Plastic Free Oceans

Clearly, we must reduce the flow of plastic into the oceans, retrieve what’s already there, and recycle used plastics into valuable raw materials! But how? By whom? And who will pay for the effort?

Plastic waste and plastic debris have already reached all the world's oceans, fuelled by many million additional pieces of plastic pollution entering the seven seas every day. Macroplastics cause entanglement and starvation by clogging the digestive tracts of animals and birds; microplastics are ingested by smaller marine life and are passed up the food chain; while nanoplastics can penetrate barriers in the intestines and migrate into mussels and brain tissue. 

Relevant competency 

Students from all backgrounds are welcome to join this village – provided they aspire to be part of the solutions, rather than the problems, associated with how we use and dispose of plastics in a more circular economy. Envisioning sustainable solutions and exploring new opportunities require ideas and insights from every discipline!

Learning environment

All lectures, presentations, and team discussions will be in English. Village interactions will primarily take place “in person”, augmented with online presentations and information. 

Evaluation of the project (accounting for 50% of the team’s grade) will be based on oral examination supported by a poster created by the team – rather than a written project report (as in most other villages).

About this village

Waste = valuable resources gone astray. Capturing this value will alleviate poverty and preserve the environment. A circular economy employs reuse, repair, repurpose, sharing, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and recycling to create a closed-loop system, minimizing the use of resource inputs and the creation of waste, pollution, and carbon emissions. The waste hierarchy model focuses on extracting the maximum benefits from products and generating a minimum amount of waste. To be sustainable, an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach is essential; waste management clearly cannot be based on technical, end-of-pipe solutions alone. 

The village will interact with the “Interns for Sustainability” project under NTNUs Action Ocean Plastic Waste, working closely with Sustainable Seas Trust, who is leading the charge for Africa to eliminate plastic leakage into the environment. Other NGOs and businesses and are invited to provide practical, operational, and real-life exposure and experience. 

External partners are encouraged to offer our villagers summer jobs and internships in 2024, thereby facilitating in-depth pursuit of challenges or innovative solutions in subsequent project work and master theses.

The overall aim of this village is to save the planet by inspiring and equipping innovators and future leaders to (i) reduce plastic waste, (ii) explore new opportunities in a circular plastic economy, and (iii) expand the much-needed knowledge base.

We are concerned with how solutions in the projects should be able to live on even after this course has ended. This can be either in the form of new solutions and processes being used by existing organisations or companies, or the project result being taken forward in a start-up company. In this course, the student groups will receive guidance from Spark* NTNU. Spark* NTNU is a free mentoring service for students with a business idea, or who want to be part of a start-up company. If the group wishes to proceed with the project or solution after the course has ended, we can help you to continue through getting you in contact with support functions for innovation at NTNU.

Assessment

In this village, the project report and the compulsory presentation of the project is replaced by an oral exam that counts for 50% of the grade. The oral exam is assessed according to the same criteria as the project report.

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