According to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the experiment will be carried out through industry-government-academia collaboration with the participation of Senior Researcher Atsushi Nakayama of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Professor Tadahisa Iwata of the Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo.

　The biodegradable plastic sample attached to Edokko-1 is filmed by Edokko-1 as a video of the plastic decomposition process, and how it is decomposed on the deep sea floor is observed.The samples include those that have already been commercialized and those that are under research and development.

　The decomposition test of biodegradable plastic has been carried out in the shallow sea of ​​the coast in the past, but the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology is the first in the world to carry out the decomposition test at a depth of 5,000 meters or more.

　It is estimated that more than 800 million tons of plastic waste flow into the sea every year, and marine pollution such as the impact on ecosystems has emerged as a global social problem.In order to control this, it is essential not only to switch to a society that produces as little plastic waste as possible, but also to develop materials that can be decomposed in the sea or on the seabed while fulfilling the functions of the product.

　Biodegradable plastics are finally decomposed into water and carbon dioxide by the action of microorganisms, but the environment is significantly different from that on land on the deep sea floor where sunlight does not reach at high pressure and low temperature, and how biodegradable plastics are decomposed. It was necessary to confirm whether it was.

reference:[JAMSTEC] Started biodegradable plastic decomposition test on deep sea floor using "Edokko No. 1"