OVERVIEW OF MARINE LITTER PROBLEMS AND MEASURES IN JAPAN

by Yuji Adachi

Section Chief, Global Environmental Issues Division, Global Environmental Bureau
Ministry of the Environment, 1-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8975, Japan
YUJI_ADACHI@env.go.jp

INTRODUCTION

Recently concern about washed-up driftage on the coastal zone in Japan has been growing among national and local governments, local residents and media. Based on the concern, Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC) has conducted a series of survey to grasp the actual situation of washed-up driftage along the coasts of the region.

The aim of the survey is to provide related countries with a reference material for designing measures to protect for the marine environment and fishing grounds and waste disposal measures. The survey also aims at raising awareness of residents in the region on the importance to protect the marine environment from washed-up driftage.

In April this year National government has established a Meeting of Director Generals of related ministries which are in charge of washed-up driftage in order to develop measures based on a result of local governments which are suffering the serious situation of marine litter and driftage. Today, I would like to introduce these current policies and measures to struggle washed-up driftage on coastal zone in Japan.

OVERVIEW OF WASHED-UP LITTER

Japan has long coastline comparing with its area. The total length of it is about 35,000km. Also, Japan is located downstream of strong tides such as Kuroshio, Oyashio, and Tsushima Current. Therefore, washed-up and driftage would be flown by the tides and piled up on the sea shore of Japan.

Although the amount of washed-up litter on the coastal line in Japan is not reconnoitered thoroughly, a robust calculation suggests the amount up to about 100,000t per year in Japan.

There is a result of survey conducted by Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC) on Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, and the 48 coastline in FY 2003.

The average number of collected objects per 100m2 was 427 pieces in FY 2003 research. The collected objects consisted of the following materials.

“Plastic and vinyl” - 308 pieces / 100m2 (Accounts for 72.2% of total pieces.)

“Formed styrene” - 79 pieces / 100m2 (18.5%)

“Glass and ceramics” - 15 pieces / 100m2 (3.5%)

“Other artificial object” - 9 pieces / 100m2 (2.2%)

Materials such as plastic and formed styrene accounted for a significantly high proportion to the whole amount of washed-up litter.

The average numbers of pieces in each area are as follows.

“Area A ”- 1,673 pieces / 100m2

“Area B ” – 778 pieces / 100m2

“Area C ” – 443 pieces / 100m2

“Area D” – 313 pieces / 100m2

Less objects were collected in “Area E” through “Area I”

The average weight of collected objects per 100m2 was 2,133g in FY 2003 reserch. The collected objects consisted of the following materials.

“Plastics” - 1,038g/100m2 (Accounts for 48.7% of total weight)

“Other artificial objects” - 452g/100m2 (21.2%)

“Glass and ceramics” - 252g/100m2 (11.8%)

“Formed styrene” - 121g/100m2 (5.7%)

“Rubber” - 97g/100m2 (4.6%)

The weight of plastics (1,038g/100m2) accounts for a significantly large proportion (48.7%) as it also showed high proportion in its number. The average weight of washed-up litter in ”Area D” in the heavied with 4,083g/100m2 ; “Area A” with 4,030g/100m2 in the second place followed by “Area I ”with 2,313g/100m2. Only small amounts of are collected in “Area E, F, G and H”.

The result of overall research found that the amount of washed-up litter is less in northern shore than southern shore both in number and weight in Japan.

The amount of washed-up litter has geographical uneven distribution, that total amount of them in the northwest Kyusyu was considerably bigger than in the other regions. Also, the amount of litter in islands facing to the open sea is large. The ratio of litter origin has regional specific distribution site by site as well, and it is pointed out that in Southwest Islands, Western coasts in Kyushu, and Northwestern coasts in Mainland have high ratio of foreign litter.

Some marine litter is sea-based, while others are land-based. There are also areas on which rope, float, fishing net, etc used by vessel is washed-up in large quantities. For example, as to PET bottle etc., it could be possible in concept to identify the manufactured country by its bar code, but it is not realistic to identify the country discharging it because big amount of products are imported and exported in all over the world. Moreover, fishery gears, such as fishing net, float made from styrene etc, are found as drifted waste on shore, but in most cases, they don’t have indication of its origin. Therefore, it would be difficult to determine the source of discharge.

WASHED-UP PLASTIC CONTAINERS

In every winter, especially in mid January, many plastic containers(20L square tank ) are drifted ashore on Japan coast. The Ministry of the Environment of Japan reported the number of plastic containers based on the data from various related organisations.

In 2006, 8,368 pieces were counted on the coastal zone in the whole country in January. On many of found containers, Korean alphabets were embossed. Since newly drifted and ashore waste come by April, more containers have been drifted ashore even in April. Some plastic containers are filled with dangerous liquid which may cause health problem. Therefore, related authorities make warning to raise public awareness of the drifting-ashore situation and to prevent accidents by mis-handling.

It would be important to have a cooperation programme for exchanging information on the situation of these containers and for developing effective policy and measures to reduce the out flowing containers in the source areas.

REGULATION OF MARINE LITTER

As for washed-up litter of our country, most of them are plastic and vinyl.

The origins of the marine litters are surmised as follows: flown from rivers, drifted ashore from foreign country, released while fishing, illegal dumping from vessel. So many related ministries are making efforts on survey and regulation.

Otherwise, an organization related to fishery conveys technological study of recycling of fishery wastes to prevent those wastes from being flown out to the sea.

Dumping of wastes from vessel is regulated by the Marine Pollution Prevention Law except for specific municipal wastes listed in a government order. The Law is one of the national laws to implement the international commitments of London Convention and Marpol 73/78 Convention ANNEX V. Violators are fined up to 10 million yen.

The nearly amended law requires persons who plan to dump land-based waste to ocean to be licensed by the Minister of the Environment based on the requirements in the 1996 Protocol for the London Convention. The regulation on sea-based wastes will be maintained as it is.

COLLECTION, TRANSPORT, AND DISPOSAL OF MARINE LITTER

In Japan, prefectural governments implement “management” of coastline areas. In 2002, special arrangement on local allocation tax, “Coast Management Expense” was established for prefectural governments and this expense could be spent on management of washed-up litter. Besides, Waste Management Law requires any person or groups which supervise swimming beaches, rivers, ports, and other public places to make efforts to keep them clean.

Actual places where the clean-up activities are held are swimming beaches, sightseeing spots, harbors and fishing areas. Various entities such as local governments, port managers, local associations, volunteers, and so on. carry out clean-up activities. In some cases, national/local governments support the activities financially.

In most cases, collected marine litter is transported to disposal factory by local governments, or commissioned companies.

In case huge amount of drift woods washed-up by disasters like typhoons, special financial support is applied to prefectual governments.

GOVERNMENTAL EFFORTS

Issues on marine problems are taken care of by several ministries; for example, the Minister of the Environment takes charge of marine environmental conservation, the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport takes charge of coast management, Japan Coast Guard takes charge of crackdown on maritime crimes, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries takes charge at fisheries industry. These related ministries are making efforts on financial support, technical development, education and enlightenment on this problem.

Drifted and washed-up marine litter, some of which is originated in foreign countries, has resulted in degradation of coastal functions, deterioration of the environment, especially ecosystem, and sea landscapes, and adverse impacts to maintenance of safe navigation of ships and to fisheries. These incidents have been significant in recent years. Therefore, Japanese Government organized an inter-governmental meeting on drifted marine litter in 2000, the Ministry of the environment has lead its activities for information exchange.

However, there have not been any measures to be regarded as quick-acting medicine, because it is difficult to address release sources as some are located in foreign lands and of coordinating many different governmental agencies which work on different tasks.

Hence, the Government decided to establish the framework in order to discuss more effective measures against marine litter. The outline of the framework is:

1. Meeting of relevant ministries at Director-Generals level has been established since April 2006.

2. The Ministry of the Environment is in charge of management of the meeting in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Fishery Agency. The Cabinet Secretariat also attends the meeting and provides necessary advices.

3. Main tasks of the Meeting are as follows.

The meeting will review and discuss 1. current status, 2. measures being taken, 3. measures including international measures, which address pollutant sources, and 4. measures in areas where damages are significant. The meeting is scheduled to compile the measures to be taken in March, 2007.

ACTION HEREAFTER

Recently, the amount of marine litter driftage to the Japanese coast lines has increased, and much social attention has been drawn to this matter. Following the adoption of the project on marine litter at the 10th NOWPAP Meeting held in Toyama last November, NOWPAP will hold the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) in Tsushima-city, Nagasaki-Prefecture this September, which the Japanese government, municipalities and related NGOs will participate in. This activity will be beneficial for the NOWPAP Member governments and NGOs develop their cooperating strategies Tsushima islands are regarded as the most seriously affected area by marine litter problem.

The four NOWPAP Members discharge marine litter, while the driftage annoys them. In this context, the four countries are generators and victims at the same time. Therefore, it is essential to address the pollutant sources in every country for the ultimate solution. Japan cooperate with the other Members and make its utmost efforts to address this international problem.

COLUMN: CASE OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Students of the Foreign Language College of Busan, Republic of Korea got to know the serious problem in Tsushima is lands by marine litter which are largely generated in Korea. The students have been visiting Tsushima city since 2002 every year, and performing cleaning activities in collaboration with local residents. The event was held in May 21st this year as shown in the photograph.