Fighting the plastic soup by using citizen science approaches

Anthropogenic litter and plastics in particular pose a huge threat to marine ecosystems around the world. The environmental issue of marine plastics is interdisciplinary as it not only negatively affects the environment and its inhabitants, but also human health and economies. Marine litter removal technologies and approaches from different sectors have been developed and implemented. Due to the large spatial and temporal dimensions of this problem citizen science approaches could be the solution to mitigate the plastic pollution. The Dive Against Debris initiative is encouraging recreational and professional divers to participate in underwater clean-ups and contributing their findings to a global database. The Seabin Project developed a device that removes floating litter in marinas. Besides the product the organization puts a high focus on involving people from the public in their research project. By implementing the Share Programme, they offer the opportunity of a citizen science project that collects data on microplastics. By evaluating these two approaches factors that determine the success or failure of citizen science projects were identified. The results show that approaching a large-scale environmental problem such as the marine plastic pollution can happen most efficiently by involving citizen scientists in the data collection and research process. Volunteers benefit from learning about ecological processes and science benefits from cheap labour and an extensive database