Aim: To establish robust approaches to understand and monitor the source, distribution, and fate of plastic waste in Indonesia. To establish sensitive monitoring approaches to rapidly assess the efficacy of interventions.
UK lead: Professor Richard Thompson, University of Plymouth.
Indonesia lead: Dr Muhammad Reza Cordova, Indonesian Institute of Science.
Partner network: Professor Gede Hendrawn, Universitas Udayana and BRIN (formerly the Indonesian Institute of Science; LIPI).
There are numerous reports of plastic contamination in the Indonesian marine environment, but detailed estimates of sources and quantities are lacking. There is some consensus on heavily contaminated locations and key litter items. At a very broad scale, predictions based on waste management data indicate potential hotspots where waste can escape into the environment. These predictions require validation, and the PISCES team will gather data to examine the relationship between waste entering the environment from Indonesia and that coming from elsewhere via the ocean. Importantly, they will make rapid assessments of key litter types that represent local challenges, alongside the development of robust, rapid monitoring methods capable of detecting subtle changes in waste management practices and behaviour as a result of interventions. Experimental work will age plastic litter in natural, but controlled, conditions. The physical deterioration (abrasion, loss of pigments, oxidation, fragmentation, biofouling) of materials will be used to assess changes in the ratio of items entering the environment versus managed waste streams, and the proportion of new versus old styles of packaging. The team will evaluate their methods, seeking to harmonize them with existing protocols (CSIRO, OSPAR, MSFD), so that rapid methods to assess the efficacy of interventions can be used to monitor long-term trends.
