Abstract
This article presents some suggestions for reducing ocean garbage related to riverside littering based on academic reviews of studies on littering and followed by lab/field experiments conducted by the authors at riverside areas. For the laboratory experiment, participants looked at pictures and had to choose which scene showed a situation where littering was most likely to take place. Subsequent field experiments measured daily amounts of garbage in the Natori River (Miyagi Prefecture) after manipulating certain conditions. Both experiments examined the effects of a security camera (presence/absence), previous littering trends (presence/absence), environmental features (tussock/plain ground/flowerbed), and signboards (no sign/sign with eyes/security camera images). Results revealed that the sense of being under surveillance, descriptive norms, and emotional breaks do effectively reduce littering. Although these findings can be implemented to reduce littering at seaside areas, waste disposal management technicalities become more complicated when considering the proliferation of such garbage into the ocean.
