CEE Seminar – The Origin of the Plastic Soup

Tim van Emmerik, Assistant Professor Hydrologic Sensing at Wageningen University (WU), the Netherlands, will present his seminar, “The Origin of the Plastic Soup.”

Plastic pollution of aquatic ecosystem is an emerging hazard due to its negative effect on ecosystem health and human livelihood. Rivers are a main pathway of land-based plastic waste into the ocean. However, recent observations suggest that most plastics never leave the river basin. In fact, they are hypothesized to accumulate on floodplains, around hydraulic infrastructure and within estuaries. In this seminar we will discuss sources, sinks and transport mechanisms of plastic pollution through river basins, and avenues to explore in future research.