Plastic is pouring from land into our oceans at a rate of nearly 10 million tonnes a year. Once in the sea, plastics fragment into particles moving with the currents and ocean gyres before washing up on the coastline. The smaller the size the higher the risk posed by these particles to organisms and human health. The EU Horizon 2020-funded LABPLAS project is developing new techniques and models for the quantification of small micro- and nano-plastics (SMNP). Specifically, the LABPLAS Project will determine reliable identification methods for a more accurate assessment of the abundance, distribution, and toxicity determination of SMNP and associated chemicals in the environment. It will also develop practical computational tools to facilitate the mapping of plastic-impacted hotspots and promote scientifically sound plastic governance.
This Zenodo community, curated by the EU Horizon 2020 LABPLAS project, is set up as a platform for the exchange of information and coordination of efforts around the harmonization and standardization of methodologies and techniques for plastics sampling, identification, quantification, degradation trials, ecotoxicity tests, LCA and ERA among others.
The views and opinions expressed here reflect only the authors' views, and not necessarily those of the European Commission.
The LABPLAS project is a comprehensive collective effort of 20 groups from 17 organisations forming a strong consortium, encompassing expertise in pollution, environmental modelling, environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology, oceanography, hydrology, paleoecology, soil ecology, microbiology, water engineering, nanotechnology, economics and knowledge transfer with the ambitious and overarching objective of understanding the sources, transport, distribution and impacts of plastic pollution in all environmental compartments (i.e. freshwater, marine, terrestrial, atmosphere and aquatic biota) by applying technological advances (sampling, analysis, quantification), promoting truly biodegradable novel materials where appropriate, developing innovative and up-scalable models for assessing the fate, effects and risks of plastics, and presenting results for decision making for a scientifically sound Plastic Governance. Special emphasis, but not limited to, is placed on the small micro and nanoplastics (SMNP) (≤ 100 µm).
Based on the following two assumptions:
- Most plastic pollution can be traced back to land-based sources of plastic waste; and
- The environmental impact of plastic particles is driven by their size, shape and composition (i.e., polymer properties, particle size, shape and chemical additives determine the environmental fate and ecotoxicological effects)
the main objectives of the LABPLAS project are:
- To understand the main land-based sources, transport routes, distribution and fate of plastics in different environmental compartments.
- To test the hypothesis of increasing plastic levels in marine sediments/compartments with time.
- To evaluate the impact of microplastics and nanoplastics (MNP) from urban/road run-off on receiving waters by field and simulation studies in a pilot rainfall simulator in urban drainage.
- To develop, tailor, implement and pre-validate analytical technologies for the efficient detection, quantification and chemical characterisation of SMNPs in environmental samples: biotic and abiotic.
- To study, under environmentally relevant conditions, the weathering, behaviour, degradation, release of chemicals, and toxicology of bioplastics.
- To demonstrate the effectiveness of remote sensing for macroplastic detection.
- To assess the impacts of plastics on key species and ecosystems.
- To assess the terrestrial and aquatic environmental risk of ingestible plastic particles (from 100 to 0.1 µm) as a function of particle size and chemical composition.
- To provide solid scientific grounds for current European policies intended to regulate the use and management of plastics, within the frame of the Plastic Strategy and Directive EU/2019/904, and ECHA’s initiatives on plastic additives and restriction of SMNP.
- To promote on solid scientific grounds public education on the environmental threat posed by plastics in the environment, avoiding false myths such as plastic islands, plastic-stuffed birds or association of human plastic exposure with marine food.