Survey of Scattered Waste on Rivers and Urban Areas

Yokohama City participated in the activities of the Waterside Protection Association and investigated garbage scattered in rivers.

The main cause of scattering of garbage is illegal dumping, including littering, but garbage scattered in rivers is not only littered on the spot, but also washed away from the upstream or discarded on the street. There are many things that have been washed away by the weather.
In addition, even if the garbage is properly put out at the collection site, if measures to prevent scattering are insufficient, it may cause scattered garbage due to wind and rain.

It is said that places where garbage is falling will induce further littering, and there are problems such as falling into a vicious cycle in which garbage calls garbage, and poor living environment and landscape.
However, not only that, scattered garbage on the streets, etc., flows out into the ocean via rivers, causing marine debris. In particular, plastic garbage can cause death due to sea turtles and seabirds accidentally eat food or get entangled with the body.
In addition, deteriorates and fragmentation by ultraviolet rays, etc., it becomes a source of microplastics easily adsorbed residual organic pollutants (POPs) such as PCBs, and fish that ate microplastics eat such pollutants. There is concern that harm will be harmed by taking it into the body (marine plastic problem, microplastics).

Measures on land and rivers are important in order to reduce the outflow of waste into the ocean. Therefore, first, we conducted a survey on scattered garbage on rivers and urban streets in order to understand the actual situation.

Note 1: It is a volunteer to clean up rivers and waterfront facilities approved by Yokohama City. In the river waste survey, the following four organizations cooperated.

1. Tachi River (Tenjinbashi to Shimbashi) Waterfront Protection Association
2. Izumi River Moguri Bridge Waterfront Protection Association
3. Hodogaya-juku Matsunamiki Promenade Waterfront Protection Association (Ima Igawa)
4. Samurai Waterside Protection Association

Specifically, please see Yokohama-shi HP "waterside protection society".

From both surveys, it can be said that measures are important to reduce scattered garbage: PET bottles, plastic containers and packaging, tobacco, and cans.

Marine waste is not a distant problem for us. There are reports that most marine debris flows from land, and the cause starts from familiar places. Measures on land and rivers are important to reduce the amount of waste into the ocean.
There are things that each of us can do:

• Don't litter. Take the garbage left on the go home, separate it and throw it away properly.
• Don't dump illegally. Garbage from daily or work should not be left behind and disposed of properly.
• When discarding garbage, take measures to prevent it from being washed away by wind or rain. (In the collection area, put the net tightly and tie the bag tightly, etc.)
• Pick up the falling garbage. (Participate in garbage collection SNS, events, community cleanup activities, etc. (Example:Waterfront protection societyCleanup activity SNS "Thank you! (Yokohama Cleanup))
• Use as much waste as possible. （My bottle spot）