To solve the problem of plastics, researchers at NTNU in Ålesund are working to create a model that will show where plastic collects and determine where in the region it comes from.
The researchers are collaborating with the Ålesund region’s Port Authority, Ålesund municipality and Møre og Romsdal county.
The aim of this effort is to generate more targeted measures for the clean-up and collection of waste. According to the researchers, they are currently developing an app that recognizes plastic from an image.
More specifically, when someone is cleaning up marine waste, they could photograph the plastic objects they find with their mobile and register the product in the app.
About 100 people will test the app when they are carriyng out clean-up actions in the future, while the team includes the Norwegian Centre for Oil Spill Preparedness and Marine Environment, Runde Environmental Centre and volunteer organizations.
Commenting on the app, Ricardo Da Silva Torres, the professor who is responsible for the technical tool, said that the technology will become widely available starting in the spring of 2022.
The ultimate goal for the app is to help predict which areas are have the most plastic pollution and where it comes from.
More than 9 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, with 7 billion tons ending as waste, in the form of microplastics. They originate mostly from packages and drink bottles and break up into tiny pieces in the environment. According to estimations, if this continues the world will end up with 13 billion tons of microplastics by 2050.
Even though they have been found in a variety of marine species, because of their small size, the problem they are causing is not getting the consideration it should. Recently, the world has begun looking on this matter as plastic microbeads were found in personal care products such as shower gel, and toothpaste. In fact, 4,360 tons of microbeads were used all over European Union countries in that year alone. Furthermore, in the US alone eight trillion microbeads are entering aquatic environments every day.
