Ship Ahoy! The Plastic Pirates Crew is back from their trip to Hamburg with a brief travel report.

On Monday the 24th April, the Plastic Pirates ship sailed to the Port of Hamburg, where students of the Albert-Schweizer-Gymnasium carried out a plastic sampling on the Elbe beach. The Elbe beach area is an interesting place for a plastic waste sampling, because of the high amount of ship traffic and people, who are walking beside the river. Furthermore, this was not only a Plastic Pirates sampling, as we had an entire film crew joining us at the beach. The students, teachers and the Plastic Pirates crew were filmed and interviewed on behalf of the Mission Ocean. We will share the results with you soon so stay tuned!

On the following days, the ship remained in the port of Hamburg. The Plastic Pirates Crew was present at the event “Mission Ocean: The Baltic and North Sea lighthouse in action”. The event was organized by the European Commission, in close cooperation with the German Ministry of Education and Research and with the support of the BlueMissionBANOS Co-ordination and Support Action for the Baltic & North Sea. The event focused on the political commitments to implement the Mission, and agree on concrete measures and actions in the Baltic North Sea basin, particularly to make the blue economy carbon-neutral and circular. Further information can be found here.

At the Plastic Pirates exhibition booth, the German Crew informed the visitors about the project, the role of citizen science and the plastic waste samplings. Three students of the Albert-Schweizer-Gymnasium supported the Crew by giving firsthand information and sharing impressions of their sampling experience.

Clear highlight of the event was the visit from Judith Pirscher, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, who announced the further financial support of the Plastic Pirates initiative in Germany.

On Wednesday evening the sails were hoisted and the Plastic Pirates ship left the port of Hamburg. Looking back, the Plastic Pirates Crew experienced three exciting and successful days in Hamburg. Big thanks go out to all supporters and participants!