From the Arctic to the Antarctic: ICEBERG at Atlantic Plastics 2026 in Reykjavík

Monitoring and Assessment of Plastic

One of the symposium’s central themes, Innovative Plastic Pollution Monitoring and Assessment Across Multi-Scales, was a natural fit for ICEBERG, drawing both a presentation and a poster from the team.

In the talk titled “From clean-up to science: An in-depth diagnostic approach to Arctic marine litter”, Barbara Jóźwiak from the forScience Foundation explored the possibilities and limitations of studying marine litter on remote Arctic shores, drawing directly on the meticulous analysis of over 8500 litter items collected by the forScience team in Sørkapp Land, Svalbard, during the 2024–2025 field seasons. A key takeaway was that the story we tell about marine litter depends heavily on the metric we adopt, with standard item counts yielding strikingly different results to mass-based measurements. And while field conditions mean that the mass data can only ever be an approximation, the difference between counting and weighing is so significant that the mass perspective should definitely be taken into account and explored further.

Zooming in from macroplastics to the nano-scale, Victor Lion from Kiel University presented their joint work with INRAE and the University of Oulu as a poster on “Unsupervised Morphometric Measurement of Nanoplastic Particles Using Electron Microscopy Images for Pollution Monitoring”. As nanoplastics are extremely small and difficult to characterise, the presented approach aims to automatically determine their size and shape. By reducing the need for human intervention, the method could enable faster, more consistent, and large-scale analysis of nanoplastic particles. This could help improve our understanding of how nanoplastics are distributed in the environment, how they are transported, and how they may interact with living organisms.

From Knowledge to Action: Mitigation and Policy

Innovations were not the only thematic area where ICEBERG researchers shared their insights during Atlantic Plastics 2026. Adam Nawrot, forScience Foundation, contributed to the mitigation, management and restoration theme with a poster entitled “Marine litter: Monitoring strategies in Arctic coastal ecosystems for more effective remediation”. In collaboration with ICEBERG partners, he compared five different approaches to marine beach litter assessment adopted by the forScience Foundation, Kiel University, SciDrones and the University of Oulu at different ICEBERG study sites, highlighting how different environments and research goals call for different methods.

Meanwhile, under the science–policy interface and capacity building theme, Victor Lion also presented another poster on “Integrating Lab and Field Approaches with Machine Learning and Citizen Science for Marine Litter Monitoring in Data-Sparse Arctic Regions”, representing joint work of Kiel University, SciDrones, and University of Oulu. By combining time-lapse cameras, drones, laboratory-based simulations, and machine learning, it aims to improve the detection and monitoring of beach litter across different locations and over time. Through the training of citizen scientists and the involvement of local and Indigenous communities, the approach further aims to support reliable, long-term marine beach litter monitoring in remote Arctic regions.

The strong sense of connection and collaboration among the participants also extended beyond the conference itself, with a beach clean-up organized by Worldwide Friends (Veraldarvinir), Ocean Conservancy, and Hold Norge Rent south of Reykjavík directly following the conference, where around 60 participants (most of whom had attended the conference) came together to take action beyond the conference venue.

Barbara Jóźwiak from the forScience Foundation highlights the identified challenges:

Atlantic Plastics 2026 was a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and meet researchers whose work we had followed from afar, including fellow Arctic clean-up actors. The sheer variety of presentations and posters afforded a range of distinct perspectives, while conversations struck up during coffee breaks left plenty to look forward to in terms of future collaborations. That said, the symposium also served as a reality check.

Many of the core issues identified in 2023 – such as method harmonisation, cross-sectoral collaboration and the need to curb plastic production – remain largely unresolved, with a lack of political commitment standing out as the primary barrier to systemic change. Gaining the upper hand in the struggle against plastic pollution will also require bringing the chemical industry, plastic producers and product designers to the table, all of whom have so far been absent from the discussions. I’m hoping the organisers manage to close this gap for the next edition of the event.

Text: Barbara Jóźwiak, Victor Lion and Adam Nawrot

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