○Collecting Garbage Floating in the Ocean

     In the seas around the world, including the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, various types of garbage, such as plastic bottles and plastic bags, are floating and are referred to as "garbage belts." Plastic waste is transformed into fragments and particles called microplastics due to the effects of ocean waves and ultraviolet rays. This plastic waste is discarded as garbage in various countries, including Japan, and the non-degradable plastic drifts in the ocean such as the Pacific Ocean, which becomes fine plastic waste and is eaten by fish along with plankton, and those fish are eaten by humans. In some countries, this plastic is also mixed in table salt.

    Microplastics have also been found in the air in Japan, China, and France. In Shinjuku, Tokyo, 5.2 were detected from one cubic meter of air.

    The method to collect the vast amount of garbage floating in the sea was invented by Boyan Slat. Most of the plastic waste floats on the surface of the water, so the waste brought by the ocean current is collected with a rod-shaped "buoy." The trash naturally gathers in the center of the V-shape. This does not use a net, so it does not harm marine life.

    In a monetary society, such large amounts of plastic waste are constantly flowing into the ocean. The solution is to spread Prout Villages, where there is no money, in parallel with this "ocean garbage collection project" and to eliminate the manufacture of plastic by companies. However, citizens work for these companies and earn wages, so if citizens do not leave the monetary society, the problem will not fundamentally disappear.

    The collected plastic bottles and other plastics are decomposed by bacteria. This bacterium is named "Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 strain," which was found in a recycling factory in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. It is said to decompose PET with a thickness of 0.2 mm into carbon dioxide and water in about a month. If Prout Villages spread and no new plastic waste is produced, it can be decomposed and reduced to zero worldwide, even if it takes time.