More than 6,020 tonnes of garbage were collected from the nation’s beaches and coastal waters in the third quarter, with the majority coming from Kaohsiung, data released yesterday by the Ocean Conservation Administration showed.
The marine trash was collected by divers hired by local governments, civic group volunteers and companies from July to last month.
Of the total collected, nearly 5,793 tonnes came from beaches, while 227 tonnes were collected from waters and sea floors near the shores, agency data showed.
The amount of trash collected was higher than those in the previous two quarters, as more groups joined the cleanup last month, agency section chief Hsu Chung-li (徐仲禮) said, adding that the agency funded local governments that applied for cleanup projects.
More than 1,965 tonnes of the garbage were collected from the shores in Kaohsiung, mainly used fishing nets and gears, followed by 1,544 tonnes from Yunlin County, 631 tonnes from Miaoli County and 555 tonnes from Pingtung County, agency data showed.
The agency said that 31.7 percent of the collected trash was recyclable: glass bottles (11.8 percent); plastic bottles (7.6 percent); waste paper (7.1 percent); iron cans ( 2.9 percent); and aluminum cans (2.3 percent).
Meanwhile, 68.3 percent of the trash was not recyclable: fishing nets or gears (18.3 percent); bamboo or wooden debris (13.7 percent were); Styrofoam products (6.4 percent); and unclassifiable trash (29.9 percent), the data showed.
The ratio of non-recyclable trash dropped to 93.1 percent in the first half of this year, agency data showed.
Due to the potential impact of marine trash on creatures in the ocean, fishers are encouraged to collect trash for recycling and get additional incentives, Hsu said.
Apart from encouraging people to produce less garbage, the agency is seeking channels to recycle used nets that pose a greater risk to marine life, he said.
Several businesses, including Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp, have expressed an interest in reusing nets to make textile fibers, but they are more willing to accept nets made of nylon, instead of mixed materials, he said, advising fishers to sort out and clean used nets before giving them to recyclers.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400