Daily household garbage forms the vast majority of marine waste around Taiwan, followed by cigarette butts, lighters and fishery waste, a marine litter monitoring survey released yesterday found.
The survey was conducted by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the environmental protection departments of 19 coastal cities and counties across the nation during the first three quarters of this year.
It found that litter from leisure activities, such as plastic bottles, bottle caps, plastic straws, disposable drinking cups and tableware, made up the largest portion of marine debris.
The countries of origin of most of the bottles could not be identified, but most of those that were identifiable were made in Taiwan. Most of the bottles from overseas were from China, South Korea and the Philippines.
This indicates that waste can travel to coasts in other regions, Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substance Management Director Yuan Shao-ying (袁紹英) said.
The survey also found that waste created by fishing activities formed a large portion of the marine debris in northern Taiwan, while trash related to smoking made up a portion of marine litter in eastern Taiwan.
Since a beach cleanup campaign was launched last year, more than 20,000 national cleanup events have been held around Taiwan, with nearly 400,000 people participating and up to 7,000 tonnes of trash cleared, the EPA told a news conference.
To encourage more people to join the cleanups, the EPA has established a mechanism for people to apply with the environmental authority in their area to organize cleanups of local beaches, dive sites, rivers or other coastal environments, it said.
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