TY - JOUR
T1 - A nationwide assessment of plastic pollution in the Danish realm using citizen science
AU - Syberg, Kristian
AU - Palmqvist, Annemette
AU - Khan, Farhan R.
AU - Strand, Jakob
AU - Vollertsen, Jes
AU - Clausen, Lauge Peter Westergaard
AU - Feld, Louise
AU - Hartmann, Nanna B.
AU - Oturai, Nikoline
AU - Møller, Søren
AU - Nielsen, Torkel Gissel
AU - Shashoua, Yvonne
AU - Hansen, Steffen Foss
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Astra for organizing the Mass Experiment and the 57,000 participants for conducting the surveys. This work was made under the Danish center for research into marine plastic pollution - MarinePlastic, funded by the VELUX foundation, Grant Number: 25084.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Plastic pollution is considered one of today’s major environmental problems. Current land-based monitoring programs typically rely on beach litter data and seldom include plastic pollution further inland. We initiated a citizen science project known as the Mass Experiment inviting schools throughout The Danish Realm (Denmark, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands) to collect litter samples of and document plastic pollution in 8 different nature types. In total approximately 57,000 students (6–19 years) collected 374,082 plastic items in 94 out of 98 Danish municipalities over three weeks during fall 2019. The Mass Experiment was the first scientific survey of plastic litter to cover an entire country. Here we show how citizen science, conducted by students, can be used to fill important knowledge gaps in plastic pollution research, increase public awareness, establish large scale clean-up activities and subsequently provide information to political decision-makers aiming for a more sustainable future.
AB - Plastic pollution is considered one of today’s major environmental problems. Current land-based monitoring programs typically rely on beach litter data and seldom include plastic pollution further inland. We initiated a citizen science project known as the Mass Experiment inviting schools throughout The Danish Realm (Denmark, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands) to collect litter samples of and document plastic pollution in 8 different nature types. In total approximately 57,000 students (6–19 years) collected 374,082 plastic items in 94 out of 98 Danish municipalities over three weeks during fall 2019. The Mass Experiment was the first scientific survey of plastic litter to cover an entire country. Here we show how citizen science, conducted by students, can be used to fill important knowledge gaps in plastic pollution research, increase public awareness, establish large scale clean-up activities and subsequently provide information to political decision-makers aiming for a more sustainable future.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093095409&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-020-74768-5
DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-74768-5
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 33082484
AN - SCOPUS:85093095409
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 10
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 17773
ER -