Towards structural monitoring of plastic pollution in Amsterdam’s water system

Plastic pollution in urban waterways poses a growing environmental and municipal governance challenge. While the city of Amsterdam has established technical capabilities and diverse monitoring initiatives, ranging from visual assessments and operational catch counting to AI-backed cameras and citizen reporting, these efforts remain fragmented across different departments and stakeholders. This report was developed within the Solving the Urban Plastic Soup consortium to evaluate current plastic monitoring methodologies, identify institutional bottlenecks, and propose strategies to integrate data collection into broader, long-term municipal policy frameworks.

The deliverable provides a comprehensive overview of existing monitoring practices across Amsterdam’s canals and details cross-departmental alignment efforts aimed at creating a coherent, evidence-based monitoring system. Findings reveal that the primary barrier to establishing a structural, city-wide monitoring program is not technical readiness, but rather institutional complexity, specifically a lack of clear mandates, fragmented data ownership, and unaligned departmental policy objectives. The document concludes by outlining actionable next steps, recommending that the municipality issue an internal clarification note on governance roles, appoint a clear commissioning department, and launch a dedicated six-month roadmap to formally transition from experimental, project-based data collection to an institutionalized, policy-driven strategy.

The full report is available here.

For any question, don't hesitate to contact project manager Francesca Alberti at francesca.alberti@ams-institute.org