[O-08] Poster presentations by senior high school students

[O08-P62] Starting our war on plastic in Wakasa: toward problem-solving

Yumi Obata¹, *Ayumu Kurokawa¹, Yura Tokida¹, *Turika Matsuoka¹, Arisa Morimoto¹, Momoka Matsui¹, *Kenji Higata¹, *Akito Sugimoto¹, Riki Kenjyo¹, *Syunsuke Tomita¹ (1.Fukui Prefectural Wakasa High School)

Keywords:Microplastic, Seasonal variation, Amount of plastic waste, Product commercialization, Raising public awareness , Biodegradable plastic

In the world, marine plastic pollution is becoming more serious year by year. We conducted the following research in order to understand the current situation and solve problems in the Wakasa area. First, we investigated the amount of microplastic remaining on the sandy beaches of Wakasa Bay. We also estimated the amount of plastic waste generated from our high school, which is one of the sources of plastic emissions. Replacement of non-biodegradable plastic with biodegradable plastic could be one of the solutions, but it is less understood how fast it is decomposed in seawater. Therefore, we conducted a decomposition experiment of shopping bags made of biodegradable plastic. Lastly, in order to raise people's awareness towards the problem, we aimed to commercialize chopsticks using plastic waste collected from beaches.