About 800 students will study plastic pollution in rivers with a BETA CT project

The use and commercialisation of disposable plastics has increased significantly in recent decades. These plastics are difficult to manage after they have been used and converted to waste, and as a result they are now scattered across the environment, with harmful effects on ecosystems and biodiversity all over the world, and a particular impact on aquatic ecosystems. In fact, estimates suggest that 80% of the plastic materials that reach the sea originate on land, and they are transported directly into the sea by river networks. This is the context in which the BETA Technology Centre (Biodiversity, Ecology and Technology and Environmental and Food Management) has launched the "Fishermen of Plastic", which will investigate plastic pollution in three Catalan rivers, and involve children and young people in the research.

The main objective of "Fishermen of Plastic" is to promote teaching of the scientific method to children and young people between the fifth year of primary school and the second year of secondary school, using a "real but not very widely known" environmental problem, says Meritxell Abril, a researcher at the CT BETA and the joint coordinator of the project, with Lorenzo Proia, who is also a researcher at the Centre. "Although a great deal has been said about the problem of plastics in our oceans, plastic waste pollution in rivers, and the rivers' role providing transportation to the sea is much less widely known," explains April. For this reason, in the project the students will be working alongside CT BETA researchers throughout the entire scientific process, "from establishing the hypotheses, through the field work and sampling, to the final data analysis."

19 schools and 789 students from the Tordera, Fluvià and Baix Ter river basins

This first edition of the project will work on three small river basins, which according to Meritxell Abril, "are very different in terms of their hydrological characteristics, land uses and the presence of industry": they are the lower Tordera river, which is dry, the Fluvià river, which has many small weirs and a continuous flow, and the lower Ter, with its large reservoirs at the beginning of the river.

Nineteen schools from the areas near the basins of the three rivers in the project (7 in the Tordera basin, 7 in the Fluvià and 5 in the lower Ter) are already participating in "Fishermen of Plastic." A total of 789 students (246 from primary schools and 543 from secondary schools) will be taking part in this citizen science initiative. These schools are located in the regions of the Vallès Oriental (in Santa Maria de Palautordera and Sant Celoni), Maresme (in Tordera and Malgrat de Mar), Garrotxa (in Olot, Besalú, Les Preses and Argelaguer), Baix Empordà (in Verges, Ullà and Torroella de Montgrí), Gironès (in Celrà and Medinyà) and La Selva (in Hostalric and Breda).

The students will be working in the classroom throughout this academic year, using a series of activities developed by researchers at the CT BETA. They will finish their work in April with a single field sampling session, which will involve all the schools simultaneously on a single day on different river stretches, using the sampling kit and the instructions provided by the research centre. The project will conclude with a scientific congress at the UVic in early June, where both students and researchers will present the results obtained.

"Fishermen of Plastic" organised workshops linked to the project to mark Science Week at UVic-UCC in November. A total of 172 students between the fifth year of primary school and the second year of secondary school received theoretical training and took part in sampling in the Mèder River to detect plastic waste there, and to classify it both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Teaching on the scientific method and environmental education

"The entire project is focused on education, on both the scientific method and the environmental problems of plastic pollution in rivers," says Meritxell Abril, who nevertheless "expects to obtain high quality data" which enable "a detailed mapping of the quantity and distribution of plastics in the three basins." " Fishermen of Plastic" is inspired by the Scientists of Garbage project, which began in Chile and is taking place in several countries in South America, with the help of the CT BETA. It can be extrapolated to other rivers in Catalonia in future editions.

The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. The grant is part of the latest call for the promotion of scientific, technological and innovation culture.

A problem on the increase

Since plastic began to be produced in the 1950s, 8.3 billion tonnes have been manufactured around the world. In fact, beverage manufacturers alone generate more than 500 billion bottles of disposable plastic every year. Production amounted to 60 million tonnes in Europe alone in 2016, and Spain was the fourth-ranked country in the European Union in terms of the demand for plastic in that year, and 50% of it ended up in landfills. Far from declining, the figures are on the increase, and estimates suggest that the threshold of 500 million tonnes of plastic worldwide every year will be surpassed for the first time by 2020, which would mean levels 900% higher than those of 40 years ago.

"In recent years, people have become increasingly aware of the scale of this problem in environmental terms, especially as regards the negative effects of plastics on marine fauna," says Meritxell Abril, who believes that "the population that is informed about this issue is increasing." Nevertheless, the CT BETA researcher says that "not enough emphasis is being placed on the sources of the plastic in the sea, and particularly on the role of rivers in this process and its harmful effects for freshwater ecosystems." Abril believes that there is a need for "more scientific studies that quantify the accumulation and distribution of plastic waste in river basins, and which analyse the role of rivers as transporters of these long-lasting pollutants to the sea."