News Marine Litter

Study on the subject of fungi that degrade plastics

Scientists at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and the University of Potsdam have, according to a study published in Science of the Total Environment, identified fungi in freshwater eco-systems that can efficiently degrade plastics. The results show that strains of Fusarium, Penicillium, Botryotinia and Trichoderma have a high potential to degrade polyethylene (PE), polyurethane (PUR) and tyre rubber. In the study, PUR proved to be the most readily degradable of all the tested plastics. The remarkable thing is, according to the research team, that no addition of sugars as an energy source is needed for breaking down the plastics by the fungi – unlike what was assumed from the studies carried out so far.

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Microrobots filter microplastic from water

Czech researchers from the Future Energy and Innovation Laboratory, the Central European Institute of Technology and the Brno University of Technology have developed microrobots that are able, in a swarm, to remove microplastic from seas and other waters. The microrobots are controlled by magnetic fields and can, according to the research team, be cleaned and reused after taking up the microplastic. They see the microrobots as a highly promising approach for the cleaning and purifying of water.

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Interview: Dr Sieglinde Stähle on microplastics in food

We talked to expert Dr Sieglinde Stähle about the current state of knowledge as regards microplastic in food. Dr Stähle is a member of the scientific management in the leading association of the German food industry, where she is responsible among other things for food hygiene, food contact materials and standardisation. In addition, the food technologist and graduate food engineer is a member of the Executive Committee of the German Food Code Committee and also belongs to the BfR Commission for Consumer Products of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).

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Oil-producing countries prevent agreement on UN plastic agreement in South Korea

The fifth round of negotiations (INC-5) for a United Nations agreement to reduce plastic waste has ended without an agreement. According to media reports, the states could not agree on binding measures and now want to continue negotiations next year. The reason for this is the resistance of oil-producing countries to an ambitious agreement that covers the entire life cycle of plastics, including requirements for the new production of plastics. The reactions to the failure of the agreement were mixed.

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EU pellets regulation to be tightened

On April 25, 2024, the EU Parliament took up its position on the EU Commission's proposal for a "Regulation on preventing plastic pellet losses to reduce microplastic pollution", and tightened up the regulation at various points. The proposal was made, for example, to extend the scope of validity of the regulation to small companies, to specify regular verification through certifications, and to take into account existing pollution through plastic pellets.

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Project on microplastic pollution in the Danube region

Projects of the Interreg Danube region are co-funded by the European Union. The main obejective of the project “MicroDrink” is to work out basic principles that enable an assessment of the occurrence of microplastic in the groundwater and drinking water in the Danube region. 31 partners from Croatia (management) and Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina, Slovenia want, as part of the project, to exchange know-how and experience in the next two and a half years with regard to sampling, analytics, monitoring and risk assessment. The Environment Agency Austria will, as a project partner, supply expertise on sampling and analytics in order to develop harmonised methods. The project was kicked off with a meeting of all the project partners at the beginning of March 2024 in Zagreb.

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Cosmetic bottles made of "ocean plastic"

The British cosmetics company Lush is switching successively to bottles made of certified recycled "Prevented Ocean Plastic". The company has, it says, been using 100% recycled PET for its transparent bottles for more than a decade. In April 2024, Lush announced that it would use "Prevented Ocean Plastic" for bottles with a size of 100, 250 and 500 ml. The bottles are produced in the UK as well as in Germany and Croatia.

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Plastics in the environment: Overview of BKV studies and research requirements

For some years now, the plastics industry has been in a deep-seated process of change and is gearing itself intensively to a future in which plastics are lead by circularity and, thus, utilised as sustainably and efficiently as possible. Intensive discussions on plastics in the environment, both in the land and in the seas, are being carried out at EU level and globally such as in the consultations at the United Nations on a global agreement at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee INC-4 in April 2024 in Ottawa, Canadaa.

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Research project aims to reduce plastic in the Baltic Sea

Together with Danish, Swedish and Polish partners, the University of Rostock and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde (IOW) has launched a research project that aims to reduce the quantity of plastic waste that gets into the Baltic Sea via the rivers. For plastic waste from land-based sources, for example from industry or tourism, solutions are to be developed to minimise these discharges in cooperation with companies, research institutes and communities in the coastal region of the southern Baltic Sea.

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Mona Maria Narra talks about the project "Circular Ocean-bound Plastic" (COP)

Mona Maria Narra is a research assistant in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rostock in the field of waste and resource management, and is involved as a project partner in the Interreg project "Circular Ocean-bound Plastic". She studied environment and resource management at the University of Brandenburg and international management of forest eco-systems at the College of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde.

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