2013 Volume 24 Issue 5 Pages 97-104
Medical and sanitary wastes on beaches make visitors feel uncomfortable or frightened. Therefore, we have carried out long-term monitoring of hazardous wastes that wash up on the beaches of Tottori Prefecture, Japan. Medical syringes and glass bottles, most of which originate in China, totaled 24.5pcs/(hm･y). Most of the disposable enema bottles and hemorrhoid medication tubes were made in Japan. Most tampon applicators were also concluded to originate in Japan. The total quantity of these three types of items was 2.4pcs/(hm･y), which is almost equal to the total amount of lighters printed with Japanese characters. The dumping ratios of enema bottles and tampon applicators in Japan, defined as (quantity of washed-up waste)/(consumption of the item), were almost equal to those of PET bottles and glass energy drink bottles. This finding indicates that sanitary wastes simply flow to beaches from rivers since the combined sewer systems cover only about 10% of the population in the area from which the litter is able to drift ashore in Tottori. Additionally, the fact that relatively few medical syringes washed up, in comparison to sanitary wastes, indicates the stark difference in collection services for medical and sanitary wastes in Japan.
