Major plastic study: Swiss lakes and rivers littered
STOPP's plastic study shows: Between April and December 2017, 120 volunteer Citizen Scientists collected, categorized and disposed of 79,281 waste items at 112 sites along Swiss waterways. From Tupperware to condoms, everything is disposed of at the water's edge. Our rivers and lakes are veritable dumping grounds.
The STOPPP plastic study shows immense missteps of the Swiss society: Around 80,000 waste items have been collected by the 120 volunteers so far and entered into the central database of the European Environment Agency via the "Marine Litter Watch App". The data collectors could work every day and there would always be more to do. The counts from German- and French-speaking Switzerland do not give a conclusive picture of the actual pollution, but the extrapolations would yield a multiple. Nevertheless, it is possible to get an idea of the extent of pollution in Swiss waters. One thing is certain: waste from rivers and lakes will eventually end up in the sea via waterways.
Definitive results 2018
The Swiss Litter Report is the first large-scale survey of the load of plastic and other litter on the banks of watercourses and lakes in Switzerland. The final evaluation of the one-year survey is to be published in June 2018. The organization behind the Swiss Litter Report is STOPPP, which aims to use the study to motivate relevant actors in politics and business to develop circular consumption and waste management concepts. The main long-term goal for STOPPP is to develop concrete measures to keep plastic waste out of our waters. STOPPP wants to shake things up and show that the supposedly clean Switzerland has a serious waste problem. Plastic waste, once it ends up in the environment and especially in water bodies, is difficult to collect again because it breaks down into smaller pieces after some time - but does not degrade over hundreds of years.
What have you found?
The predominant waste category is cigarette filters, followed by glass and other plastic waste. The most commonly found material is by far plastic = plastic with over 62.7 %. Many smokers do not know that cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate. This is a plastic that takes many years to degrade. A single smoked cigarette filter can make 7.5 liters of water inanimate to living creatures.
Media tours:
Media representatives and public offices can contact us to accompany and document a Swiss Litter Report clean-up. Volunteers are available for interviews, photo and film shoots.
Further procedure:
Invitation to the final press conference in June will follow in May 2018.
More information about the Swiss Litter Report:
A press kit with pictures and charts can be found on the Swiss Litter Report website
Website: http://stoppp.org/swiss-litter-report
Facebook: facebook.com/stopporg
Instagram: instagram.com/stoppp_org
STOPPP - Stop Plastic Pollution Switzerland is a non-profit association working for a world without plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is a globally underestimated environmental problem, for which every country must do its part to solve. STOPPP is mainly active in Switzerland, but works together with international associations, because the plastic problem can only be solved globally. You can find out more about the problem of plastic pollution and our scope of action on our website:
