About 91% of the debris washing up on Taiwan’s beaches is plastic, which is not only unsightly, but also kills marine creatures and seeps into our food and water supplies
The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/10
By: Jules Quartly
Volunteers do their best to clear the trash from Jinshan beach in New Taipei.
The reality of Taiwan’s tropical island idyll is that it’s drowning in plastic. Nowhere is this more evident than the nation’s beaches, which instead of being an attraction for your average sea ‘n’ sand loving tourist are inundated with plastic debris, swimming in petrochemical products, and overflowing with PVCs.
Beach bums, surfer dudes and weekend divers will all tell you the same, Taiwan’s beaches and coastal areas are a mess. For the volunteers who return each month to clean the beaches, it’s a bit like King Canute trying to stop the tide, however much they clean it up more trash keeps washing ashore.
Certainly, this is the experience of Duke Abrahamsen, founder and CEO of The Key fitness Center, in Taipei. Since June, his volunteer crew has been cleaning Jinshan beach, a 45-minute drive from central Taipei, as part of a community program that also helps feed the homeless and provides gifts for orphans at Christmas.
“It’s mostly plastic and fishing industry pollution,” Abrahamsen says. “Our beach has a jetty to the right and a river emptying into the sea, so it’s a natural collection spot for rubbish. It’s constantly dirty, even though we return each time to clean it.”
[FULL STORY]
