Indonesia is said to be the country that emits the second largest amount of plastics into the ocean in the world.In Southeast Asian countries, where waste management is lagging behind, there is no garbage collection except in urban areas, and household garbage is dumped behind houses or along rivers.Such garbage flows into rivers along with movement of water such as squalls, and is directly discharged into the ocean.

　Marine pollution by plastics is a global environmental problem, as evidenced by the detection of plastics in the bodies of marine organisms and birds.Therefore, Professor Inoue and his research team conducted a study with the aim of clarifying the actual amount of plastics flowing into the ocean in Indonesia through field surveys in Jakarta.

　In Jakarta's rivers, there are devices called "Floating Booms" that have floats attached to the top of fences to make them float.Professor Inoue and his colleagues took over some of the waste collected by the Floating booms and sorted it, and found that the average percentage of plastic in the waste was 78%.More than half of the plastic used was plastic bags and PET bottles handed out at stores.

　Based on the amount collected by the floating booms, we calculated the amount of plastic waste discharged into the ocean.The currently widely used estimate of plastic discharge into the ocean from Indonesia is 7.7 g/person/day, and although the estimated value for this study was lower than that value, it does indicate a large amount of discharge. can be said to have been successful.

　Through this research, he plans to jointly consider measures to reduce the amount of plastic flowing into the ocean in Indonesia with local researchers, while making comparisons with Japan.

Paper information:[Marine Pollution Bulletin] Plastic pollution in the surface water in Jakarta, Indonesia