The year 2022 started with serious river pollution cases across Europe.
In January, the Borzhava river (Ukraine) was jammed by floating riverine
litter accumulations. February saw the Slaná river (Slovakia) affected by
a toxic influx of heavy metals from a deserted mine – still ongoing, as of
August 2022. The Somes river (Romania) was struck by a massive plastic
flood in March. By May, the size of the floating macroplastic accumulation
in front of a hydroelectric power plant on the river Tisza (Hungary)
reached the size of 1.4 hectares. River pollution knows no boundaries,
eventually reaching our oceans – provided that we remain idle.
With this manual we aim to provide help to everyone – professionals
and enthusiasts alike – eager to participate in our efforts in managing
international plastic pollution in rivers. To achieve this ambitious goal,
we rely on scientific publications on riverine- and marine litter in addition
to our 10+ years of field experience gained on the rivers of the Eastern
Danube River Basin. During these 10+ years of organizing large scale
river cleanups, we have been able to positively impact river-based ecosystems
and communities in not just Hungary, but as many as 6 count ries
via our cooperation with the DTP Interreg project Tid(y)Up.
Authors – Attila David Molnar & Gergely Hanko
Reviewers – Gergely Hanko, Miklos Gyalai Korpos, Gudrun Obersteiner, Johannes Meyerhofer, Sabine Lenz, Kristof Kucsera, Violin Raykov, Dimitar Dimitrov, Henrieta Kiralvargova,
Terezia Pankova, Jaroslav Tesliar, Dusan Milanovic, Dejan Ubavin, Maja Petrovic,
Miodrag Zivancev, Zsombor Gyula Nagy, Andrea Koller
Special thanks to – Fruzsina Kardoss, Fanni Bobak, Anna Istenes, Vilja Molnar
English reviewers and editors – Zsolt Marka, Arpad Marka
Graphic design & infographics – Emese Silimon
Layout – Peter Kugler
Photographers – Peter Varga, Csanad Ivanfi , Eniko Kubinyi, Boglarka Rosta, Terezia Pankova,
Vanda Molnar, Jozsef Banko, Szabolcs & Kalman Szanyi
Picture editor – Vanda Molnar
