Plastic bottles topped the list of most common marine waste in Taiwan for the fifth consecutive year, the Ministry of Environment has said.
The ministry on Tuesday last week released its latest report on the maintenance and management of the coastal environment, which analyzed the composition of the nation’s marine waste based on the investigation results of International Coastal Cleanup, the largest volunteer effort to clean up the world’s beaches and waterways, from the first to third quarter of last year.
The report showed that 29.8 percent of marine waste was plastic bottles, which topped the list for five years in a row.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
The second most common marine waste was plastic bottle caps, accounting for 12.8 percent, followed by glass bottles at 10.2 percent, cigarette butts at 7.5 percent, and plastic straws at 4.5 percent, it said, adding that cigarette butts ranked among the top five for the first time.
The ministry cited a report from the Ocean Conservancy that compared Taiwan’s coastal waste to global marine litter.
Plastic bottles from Taiwan made up about 3 percent of the world’s plastic bottle marine waste, while plastic bottle caps were 2.8 percent of the world’s and plastic straws were 1.9 percent, it said.
The proportions of the three items to total marine waste in Taiwan were big compared with the world average of 1.2 percent, the report added.
A plastic reduction subsidy scheme would be launched next year to incentivize the hospitality industry to cut down bottled water use, the ministry’s Resource Circulation Administration Director Lai Ying-ying (賴瑩瑩) said yesterday.
Hotel operators could apply for a subsidy to implement plastic-reduction measures, Lai said, adding that they should not provide plastic-bottled water in at least half of their rooms.
The government would also subsidize the installation of refilling systems for glass-bottled water to facilitate the recycling, cleanup and refilling of glass bottles for the industry, she said.
To reduce bottle cap waste and encourage green product designs, a preferential subsidy on recycling and disposal would be given to bottled water manufacturers who use caps attached to bottles, she said.
Event organizers are advised to use reusable cups to reduce litter from plastic bottles and caps, she added.
Environmental Management Administration Director-General Yen Hsu-ming (顏旭明) yesterday said the government would clamp down on littered cigarette butts.
Cigarette butts as maritime waste do not necessarily come from coastal areas, he said, adding that a big part of such marine waste is caused by people who discard cigarette butts on roads or into drainages.
When it rains, cigarette butts would flow into the sewer system and finally into the ocean, he added.
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