Plastic pollution and marine litter are new pressing challenges on a global scale. With the support of the Swedish government, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) annually holds the SEA of Solutions as a partnership event toward solving the problem of plastic pollution at its source. *1
Currently during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly greater efforts are required to reduce plastic waste and marine litter due to a rapid increase in the amount of disposable masks and single-use plastic containers, a downturn in demand for recycled plastic, and a plunge in the price of plastic caused by slumping oil prices.
To address these problems, keynote lectures and parallel sessions took place on various themes in the SEA of Solutions 2020 held from 24th to 26th November. Professor So Sasaki of the Faculty of Economics reported his research and contributed to the discussion of the “Plastic protection without pollution” session as a panelist.