Mr. Hajime Tanaka became affiliated with the Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI) as an Associate Program Officer from October 2018 after he got master degrees of Economics from Waseda University and International Affairs from University of California San Diego. His specialized fields are Macroeconomics, Policy evaluation and Geographical information analysis. Mr. Tanaka is in charge of projects of blue economy, blue finance, and ocean micro plastic debris. He is currently especially working on ocean micro plastic debris and managing some field research in some cities of Kanagawa prefecture in Japan. For blue economy, he is working on the analysis of management of companies of marine product processing industry.

1. HOW CAN WE APPROACH
TO OCEAN MICRO
PLASTIC DEBRIS ?
Hajime Tanaka
11 May, 2019
Kaohsiung, Taiwan

2. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/18/15272634/catastrophic-coral-bleaching-great-barrier-reef-map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQuTjRh18-8
https://metservice.gov.jm/2017/06/11/what-is-climate-change/
: https://www.hayward-ca.gov/your-environment/green-your-community/sea-level-rise

3. MARINE LITTER
“By 2050, the
amount of
plastic under
ocean will be
more than
amount of
fishes”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-19/ocean-pollution/10378162

4. WHAT IS MICRO PLASTIC?
https://en.mercopress.com/2018/03/15/micro-plastics-presence-in-bottled-water-controversy-
companies-argue-they-operate-at-highest-standards
4
http://blog.nationalgeographic.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Archi-official-09.jpg
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2016/04/04/pesky-plastic-the-true-harm-of-
microplastics-in-the-oceans/

5. WHY DOES IT MATTER?
https://content.pk/pakistan/plastics-entered-human-food-chain/
https://ebrary.net/24906/environment/plastic_marine_debris_complex_mixture_chemic
als

6. THE HISTORY OF PLASTIC OF OCEAN
1900’s
•Plastic
invented
1930’s-40’s
•Fur seals
twined by
rubber
band
found
1950’s-60’s
•Wild
animals
twined by
fishing net
found
1980’s~
“The Workshop
On The Fate
And Impact Of
Marine Debris”
held
https://mini-
ielts.com/207/reading/bakelite--
-the-birth-of-modem-plastics
https://marinebio.org/species/northern-
fur-seals/callorhinus-ursinus/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
6747957/Image-helpless-turtle-caught-net-
winners-years-underwater-photo-awards.html
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531
/metadc1050092/

7. GLOBAL PLASTIC PRODUCTION BY INDUSTRIAL SECTOR, 2015
Annual plastic
production
over the world
in 2015 was
more than 400
million tons.
The largest
plastic
production is
packaging
(36%)
Packaging
36%
Textiles
14%
Electrical/elect
ronic
4%
Building and
construction
16%
Transportation
7%
Consumer and
institutional
products
10%
Industrial
machinery
1%
Others
12%
Source: Data from UNEP, Single Use Plastics (2018)

8. TOTAL PACKAGING WASTE IN 2015
Total packaging
waste in 2015
was 141 million
tons
Among them,
32% of them
were leakage
In 2015,more
than 45 million
tons of plastic
packaging
were leaked
40%
14%
32%
2%
8%
4%
EFFECTIVELY
RECYCLED
RECYCLED INTO
LOWER-VALUE
APPLICATIONS
LOST IN
PROCESS
LANDFILLED INCINERATED LEAKAGE RECYCLED
Source: Data from UNEP, Single Use Plastics (2018)

9. MISMANAGED PLASTIC WASTE PER PERSON PER DAY (KG)
Leakage of
plastic
happen in
developing
countries
Those
mismanaged
plastics waste
flow to river
and ocean
Source: Data from Our World in Data (2010 )and made by OPRI

10. IF YOU FIND FLOOD IN YOUR ROOM,
WHAT DO YOU DO?
https://mrfloodrepair.com/az/tempe/

11. RECENT MOVEMENT OF PLASTIC REGULATIONS
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/starbucks-phase-single-
plastic-straws-sippy-cups-alternatives/story?id=56453127
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-48038130
Source: Data from UNEP, Single Use Plastics (2018)

12. WASTE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY
Prevention is most
preferred
From 80’s to 2000’s, Reuse
and Recycling
From 2010’s , Minimization
is main trend over the
world until now
As next phase, we have
to think first Prevention of
leakage of plastic waste
Source: Incited from UNEP, Single Use Plastics (2018)

13. THE FLOW OF OCEAN PLASTIC
70-80% of plastic
trashes come
from river
Plastic leakage
happen on
process of
Production,
Circulation,
Consumption
and Disposal

14. HOW OPRI TACKLES CHALLENGES?
OPRI is a Think-and-Do Tank
Hypothesis :“Mismanagement of
plastic waste is caused by vertically
segmented administrative waste
management system”
Find factors contributing to leakage
of plastic waste
Make local governments work
together to build the better waste
management system

15. RESEARCH AREA
① Long river
managed by
different
administrative
② Many NGOs
cleaning up of
plastic waste
③ Datasets of
plastic waste on
beach by local
NGO
Evaluation of
new waste
management
system possible

16. RESEARCH DESIGN
Collecting datasets about
geographical information, types and
volume of plastic wastes in river by 50
meters length (Spring, 2019).
Clarifying geographical and social
factors effecting types and amount of
plastic waste on river sides (Summer,
2019).
Making policy recommendation and
do evaluation of new regulations of
plastic wastes (2019-)

17. WHAT CAN WE DO?
Think of prevention as next phase
Stop leakage by improving waste management systems
Start from land, not from ocean in terms of costs
Analyze factors affecting leakage and build idea for better waste
management system
Discuss with governments and companies from perspectives of
regulations and design of plastic products with new idea

18. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
感謝您的聆聽