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Participatory Science in Philadelphia
Philadelphia provides an extraordinary living laboratory for understanding plastic pollution. Its rivers, creeks, wetlands, parks, wastewater systems, and neighborhoods are connected by a complex network of human and natural processes.
Several ongoing efforts are helping us understand what is happening.
Philadelphia Emerging Contaminants Initiative
The Philadelphia Emerging Contaminants Initiative (PECI) brings together students, researchers, and community partners to investigate emerging contaminants across Philadelphia.
Through sampling across different land uses and communities, PECI is helping build a more detailed picture of contaminants in Philadelphia's environment.
Explore the PECI StoryMap →
Volunteers studying microplastics
Volunteers working with researchers at the Academy of Natural Sciences are helping investigate microplastics across different environmental compartments, including soil, water, and avian tissues.
These efforts help us ask a bigger question:
Where are microplastics moving through Philadelphia's environment, and where are they accumulating?
Community participation can help expand the geographic and temporal coverage of this work while giving volunteers an opportunity to engage directly with environmental research.
Monitoring Cobbs Creek
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have been conducting environmental monitoring in Cobbs Creek, including sampling for microplastics and other emerging contaminants.
Long-term monitoring is particularly valuable because a single sample provides only a snapshot. Repeated sampling can help us understand how pollution changes over time and how environmental conditions influence what we find.
Monitoring the Schuylkill River
Young student researchers are also investigating microplastic pollution in the Schuylkill River.
The river provides an opportunity to examine how microplastics move through an urban watershed and how conditions change across different parts of the river.
What comes next?
Help Us See the Plastic We Can't See
Microplastics are everywhere, but our ability to monitor them is still limited. We want to change that by combining long-term environmental monitoring, community participation, and accessible scientific tools.
Our goal is to build a better understanding of how microplastics move through Philadelphia's waterways while developing new ways for communities to participate in measuring them.
Building a long-term monitoring network
With community partners, we hope to establish weekly monitoring of microplastic loading in the Schuylkill River, including locations upstream and downstream of the dam. Repeated sampling can help us understand how microplastic pollution changes with rainfall, seasons, water flow, and other environmental conditions.
We also hope to expand watershed monitoring to locations including neighbouring Creeks, wetlands, stormwater pathways, soil and sediment, and areas surrounding synthetic turf at FDR Park.
Asking questions about the products we use
Our work won't stop at waterways. We also want to investigate microplastics in commercially available water, beverages, and selected food products.
And the community will help decide what questions we investigate.
You help choose the question. Our scientists determine how to answer it.
Making microplastic monitoring more accessible
We are also working to advance new approaches for detecting microplastics outside specialized laboratories. By combining research, validation, and community participation, we hope to make microplastic monitoring more accessible to educators, community organizations, and researchers.
We don't want to simply tell communities that microplastics are everywhere.
We want to give communities the tools to investigate for themselves.
Stay Tuned!
This work is only possible when people come together.
On World Rivers Day 2026, we will be launching our Kickstarter campaign to help support the next phase of our microplastic monitoring and community science efforts.
Want to be part of it?
Leave your contact information below to stay connected. We'll send you an email when the Kickstarter goes live, along with updates on how you can get involved.
Let's work together to see the plastic we can't see.
About Plastic-Free Pals
At Plastic-Free Pals, we are dedicated to promoting a sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle that eliminates plastic waste. Our mission is to inspire individuals and communities to embrace green living by providing resources, products, and support for a plastic-free future. Join us in our journey towards a cleaner, healthier planet!
Have a question or idea? Get in touch!
Have a question about plastics, microplastics, our resources, or getting involved with Plastic Free Pals? We’d love to hear from you.
Let’s work together to better understand plastic pollution and create a healthier, more sustainable future.
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