Citizen Science Campaign

The citizen science campaign will focus on engaging the general public, with particular emphasis on high school and university students, to participate in the activity. Volunteers will have the opportunity to choose from two citizen science campaigns to join.

1st campaign: "Your message in a bottle" Volunteers will be provided with downloadable and uniformed "messages" to fill in, including important data such as an ID number, date, and location. Once themessages are completed, volunteers will be asked to place them inside a plastic bottle that is already present in the environment. Once sealed, the bottle should be returned to its original location where it was found. Students will be motivated to upload photos of their activities primarily on a multilanguage online platform managed by THU and social media, supported by the Partnership's dissemination capabilities. The aim is to engage local communities, river enthusiasts, and potential future scientists in a comprehensive survey on the origins, migration, and stopover sites of riverine litter. Through citizen science methods and the influence of social media, the general public will be inspired to join the trend and actively participate in data collection efforts.

 2nd campaign: "Identify the Bottle Cap!" Volunteers will contribute to the compilation of the "Field Guide to the Bottle Caps of Europe". This includes identifying the source country, size, manufacturer of as many plastic bottles as possible. This approach holds significant importance in multinational water catchment areas such as the DRB. The assessment of citizen science results will help to reveal the "migration and behaviour" of plastic bottles. This will involve identifying the origins of plastic pollution in terms of country of origin and potentially identifying manufacturers. Drawing from previous citizen science projects on marine and riverine litter, data will be collected with a focus on the composition and origin of riverine litter particles that accumulate upstream of HPPs.