Officials from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the European Economic and Trade Office yesterday cleaned up a beach in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), with office director Madeleine Majorenko saying that the office would “adopt” the beach.
The event was attended by more than 250 people, including representatives from the trade offices of Austria, Belgium, France, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia, as well as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kelly Hsieh (謝武樵), local environmental groups and residents.
Majorenko said her office would adopt the beach because “we want to make a long-term commitment to Taiwan.”
Photo courtesy of the European Economic and Trade Office
This was the first time the office joined the regular cleanup, EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said, adding that environmental collaborations between the two agencies have been increasing over the past two years.
Nearly 8 million tonnes of plastic garbage are dumped into the world’s oceans every year, posing a great threat to marine ecosystems, Lee said, citing US Ocean Conservancy data.
The EPA has recommended that the office adopt the Wazihwei (挖子尾) beach, as the agency there began promoting beach adoption about a decade ago, Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substance Management Director-General Yuan Shaw-ying (袁紹英) said, adding that the beach’s location near the city’s Shihsanhang Museum of Archeology allows various activities.
Yesterday’s cleanup lasted only about 15 minutes due to rain, but participants collected about 395kg of garbage and 226kg of recyclable wastes — mostly plastic bottles, bottle caps and straws — and waste from fishing activity.
A survey published by the EPA on Tuesday showed that most tap water and seafood samples collected by the agency contained microplastics.
However, some fish farmers criticized the survey, saying it might cause unnecessary panic among consumers.
The survey is aimed at alerting the public to the aggravating problem of marine waste, rather than urging people to avoid seafood, Lee said, adding that the fishing industry would be more sustainable if people were aware of the problem of pollution and stopped littering.
Hopefully the nation would stop using single-use plastics by 2030 as envisioned by the agency’s action plan launched in February, he said.
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