The Pingtung County Government was criticized on Tuesday for hypocrisy after a beach cleanup event featured plastic water bottles and balloons, when single-use plastic is a major culprit in the oceans.
One attendee posted online that he was amazed that the county could mobilize most division and agency heads, along with trash collectors and ambulances on standby, but added that it was “unbelievable that the county government used taxpayers’ money to set up banners, balloons and bottled water for an event aiming to make people more environmentally conscious.”
Another attendee, known as Siao Lan (小蘭), said she was surprised the event used single-use plastic cups.
“The event produced more plastic waste than the amount of plastic usually gathered at a cleanup event,” Siao Lan said.
Other events have used water barrels and reusable cups, Siao Lan added.
The county’s Environmental Protection Bureau said that many of its previous events switched over to water barrels and reusable cups, but that it decided to use bottled water for the beach cleanup due to the event’s scale and the number of participants.
The Hengchun Township Office (恆春) used balloons to “hype up” the event, the bureau said, adding that bottled water was a “convenient” solution to the challenge of having enough water on hand.
The bureau would communicate the importance of observing policy with local township offices, it said, but it hoped that the public would be understanding, knowing that the decision was made with the best intentions.
The beach cleaning event removed 278kg of waste, of which 65kg was recyclable and 213kg was trash, the bureau added.
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