One Japanese manicurist is making waves by cleaning up the beach — and turning trash into art, NBC News reports.
If you've visited a modern beach, you've likely seen the depressing amount of plastic trash that clutters the sand. One of the worst problems is microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic that can end up inside the bodies of humans and fish alike. While some of these are the disintegrated pieces of larger plastic items, some are nurdles — pellets of raw plastic used in manufacturing, now escaped and mixed in with beach sand.
Nurdling — combing the beach for these plastic bits — has become trendy, and social-worker-turned-manicurist Naomi Arimoto is an eager participant, NBC News revealed. Arimoto was forced to leave her former job in 2018 thanks to a spinal condition, but soon took up nail art.
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Definitely 👍 Starting in 2021, she began adding unique elements to her custom nails: small pieces of plastic she collected from the beach herself, called umigomi or "sea trash."
"I became aware of environmental issues the moment I saw with my own eyes just how much plastic waste was in the ocean," Arimoto told NBC News. "I thought it was horrifying."
To create her art, Arimoto goes to the beach in a special wheelchair, according to NBC News. She combs through the sand for plastic that has been overlooked by other beach cleaners. At home, she rinses the plastic bits in clean water, sorts them by color, and melts them down inside metal rings that help form them into a disc shape.
She then adds these marbled discs to her nail art alongside sea-themed elements like shell ornaments and an overall shell-shaped nail. She sells sets of these nails for 12,760 yen ($82.52) and up.
Arimoto is making a difference — though it seems small in the face of just how much plastic waste there is in the ocean. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, about 22 million tons of plastic waste enters the environment each and every year.
"I hope that by putting these in front of people's eyes, on their fingertips, they'll enjoy fashion while also becoming more aware of environmental issues," Arimoto said.
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