BabyLegs is a build-it-yourself research net (trawl) for monitoring plastic pollution in surface water.

Created with baby’s tights, soda pop bottles, and other inexpensive and easy-to-find materials, BabyLegs can be used to trawl for floating microplastics from the surface of the water. Because most marine plastics are smaller than a grain of rice, they can be readily ingested by a wide array of marine life, including the animals we use for food. This small size also means we need special instruments to find these plastics. The scientific standard research trawl costs $3500, while BabyLegs costs only $12 and can be built and used by people without scientific degrees and produces similar data. This project aims to put the instructions to build, use, and analyze samples from BabyLegs in the hands of people who are concerned about plastics their food and waterways.

Public Lab for Open Technology works to “level the data playing field,” making it possible for people to issue rigorously collected, high-quality, local environmental datasets for use alongside government data for verification and advocacy. They do this by building curriculum, hardware, and software; providing space for research and development; and bringing tools to maturity, making them field ready. A BabyLegs kit will be assembled and distributed by Public Lab, which not only crowdfunds the production of the kits, but also hosts a community of practice around BabyLegs can help people troubleshoot, share concerns, build data across local cases, and remain in contact with the scientists and technologists behind BabyLegs.