Just like real scientists they explored the waterways along the Wutach to find, count and document macroplastics – such as the remains of plastic bags, – and microplastics, which are barely visible microparticles.
The presence of plastic waste in German waterways is largely unexplored. The citizen science project “Plastic Pirates – The Sea Begins Here!” designed for young people is helping to close this gap in knowledge.
The results are documented on a digital map of Germany (link).
“Plastic Pirates” is a citizen science campaign which contributes to research on the distribution of macro- and microplastics along German rivers. It is part of the of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is carried out in cooperation with ozean:labor at Kieler Forschungswerkstatt.