On 27 November 2019, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen) organized a symposium on the plastic pollution crisis.

Mapping out the problem of plastic pollution requires a lot of data over a large area. That's why scientists are increasingly turning to volunteers for help, also known as citizen science. But what are the challenges for a researcher when he or she involves the public in research in this way? Four Leiden…

Shell, our country's largest company, is constructing a vast plastics plant in the United States. And it is doing so at a time when the European Union, led by the Netherlands, is launching a major pact to combat use of plastic.

Four Master's students Science Communication & Society made two podcasts on the theme Plastic for the end project of their study programme. With the podcasts, they helped the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) to draw attention to plastic pollution. And that was harder than it seemed. 'Be sure to test…

Nanoplastics influence the behaviour of larval zebrafish, says new research by the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) and the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML). The researchers observed that a certain type of nanoparticles leads to stress reactions in the sugar balance, resulting in hyperactivity…

From 27 to 31 January, a workshop on the regulation of plastic pollution based on scientific evidence will be held at the Lorentz Center in Leiden.

On Friday morning, 8 June, Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor at Leiden University College, was interviewed by NPO Radio 1 on plastic pollution in Antartctica: ''Anually, an additional 4 - 12 billion kilos of plastic ends up in our ocean''.

On Friday evening 8 June, Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor at Leiden University College (LUC), was on television in NOS Jeugdjournaal about plastic pollution and microplastics "the danger of microplastics is that it can end up in the food chain and even on our plate ".

How dangerous are micro- and nanoplastics? Do they affect the environment? What harm can they do to our bodies? Questions that we can now finally answer because of Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh. Together with his colleagues, he developed a method to detect and quantify nano-sized plastics. Their paper has…

Festival

UNPLASTIC, a research project by Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) won the Dopper Changemaker Challenge 2019. LUC student Roos Kolkman represented UNPLASTIC during the semi-finals on Saturday.

Lecture, Q&A

What is the influence of the 2016 ban on free plastic bags on the environment? Industrial ecologist Stefano Cucurachi received a LUF grant of €75.000 to answer this question.

The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic (LAPP) is a pro bono initiative concerning legal questions on plastics and is founded to address and research the legal issues related to plastic pollution.

On Friday 8 February, the first Plastic Avengers Conference took place in Amsterdam. Initiator Merijn Tinga, the Plastic Soup Surfer from Leiden, brought together ‘independent plastic fighters' to arrive at a manifesto against plastic pollution. The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic was also invited…

Thomas is currently a Bachelor’s student at Leiden University Law School.

Daan is a LLB student at Leiden Law School.

On Friday 8 February, the first Plastic Avengers Conference took place in Amsterdam. Initiator Merijn Tinga, the Plastic Soup Surfer from Leiden, brought together ‘independent plastic fighters' to arrive at a manifesto against plastic pollution. The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic was also invited…

Vera is currently a third year LLB student at Leiden University

At the moment the Citizen Science Lab is supporting two new citizen science projects, one on plastic pollution and the other one on psychology. More information on these and other citizen science projects you can participate in, you can find here. As most citizen science projects from Leiden University…

Teresa is currently a student of Public International Law LLM at Leiden University.

Merijn Tinga, the Plastic Soup Surfer, launched the Pick Up 10 campaign. This campaign, supported by Google and National Geographic, uses photo recognition to identify and monitor litter through an app.

Current projects

Gabriela is a current master’s student Public International Law at Leiden Law School.

Louise is currently a student at Leiden University Law School.

Agata is a Public International Law Master’s student at Leiden University.

The sand on European beaches may look pristine, but in every kilogram of sand there are on average 250 microplastics: fragments smaller than 5mm. These results are part of a study from Leiden researchers with the help of beach-goers throughout Europe.

Lineke is a Master’s student in European Law.

Bárbara is a student of Public International Law at Leiden University.

The Plastic Soup Foundation and Parley for the Oceans hosted the very first Plastic Heath Summit in Amsterdam on 3 October, covering the most relevant and pressing health concerns surrounding plastics and human health. Beyond discussing the latest findings in the field we asked the urgent question:…

Promotor: M.L. van Hecke

From 26 to 29 September 2017 the International Conference on Microplastic Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea was held.

Prerna is a Master’s student in Public International Law at Leiden Law School.

Below you will find an overview of the publications of The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic.

A political-legal study of rights invocation by pollution victims in China and Indonesia

Esther Kentin wrote a blog for the Leiden Law Blog about the EU Plastics Strategy: ‘Recycling as panacea for plastic pollution: the EU Plastics Strategy.’

On Tuesday 2 April Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, came to Leiden to receive the Plastic Avengers Manifest from Plastic Soup Surfer Merijn Tinga. The Manifest contains five key areas for a new approach to deal with how we use plastic.

‘De aanpak van microplastics zit vol haken en ogen’

Promotor: P.M. Brakefield

Lecture

Microplastics are everywhere: in the ocean, in cooking salt and even in animals. Should that worry us? 'Yes,' said environmental scientist Thijs Bosker during a pop-up lecture in The Hague on 8 September. ‘We really need to do something now, not wait until it becomes an even bigger problem.’

Leiden University and the city of The Hague are working closely together to increase the impact of our research and education in order to contribute as much as possible to the development of the city.

What is my contribution to the world? This is what students and researchers at Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) ask themselves every day. They want to make a difference with their teaching and research in the four global challenges of ‘Peace and Justice,’ ‘Sustainability,’ ‘Diversity’ and ‘…

Two weeks after 3 October the Leiden canals were still full of plastic disposable cups. Auke-Florian Hiemstra and fellow students have fished thousands of these cups out of the canals and photographed them. Now they put a photo of one of these canal cups on Instagram every day.

On Wednesday 16th of May, 2018, two student researchers of the LAPP, Hanna Leisti and Heidi Kaarto, had an opportunity to take part in the High Level Debate ‘Can the Blue Economy Save Our Ocean?’. The event was organised by the Sky and WWF in the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels with…

Each year the LUF Committee for Academic Expenditure awards grants to research and education projects. These grants for academic talent are often an important step towards grants from NWO and other institutions.

Each year the LUF Committee for Academic Expenditure awards grants to research and education projects. These grants for academic talent are often an important step towards grants from NWO and other institutions.

'We have to look for products that can replace ordinary disposable plastics, for example of organic material. Within 20 years, the average plastic use of a household will be largely reduced.' According to Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor at Leiden University College, in Edition NL of Tuesday, October…