UFZ Plastics Specimen Bank

The UFZ Plastics Specimen Bank is a collection of well-characterized plastic materials designed to promote research into plastics and their environmental implications. The collection includes materials developed and collected as part of research projects such as WEATHER-MIC (2016-2019), MICRO-FATE (2019-2021) and P-LEACH (2022-2025). The Plastics Specimen Bank has a wide variety of materials, including mostly additive-free plastic pellets, especially manufactured plastics with known, realistic combinations of regularly used additives, recycled and weathered materials, field samples, and reference materials for bioanalytical investigations. Many of these materials are not commercially available, but have been extensively studied and documented in scientific publications.

This online database provides a centralized and standardized catalogue of the available plastic samples, including information on polymer type, material characteristics, supplier or origin, additive content, previous treatments and experiments, associated scientific publications and sample images. In the spirit of open research, the Plastics Specimen Bank aims to make these unique and well-documented materials accessible for a wide range of research questions and to facilitate their reuse and application in future studies. The materials are available for research within the UFZ and for collaborative projects with external research partners, based on application, specifying the material, the amounts and intended purpose, and the following evaluation of the scientific committee.

For questions and requests for materials, please reach out to ✉ Contact us by email .