Plastic Pirates - Go Europe!

Active

from 01/01/2016

Plastic Pirates – Go Europe! is a citizen science initiative that engages school classes and youth groups (10 - 18 yo's) in surveying litter (macro and micro) along rivers and coastlines. Using a standardised protocol, participants collect and categorise items found on riverbanks and coastlines. 

Aim

Its dual aim is to generate comparable scientific data on riverine litter while fostering environmental awareness and participation among young citizens. By linking local action with transnational monitoring, the initiative creates a unique dataset that connects community-level engagement with European policy goals.

Participation & Audience

Target group: Plastic Pirates specifically engages youth groups and schools (10 - 18 yo's).

Number of participants: European-wide

Duration of involvement: One-time event (but can participate multiple times)

How to participate

Interested schools or youth groups can register for the project (free of charge) via the Plastic Pirates website, choosing the country of their liking.

Impact
Community impact: It gives participants insights into local litter problems, that are often 'invisible' to citizens. They can be part of the solution and gain environmental stewardship, representing their own community within environmental problems, like plastic pollution.
Community impact types: Awareness-raising
Insights and Highlights
Achievements:
A European-wide data verification of all the collected European was made. These data bases are available online. Further data analysis will be done.
Challenges:
By working in such a diverse geographical area, a challenge was to harmonise the sampling protocol so it was applicable on all participating countries and standardise the data of all participating countries.
Outreach methods:
Mainly social media.
Interesting highlights:
Plastic Pirates gives children and youngsters the chance to investigate their own neighbourhood and create an emotional connection with it. With having their feet right in the field, they experience how it is to research an environmental problem as a real scientist close to home.
Go to Project Access Dataset
Water type
Surface water
Keywords
Youth Coast River Litter
Science Topics
Ocean Water Marine Education Climate
Tags
Suitable for children Teaching materials available
Difficulty Level
Easy
Participation tasks
Measurement
Location
Macro-regional
Contact
E-mail
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Created Sept. 26, 2025, 6:44 a.m.
Updated Oct. 1, 2025, 9:39 a.m.

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