What is Citizen Science?

Citizen Science is an effective way of data collection over a large geographical coverage with an excellent cost-benefit scenario, as well as increased sampling power, saving the researchers time and money, and providing public engagement in scientific research.

With this approach, volunteers can physically handle the contaminated samples and consequently see with their own eyes the effects of microplastic pollution, raising awareness among the community.

However, citizen science is still a new concept, and thus the reliability of the collected data is unclear.

In the lab, samples from the scientific protocol were filtrated first before being analysed on the microscope inside a petri dish (RIGHT), whilst samples from citizen science protocol were directly looked at through the microscope, without suffering any filtration (LEFT).

If proven to yield scientific data and the microplastic lost during sampling is negligible, the citizen science approach may boost the identification of plastic hotspots globally and allow sampling in the areas most affected locally.