A Statistical Study on the Effect of Banning the Manufacture, Sale, and Use of Polystyrene Foam on Reducing Beach Litter (A Case Study in Japan)

Abstract

Kentoku Funaki*

Analyzing the results of a survey of the composition of beach litter in 35 prefectures and the data on the amount of polystyrene foam shipped in domestic resin product consumption, it was found that the population of the former was the latter, and that randomly extracted data from that was beach plastic litter. However, a test of population ratios showed that the average proportion of polystyrene foam in the domestic product consumption of the former, 1.6%, was significantly different from the proportion of polystyrene foam in beach litter, 3.6%. In other words, the average value of the latter proportion is about twice the average value of the former, and statistically, polystyrene foam can be said to be a product that is easily scattered outdoors. Furthermore, if the manufacture, sale, and use of polystyrene foam were banned, it would be possible to reduce the amount of plastic littering on beaches by about 4% by weight and about 10% by volume. The conclusion of this paper is that if a deposit system for PET were adopted, it could be possible to reduce plastic litter by 20 to 30 percent in terms of weight.

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