Researchers found an underwater landfill while looking for chemical discharges from mobiles and electronic devices
Researchers found an underwater landfill while looking for chemical discharges from mobiles and electronic devices
Research scientists in Norway recently set out on a scientific cruise in the Trondheim fjord to collect water samples and specimens of marine species. What they stumbled over was quite different from what they were looking for.
No, this isn’t seaweed. It’s a mass of wet wipes, sanitary pads and other waste that people have flushed down the toilet. Photo: Julia Farkas/SINTEF
Rare earth elements are key components in many of the technologies that we use in our everyday lives – from batteries and mobile telephones to fertilisers. But these elements can leak out into the sea as pollution, and be absorbed by, and have a negative impact on, marine life. In order to research this phenomenon, researchers were out taking samples in the Trondheim fjord, and a natural site for their sampling work was a wastewater plant located at the fjordside.