Project

LOG IN

Use of plastic in the society

Use of plastic

Waste

Wrong waste management

Visible plastic waste in the seas

Degradation

factors and time horizon

Direct discharge of microplastic

Microplastic in the

marine environment

Environmental effects

Regulations

and circular economy

Interaction with animals

Macroscopic effects on animals

Regulation of

waste management

and recycling

Uptake in marine organisms

Effects on marine species?

Effects on marine ecosystems?

Regulation of use of plastic

Regulation of discharge of microplastic

MAIN GOALS:

MarinePlastic has an
ambitious environmental
mission, and aims to help
today´s drowning plastic
pollution problem

MarinePlastic will
strengthen the status
of Danish research
in an international
context

MarinePlastic gathers the
Danish research intitutes
from different fields to
create groundbraking
research

MarinePlastic will
utilise the knowledge
by proposing social
solutions and integrate
decision makers

THE CONSORTIUM AND WORK PACKAGES

Fulfilling the goals requires that societal development form the point of departure for future research focus and that future policy measures on the other hand learn from scientific state of the art. The research strategy for the MarinePlastic center takes this approach by having work package (WP) 1 addressing regulatory and societal change and providing input and feedback to WP 2-5, which then address the major scientific uncertainties within the areas: detection, abundance, fate and impact of marine plastic pollution.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Marine plastic pollution is one of the fastest growing environmental problems of our time.

Between 60 and 80% of today’s global marine litter is comprised of plastic and 4-12 million tons are released annually into the marine environment.

Plastic pollution is highly visible in the published and social media and prioritised on the political agenda both in Denmark and internationally. As a result, policy proposals and guidelines, such as the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the European Commission’s strategies on plastics and the Circular Economy Package are not in full synergy with those that regulate production, use and disposal of plastic. There is a need to improve understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of existing policies, strategies and initiatives, as well as for continued scientific research on the specific aspects of plastic pollution that can support political activities.