Winner 2023

PLASTOIL, 2023 winner

The beneficiary of the 2023 ITOPF Research and Development (R&D) award is the PLASTOIL project, with funding granted to the Centre for Documentation, Research and Experimentations on Accidental Water Pollution (CEDRE).

The winning project - PLASTOIL - will research how a mixture of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic pellets (nurdles) and propulsion fuel behaves and interacts in the marine environment, using two types of fuel oil: one low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) and one gasoil.

The goal of the project is to produce guidelines on response techniques and to provide an overview of the waste treatment options available when responding to spills of this type.

A spill of plastic pellets affecting the Sri Lankan coastline in 2021 highlighted the risks of interaction with other pollutants present on board such as fuel oil, this study will aim to reduce the gaps in knowledge on how nurdles behave in the environment and with other pollutants.