The overall vision of INTERWASTE is to develop scientific understanding of issues related to
environmental contamination with toxic and/or hazardous organic chemicals (specifically flame
retardants (FRs) and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs)) arising from their
presence in the waste stream. This will be achieved by a co-ordinated programme of collaboration and 87
research secondments totalling 224 researcher months between world-leading research groups both
within and outside the EU; coupled with 4 annual research workshops to discuss the latest findings.
To achieve its overall vision, INTERWASTE has four strands of research activity. These are:
• Strand 1 – Characterising and developing understanding of emissions/flow of FRs in the waste stream
and their environmental impacts
• Strand 2 – Waste water epidemiology applied to consumer chemicals (PPCPs and FRs)
• Strand 3 – Exploring the potential utility of in vitro techniques to elucidate uptake by biota (e.g.
bioaccessibility) of FRs present in the waste stream, along with the pathways and rates of
degradation/metabolism of such FRs, and
• Strand 4 – Exploitation of state-of-the-art analytical techniques to help address issues tackled in strands
1-3), coupled with promotion of contaminant measurement quality and harmonization (conducted within
WPs 5 and 6)
