Island ESD: From Beach Litter to Island Shapes

Children on Japan's small islands turn the litter on their beaches into data, design and pride.

Litter from Japan and abroad washes up on the small islands off Karatsu, and island schools have few pupils and few outside visitors. Each year we work with one island school: the children pick up the litter, sort and count it by country, and turn the bottle caps into tile art, island-shaped keychains and coasters with small recycling machines. They then share what they learned with others.

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Updated November 2026

Web presence

2022

Established

13.5K 2026

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Target group

We hope that children on small islands will see themselves not only as people who live with marine litter, but as people who can study it, explain it and change how others see it. Small schools on remote islands are often seen as places that lack things. We want them to be seen as places where learning about the ocean starts, because the evidence washes up at their feet. We also want island schools to learn from each other. When Kakara students received keychains made from the Ogawa students' whale, and when three islands presented together, the children found that their island's problem was shared by others. We hope this exchange will grow beyond Karatsu, to islands in Japan and in other countries facing the same sea. At Madara's 150th-anniversary school festival, a junior high student said: "Small things that start on a small island can change the world." That is the change we wish to see in education.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

The islands off Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, face the open sea, and litter from Japan, Korea, China and other countries washes up on their beaches. The island schools are very small; Takashima Elementary School has 13 to 14 pupils. Children see the litter every day, but they rarely get the chance to study it, to act on it, or to share what they find with people outside the island.
We run Precious Plastic Karatsu, a small recycling workspace that shreds and melts plastics such as bottle caps and moulds them into new products. In September 2022 we carried our machines by boat from Yobuko port to Ogawa Island for a workshop at the Ogawa school. That workshop became the start of Island ESD.
Since FY2023 we have worked with one island a year as part of Saga Prefecture's "Plasma LIFE Saga" campaign: Ogawa Island (FY2023), Kakara Island (FY2024), Madara Island (FY2025) and Takashima (FY2026).

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Each island year follows four steps: pick up and survey, sort, remake, and give back.
On Kakara Island in May 2024, 28 people collected 79.9 kg of washed-up litter, almost all of it plastic. The students sorted the PET bottles by country (Japan 100, Korea 59, China 56, Malaysia 5, other 6), washed the caps and turned them into Kakara Island-shaped keychains, which they gave to everyone at the school festival.
On Ogawa Island in FY2023, junior high students reported that 15.87 kg of the 23.07 kg they collected (about 69%) was plastic. From a student's drawing of a whale, washed-up plastic and collected caps became a whale mosaic, which was reported to the Governor of Saga and exhibited at the Saga Prefectural Art Museum.
On Madara Island in 2025, the children drew island creatures, we made moulds from their drawings, and they formed coasters from bottle caps. On Takashima in 2026, all pupils joined a beach cleanup and made island-shaped keychains and coasters.

How has it been spreading?

Over four years the programme has moved from Ogawa to Kakara, Madara and Takashima. The islands now meet each other: in October 2024 Ogawa and Kakara students held an exchange, and in July 2025 junior high students from Kakara, Ogawa and Madara met on Kakara to present their surveys and upcycling. The children's work has been shown at the Saga Prefectural Art Museum, the Saga Prefectural Hall and Karatsu City Hall, and covered by the Saga Shimbun and the Nishinippon Shimbun. The Ogawa whale became the design of our keychain "The Whale".
In the next 2 to 3 years we want to keep the islands connected after their year ends, invite island schools elsewhere in Japan and overseas to join exchanges, and share the survey method so other schools can run it themselves.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Tell us your island or school, the number of participants and the period you have in mind through our contact page (karatsu-f-f.com/en/island-esd.html) or by email to kojima@karatsu-f-f.com. We can run workshops on your island, host visits in Karatsu, or connect island schools.

Implementation steps

Pick up and survey

Choose a beach near the school and set a date with the teachers. The children pick up the litter that has washed up, weigh it and note what kinds of items they find. On Kakara Island in May 2024, 28 people collected 79.9 kg, almost all of it plastic.

Sort and count

Sort the PET bottles and caps by the country shown on the label and count them. Record the results so the children can present them. On Kakara Island the students counted Japan 100, Korea 59, China 56, Malaysia 5 and other 6.

Remake

Wash the caps, then shred and mould them with small open-source Precious Plastic machines. We bring the machines to the island by boat. Designs can come from the children's own drawings, such as island-shaped keychains, coasters with island creatures or a tile mosaic.

Give back

The children present what they found and what they made at school festivals, exhibitions and exchanges with other island schools. On Kakara Island the students gave the keychains to everyone at their school festival, and in July 2025 students from three islands presented together.