Greenpeace was established around the principle of bearing witness to environmental problems, and part of that ongoing commitment is the application of scientific techniques in environmental forensic analyses. The Greenpeace Research Laboratories routinely conduct FT-IR analyses for plastics and microplastics as part of a wider quite of forensic techniques, both for work directly related to Greenpeace’s campaigns around the world and in support of collaborative research with academic research groups in universities and other institutes. This talk will draw upon recent and ongoing experience in the application of FT-IR (PerkinElmer Spectrum 2 and Spotlight 400) towards the documentation and characterisation of environmental pollution with plastics, highlighting some of the insights and ongoing challenges with the identification of plastic microfibers.
Dr. David Santillo, Senior Scientist, Greenpeace Research Laboratories, School of Biosciences