Our health is seriously damaged by plastic and the chemicals in it
Minderoo Foundation releases new report: Our health is seriously damaged by plastic and the chemicals in it.
Citizen Science: Motivated cleaning up of litter
Amsterdam, 23 August 2018– The banks of the Meuse and Waal rivers will be kept clean by volunteers for five years. This is part of a large-scale project researching litter set up in 2017 by the Plastic Soup Foundation in collaboration with IVN Natuureducatie and the North Sea Foundation (Stichting de Noordzee). Clean Rivers is a citizen science project in which citizens actively take part in scientific research. The litter is not only cleared up but analysed as well. The purpose is to gain an insight into the amount, types of products, composition and origins of the rubbish. This data will help implement a more effective strategy to tackle the problem of waste, including addressing the producers of the retrieved products and holding them responsible.
The “Citizen Science voor Schone Rivieren” (citizen science for clean rivers) report by the University of Leiden shows that citizen scientists are mostly concerned about the amount of litter and also want to contribute to solving the plastic soup problem by tackling pollution at source. The Leiden research aimed to find out what motivated the volunteers to join the project.
Local clubs also organise clean ups, but they sometimes do so because of a financial incentive from their municipalities. For them, the most important motivation is to boost the finances of their clubs. They are far less interested in tackling the plastic soup problem at source.
In a few weeks’ time, everyone in the Netherlands will have the opportunity to clean up litter while contributing to scientific research. It is World Cleanup Day on Saturday 15 September and there will be clean-up activities organised in more than 150 countries. Everyone that joins in helps map litter on the user-friendly Litterati app on their smartphones. The Plastic Soup Foundation and Nudge will organise the clean-up activities in the Netherlands. Individuals may start a local clean up activity and sign up here.
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