{"id":78887,"date":"2025-08-19T02:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T02:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78887\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T02:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T02:40:07","slug":"plastic-waste-from-asia-inundates-sea-of-japan-coastline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78887\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic waste from Asia inundates Sea of Japan coastline"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO – Marine waste that has drifted over from other Asian countries is causing problems in prefectures along the Sea of Japan. Intergovernmental negotiations held in Switzerland through Aug 15 sought to establish the <\/p>\n

world\u2019s first treaty on preventing pollution<\/p>\n

<\/a> but ultimately failed to reach an agreement, prompting concerns over delays in taking action against serious plastic pollution.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Japan itself is one of the world\u2019s largest generators of plastic waste and is being urged to take steps to keep oceans clean.<\/p>\n

Plastic containers and bottles have covered the western coastline of Tsushima in Nagasaki Prefecture, about 50 kilometers from Busan. \u201cNo matter how many times we collect them, they keep washing ashore whenever there\u2019s heavy rain or a typhoon,\u201d said tour guide Shoko Sakata, 45.<\/p>\n

According to city estimates, 30,000 to 40,000 cubic meters of drifting garbage reaches Tsushima annually. Over half is plastic products, with 54 per cent of the plastic bottles collected last year coming from China and Taiwan, and 38 per cent from South Korea.<\/p>\n

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, about 20 million tons of plastic waste ends up in the global environment each year. About 90 per cent of that comes from developing countries, with improper waste control cited as the main cause.<\/p>\n

Japan is planning to provide technical assistance to Asian countries and elsewhere to establish waste sorting and collection systems, and has set a target of training 10,000 personnel in charge of waste control. However, reducing drifting waste ultimately depends on the efforts of the countries that generate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational rules are needed to restore clean beaches,\u201d said Mr Michinao Suenaga, 54, a board member of the Tsushima Coast and Aquatic Preservation Programme Association, which engages in beach clean-ups.<\/p>\n

In contrast, an Environment Ministry survey in fiscal 2023 found that most of the plastic bottles that washed ashore along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean and the Seto Inland Sea were domestic in origin. Ehime University Professor Hirofumi Hinata, who specializes in coastal physical oceanography, attributed this to ocean currents and wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the plastic waste flowing into the Pacific Ocean eventually reaches countries like the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Japan ranks second in the world, after the United States, in its generation of plastic packaging waste per capita \u2014 32 kilograms per year as of 2015.<\/p>\n

The public and private sectors are working to reduce the amount of plastic waste.<\/p>\n

Kirin Holdings Co., for example, promotes label-free bottles and has vowed to \u201ccontribute to the realization of a circular economy\u201d and the \u201creduction of environmental impact\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Plastic Resource Circulation Law, which came into effect in 2022, requires convenience stores, hotels, restaurants and other businesses to formulate plans to reduce the volume of plastic products they provide. However, penalties apply only to large businesses, resulting in limited efforts by small operations.<\/p>\n

A Tokyo restaurant owner who uses plastic straws said, \u201cPlastic is cheaper, and customers strongly prefer it, so we can\u2019t switch to paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plastic exposed to ultraviolet rays and wind breaks down into tiny fragments called microplastics, which are less than 5 millimeters in size. Consuming fish that ingested microplastics is feared to pose health risks to humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will keep encouraging countries to participate in discussions toward the establishment of a treaty, while promoting effective initiatives both domestically and internationally,\u201d a senior Environment Ministry official said. THE JAPAN NEWS\/ASIA NEWS NETWORK<\/p>\n

JapanPlastic pollutionWater pollution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO – Marine waste that has drifted over from other Asian countries is causing problems in prefectures along…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-78887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}