This week, Lanzarote hosts the international conference on plastic waste, MICRO 2020, for the third year running. For obvious reasons, this year’s conference is now being conducted virtually from “Lanzarote and beyond” , and will feature contributions from scientists and researchers from five continents.
The theme for this year’s conference will be “Plastic pollution: from MACRO to nano” and the event will gather 1,300 scientific specialists to pool knowledge gained from every corner of the world.
Welcoming the conference, Cabildo President María Dolores Corujo stressed the importance of “creating urgent global measures that address one of the greatest environmental challenges of the 21st century.”
Plastic waste continues to feature in news headlines as a major concern. Recently, microplastic waste was discovered at the peak of Mount Everest, and another study found that washing synthetic clothes and tyre dust were among the main elements of microplastic pollution in the
MICRO 2020 is a specialist event – examples of talks being given today include Beached microlitter on the lagoon coasts of the Russian part of the Baltic Sea and Are biodegradable polymers a solution to the microplastic issue? – and it will give scientific specialists from all over the world to get together, compare and discuss their findings.
Lanzarote has been a leader in the fight against plastic pollution, with the Cabildo’s Agüita con la Plástica campaign, which was formed in 2013, ands continues to promote the aim of a “Zero plastic” island.
Nevertheless, there remains much more to be done, and this year has seen a new threat arrive in the form of discarded masks and gloves, which contribute significantly to the problem of plastic waste. Masks can not be recycled and should be discarded in normal litter containers, where they will be destined for the landfill at Zonzamas
You can find out more about the conference and even follow some of the talks at https://www.micro.infini.fr/.
