An international team of researchers is aiming to dispel popular misconceptions around plastic pollution as a global environmental treaty takes shape.
Talks at the INC-5 (Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee) in Busan, South Korea, will be seeking agreement on an internationally binding legal instrument to control plastics pollution.
The researchers’ Plastic Mythbusters website carries information which offers clarity on an important but often misunderstood subject and they work together with internationally recognised scientists to ‘fact check’ popular statements about plastics pollution.
They will be adding new material to the website on the theme of solutions – specifically whether ocean clean-ups are the best way to tackle plastic pollution and whether microorganisms can break down plastic and eliminate pollution.
Plastic Mythbusters enables users to reflect on where they feel uncertain about plastic pollution. Every fact has been checked using the latest available scientific evidence by a range of leading plastics pollution scientists. Each fact check is available in a short or longer version with background context such as the original scientific papers.
The website was set up in 2023 by researchers at the University of Strathclyde and Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and communications experts at Ahnen & Enkel.
Lesley Henderson, Professor of Science Communication in Strathclyde’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, said: “This initiative has been a novel way of addressing misconceptions which surrounds much of the plastics messaging. Over the last three years, I have been interviewing households in different parts of Scotland, England, Spain and Germany about plastics. It became clear that much confusion was rooted in media stories.
Plastic Mythbusters gives us the opportunity to explore the latest thinking and to share a detailed breakdown of what we know and, even more importantly, what we don’t. As visitors work their way through the questions they also hopefully gain a flavour of the scientific process which is often very different from the media headlines.
This material is hosted in Hereon’s online application, Coastal Pollution Toolbox of the Hereon – a UN Ocean Decade Project.
Plastic Mythbusters has been informed by a project funded by the NERC/Innovate UK/UKRI Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme.