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Land-Sourced Litter

Current information on the topic of plastics in the environment


Eine Information von

 
 
 
 

Newsletter May 2024

Dear Readers,

For a fact-based discussion on plastics in the environment, relevant studies with meaningful data and information are a major requirement. In our newsletter, we therefore report on results from scientific papers in this thematic area. We keep you up to date with fresh findings obtained, for example, from studies carried out by BKV GmbH.

In this issue, we report among other things on the research project entitled "Circular Ocean-bound Plastic" (COP), which was launched at the end of 2023 by the University of Rostock and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), together with European partners. It has set itself the target of reducing the quantity of plastic litter that gets by way of rivers into the Baltic Sea. With this regards, the project focuses in particular on macroplastics and urban areas. We asked Mona Maria Narra from the University of Rostock about details of the project. You can read more about this in our interview. 

In the section entitled "BKV projects", our newsletter gives an overview of studies carried out by BKV GmbH in its focus area "Plastics in the Environment". In a statement, Christoph Lindner, managing partner of Conversio Market & Strategy GmbH, who carried out the studies on behalf of BKV, addresses topics for further possible investigations in this field.

We wish you an interesting read. 

Kind regards,

BKV GmbH
FCIO (Austrian Chemical Industry Association)
IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V. (German Plastics Packaging Industry Association)
PlasticsEurope Deutschland e.V.
VDMA Association Plastics and Rubber Machinery

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BKV-projects

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, Canada. 

more …
Christoph Linder, managing partner of Conversio Market & Strategy

From research and science

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.

more …
COP Project to reduce plastic in the Baltic Sea

Interview

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.

more …
Mona Maria Narra

From research and science

How microplastic gets to the Arctic

An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Vienna and the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen, Germany, has established in an ongoing study that the shape of microplastic particles contributes decisively to their transport properties. They combined laboratory experiments with model simulations of the global distribution of microplastic particles and concluded that fibres with a length of up to 1.5 millimetres can, because of their shape, reach very distant places of the Earth such as the Arctic.

more …
Picture of the Arctic Sea

From politics and industry

Compulsory re-use of to-go products without effect 

In order to restrict the littering caused by packaging waste such as single-use cups and trays in town centres and parks, railway stations and pedestrian zones, Germany has introduced its compulsory re-use for such products at restaurants, supermarkets and fuel stations beginning of 2023. For example, single-use cups for beverages fall under the new legislation, irrespective of the material from which they are made. With single-use containers for food, however, it is dependent on the material. If a restaurant owner or supplier offers the meal in a single-use dish made of plastic or with a plastic content, he must have a re-usable alternative at the ready. For this reason, many companies offering take-away meals have, according to press reports, switched to less environment-friendly disposable alternatives made of cardboard or aluminium. The German Government intends to change this part of the packaging legislation.

more…
Hand holding single use plastic cup

Source One Plastics: Filter system for capturing microplastic

In a new recycling unit built by Source One Plastics in Eicklingen (Lower Saxony), a special high-performance filtration system has been installed that aims to prevent fine dust or microplastic particles getting into the environment. The facility began regular operation at the end of February 2024.

more …
Filtration unit of Source One Plastic recycling plant

News

OTTO opts for dispatch bags made of "wild" plastic

Since 2020, the mail-order company OTTO has been making partial use of packaging made of "wild" plastic from the Hamburg-based start-up Wildplastic that was collected from the environment. From 2021 to the end of 2023, OTTO collected around 308 tonnes of plastic waste from the environment for these dispatch bags, and thus saved 740,053 kg of carbon dioxide. 

more …
Dispatch bags made from wild plastic

DFG finances joint laboratory of the University of Dresden for microplastic research

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is to fund the equipping of a joint laboratory at the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden (HTWD) in the coming five years with sums amounting to 1 million euros. With the new equipment, research is to be intensified in the fields of microplastic, soil science, water management and vegetation technology, and the effects of plastics on the environment investigated.

more …
Prof Kathrin Harre, Head of the Microplastics Research Group (HWTD) with Sebastian Gemkow, Saxon State Minister for Science, Culture and Tourism

BKV GmbH
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D-60329 Frankfurt/Main


info(at)bkv-gmbh.de

Contact
BKV GmbH
info(at)bkv-gmbh.de

Editor: Barbara Simon
bs(at)alphapunktbeet.de
Fon: +49 2131 276 500


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