Abstract
Submerged marine debris (SMD) scattered between sea level and the bottom of the sea damages the habitats of marine life and threatens its growth in South Korea. The collection of SMD is more difficult and expensive than that of coastal and floating debris. The government is trying to achieve a 33% reduction in SMD by 2023 by expanding its collection, which requires huge additional investments and additional information about the economic value or benefits of the reduction. This article seeks to conduct an economic valuation of the reduction by employing contingent valuation (CV), which asks people to indicate their willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction. A dichotomous choice CV survey was undertaken with 1000 households by a professional survey firm through person-to-person interviews during July 2019. Overall, people understood the CV questions well and reported the WTP responses for a hypothetical market successfully created with CV. Although 37.9% of interviewees stated zero WTP, the average of the yearly household WTP was estimated as 5523 Korean won (KRW) (USD 4.92). This value ensures statistical significance. The population’s WTP for the reduction would be KRW 110.30 billion (USD 99.75 million) per year over the next five years. It was found that the reduction is socially beneficial since the value was greater than the costs involved in the reduction.
Highlights
The “plastic-free” movement is taking place around the world with plastic waste emerging as a serious environmental problem
Waste containing plastics that flows into the ocean is called marine debris
This study investigated people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing Submerged marine debris (SMD) in South Korea by 33% by 2023 by means of expanding SMD collection
Summary
The “plastic-free” movement is taking place around the world with plastic waste emerging as a serious environmental problem. Waste containing plastics that flows into the ocean is called marine debris. The marine debris containing plastic is being pointed out as a global pollution problem [2], and various discussions and international agreements to strengthen regulations to reduce marine debris in the future are under way [3,4,5,6,7]. In line with this international situation, South Korea has tried to reduce marine debris. In order for the marine ecosystem to provide sustainable services, it is urgent that the marine debris be proactively managed [9,10]
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