ANA Group has started selling flight tags made from marine debris.
This product was made possible through the ANA Group Employee Proposal System, and some of the yarn used in the flight tags is made from marine plastic bottles collected by ANA Group employees in Ishigaki and used plastic bottles collected from ANA aircraft.
Here, we will share the story of a year-and-a-half-long effort to address the marine debris problem, along with the project planner's thoughts.

With this goal in mind, Mr. Matsubara, a native of Ishigaki and a member of the ANA Engineering & Maintenance Center, planned the project.
Ever since he first saw marine debris washed up on the shore when he was in high school, he has never forgotten the sight.
When he visited the coast of Ishigaki again about three years ago, he was shocked by the huge amount of waste scattered along the beach. Driven by a desire to restore the once-beautiful sea around Ishigaki Island, he started by picking up litter himself.
Through these activities, however, he came to realize that most of the garbage had been carried from the town by rain and wind.
"Cleaning up the beach is not enough. We need to change our mindset in everyday life."
With this realization, Mr. Matsubara, both a member of the ANA Group, which operates flights to Ishigaki, and a native of the island, submitted a proposal through the ANA Group Employee Proposal System, driven by the strong belief that "we are responsible for protecting this beautiful sea, and there must be something we can do."

Mr. Matsubara took on two challenges in an effort to create a system that would encourage changes in people's awareness and behavior by turning waste into resources and creating products that people would want to pick up and use.
The first challenge was to turn waste into a new product.
He started with the collection of materials for product development, frequently visiting Ishigaki with like-minded people to clean up the coast and collect marine debris and collaborating with ANA OKINAWA AIRPORT CO., LTD. to collect used plastic bottles from flights arriving at Ishigaki Airport.
By blending the collected marine plastics and plastic bottles to ensure stable quality, the team transformed the waste into the value-added recycled yarn OCEAN THREAD®, which was then used as the material for the flight tags, thereby creating a cycle in which waste is given new value once again.

Mr. Matsubara has visited many schools as part of the ANA Group's career education program.
In this class, instead of simply conveying knowledge, he developed a game to help students learn the importance of protecting the richness of the ocean and invited them to play it, allowing them to learn in an enjoyable way.
In this game, by scanning a QR code, the students could draw event cards and action cards in sequence, learning in a fun, hands-on way which actions lead to ocean pollution and which help protect the ocean, with pollution levels displayed as points.
The students who attended the class gave feedback such as "I would like to start by picking up litter" and "I will avoid using single-use plastic as much as I can," demonstrating that the class was a great success.

What was the most challenging part?

Even though it often felt as if we understood the entire process, there was still much we could not foresee. Each time we moved forward, a new obstacle appeared, and once we overcame it, another emerged. That was how the entire process went.
ANA Group has commercialized products made from things that would otherwise have been discarded, such as airplane seat covers, used employee uniforms, and scraps generated during the manufacturing process. However, developing a product from garbage was the first initiative of its kind.
Without any precedent, everything, from identifying target customers to deciding how to sell the product, was unknown and required repeated trial and error over an extensive period of time.
The use of recycled materials involved numerous technical and scheduling challenges, including hazardous substance inspections and delays in manufacturing timelines. Despite all these challenges, however, we made thorough preparations so that customers could use the product with confidence.
Thanks to the concerted efforts of many companies, including Ocean Class Co.,Ltd. which produced the yarn, Kowa Company, Ltd., which manufactured the tags, and Fujisey Co., Ltd. and ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS TRADING CO., LTD., which managed sales, we were able to bring the product to market.
These challenges made the completion of the product all the more rewarding, and I believe every step of the process was extremely important.

What are your future plans?

I would like to continue my efforts to protect the ocean.
Through this initiative, we successfully established a scheme in which garbage is turned into resources and used to create a product.
Going forward, while continuing to collect marine debris, I would like to establish a circular business that incorporates a system to prevent garbage from flowing into the ocean by raising awareness of the issue.
I believe that establishing a viable business model is the most effective way to change the behavior of those who discard garbage.
In addition, as my special classes verified that raising awareness can lead to changes in people's actions, I would like to continue my educational activities as well.

What message would you like to convey to everyone?

An estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste flow into the ocean every year, and the amount of marine plastic waste remaining in the ocean is projected to exceed that of fish by 2050.
What matters most in addressing this issue is for each of us to become aware.
If you find litter on the street, simply picking it up and returning it to the regular waste disposal system can help make a difference.
Before becoming marine plastic waste, the plastic was originally a valuable resource that enriched our lives.
I would be happy if, by appreciating the benefits it once brought us, we could collect this waste as a resource and help restore the ocean to its original state of "churaumi" (beautiful sea). Let us keep the ocean clean together.