A Sea Free of Marine Plastic Waste for Future Generations: Spreading the Message from Karatsu to the World.

Our company endorses April Dream, a project that aims to make April 1st a day for announcing dreams. This press release represents the dream of "NPO Karatsu Farm&Food."

NPO Karatsu Farm&Food is announcing its dream through the April Dream project: to realize a world from Karatsu where children don't have to pick up marine litter.

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"By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish."

Are you aware of this warning?

Marine plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980. According to a report by the UN scientific body IPBES, 86% of sea turtles, 44% of seabirds, and 43% of marine mammal species are already affected by plastic. This pollution also impacts humans through the food chain.

Even Karatsu's beautiful sea is plagued by daily drifting trash.

The sea of Karatsu, beloved by Jacques Mayol. Hado Cape, designated as Genkai Quasi-National Park. On the coasts of Tsushima and other remote islands, over 8,000 cubic meters (equivalent to about 320 trucks) of trash, flowing across national borders from overseas, washes ashore annually.

No matter how many times we clean, trash washes up again the next morning.

Facing this reality, we stopped merely picking up trash.

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Not just beach cleanups. Circulating resources.

"Picking up trash" alone cannot save the ocean.

What we are committed to is the circular economy—transforming collected plastic from "waste" into "resources."

Participating in the open-source global project "Precious Plastic," Karatsu Farm&Food is developing a program to upcycle waste plastic into new products using specialized recycling machines.

Plastic bottle caps become whale keychains. Drifting trash becomes sunglasses. Caps collected by children become medals for long-distance running competitions.

If discarded, it's trash; if utilized, it's a resource.

We will spread this realization from Karatsu to all of Japan, and then to the world.

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Serious achievements accumulated from Karatsu.

It's not just words.

Cumulative plastic collected: 2,272kg (approx. 910,000 plastic bottle caps)
Recycling experience participants: Cumulative 11,241 people
SDGs workshops: Cumulative 123 times

We have accumulated beach cleanups and recycling experiences mainly on the coasts of Hado Cape, Yobuko, Madarashima, Kakarashima, Ogawashima, and Tsushima—in Saga, Nagasaki, and Fukuoka prefectures.

Our activities are also being showcased at the Blue Ocean Dome of EXPO2025 Osaka, Kansai. Students from Karatsu Minami High School presented on the theme of "Realizing a Plastic Resource Circular Economy" at the Japan-China-Korea Trilateral Environment Ministers Meeting Youth Forum, expanding a network connecting local communities to the world.

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Children are changing the future of the sea.

What we value most are activities with children.

Children from Yobuko Elementary School organized and managed a beach cleanup that attracted over 100 participants, upcycled the collected caps into keychains, and gave them as gifts to participants.

Junior high school students from Madarashima presented, saying, "Small things starting from a small island can become the power to change the world," moving the adults in the audience to tears.

At Nagasaki City Kojima Elementary School, we conducted Nagasaki Prefecture's first Precious Plastic workshop at an elementary school. Later, we received feedback from a teacher: "One child mentioned making recycled cap keychains as their best memory of the second semester."

Children are already starting to change.

However, our goal is not to keep children picking up trash.

Our earnest dream is for adults to take responsibility for creating a world where children don't have to pick up marine litter—a society that eliminates sources and circulates plastic.

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From Karatsu to the world.

The marine plastic problem cannot be solved by one region alone.

We are currently expanding awareness activities both domestically and internationally in collaboration with Fukuoka Hakata Daimaru's "Kyushu Exploration Team." A resource circulation project connecting cities and regions has also begun in partnership with Tsushima City's SDGs Partners and Waseda University's "Precious Plastic Waseda."

Collaborative workshops with companies such as Patagonia, Saraya, AEON Kyushu, and Kubara Honke are also continuously expanding.

Our Dream

We will realize a world from Karatsu where children don't have to pick up marine litter.

What we will continue to do for that purpose—

Conduct beach cleanups and collect plastic. Circulate collected plastic as a resource. Stop single-use plastics and create a society that doesn't release plastic into the sea. Disseminate these activities from local communities to Japan and the world.

Beach cleanups are just the beginning.

We will continue our earnest challenge from Karatsu towards realizing a society that doesn't release plastic into the sea, a society that stops single-use, and a society that circulates resources.

This is our earnest dream.

[NPO Karatsu Farm&Food Overview]

Location: 3-7-22 Higashikaratsu, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture

Established: 2019

Main activities: Precious Plastic Karatsu (plastic resource circulation), management of the first Nature Coexistence Site in Saga Prefecture certified by the Ministry of the Environment (Ochi-cho Yokomakura), ESD environmental education, beach cleanups, satoyama preservation.

Cumulative plastic collected: 2,272kg (approx. 910,000 plastic bottle caps)

Recycling experience participants: Cumulative 11,241 people

SDGs workshops: Cumulative 123 times

Exhibited at EXPO2025 Osaka, Kansai Blue Ocean Dome

WEB: https://karatsu-f-f.com

Contact: info@karatsu-f-f.com

"April Dream" is a project by PR TIMES where companies announce dreams they hope to achieve on April 1st. We are earnestly striving to realize this dream.