Japanese manicurist takes on plastic pollution, one nail at a time

Japanese manicurist Naomi Arimoto presses a false nail with a decorative nail tip using plastic waste which she collected from the beach, onto a thumb of a customer at her nail salon in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Manami Yamada Japanese manicurist Naomi Arimoto collects plastic waste from the sand at a beach in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Manami Yamada Japanese manicurist Naomi Arimoto collects plastic waste from the sand at a beach in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, October 21, 2024.

REUTERS/Manami Yamada A false nail with a decorative nail tip using plastic waste which Japanese manicurist Naomi Arimoto collected from the beach, is pictured at her nail salon in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Manami Yamada Japanese manicurist Naomi Arimoto makes a decorative nail tip using plastic waste which she collected from the beach, at her nail salon in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Manami Yamada CHIGASAKI, Japan - Before global leaders take the problem of plastic pollution into their hands this month, Japanese manicurist Naomi Arimoto is putting it into her fingernails.

At the beach near her home south of Tokyo, Arimoto carefully sifts sand for tiny bits of plastic that she can mould into decorative tips to put on the false nails at her salon. She came up with the idea after taking part in community cleanups along the coast. "I became aware .