On 13 June 2025 5:00-6:30 EDT New York Time (11:00-12:30 CEST) INSPIRE will be hosting a webinar on ‘Tackling riverine and estuarine plastic pollution for a cleaner ocean’
This virtual side event aligns with “Ocean Action Panel 4: Preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities” and wants to bridge the gap between policy and research.
Plastic pollution is a growing environmental challenge, with an estimated 75 to 199 million tons in the ocean and rising (UNEP 2021). Rivers often transport land-based plastic waste to the ocean.
The UNEP convened World Water Quality Alliance through its Plastic workstream therefore expanded their research and actions to freshwater and terrestrial environments and has been working on guidelines for the assessment of plastic contamination in freshwater environments.
In Europe the Technical Group Marine Litter under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MFSD) developed recommendations for Riverine Litter monitoring.
Under the umbrella of the convention for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) the riverine litter expert group is developing an indicator for riverine litter while in the Netherlands Rijkswaterstaat is developing a national monitoring strategy for riverine litter.
In Flanders the Public Waste Agency (OVAM) is using measurements (including from drones) as a contribution to the Flemish Action Plan for Marine Litter.
The EU-funded Mission Ocean and Waters project ‘Innovative Solutions for Plastic-Free EU Rivers (INSPIRE)’ aims to significantly reduce plastic litter flowing from Europe’s rivers to the sea by 2030. INSPIRE brings together 20 solutions, scientific research, and community-driven actions to detect, collect, and prevent plastic pollution in European rivers. Endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade, INSPIRE supports SDG14. INSPIRE commits to share evidence-based knowledge and lessons learned and develop a modular Master Plan for scaling up the solutions offering ‘fit for all’ solutions applicable and replicable in all rivers in Europe or worldwide.
The already finished EU-funded MAELSTROM project ‘Smart technology for MArinE Litter SusTainable RemOval and Management’ will share their results and lessons learned from implementing innovative solutions at their demo sites and the importance of collaborating with local stakeholders.
Register here for the Zoom webinar:
https://vito.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gXSgS8pxQ-2a9cq8_pKtpg
Moderated by VITO (Ils Reusen)
Speakers
Anham Salyani (UNEP) and Christian Schmidt (UFZ, Germany) ‘World Water Quality Alliance Action on Riverine Plastics’
Daniel Gonzalez (University of Cadiz, Spain) ‘Gaining clarity: harmonized monitoring of river plastic pollution’
Paul Vriend (Rijkswaterstaat, The Netherlands) ‘Riverine litter monitoring in the Netherlands and at OSPAR’
Els Herremans (OVAM, Belgium) ‘Flemish policy on marine litter in motion: Monitoring the plastic flux from Flemish rivers to the North Sea’
Gert Everaert (Research Department Ocean & Human Health Division of Flanders Marine Institute VLIZ, Belgium) ‘Innovative solutions for plastic free European rivers’
George Triantaphyllidis (MINDS, HCMR, Greece) ‘The INSPIRE technologies to collect and prevent macro and microplastics from rivers’
Fantina Madricardo (CNR, Italy) ‘The experience of the MAELSTROM project and BlueMissionMed upscale support for the Mediterranean Basin’
Q&A
Contact
Name: Gert Everaert
E-mail: inspire-project@vliz.be
Name: Ils Reusen
E-mail: inspire@vito.be
