Tsushima, one of the most plastic contaminated islands
A message from the Fujitsu employees who took part in the beach clean-up: Tsushima Eco Tour 2019
On November 1st, Fujitsu Limited (Cooperation with the JEAN) held a 3 day tour where Fujitsu Group employees participated in the Tsushima Eco-Tour.
Although many of the participants were already familiar with the issues on plastic waste, they were shocked to see the actual reality.
This report introduces the activities the Fujitsu team participated in.
The current issue of marine plastic waste in Tsushima
Garbage flows into Tsushima from the Sea of Japan through the Tsushima Strait after the Kuroshio Current. This flows northward through the East China Sea and meets the Tsushima Warm Current in southern Kyushu.
Due to this current, garbage from neighbouring countries flow into this area. Here is where the highest volume of garbage in Japan drifts.
At the entrance of the Tsushima Warm Current, the ria has many coastal cliffs and below these cliffs are rocky areas that are covered with garbage.
In the fiscal year of 2019, about 2,140 m3 of waste plastic and about 653 m3 of fishing nets were collected. However, there is a limited budget on how much can be spent on be collecting the rubbish.There is a vast amount of grabage on the Ria coast but not all of it can be collected. The beach where the cleanup activity was carried out this Eco-tour was an uninhabited island, and so far there has been no record of a beach clean in recent years.
Thus, the conditions of this isolated island were severe.
Beach cleaning site
Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture,-1101 817 Coast of Ofunakoshi, Mitsushima-cho
Participants reaction to seeing Tsushima's Beach
At first I thought how colourful it all looked, but then I realized that is was all garbage, so I decided not to mention the colours.
I have seen many pictures before, but when I actually went to the site, I was overwhelmed by the horror of the amount of garbage.
It was quite different from what I had imagined.
I had never thought that it was such a serious situation.
When I first touched the accumulated plastic, I was a little scared. I didn't think it was this bad. I was also surprised, I thought the plastic and polyethylene on the floor was sand at first.
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Total amount of collected waste
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Tsushima Eco Tour's further activities
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I was able to see just how much the environment needs to be protected with my own eyes. I was able to learn about a different environment to my own, and I now know that I need to think more seriously about the problem of marine plastic
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Tsushima Eco-Tour schedule
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November 3
- Programs to deepen thinking in order to solve problems (ideason)
