Geography Master Students Discover the Plastic Polution of the Elbe River Floodplains
Yesterday, we have been on the road with the master’s students geography, talking about environmental plastic pollution. We wanted to make their seminar “Changes in Geographical Spaces” more interactive, that is why we implemented field trips for this summer term. This one is just one out three. At the same time, the other half of the seminar group was focussing on the campus’ trees and how to measure their vitality (more information soon in the “News” section).
The picture shows the yield after just 10 minutes of garbage collection at the Elbe River: We found mainly plastics and yes, the students also fished the bench in the background out of the river. Did you know that rivers are often only transport routes for (micro)plastic, but the actual sinks are soils? Floods, human littering, atmospheric deposition etc. make it possible.