Dsolve Researcher Presented New Research at International Conference in Maastricht

– Over the past two years, I have dived into the ocean of marine plastics and fishing gear (pun intended 😅). First through my master’s thesis at Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet (NTNU), and now in my work at NORSUS.

One of the most interesting things I have learned is just how many chemicals can be present in the plastic products that surround us. More than 16,000 chemicals are associated with plastic products, yet previous research has only identified 140 in fishing gear. There are several reasons for this, including limited data availability and the need for expensive analytical equipment. Of these 140 chemicals, only 42 could be included in life cycle assessments due to currently available methods. Since many of the 16,000 plastic chemicals—and several of the 42 we identified—have multiple toxic effects, it is crucial to develop methods that allow us to include them in LCA and better capture the true environmental impacts of plastics.

This work is part of the ongoing research project SFI Dsolve, which primarily explores the potential of biodegradable fishing gear. However, we also wanted to investigate additional environmental aspects, focusing on marine ecotoxicity. In this study, we conducted an estimated assessment of the ecotoxicity of fishing gear and developed a method for making reasonable assumptions to replace zero values in such analyses. Hopefully, this work will soon be published.

This week, I also attended the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) annual meeting in Maastricht, where I had the opportunity to present this work. It was my first EVER international conference, and I was fortunate to both present a poster and give a short presentation. It was incredibly valuable to discuss the work with others in the field and to gain perspectives from researchers with different backgrounds.

I also attended several inspiring sessions and learned a great deal. And of course, the conference dinner—with engaging conversations and a DJ on the dance floor—was a highlight 💃.
Thank you for all the insightful discussions and great conversations! See you next time 🤩