Interview Folia - citizen science

This year I was interviewed for an article in Folia (the online magazine of the University of Amsterdam) about my participation in a citizen research conducted by the University of Amsterdam on microplastics from synthetic clothing. The article discusses how citizens can contribute to research and why their participation is important. Read the article below:

Doing laundry for science: more and more citizens are helping to conduct research

Author: Jazz Stofberg, 20 juni 2023 - 09:33

Citizens are increasingly participating in scientific research, and not just as test subjects. They help scientists collect data. “When people hear about citizen science, they are often concerned that the data cannot be completely trusted because ‘amateurs’ are doing the data collection.”

“An Amsterdammer does laundry for a UvA researcher” may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but nothing could be further from the truth. About 75 citizens mostly from Amsterdam participated in a citizen science or citizen research project being conducted by UvA scientists over the past six months.

It is the Microfiber Emissions from Textiles Measurement in Amsterdam (META) project of geographer Lies Jacobs and environmental chemist Antonia Praetorius. They are researching the number of microfibers released when clothes are washed in washing machines; those fibers are very small and eventually end up in nature via water runoff. Based on previous research, it is estimated that about 35 percent of microplastics in the ocean come from microfibers from synthetic clothing.
 
One of the people involved in the META project is Azadeh Baghery (35), who participated in the UvA research using her washing machine at home. This was at times a serious undertaking. “Laundry is one of those tasks that you want to finish quickly, but you really had to take your time because of the research. After all, there were several steps per wash, such as weighing the laundry and keeping track of how much and what detergent is used.”
 
Why did she participate? Baghery was aware of the pollution associated with the clothing industry but had never given much thought to the fact that washing clothes also has an impact on the environment. “When you hear about microplastics, you immediately think of people throwing plastic waste on the street or in nature. You don’t think about the clothes you wash at home.”

She adds: “I’ve always loved nature. For a long time, this was limited to taking walks through nature, but I recently joined the Institute for Nature Education and Sustainability (IVN) which is dedicated to nature education. I have also always been interested in clothing and fashion, so when I saw the META project come along in the institute’s newsletter I was immediately interested.”
 
What Baghery liked most about participating in the research was getting to work on the research herself and feeling involved in the problem. “I also liked that there was a kind of final event after the data collection giving us ordinary researchers the chance to see some initial research results. That also helped us realize how much we had accomplished. After all, those microplastics cannot be seen with the naked eye. Sometimes I did ask myself: What am I doing this for? That’s why it was great to see at the final event that hundreds of microplastics were actually found.

The added value of citizen science

The META project researchers themselves, Lies Jacobs and Antonia Praetorius, talk about the added value of ordinary people helping to do research. “Several components come together,” Jacobs says. “You can collect more data and collect it faster, but you can also test hypotheses in the real world. By involving ordinary people, you can research the real-life circumstances of your research question. So you actually get a more ‘real’ data set. This can lead to new questions or insights that you can then investigate further in a lab.”
 
Using civilians for META is not just for strictly scientific reasons, however, according to Jacobs. “What we did now was a pilot, but one of the goals of the project is also about awareness. We want to increase awareness and knowledge in society about microplastics. For example, the citizen researchers also filled out questionnaires about their attitudes toward science and their knowledge and attitudes about microplastics before and after the project. In this way, we can find out, for example, whether participating in such a project increases confidence in science or makes people feel more engaged with the research topic or the challenge of microplastics.

Real data
Awareness is important, according to Praetorius, because the impact of clothing on the environment is greater than many people know. Synthetic fabrics are one of the largest sources of microplastics in the Netherlands. That’s also why their research is so important. “Not much is known yet about how microplastics are released when clothes are washed or how they are affected or by what. The findings so far are also mostly contradictory. That is why it is particularly beneficial to get a diverse and ‘real’ dataset through the use of citizen science.”
 
“When people hear about citizen science, they are often concerned that the data cannot be completely trusted because ‘amateurs’ are doing the data collection,” Praetorius says. “In our experience, that’s not such a big problem, as long as you take that into account when designing your research methods. You have to make sure that people without experience or degrees in your field can do the task you give them well. During the study, we saw that the META citizen researchers took their role very seriously; they handled the protocols for collecting data very carefully.”

The ivory tower flattened
According to Rector Magnificus Peter-Paul Verbeek, citizen science can help narrow the gap between society and science. “I think citizen research can increase trust in science. This is especially true if citizens are involved in all facets of the research, not only in the collection of data as is often done now, but also in formulating the question and possible follow-up steps. This is valid perhaps not only for the citizens who participate but also for those who hear about their involvement. Citizen science constitutes another step in breaking down the ivory tower. In recent decades, science has increasingly sought to connect with society. The ivory tower is now flat on the ground, so to speak. Anyone can go in. Democratic and socially engaged science requires the participation of ordinary people.”
 
The rector is not sure exactly how much citizen science is being done at the UvA. “We know that a lot is happening, although it may not be as visible as at some other universities. There is currently no UvA-wide body that keeps track of who and where citizen science is being conducted, which is why Frans Oort is running a project to get an overview of citizen science at the UvA. Once we have a complete picture, we can join forces from different disciplines and make plans for the future. I think citizen science could mean a lot to the UvA.”