150 Bags of Waste Collected at the Arakawa Riverbank Clean-up

Report on Arakawa River Clean-up

Organizer: Yasuhiro Oguni, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC / Business Well-being Leader and Impact Month Planning member

The Arakawa Clean-up is organized on a regular basis, not just this one in November.

Overview of the Program and Intention

Held on Sunday, November 12, 100 people participated in the event including 90 Deloitte Tohmatsu Group members and 10 family members.

By 2050, it is estimated that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish (by weight) and 70% to 80% of the plastic in the ocean comes from land-based sources.¹ As the waste moves from towns to the sea along rivers, the density of plastic pollution is found to be higher along rivers than in the oceans. It will become nearly impossible to remove the waste after it reaches the oceans, making it vital that we remove it while it is still in and along rivers. In a way, removing waste from rivers is the last opportunity to stop maritime pollution.

As one of the largest rivers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Arakawa is a symbolic place to tackle this formidable problem of plastic pollution in the ocean.

¹ Reference: https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/app/uploads/2020/02/new_pr_20200221_01.pdf (PDF)

Many family members of Deloitte Tohmatsu Group participated in the activity.

Results and Going Forward

With support from the not-for-profit organization Arakawa Clean Aid Forum, we collected more than 150 bags of litter, ranging from cans and bottles to lighters and small pieces of metal, in a little over an hour. The amount of litter was surprising and almost overwhelming at first, making us feel as if we were not making any visible progress. As time passed, however, we were all focused on picking up the litter in front of us. While we realize that ours was a very small contribution, if we think about the area cleaned up and the amount of litter removed, the Clean-up taught us the importance of taking action, even if its effect is small relative to the scale of the issue.

This should not be a one-off event - we should keep participating. We would like to continue with this going forward.

More than 150 bags of litter were collected. 

Participants’ Comments

• We learned a lot from being exposed to so much waste on the riverbank.
• It was a fulfilling experience – not only because we were able to clean the area but we also had the opportunity to interact with people from different businesses. 
• The Clean-up helped me see a different aspect of society in Japan, one which I normally overlook. The activity was very meaningful in that regard. I would encourage all members to participate in this activity. (A Business Leader)
• The impact of seeing the unimaginable amount of waste might have been larger than the social impact I made. It never occurred to me that we might have to dig up a bicycle from out of the mud. The power of participants with different expertise under the Multi-Disciplinary Model made this task possible. (A Business Leader) 
• (Learning that disposable syringes may be among the waste) I was shocked and very surprised. (An elementary school student)
  

Business Leaders were among the volunteers. “You have no idea about situations like this unless you see it with your own eyes.

A diary by an elementary school student