Kyoto, 13-18 March 2023: The 3R International Scientific Conference on Material Cycles and Waste Management (3RINCs), to enhance sustainable production and consumption through Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (3R), opened this week, bringing together more than 400 researchers and students for a six-day knowledge sharing occasion.
Academics and practitioners from 24 countries shared the latest waste management developments and discoveries in a variety of sessions, as the ninth annual conference was finally held in person at Kyoto University after being fully online for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘The special sessions initiated discussions within eight important topics, namely plastics, mercury waste management, open dumping and burning, integrated solid waste management (ISWM) and net zero, international cooperation, landfill management, and The Regional 3R and Circular Economy Forum in Asia and the Pacific,’ said Dr Yasuhiko Hotta, Programme Director of Sustainable Consumption and Production Area at the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), who oversaw the sessions.
The general sessions welcomed 129 presentations from a wide range of disciplines, including municipal solid waste, plastic pollution, e-waste, and disaster waste.
Protecting Mangrove Ecosystems from Plastic Pollution
The Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris (the Centre) presented its latest research on stocktaking good practices in protecting mangrove ecosystems from plastic pollution – with an Indonesian case study.
‘Home to the largest area of mangrove forest in Southeast Asia with a total area of 3.3 million hectares, Indonesia’s mangroves are under immense threat from surging amounts of plastic pollution,’ said Ms Ellen Putri Edita, Centre Research Associate.
Mangrove forests in Indonesia have seen a build-up of plastic waste as a result of land-based plastic leakage flowing through the rivers and becoming trapped in the complex mangrove roots, according to the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in 2023. This causes growth problems, especially for mangrove seedlings.
‘With mangroves being one of the largest blue carbon sinks, safeguarding them is therefore of high importance,' she said.
Minimising plastic flow in rivers is the key point in protecting mangroves from plastic pollution, as it eventually ends up in mangrove forests sat at the mouth of the river. This can be done through both direct and indirect measures.
‘With mangroves being one of the largest blue carbon sinks, safeguarding them is therefore of high importance,' she said.
Minimising plastic flow in rivers is the key point in protecting mangroves from plastic pollution, as it eventually ends up in mangrove forests sat at the mouth of the river. This can be done through both direct and indirect measures.
Indonesia provided examples of good practices, including The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor 001 in Cengkareng Drain; and trash racks, and bamboo fences in the Mangrove Forest Protection Area.
‘In principle, these direct measures worked by filtering plastic and preventing it from flowing further downstream. The indirect good practices, on the other hand, worked by preventing the leakage of plastic waste in the first place through measures such as reducing plastic consumption and improving waste management,’ said Ms Ellen Putri Edita.
Preventing plastic pollution in mangroves does not come without its own set of challenges. In terms of prevention, there is no specific regulation in place concerning plastic pollution in Indonesia's mangroves, and with mangrove forests sitting between land and sea, there is a possible conflict of interest in governance. In terms of handling the cumulated plastic waste in mangroves, clean-up and restoration remain difficult to achieve.
Plastic Debris Monitoring in the Mekong River Basin
Reliable data is essential for making policies and initiatives necessary to address plastic waste issues. For this reason, the Mekong River Commission, in collaboration with IDEA Consultants, developed a long-term and cost-effective monitoring method for riverine plastic debris, particularly in the Lower Mekong River Basin.
The protocol covers monitoring methods for riverine macroplastic and microplastic, and microplastic content in fish. Ms Kotone Iwamoto, a Junior Researcher at IDEA Consultants, said that for monitoring microplastic ingested by fish, they chose as the suggested protocol 12 types of fish commonly caught in the four countries of the Lower Mekong River Basin.
‘This monitoring protocol is now in progress to be released, which we hope will enable the collection of standardised monitoring data of riverine plastic debris in the region,’ she said.
The Necessity of Plastic Products: Japanese Consumer Perceptions
Consumers are one of the main stakeholders in achieving plastic circularity. So intervention in consumer behaviour, notably on the consumption and utilisation of plastic products, needs be addressed.
Dr Yuta Ando, a researcher from Kyoto University, presented the results of a survey collecting Japanese consumer views on the necessity and substitutability of 50 selected plastic products frequently used and disposed of daily.
Based on 10,000 respondents, more than 44% of the plastic products were considered unnecessary and there were more sustainable substitutes available on the market. The evaluation on demographic factors showed that gender and age correlated with consumer views.
‘The accumulated data can be further used to inform the development of a roadmap of future measures needed to address issues related to plastic products at the individual-product level,’ said Dr Ando.
Research Associate
Kyoto, 13-18 March 2023: The 3R International Scientific Conference on Material Cycles and Waste Management (3RINCs), to enhance sustainable production and consumption through Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (3R), opened this week, bringing together more than 400 researchers and students for a six-day knowledge sharing occasion.
Academics and practitioners from 24 countries shared the latest waste management developments and discoveries in a variety of sessions, as the ninth annual conference was finally held in person at Kyoto University after being fully online for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘The special sessions initiated discussions within eight important topics, namely plastics, mercury waste management, open dumping and burning, integrated solid waste management (ISWM) and net zero, international cooperation, landfill management, and The Regional 3R and Circular Economy Forum in Asia and the Pacific,’ said Dr Yasuhiko Hotta, Programme Director of Sustainable Consumption and Production Area at the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), who oversaw the sessions.
The general sessions welcomed 129 presentations from a wide range of disciplines, including municipal solid waste, plastic pollution, e-waste, and disaster waste.
Protecting Mangrove Ecosystems from Plastic Pollution
The Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris (the Centre) presented its latest research on stocktaking good practices in protecting mangrove ecosystems from plastic pollution – with an Indonesian case study.
‘Home to the largest area of mangrove forest in Southeast Asia with a total area of 3.3 million hectares, Indonesia’s mangroves are under immense threat from surging amounts of plastic pollution,’ said Ms Ellen Putri Edita, Centre Research Associate.
Mangrove forests in Indonesia have seen a build-up of plastic waste as a result of land-based plastic leakage flowing through the rivers and becoming trapped in the complex mangrove roots, according to the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in 2023. This causes growth problems, especially for mangrove seedlings.
‘With mangroves being one of the largest blue carbon sinks, safeguarding them is therefore of high importance,' she said.
Minimising plastic flow in rivers is the key point in protecting mangroves from plastic pollution, as it eventually ends up in mangrove forests sat at the mouth of the river. This can be done through both direct and indirect measures.
‘With mangroves being one of the largest blue carbon sinks, safeguarding them is therefore of high importance,' she said.
Minimising plastic flow in rivers is the key point in protecting mangroves from plastic pollution, as it eventually ends up in mangrove forests sat at the mouth of the river. This can be done through both direct and indirect measures.
Indonesia provided examples of good practices, including The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor 001 in Cengkareng Drain; and trash racks, and bamboo fences in the Mangrove Forest Protection Area.
‘In principle, these direct measures worked by filtering plastic and preventing it from flowing further downstream. The indirect good practices, on the other hand, worked by preventing the leakage of plastic waste in the first place through measures such as reducing plastic consumption and improving waste management,’ said Ms Ellen Putri Edita.
Preventing plastic pollution in mangroves does not come without its own set of challenges. In terms of prevention, there is no specific regulation in place concerning plastic pollution in Indonesia's mangroves, and with mangrove forests sitting between land and sea, there is a possible conflict of interest in governance. In terms of handling the cumulated plastic waste in mangroves, clean-up and restoration remain difficult to achieve.
Plastic Debris Monitoring in the Mekong River Basin
Reliable data is essential for making policies and initiatives necessary to address plastic waste issues. For this reason, the Mekong River Commission, in collaboration with IDEA Consultants, developed a long-term and cost-effective monitoring method for riverine plastic debris, particularly in the Lower Mekong River Basin.
The protocol covers monitoring methods for riverine macroplastic and microplastic, and microplastic content in fish. Ms Kotone Iwamoto, a Junior Researcher at IDEA Consultants, said that for monitoring microplastic ingested by fish, they chose as the suggested protocol 12 types of fish commonly caught in the four countries of the Lower Mekong River Basin.
‘This monitoring protocol is now in progress to be released, which we hope will enable the collection of standardised monitoring data of riverine plastic debris in the region,’ she said.
The Necessity of Plastic Products: Japanese Consumer Perceptions
Consumers are one of the main stakeholders in achieving plastic circularity. So intervention in consumer behaviour, notably on the consumption and utilisation of plastic products, needs be addressed.
Dr Yuta Ando, a researcher from Kyoto University, presented the results of a survey collecting Japanese consumer views on the necessity and substitutability of 50 selected plastic products frequently used and disposed of daily.
Based on 10,000 respondents, more than 44% of the plastic products were considered unnecessary and there were more sustainable substitutes available on the market. The evaluation on demographic factors showed that gender and age correlated with consumer views.
‘The accumulated data can be further used to inform the development of a roadmap of future measures needed to address issues related to plastic products at the individual-product level,’ said Dr Ando.
Research Associate
