The Slovenian Water Institute highlighted the issue of microplastics on the educational programme ‘Let’s Bite into Science’

The Slovenian Water Institute highlighted the issue of microplastics on the educational programme ‘Let’s Bite into Science’

The Slovenian Water Institute presented microplastic sampling in rivers on the programme ‘Let’s Bite into Science’. Dr Manca Kovač Viršek appeared on the programme to discuss the issue of microplastics and a new method for sampling microplastics in rivers, developed by the Slovenian Water Institute.

Microplastics are found at all depths in river water, but sampling nets can only collect samples at the surface and just below it. Furthermore, a great deal of other rubbish gets caught in the net, making it difficult to identify microplastics in the sample. These were the two main reasons why the Slovenian Water Institute developed its own method using a pump.

You can watch the programme *Ugriznimo znanost* via the link below:

https://www.rtvslo.si/4d/arhiv/174821450?s=tv

The programme also featured the ‘Plastic Pirates – Let’s Go Europe’ project, in which the Slovenian Water Institute is also participating. The project was presented by Dr Mateja Grego from the National Institute of Biology at the Piran Marine Biology Station. More than 100 schools across Slovenia are involved in the project. Plastic Pirates is an international citizen science project initiated by the German, Portuguese and Slovenian Ministries of Science as part of the trio presidency of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia of the Council of the European Union. Pupils and students in these countries are investigating riverbanks in accordance with a common protocol, whilst the role of scientists is to verify and evaluate the results and analyse microplastics from the rivers. You can read more at the link below:

https://www.plastic-pirates.eu/sl

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