There are so many incredible tools that have been created to facilitate plastic research. Sometimes, there are so many, and they are developed so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up with them all! A small group of scientists (and friends!) created a website called the Plastiverse to catalog and organize all of these tools into one place so all researchers can find, access, and use them.

But the Plastiverse is so much more than a collection of tools - it is a live, crowd-sourced repository for tools, databases, protocols, and information related to micro- and macro-plastics research! Here you will find a place to exchange ideas with other scientists and learn about cutting-edge methods and techniques.

The Plastiverse was created by Cleo Stratmann, Scott Coffin, Leah Thornton-Hampton, Win Cowger, Orestis Herodotou, and Kara Wiggin. We are a group working in different sectors (e.g., government, academia, non-profit) and areas of plastics research (e.g., toxicity, occurrence, policy), but all aiming to understand the impacts of plastic on our environment and develop solutions.

The plastic research community has thrived on collaboration and coordination. We encourage all of our visitors to engage with the Plastiverse by letting us know about new tools to be added to the website, adding new events to our calendar, submitting blog articles, and participating in our forums. Together, we can tackle these difficult research questions and enact positive change!

New content and features will be continually added so stick around!

https://www.plastiverse.org/

Follow us on twitter @ThePlastiverse

Published July 14th, 2022.