Workshop: 'Young Researchers for a Plastic Free Baltic Sea Region'

This three-day workshop took place in Hamburg on 22-24 September. The event was the result of collaboration within the BSR between the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg), the Interreg Baltic-funded project BALTIPLAST, and The Baltic University Programme (BUP), making this event also a part of the German BUP Presidency.

During the event, 27 master's and PhD students from 21 universities in the Baltic Sea Region took part. The vast majority of students represented a BUP participating university.

The event aimed to establish stronger connections between experts and the participating young researchers from universities in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) who are starting their individual research under the topics covered at the event. The participants were provided with knowledge within the field and introduced to across-BSR region opportunities for future collaborations.

Outcomes of the event

The speakers gave the participants plenty of meaningful insights into different topics, from plastic release in the sea and end-of-life management strategies to quality deterioration factors of plastics. The organisers held presentations in which they shared input about the solutions of the BALTIPLAST project, which built a base of knowledge for the hands-on workshop ‘PROJECT2SOCIETY’, the participants got to work on in the afternoon sessions. There, the participants developed action plans to implement the BALTIPLAST solutions to reduce single-use plastic pollution in schools, businesses, and households across the Baltic Sea Region. Lastly, the participants got introduced to multiple collaboration and research opportunities from instances like The Baltic University Programme and the Bio4Circularity network.

Since the ‘Young Researchers for a Plastic Free Baltic Sea Region’ workshop in September 2025, the participants have formed groups and launched their own research, focused on reducing plastic pollution in the Baltic Sea Region. To tackle plastic consumption, the BALTIPLAST project developed soft solutions for households, schools, universities and businesses; therefore, the groups have been divided into these categories. The participants have been successfully implementing their action plans and are beginning to compile their first results.

The participants exploring plastic consumption in households developed a questionnaire addressing environmentally friendly attitudes, behaviours, and barriers to sustainable living. Along with these questionnaires, they launched a “plastic waste challenge” to foster the reduction of plastic consumption at home. So far, they have reached households across Germany and Latvia to measure plastic waste generation. The plan is to combine the survey findings with the results from the BALTIPLAST household “Plastic inventory tool”, which can result in an overview of the plastic consumption in each household and the progress in sustainable living during the weeks of the plastic waste challenge. However, only a few participants completed the challenge. The focus will now shift to qualitative results, analysing the motivational and practical barriers the households encountered.

In addition, participants in Poland have developed a survey on students’ and staff’s plastic consumption behaviours at the University of Katowice, which has already received over 200 responses. The next steps include implementing an intervention using visual communication materials across the university campus to raise awareness on single-use plastics and their environmental impact. The participants are also planning to conduct interviews to assess reactions to the intervention and further refine their strategy based on the collected results.

Furthermore, the group focusing on schools visited three classes at a Latvian primary school to examine plastic consumption in their waste bins and to teach the children about plastic pollution in a playful manner. The approach consisted of two lectures that were held two weeks apart, where the children were introduced to the topic of plastic pollution. During and between the lectures, the children examined plastic consumption through a playful task, acting as detectives and investigating the kinds of waste that accumulated in their classroom bins. This was combined with baseline and final questionnaires to assess the children’s learning outcomes and behavioural changes. To complement the results, some qualitative interviews with selected students could also be conducted depending on the needs.

The group partnering with businesses has initiated its action plan, with implementation currently in progress.

The results of the research conducted by the individual groups will be compiled into a book chapter, contributing to the promotion of behavioural change throughout the Baltic Sea Region.

Organiser voice

”The participants were very engaged both during the presentations and the group sessions, with lots of discussions and deliberations taking place. The three days of joint work showed that they are very interested in making an impact within their communities by implementing BALTIPLAST solutions to reduce single-use plastics across the BSR. Through sharing their expertise, the speakers were able to give the participants new perspectives from the bio-based industry and how it can improve sustainability of plastics in the future.”

Voices of participants

Beata Jackowska - Participant from the University of Białystok

My expectations before attending the workshop were to learn more about plastic pollution and how big a problem it is in the Baltic Sea region. As a law student, I believe it is my duty to broaden my horizons and learn more about topics that might not be strictly related to legal matters, but because law is in everything, it can also be used as a catalyst for change.

For me, the best part of the workshop was the opportunity to meet so many educated colleagues with a similar passion for learning. I love to learn new perspectives from others and the fact that this workshop hosted individuals from various countries allowed me to understand this urgent matter more deeply, as well as make new friendships.

One thing that I can take from the workshop is the reality that the choices of all of us matter. It is not just big corporations that can make a change in plastic pollution, it is all of us, our choices in our daily lives, even if they seem insignificant.

Domenico Buccella - Participant from Kozminski University

Before attending the workshop, I perhaps expected a couple of economists more in the audience.

In my opinion, there were two interesting parts of the event: the keynote speeches about technical solutions to the problem of micro-plastic; the participants' brainstorming about plans to reduce in practice the use of plastic.

From the event, I will bring with me a couple of ideas to extend my current research and the enthusiasm of young scholars.

Images from the workshop