Plastic Free Mersey, a catchment-wide project launched in Liverpool

Plastics pollution affects all rivers. The Plastic Free Mersey project set out to design and implement a new collaborative approach to address plastic pollution in the Mersey River catchment in north-western England. The River Mersey has been recently identified by University of Manchester experts as a microplastic (<5mm) hotspot in the UK. However, less is known about the amounts and types of macroplastic (>5mm) litter in this river and its catchment. The previous findings on microplastics and knowledge gap on macroplastics make the River Mersey catchment the ideal region to develop a framework for a new, collaborative and constructive approach to reduce plastic pollution. Many stakeholders need to be involved in efforts to better understand the complex dynamics, mechanisms, and pathways of plastic pollution, so as to prevent plastics from reaching waterways.

The Plastic Free Mersey project has been launched on Thursday 22^nd July on the riverbank of the River Mersey, outside of the iconic Liver Building in Liverpool. Under the warm sunshine, volunteers from business partners and charity workers joined efforts to showcase and sort litter found by the Mersey Rivers Trust across the catchment. Media in the region that attended and reported on the event included ITV Granada and BBC North West.

Our project brings together the Mersey Rivers Trust, LyondellBasell, INOVYN (part of INEOS), SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK, academics with specialist expertise on plastic pollution in the UK, the British Plastics Federation and PlasticsEurope, and environmental charity Thames21. Every year, about 900 volunteers from the Mersey Rivers Trust collect around 1,000 bin bags of rubbish from waterways from Liverpool Bay to the Pennines. With this project, we want to multiply these litter removal efforts and produce robust evidence to inform and stimulate policies to better protect our rivers. Project partners all agree that plastic waste should have no place in the environment.

Plastic Free Mersey gives volunteers the chance to take the next step, by identifying, counting, and classifying waste in and around rivers to better understand where litter comes from. Employees within the plastics manufacturers will experience citizen science opportunities on the river catchment, engaging with the community and promoting culture change on plastic littering. What they learn will allow us and our partners to identify appropriate science-based interventions to eliminate plastic waste. The project will create an effective framework for similar work in other river catchments to bring about significant, measurable, and sustainable impacts towards freeing our rivers of all plastics.

Plastic and other waste are damaging river ecosystems; we must work together to save these natural spaces for the long-term benefit of wildlife and people. We appeal to any businesses and organisations who want to make a positive difference to the health of our rivers to get in touch with us and explore how they can get involved in our project. Please contact Project Coordinator Luca Marazzi at [email protected].