Last year, about 890 tonnes of ocean waste — mainly from China — washed up on Lienchiang County, accounting for 15 percent of the islands’ waste that year, some of which the local government is now looking to return.
The Matsu Islands are only 54 nautical miles (87km) from the Minjiang River estuary in the Chinese province of Fujian, from where a large amount of ocean waste has originated since about 30 years ago. The Lienchiang Bureau of Environmental Resources said that 888.5 tonnes of ocean waste were collected last year, accounting for 15 percent of the county’s total waste of 6,092 tonnes.
Other than some degradable waste that can be sent to incinerators in Taiwan, the slowly degrading waste is kept in landfills across the islands, bureau chief Chen Chung-yi (陳忠義) said on Wednesday.
Photo: CNA
Nangan Township (南竿) Tieban (鐵板) community development association head Lee Chin-mei (李金梅) said that it and similar local organizations have applied for subsidies from the county government to clean up local beaches.
Local residents conduct up to eight beach cleanups a month on Tieban beach, Lee said.
Chen said that county officials have visit Fujian to discuss the issue every year, and the county government is to raise the issue again during a cross-strait trade event in Fuzhou next month.
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