Progress report for
Scaling up the “Plastic Pirates - Go Europe!” initiative
Achievement at a glance
The EU has allocated EUR 2 million to fund the Europeanisation of the Plastic Pirates citizen initiative. Serving as a replicable model for best practices in how science and society work together, the initiative has helped enhance global understanding and knowledge of plastic pollution in European rivers, coasts, and seas through large-scale citizen-science sampling campaigns in 13 different countries, data that would have taken years to collect under normal scientific conditions. Involving over 16,000 students across Europe, more than 860 field samples and 360 from rivers, waterways, and coastlines have been collected and analysed, resulting in the identification of over 93,700 plastic items, including 51,100 single-use plastic pieces.This new harmonised and standardised dataset is significantly contributing to closing the research gap on plastic waste in the marine and freshwater domains by providing easily accessible open data to existing European data portals like the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and further contributing to transforming data into knowledge with the European Digital Twin of the Ocean.
Next Steps
Benedicte CaremierBeneficiaries
The primary beneficiaries include school classes and young people across Europe, particularly from an educational standpoint. Furthermore, researchers, stakeholders, and policymakers at the local, national, and EU levels will benefit from the application and utilisation of the data produced.
Actions
First, to enable young people and pupils to investigate litter pollution of rivers in Europe, the initiative developed educational material.Second, the data has been produced using standardised approaches for sampling, data collection, and storage, with open access in line with the FAIR principles, making it available for researchers across Europe.
Third, once ready, and with the support of local partners and established research hubs, the data will be shared among various stakeholders and policymakers at the local, national, and EU levels to support the implementation and monitoring of key EU policy objectives, such as the Zero Pollution Action Plan for Water, Air, and Soil, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and the Water Framework Directive.