September 16, 2022 OMNI Marine Litter Project
Zushi x University of Tokyo Beach Clean Idea Workshop
-Understanding the characteristics of garbage on the Zushi coast-
On September 16, 2022, the initiative of Zushi City and the University of Tokyo, which will continue until the end of the fiscal year, was named "Future Beach Clean Lab" and started a series of workshops for citizen participation.
The theme of the first workshop is "Understanding the characteristics of garbage on the Zushi coast".
At the beginning of the workshop, Professor Naoki Hosaka of the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute talked about how far research on marine litter has progressed and what the problems are, and what actions citizens can take to solve the problem. I told you what it is.
After giving a lecture and sharing what the workshop participants felt and what they wanted to ask, they focused on the Zushi coast, and actually picked up garbage on the Zushi coast and analyzed the garbage they picked up. By doing so, we divided into groups and discussed the characteristics of marine litter on the Zushi coast.
The three features that I finally saw are as follows.
・"Inadvertent litter rather than intentional littering
・"Buried old garbage rather than new garbage
・"Fine and small garbage rather than large garbage
The geographical feature of the Zushi coast is that the distance between the residential area and the coast is close. , Since it faces the Pacific Ocean, there is little large-sized garbage from Asian countries, and there is a lot of small garbage.
After each group analyzed the characteristics of the litter on the Zushi coast, they conducted ideation work focusing on the point of “picking up” marine litter, based on the characteristics. I did.
The seeds of a wide range of ideas have been born, from ideas that focus on the “place” of picking up in the river before it becomes marine garbage, ideas that utilize the terrain, behavior promotion apps, and products.
Finally, the workshop ended by looking back on what they learned and noticed after participating in this workshop.
Although there was as much learning and awareness as there were participants, it led to promoting understanding of marine litter and thinking about how to relate to the marine litter problem in my own way.
[The following are the participants' learnings and realizations that came out in the review (original mom)]
I was surprised to learn that the management of plastic waste makes a big difference in the amount of plastic waste discharged into the sea. Through this learning, I realized that the current efforts are effective and that there are various ideas in each group's presentation.
We learned about the types of marine litter.
Because there were people in various positions, I was able to learn a lot of interesting ideas and perspectives. Although the models and approaches were different, the methods and ideas for reducing waste were similar, so I thought it would be interesting to further combine and brush up each idea.
There is little new plastic garbage, and there is a lot of fine old garbage covered with sand.
The trash on the Zushi beach is fine.
I don't live in Zushi myself, but the opinions and perspectives of people from Zushi who joined the group are sharp, and "attachment to the place where we live" is the driving force behind this kind of activity. I reconfirmed.
Hearing the words "sustained consensus building" between participants and non-participants in beach cleaning and environmental improvement activities, words that convince you that the activities are neither forced nor forced on anyone. I got
What will happen in the next 20-30 years with regard to local thinking and problem solving for Japan as a whole?
Until now, I tended to pay attention to the recent garbage seen after typhoons, but I noticed that there is a lot of old garbage from 2 to 30 years ago. Also, during the discussion, I realized that there are various solutions to reduce waste, and I thought that I would like to put into practice what I can do first.
How many people are interested
Some people accept the existence of indifference
Too much garbage
Garbage ≒ Resources
This was my first time participating in a beach cleanup, and I was surprised at how little trash was intentionally thrown away. I think it's the accumulation of those who clean up on a regular basis and those who try not to put out.
I thought that the manufacturing side could do various things to reduce "inadvertent garbage" such as food packaging.
It seems that you can make effective use of the "drifts" that occur naturally. That's interesting.
There is a lot of garbage that you don't know where it came from.
There is a lot of garbage that I didn't throw away intentionally, and I have to do something about it.
There are many people who have a very specific problem awareness.