A vast number of software, databases, methods, and other resources have been developed to enable plastic pollution research. This page is a curated and living index of tools that we believe to be relevant and useful to the field. If you are aware of something missing or incorrectly described, please let us know!
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Open Data
Fact sheets about applications, material properties, chemical safety, and end-of-life options for food packaging materials.
Fact sheets on plastic pollution.
Hands-on lessons about microplastics pollution in wastewater treatment plants using a tabletop model.
15 interdisciplinary hands-on lessons and activities help students learn the different types of plastics, their impact on marine and freshwater ecosystems, and about ways to...
Detailed instructions for low-cost lesson plan (10th-12th grades) for conducting a citizen science laboratory investigation of microplastics
IR microspectroscopy instrument capable of rapid analysis of microplastics
Open access publication and open source code for interpreting microplastics Raman spectroscopy using machine learning.
Patent-pending post-consumer filtration technology for washing machines that removes >80% of microplastics measured down to 50-microns.
A bubble-based plastic capture system for rivers that does not interfere with boating/shipping operations.
Program page for the University of Rhode Island’s “Plastics: Land to Sea” Initiative. Includes various resources, including news articles, events, and webinars.
Citizen science visual trash survey data conducted by Mystic River Watershed Association in Rhode Island, US.
Images from an immersive art installation made from 18,000 plastic cups to raise awareness.
List of resources for lessons plans and other educational resources for microplastics and plastic pollution grouped by grade.
A filterable web tool for selecting sampling methods for microplastics in various media.
BeBot is a zero-emission, electric-powered remote-control robot designed to remove microplastics from beach sand.
Currently under development – a thin solid-state nanopore instrument designed for rapid and accurate monitoring of nanoplastics. Project funded by NOAA.
Queryable and interactive Tableau dashboard for environmental microplastics monitoring data.
A digital platform for crowdsourcing structured information about plastic waste that utilizes an app that scans product barcodes.
Open query-able database of stereomicroscopic images of microplastics.
PRIORITY is a science and technology research network focused on developing, implementing, and consolidating strategies to tackle the global challenges of micro- and nanoplastics in...
Community page for a coalition aimed at developing an international, legally binding treaty on plastics that considered their full lifecycle.
Patent-pending device designed to be outfitted on car tires to capture tire particles using electrostatics and airflow.
A field-deployable imaging and illumination device that can rapidly characterize and quantify visible microplastic particles.
International working group focused on remote sensing of trash. Collates data, code, publications, and other resources.
Company that makes plastic removal technologies from terrestrial environments.
Small resource page for plastic manufacturing-related information curated by a Malaysia-based company.
Boolean phrase searchable (crowd-sourced) directory of marine and freshwater professionals, projects, and events.
Filter cartridge designed to capture microplastics in stormwater.
Blog regarding microplastics hosted by the Korea Institute of Analytical Science. Text is in Korean.
THE SENSOR A real time in-situ sample collection and analysis sensor for microplastics. The current processes used to sample and analyze microplastic particles is difficult...
This roadmap can guide researchers, practitioners and others with developing long-term monitoring programs for plastics in rivers. Relevant for macro- and microplastic monitoring.
Framework to Design and Compare Riverbank Plastic Monitoring Strategies. A meta-analysis of monitoring protocols for macroplastics on riverbanks – what are some of the factors...
Dataset used to determine statistical sample size requirements for riverbank macrolitter characterization.
Microplastic Pollution Map is the first interactive world map to document the nature and extent of marine pollution through microplastics. OEOO has been cooperating with...
The Beat the Microbead app allows you to scan the ingredients on packaging to see if your product contains microplastics. You will immediately see if...
Open-source Image Recognition Model to detect plastics, glass, paper, rubbish, metal and cardboard using a pre-trained Deep Learning Convolutional Neural Network.
List of Trash Full Capture Systems certified by the California State Water Resources Control Board for the Trash Amendments.
Trash data collected from the Trash Wheel Family in New England, USA.
Semi-autonomous trash interceptor (solar & hydro powered) that is placed at the end of a river, stream or other outfall.
A pay-for-play portable, affordable floating wetland unit that collects and removes microplastic debris from rivers via plant root biofilters.
Commercially available unoperated autonomous surface vessel capable of sampling for microplastics and other constituents.
An interactive collection of EPA and other materials to create effective programs for recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion, reuse, repair and waste reduction.
Citizen science app to collect data on trash. Contributes to Break Free From Plastic’s Global Brand Audits.
“Trash skimmer” designed for use in calm environments such as marinas, yacht clubs, ports, etc.
Database of plastic pollution powered (in part) by citizen-science smartphone-mediated monitoring.
Mobile phone app for citizen scientists to record collected trash
Citizen science database for global trash abundance
The Global South Climate Database is a publicly available, searchable database of scientists and experts in the fields of climate science, policy, and energy for journalists and...
Non-profit network of plastic pollution experts. Produces and collects information, presentations, and databases on plastic pollution.
Living database of reusable packaging materials, events calendar, and community forum.
Open source design for autonomous aqueous vessel. Could be used to design microplastics sampling equipment.
Open, crowd-source-able database of plastic leachates to be used with standardized extraction protocol and AI-powered forensics tool. Under Development.
(Static) database of >10,000 plastic-associated chemicals based on systematical investigation of 63 industrial, scientific, and regulatory data sources.
New Zealand-based citizen science monitoring team for microplastics. Includes database, map of samples, and additional information for connecting with school kids.
Instructional video for microplastics sampling in wastewater using ASTM D8332-20
Recorded presentations and report from the 2021 workshop.
Autonomous self-driving aquatic rover designed to remove macrodebris while collecting water quality data. Currently closed-source design.
Home page and database of plastic pollution projects and resources developed by and associated with the University of Plymouth.
A network that promotes, facilitates, and encourages lateral collaboration and research efforts on plastic pollution in Africa.
IKHAPP brings together a community of concerned scientists from multiple scientific areas and disciplines that are committed to work towards an environment free from plastic...
A portable depth sampling instrument for microplastics and eDNA applications
Crowdsourced (citizen science) living map/database of fouled beaches globally.
Marine expedition to raise action on plastic pollution. Includes open source technologies to recycle plastic waste.
Scoring tool for plastic lifecycle sustainability and management practices of countries with various data visualization tools and additional content.
Macro- and microplastics monitoring and toxicity data quality evaluation toolkit.
Forum for independent blog posts on trash cleanup or other waste-related projects.
Reference library for FTIR spectra of pure and environmentally weathered polymers.
Reference library for pure and environmentally weathered polymers.
Image J Extensions for analyzing microplastics in fluorescence images.
Bookable public speaker on plastic pollution and sustainability.
Database extracted from publications on marine plastic pollution in seas of East Asia, including science and humanities disciplines. As of 13 December 2021, it includes...
Living, searchable database of public policy documents targeting plastic pollution in several languages,
Regularly updated global list of for profit and nonprofit programs, campaigns and products that work to eliminate plastic waste by providing reusable solutions.
Actively updated global microplastics database collated from various sources and additional applicable datasets (e.g., ocean currents).
Books, webinars, information sheets and more for microplastics analysis.
Innovative open hardware concept tested by Moore Institute to sample microplastics in tap water.
Images and AI routine for classifying trash in images.
A computer vision algorithm for tracking trash from a camera mounted on a street sweeper.
A database for litter occurrence and litter hazards.
Models for tracking particles in the ocean that have been used to model plastic distribution.
An image classification model capable of drawing masks around clusters of trash in images.
A data lake full of data related to trash, microplastics, and plastic pollution.
Spreadsheet to evaluate reliability and relevancy (for risk assessment) of particle-based toxicity studies for human health.
Automated deployable uncrewed surface vehicle for surface water particle sampling.
Information platform for microplastics research aimed at general audience and in-depth researchers. Includes easy-to-read articles from invited authors.
Living data repository and analytical tools for visualizing and interrogating integrated nanomaterial datasets.
Project to develop instrument platform for in situ and cost-effective analysis of microplastics
Nanoparticle database and tool development consortium aimed at assisting EU agencies such as JRC, and REACH.
This is a form for sharing data to a community database of SEM images and metadata txt files. Form HERE: https://forms.gle/XPVewDNr2nP1Aw8v9 Images HERE: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WVBpodrM36ReftGfR_frJgsWRZuOo8do1BUbYJpd47yYrYilFPyr9T9JCwU_NgbZn6t28J7f?usp=sharing Metadata...
Living genomics database of plastic-degrading bacteria and proteins.
Interactive map of estimates of macroplastic emissions from global rivers. Static dataset.
An approach for an “Priority Scoring Analysis” was developped by Jones et al., (2021), to assess the risk of marine species to being impaired by...
Portal for relational tables that relate trash survey nomenclature.
Pay-for-use organic compound profiling and benchmarking database containing test results and raw data from independently-sourced samples from over 40 manufacturers and hundreds of different models...
Open-source computer vision artificial intelligence tool for classifying images of trash.
Database of funded projects focused on risk assessments of micro- and nanoplastics.
Interactive mapping tool for land-based plastic waste locations based on open satellite data and modelled using artificial intelligence.
EAS-E Suite includes chemical information databases, quantitative structure activity relationships for predicting chemical information, and some relevant tools and models to support chemical hazard, exposure,...
Comprehensive leachable food contact chemical database complimentary to FCCdb.
Collection of various occurrence database for microplastics collected by the Adventure Scientists non-profit for specific projects.