On 5 June 2025, the German TREASURE team held a regional stakeholder workshop in the city of Brake, at the river Weser, as part of their Living Lab “Plasitc-FREE-sia”, under the motto “Working together to combat plastic pollution in the North Sea”.
Mapping of potential litter entrypaths
Source Identification at the Weser
The purpose of the regional stakeholder event was a common source identification of riverine macro-litter, found during 1,5 years of litter monitoring programme at the river Weser together with experts from administration, business, civil society, politics and science.
After a warm welcome from the Mayor of Brake and an introduction to the Interreg North Sea project TREASURE, participants got a first insight into riverine litter monitoring in the region.
The following workshop was then divided into two phases:
- Phase I: Identification of ‘mysterious’ riverine litter items from the Weser and mapping of potential entry pathways for waste into the river
- Phase II: Following an introduction to the source identification method, participants worked together to allocate litter items to potential sources – guided by the central question: Where does this riverine litter actually come from?
This hands-on work gave participants a clearer understanding of how litter ends up in rivers and how everyone’s actions play a part in the larger problem of plastic pollution.
The event closed with a joint reflection on the results, the robustness of the method, and an outlook on the future, both for the TREASURE project and for our shared responsibility to act.
The workshop was met with great interest and positive feedback, showing once again how regional collaboration can make a real difference in tackling plastic pollution.