REMEDIES is the first project selected under the recently created Horizon Mission: Oceans, Seas and Waters program, within Horizon Europe.
Under the “zero waste” concept, two microplastic detection technologies will be developed and more than a hundred flights of land and underwater drones equipped with artificial intelligence will be deployed to detect hot spots and monitor coasts before and after clean-up. The aim is to collect up to 400 tons of plastic that ends up in the seas, but also that washed ashore from urban waste.
The Slovenian National Institute of Chemistry, in cooperation with some twenty international organizations and Aitiip Technology Center, has launched this ambitious project that aims to change the paradigm to ensure the preservation of the health of our oceans, seas and waters of the present and future.
In this project, Zaragoza aims to become the first “Zero Pollution to Mediterranean” model city by 2030: the Ebro River annually discharges 2.2 billion microplastics into the Mediterranean Sea (70% synthetic fibres from sewage and 30% from agricultural and tourist activity). In this sense, Aitiip will collaborate in the installation of a filtration system in laundries in Zaragoza, designed to retain the waste released during the washing process, which would otherwise end up in the wastewater circuit, and later in the river and the sea. It will also contribute to the development of a new range of biodegradable products that will be scaled up commercially.
In addition, REMEDIES, relying on citizen science, seeks to make tangible an awareness-raising strategy to turn the prevention of bad practices in relation to plastic products into a trend, with the aim of creating participatory processes that will help build a more engaged society. Efforts to monitor and collect plastic waste, as well as to prevent its generation in the first place, must become commonplace and an everyday part of our lives.
