The Fifth National Conference on Environmental Microplastic Pollution and Control was successfully held in Wuhan from June 2 to 4, 2024. The conference was jointly hosted by the Environmental Microplastics Working Group of the Soil Science Society of China, and the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and was co-organized by the East Asia Regional Engagement Partners of the Future Earth Coasts (FEC). The conference aims to promote the in-depth development and promote exchanges and cooperation in the field of microplastic research in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and to serve the national strategic goal of coping with plastic waste and microplastic pollution control.
The conference was initiated and co-chaired by Prof. Yongming Luo from Institute of Soil Science, CAS, who also serves as the Executive Committee member of the FEC. More than 520 delegates from 190 universities, research institutes, enterprises and analytical instrument companies attended the conference. In total, 131 oral presentations from the plenary and 9 special sessions, 97 oral presentations from 4 graduate forums, and 74 posters were conducted during the conference, through which participants had wide and in-depth academic exchanges. In addition, a special topic regarding on the multi-media migration and transformation, and the integrated land and ocean management of microplastics was firstly set up in this conference. The conference received in-depth coverage from Hubei TV and other media.