This "Operation Return to the Sea" initiated by "Today Weekly" was personally attended by Li Min, director of the Agricultural Bureau of the New Taipei City Government, and also included Zhou Shixuan, general manager of Foundation Construction, Lin Lili, chairman of Humen Technology, Yang Fulan, general manager of Humen Technology, Chang Xiaoyu, chairman of Huayi Digital, Yang Lianzhi, chairman of Nova Materials Technology, Chen Yongtong, chairman of Simpson Marine, and Zheng Guiyin, general manager of Shixin International, as well as members of the Kanton Group.
Liang Yonghuang, publisher of "Today Weekly", pointed out at the event that investing in marine recycling ships, reusing marine waste, and adopting institutionalized recycling measures are the three key points of the "Return to the Sea Action" plan. Chen Siying, CEO of the Taiwan Blue Ocean Alliance, which provides ocean recycling ships, explained that the most important function of ocean recycling ships is to solve the problem of "unable to reach the shore" garbage. It is difficult and inefficient to manually salvage garbage when it is drifting on the sea. Therefore, the recycling ship "Zhan Douji" was developed that can recycle sea surface garbage with a conveyor belt.
"This is a hull developed with the help of Yang Ming Marine, and batteries provided by Taiwan Cement..." Chen Siying said about this research and development result. She originally thought about developing a "vacuum cleaner" model, but it was difficult to recycle sea debris. After going back and forth, she decided to use a conveyor belt design. "It has an advantage. For example, if plastic bags are manually salvaged, water will accumulate on them, but the conveyor belt can drain the water after being collected on the ship." This allows the operator to remotely collect all the drifting waste near the coast.
On the other hand, how to recycle marine waste and create new commercial value is also an issue that the Return to the Sea operation must face. In this regard, Li Min shared the approach of the New Taipei City Government, "Six years ago when we cooperated with Bitou Fishing Port to recycle marine waste, we brought in Taiwanese chemical fibers."
Through Taiwan Chemical, discarded fishing nets and other garbage are remade into regenerated nylon, which can be made into sunglass frames, coasters, blue and white mops and other daily necessities. According to information from "Today", "Operation Return to the Sea" has accumulated more than 2,500 pairs of blue and white slippers among the accumulated marine waste recovered by Operation Return to the Sea.
However, technological assistance is not enough. How to make the actions to protect the oceans sustainable requires the investment of government resources. "For example, we have set up a Blue Sea Fleet to clean up waste in the open sea, and a Marine Defense Force to take care of undersea waste." Coco Li explained that in addition to the establishment of regular organizations, waste recycling areas also need to be coordinated with local communities so that ocean cleanup operations can be carried out smoothly.
Among them, in order to make it easier for people to participate in beach cleaning activities on the coast, the New Taipei City Government also established the "Beach Cleaning Cooperative" two years ago to invite more people to participate in actions to protect the ocean. Chen Siying further mentioned that the public is not only concerned about the accumulation of waste on Taiwan's coast, "our country's waste may also drift to other countries." In addition to continuing to cooperate with "Today Weekly" on the "Operation Return to the Sea", she also revealed that she is investing in the research and development of the next generation of recycling ships to make the recycling of marine waste more efficient.