Nieuwsbericht 23 June 2020

PLUXIN project approved for kick off

Mapping and remediating plastic pollution in rivers

Earlier this month the Flemish government - Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) approved to kick off the new strategic cluster project PLUXIN, Plastic Flux for Innovation and Business Opportunities in Flanders.

PLUXIN has the aim to provide a solution to map and remediate plastic pollution in our rivers. The amount of plastic in rivers and the ocean increases tremendously each year. But unfortunately we don’t have enough insights into the amount and transportation of plastic pollution in our inland and coastal waters.

Within the strategic cluster project PLUXIN, funded by the Flemish government and coordinated by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), VITO, Ghent University, University of Antwerp and KU Leuven – with support of The Blue Cluster and 13 companies – want to join forces to map the plastics transported to the sea via ports and rivers, using innovative and automatic detection methods. The ultimate goal is to set up pioneering commercial initiatives in Flanders in the plastic sanitation of water and sediments.

At VITO Remote Sensing, we will focus on developing remote sensing methods to automatically detect plastic in our rivers.  Our remote sensing experts in water and coastal monitoring will build upon many years of research in water quality monitoring and the results obtained in the Hyper (Hyperspectral remote sensing for marine plastics) project. We will use ground-based cameras, drone based observations and machine learning techniques suitable for automated detection of marine macroplastics.

The PLUXIN partners:

  • Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
  • VITO - VITO Remote Sensing
  • KU Leuven - Hydraulics Department
  • UAntwerp - Ecosystem Management Research Group (UA-ECOBE)
  • UGent - Laboratory for Environmental Toxicology and Aquatic Ecology (Ghentoxlab)
  • The Blue Cluster and 13 industrial partners (Xenics, Laboratory Ecca, Colruyt, Port of Ostend, IMDC, North Sea Port Flanders, ANTEA Group, DEME, Multi NV ...)

With the support of the Flemish government - Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO).