Cleaning our seas and oceans of plastic litter

Abstract

Cleaning our seas and oceans of plastic litter Increased global production and poor waste management have led to a build-up of plastic litter in the world’s oceans. This has a devastating effects on ecosystems and marine life. The flow of plastics into the oceans occurs through a variety of pathways, but rivers are one of the largest contributors. The LIFE SouPLess project aims to develop technology to catch plastics from rivers before they spread to the seas and oceans. It is a 4.5 years project (July 2018 – December 2022). Three main links of the chain of riverine plastic recovery will be tackled: from locating plastic hotspots with a dedicated numerical model to effectively collecting the plastics with systems and finding cost-effective solutions for post-processing the collected litter.