An estimation of the abundance of plastic litter generated by beach users nationwide in Japan.

Coastal regions, including beaches, constitute major tourism assets. Concurrently, beaches are hotspots for microplastic generation, and accumulated beached litter substantially influences future microplastic abundance in the marine environment. Although the stock of plastic litter on beaches has been estimated in previous studies, knowledge gaps exist with regard to the amount of annually generated litter by beach users and the absence of litter generation rate (LGR) in g/person/h or items/person/h.