Japan backs new material development to reduce marine plastic waste

The move is part of efforts to achieve the government's goal of stopping generating marine plastic waste by 2040.

In July, WWF Japan pulled up a huge plastic waste about three meters long and one meter wide in waters near Tatara Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

It took three months and 500,000 yen to recover the waste, in which a large number of fishing nets and ropes were entangled.

As of 2015, about 9.1 million tons of plastic waste, equivalent to about 56,000 jet aircraft, had been released into the ocean annually worldwide.

Plastic waste is taken into organisms as particulate microplastics.

It also has a significant impact on fisheries and tourism by being entangled in the screws of boats.

There is an estimate that the total weight of plastic waste in the ocean will exceed the total weight of fish by 2050.

The industry ministry, through the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, or NEDO, is supporting the development of biodegradable plastics that decompose into water and carbon dioxide by the action of microorganisms in the sea.

A five-year plan starting this fiscal year calls for the development of a new material that can be used for several years in water and then slowly decompose over time.

Nisshinbo Chemical Inc., which is supported by NEDO, has already established a technology to promote decomposition of a material with additives.

Research is underway to improve its durability.

The company aims to commercialize multiple types of material with different decomposition rates in the future.

The development is costly, but Japan's technological strength in biodegradable plastics is high, and demand is expected if the country is able to introduce new materials ahead of the world, industry ministry officials said.