Foto zum Thema ... Plastics in the Environment Activities in Austria @ B. Liebmann, Umweltbundesamt Plastics in the Aquatic Environment  Worldwide production of plastics amounts to 280 Mio. Tons/year (2012)  Trend is increasing  80% of marine plastics litter has land-based sources  20% originate from fishing vessels and cruise-ships  Rivers are regarded as main contributors, but solid data are missing  Fragmented knowledge from rivers and lakes  Different approaches  Incomparable results 2 Austria is landlocked 3 Danube River Survey  Two sampling sites close to the Austrian borders  Cross sectional and in-depth sampling for profiling the transport of plastics  First and unique approach  Sampling at different hydrological discharges  Drift net sampling with a mesh size of 500µm and 250µm  Identification of the plastic particles  Calculation of plastic transport and plastic load Funded by Austrian Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Federal Provinces of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna in Co-operation with BOKU and viaDonau 4 Methodology @ M. Liedermann, BOKU  Drift net assembled to a rack and exposed from a lorry  Developed and handled by BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna 5 Analysis of microplastics  Avoid contamination (clothes, lab equipment)  Concentration of microparticles on filters  Identification of polymer type by Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR)  „Chemical imaging“ of particles directly on filter by Infrared microscopy & spectroscopy (micro FT-IR) -> polymer type, particle shape, and position @ B. Liebmann, Umweltbundesamt PP PE PA 6 River Profile & Plastic Loads  First data of a river profile  Depth variance and cross section  Higher concentrations on the surface  Higher concentrations at river bank  Dynamics of disposal and remobilisation in the river  Transport  25-145 kg/d for total  Load  <40 tons/a for total of plastics (about 15-20 tons/a from Bavaria) 7 … more Results  Approx. 90% of plastics are discharged by diffuse sources  Surface run-off, Littering by consumer, improper product use, construction, wind driven transport, plastic film use (agriculture)  Point sources  Sewage treatment plants, sewers  Industrial origin  Production, transport, processing  Identified as pellets  No evidence of plastics in fish of the Danube River  30 individuals 8 Challenges & Conclusions  European Standards  Which size do we measure  Definition of microplastics  Where do we measure  River profiles & ecosystems  How do we measure and calculate the load  compareable methods (Austria has a scientific based proposal)  Separation of microplastics from natural matrix  Identification of polymeres to identify the origin  Prevention at the sources  Zerro pellets and powder loss in production transport & processing  Less or no use in cosmetics  Reduce and ban littering  Collect and reuse plastics 9 Contact Karl Kienzl Deputy Managing Director Environment Agency Austria @ P. Hohenblum, Umweltbundesamt Karl.Kienzl@umweltbundesamt.at Environment Agency Austria www.umweltbundesamt.at Eliminating Plastic and Microplastic Pollution – an urgent need Brussels ■ May 11th 2015 10