DESCRIBEYOURGOOD
2022
TOP
100PRACTICEGOODSTORY

Address each aspect of your good practice story in the different sections being
specific including relevant quantitative and qualitative information.

PRACTICE STORY

Title of the Story:'Stories of what happened on our beaches after the litter was reduced'
Destination Name: (include any state, province or region)
Country:

Minamichita townJAPAN

Submitter name:

Mamoru KUZE

Email address: f.okagawa@gmail.com
Position: Director of Secretariat
Submission category: (Please check one of the boxes that indicates the focus of your story)
Please find detailed information for the categories below in the Top 100 training module ‘Good Practice Story’.

☐Governance, Reset & Recovery☐

Nature & Scenery☒

Environment & Climate☐

Culture & Tradition☐

Thriving Communities☐

Business & Marketing

Find detailed instructions for submitting good practices in the Top 1 00 traini ng mo dule “Good P racticeStory”.
Should you have any questions on your submission please refer to our FAQ page or contact top100@greendestinations.org

Issues faced

What was the problem/issue solved with the good practice?

Surrounded by the sea, Minami Chita Town is a tourist destination with two outlying islands.
The town attracts 2.5 million tourists a year, mainly during the summer swimming season, but inrecent years the beach and other seaside areas have become polluted, with litter left by tourists
becoming a major problem.
The town has also long been known as a gourmet town, blessed with an abundance of seafood as
a fishing town.
In this region, serving plenty of food was considered 'hospitality', but in recent years food loss due
to leftovers has become a problem.
The community is currently exploring ways to address these problems.

Methods, steps and tools applied
How was the good practice implemented?

I was convinced that the best way to keep the coastline clean is to pick up all visible litter, even if
it is small. We felt the importance of carrying out regular patrols, even with a small group ofpeople.
In order to clean up the coastline in the region, the first step was to start patrolling and carryingout clean-up activities 'regularly, even with small groups'.
These efforts had a certain effect, and creative activities such as 'sand art' began to take place on
the beautiful beaches and sandy shores.
The rich coastline of the unique peninsula topography and the beautiful sandy beaches with little
litter and obstacles have recently been diversely utilised and introduced as 'suitable locations formarine sand art' and 'sacred places'.

Key success factors

What helped you tackle the issues?

The area around the beach has become cleaner due to the hard work of local volunteer clean-up
teams, who have persistently continued their activities since the beginning, and the strengtheningof waste separation by the government.
The beautiful sandy beaches have been covered by the media through 'sand art' events and otherevents, leading to increased public awareness, as well as increased awareness of the importanceof waste management among local residents and those involved in tourism. The creation of thisvirtuous cycle is considered to be a major success factor.
Also, as the analogy of the 'broken window theory' suggests, the number of tourists who neglect
to clean up after their BBQs or leave rubbish on the beautiful sandy beaches has clearlydecreased.
The beach clean-up activities, which were initially led by a team of volunteers, are now also being
carried out by primary and junior high school students, through whom it can be inferred that achange in awareness regarding the reduction of food loss and household waste is also occurring inhouseholds and local businesses.
Traditional hospitality and the issue of food waste are being examined across generations.

Lessons learned
While implementing the Good Practice what challenges were faced, and how were they overcome?

A major challenge was to raise awareness among local residents and tourism stakeholders, bothabout the discharge of litter along the coastline and about the problem of food waste arising fromtraditional hospitality.
However, the persistent and ongoing clean-up activities of the volunteer groups gave rise to
creative activities such as 'sand art' and a richer reaffirmation of the sea as a tourism resource.
Gradually, the sea has become cleaner and many people have come to love the 'local sea' and 'ourcoastline' through 'sand art' events and other activities, raising awareness of environmental
beautification.
In the future, the town intends to actively conduct awareness-raising activities for tourists visiting
the town.

Results, achievements and recognitions
What were the qualitative and quantitative results of the good practice?

Starting from a small success story on shoreline beautification, the town has set and promoted atarget of a 30% reduction in local waste emissions.
In the run-up to the operation of the new large waste incinerator, the town has taken various
opportunities to encourage local businesses and residents to reduce waste emissions, increase
waste separation and reduce food waste.
As a result, the community as a whole has been able to reduce the amount of food waste, which
has a similar significance to food loss, among household waste by approximately 20% per year.
In addition, a reduction of nearly 50% was achieved in business food waste (the reduction inbusiness waste was also influenced by a decrease in the number of tourists and other visitors due
to Covid-19).
In addition to sand art events, there are also opportunities for intergenerational waste reduction
initiatives, such as fishing experiences and boat trips, which are unique to the seaside town, foreveryone from children to elderly people.
The leading sand art event organiser in the region cleans the coastline every day, draws sand artof all sizes and posts it on social networking sites and other media, with more than 250 posts and
800 followers.

Additional references
Provide links to further information. Pictures and videos should be available for download either from YouTube,
Vimeo or other Cloud-based (Google/ One Drive) download URL (not WeTransfer).