are retained in the treatment plants which means that between 100 kilogramme and 1.3 tonnes are released into the environment every year.
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On the topic of marine litter, a team at the Helmholtz Centre Hereon (www.hereon.de), headed by research scientist Nikoleta Bellou, has published, in the specialist journal Nature Sustainability, a comprehensive analysis of solutions for the prevention, monitoring and cleaning of plastic waste that has been discharged into the environment. The team comes to the conclusion that there is a need for more funding, more networking between the parties involved, and a greater political will to find solutions.
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According to the intermediate result of an ongoing study on the documentation, evaluation and prevention of microplastic in composts and digestate from biowaste recycling units and their discharge into agricultural soil (MiKoBo), just under 450 tonnes of microplastics are discharged annually throughout Germany via composts and liquid digestate products. Of this, plastic sheet and film account for 146 tonnes and rigid plastics for 302 tonnes. The research project is funded by the German State of Baden-Württemberg and also involves the universities of Stuttgart, Hohenheim and Bayreuth as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology, ICT.
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Approximately 18.4 million tonnes of plastic waste are said to have been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic up until August 2021 in 193 countries, predominantly in Asia. This is the estimate made by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who see in this above all a threat to marine life.
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From politics and industry
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The countries of the Oslo-Paris Convention (OSPAR), which is subject to international law and was set up for the protection of the North Sea and the North-East Atlantic, have resolved to establish an extensive protection area and define concrete reduction targets for marine litter. The countries organised in OSPAR will place under conservation an area of 6,000 square kilometres, which is larger than Germany and Great Britain together, and will thus, according to the latest information, become the second-largest protected area in the world.
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In Indonesia, Borealis is to invest in the further expansion of the project launched together with Systemiq in 2017 that aims to reduce environmental pollution by plastic waste. With a comprehensive financing commitment to extend the project, Borealis wants to drive the circular economy for plastics in the region by setting up circular waste management systems.
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Students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) have tested technologies with which plastic waste is automatically removed from rivers. The young researchers, who want to tackle the global problem of marine pollution, are starting their project with rivers, so that the litter cannot get into the seas in the first place. With the help of a robot, the plastic bottles, toys or shoes fished out of rivers are to be automatically sorted and separated from biological materials.
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The book provides a comprehensive overview of the effects of pollution by plastics on fresh water and seawater, and the resultant challenges when evaluating and managing plastic waste in the aquatic environment. In one of the chapters, BKV Project Manager Stephanie Cieplik explains the BKV model entitled "From Land to Sea: Model for the Documentation of Land-Sourced Plastic Litter".
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ImprintBKV GmbH
Mainzer Landstraße 55
60329 Frankfurt am Main
GERMANY
Phone: +49(0)69 2556 1921
Fax: +49(0)69 2556 1593
info(at)bkv-gmbh.de | Managing director: Dr. Ingo Sartorius
Chairman of the board: Matthias Stechhan (LyondellBasell)
Registration-Id.: 37068
District court: Frankfurt am Main
VAT-IdNo.: DE161749366
Responsible: Dr. Ingo Sartorius
Editor: Uli Martin |
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