Professor Atsuhiko Isobe of the Institute of Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, and Researcher Shinsuke Iwasaki of the Cold Region Civil Engineering Research Institute of the Civil Engineering Research Institute conducted computer simulations of the movement of waste plastics in the world that have been thrown into the environment since the 1960s. It was found that about% was leaked to the sea.
According to Kyushu University, Professor Isobe and his colleagues have developed a computer simulation that reproduces the movement of drifting and drifting waste plastics and microplastics (fine pieces of plastic) in the oceans of the world, and have thrown them into the environment since the 1960s. We investigated the movement of waste plastics in the world.
As a result, it was found that 95% of the waste plastic was lost on land and the remaining 5% was discharged to the sea.It is estimated that 26% of the waste plastic that has flowed into the sea is visible, and 7% is microplastic, which is still drifting and drifting.The remaining 67% seems to have disappeared by sinking to the seabed or adhering to drifting creatures.
The results of this research are believed to help realize the Osaka Blue Ocean Vision, which was declared at the 2019 Osaka G20 Summit to "zero additional pollution of marine plastics by 2050."
Paper information:[Science of the Total Environment] The fate of missing ocean plastics: Are they just a marine environmental problem?
