Cash for Trash

AS the three-and-a-half monthsummer fishing moratorium inthe South China Sea ended onAugust 16， over 13，000 fishingboats in Hainan， China’s southernmostprovince， went out to sea.

Ke Jingwei is one of those boatmen.He has been fishing for two decadesnear Sanlian Port in Haikou， Hainan’scapital， and early on August 17， Ke’s boatreturned with the first day’s catch to theport， where many foodies were waiting，eager to buy fresh seafood. In addition tofish， Ke’s boat had a mesh bag containinga bycatch – plastic trash.

Ke is a volunteer in Hainan’s “plasticfreeocean” program， a pilot project startedin 2021 and included in the EU-funded“Rethinking Plastics – Circular EconomySolutions to Marine Litter” campaign.

Regional Initiative， Global Impact

According to new findings by Australia’sCommonwealth Scientific andIndustrial Research Organization andthe University of Toronto in Canada，the ocean floor has become a reservoirof plastic pollution， harboring betweenthree to 11 million tonnes of plasticaround the globe. These items， difficultto degrade， threaten the lives of a widevariety of marine creatures.

The problem has been aggravated bythe wide use of single-use plastic productsand packaging， which contaminatedrinking water and the food chain. Thereare also other wastes dumped into seasand oceans， ranging from abandonedfishing nets to boats and even ships.

The island province of Hainan is richin marine resources. Its extensive coastlinemeans the fishing industry dominatesthe economy， accounting for nearlyone-third of the province’s agriculturaloutput value. Nearly 24，000 fishing boatsoperate in Hainan’s 65 fishing ports.

Ke has experienced firsthand the appallingeffects of plastic pollution on theocean. He said his catch has droppeddismally in recent years. “The fish getsuffocated by the increasing number ofplastic bags， nets， paint buckets， and disposablecups dropped in the sea，” he saidto Hainan International Media Center（HIMC） mournfully. “Especially whenthere is a typhoon， the tides bring moreplastic into my fishing net.”

Hainan’s “plastic-free ocean” programis not just a domestic initiative， ithas both a regional and global nature.In 2019， China and six more countriesin East and Southeast Asia – Indonesia，Thailand， Singapore， Vietnam， thePhilippines and Japan – launched the“Rethinking Plastics – Circular EconomySolutions to Marine Litter” project toreduce marine litter， especially plastics.This three-year project was co-funded bythe European Union and Germany’s FederalMinistry for Economic Cooperationand Development.

The objective was to find ways tomanage plastic waste， sustainable con-sumption and production of plasticas well as reduce litter from sea-basedsources. About 20 projects in the sevencountries were to be implemented bythe German development agency – theDeutsche Gesellschaft für InternationaleZusammenarbeit （GIZ） – and ExpertiseFrance， a French public internationalcooperation agency. In Hainan， the localimplementing partner was the HainanResearch Academy of Environmental Sciences.

The region already had a history ofinternational cooperation on tacklingmarine waste. In 2018， China， Japanand ASEAN issued the East Asia SummitLeaders’ Statement on CombatingMarine Plastic Debris， which agreed topromote environmentally sound managementof plastic waste and resourceefficiency， including circular economy，product life-cycle management and sustainablematerials management， as wellas promote awareness， research and educationon marine plastic debris.

However， despite the commitmentsand work already done， it still took nearlytwo years to create an effective andsustainable network in Hainan to kickoff the “plastic-free ocean” campaign.Eventually in 2021， it started at ChanghuaPort， located where the Changhua，the second largest river in Hainan， joinsthe sea. At the forefront of the projectare the volunteering fishermen who pickup floating plastic when they were outat sea and bring it back to shore. Theyget an incentive proportionate to theamount of trash they bring in， which isthen either disposed of safely or recycledby the local ecological conservationdepartment. A plastic collection andrecycling system has been established atthe port. Today， more than 500 fishingboats in five fishing ports are part of thecampaign， with over 2，000 fishermeninvolved.

First Volunteer’s Recollection

Zhong Qiangbin is the first volunteerat Changhua Port. He says one of themost thought-provoking experienceswas coming across a plastic packet ofinstant noodles among the garbage hepulled out of the sea. “That variety wasa hit when I was young， but now it hasbeen been off the market for many years，”he told HIMC. “This means the emptypacket had been lying in the ocean for along time since it is hard to degrade， untilI brought it back to the shore.”

The effects of plastic pollution andthe campaign to address it go beyondthe region since seas and oceans have noborders. Lü Shuguo， a researcher of theHainan Research Academy of EnvironmentalSciences who heads the “plasticfreeocean” program in Hainan， sayssince oceans are connected， it is difficultto allocate responsibility for marine pollutionor preservation.

China takes the governance of marinelitter seriously， with the Ministry of Ecologyand Environment （MEE） includingocean litter in their action plans fortackling plastic pollution. Dealing withthe issue is a key task for the 14th FiveYear Plan （2021-2025） for the marineenvironment. Similar efforts to collectocean litter by fishermen can also beseen in other provinces like Zhejiang andFujian with the support of local governmentsand some NGOs. In 2022， Hainan’sfishing-for-litter initiative was includedin the list of institutional innovations bythe MEE and will be promoted acrossChina.

Hainan is also the first region inChina to implement local legislation toban single-use plastic products. A banon the use， sale and production of singleusedisposable nonbiodegradable plasticproducts took effect in December 2020.

In April 2022， the province hosteda seminar on the “Rethinking Plastics”project. Sébastien Paquot， head of sectionfor climate action and environment ofthe EU delegation to China， said he wasimpressed by what Hainan had achievedin the fishing-for-litter pilot project.He called the island province， wherethe ocean is very close and everywherearound， the perfect place for such researchand pilots in China. “It’s the placewhere people are the best to identify theissue and to really feel the difficulties incleaning the ocean.”

According to Dr. Liu Xiao， projectmanager of GIZ， Hainan’s “plastic-freeocean” program has a comprehensivegovernance mechanism with multiplestakeholders. Starting with the fishermen，it also involves sanitation workersashore who record and sort the trash，and the government departments whosupport them with incentives. “It is nota purely commercial activity or a purelygovernment campaign and can achievewin-win cooperation between variousstakeholders，” Dr. Liu told HIMC.

As the province that boasts the largestsea area in China and is developing anational ecological civilization pilot zone，Hainan has taken the lead to implementmarine sanitation management in theentire province. Chen Qiwen from theHaikou Jingmei Sanitation Company saidthe company is responsible for collectingand sorting the trash that fishermenbring back at Sanlian Port.

In April 2024， Haikou issued a pilotimplementation plan to provide institutionalguidelines for the promotion ofthe “plastic-free ocean” program in morefishing ports. Statistics from the HainanProvincial Department of Ecology andEnvironment show that from 2021 to2023， the average amount of the trashfloating near the coasts， under the sea，and scatted on the beaches around theisland province continued to decline，decreasing by 83.2 percent， 81.7 percent，and 22.2 percent， respectively.

“Our waters are getting cleaner， asfishermen and other residents becomemore and more aware of the need to reduceplastic pollution around ChanghuaPort，” said Cai Jinsan， a local marine andfisheries law enforcement officer.

Pearls and Necklaces

Lü Shuguo thinks the key to the successof the campaign in Changhua lies inroping in different actors from differentsegments of society. “Most of our job overthe past year was to find such ‘pearls’ andto link them together into ‘necklaces，’”she said. Lü and her team visited almostall the fishing ports in the province andcommunicated with local fishermen aswell as government departments. Theythen made an action plan based on thefield research co-conducted with theChina Blue Sustainability Institute （ChinaBlue）， the first NGO in China promotingsustainable development of fisheries andaquaculture.

Han Han， founder of China Blue， suggeststhat since the different fishing portsrun different operations， the “fishing forlitter” project should be implementedbased on local situations， including thetypes of fishing boats and nets used， andthe time the fishermen spend at sea. Forexample， at Huanglong Port， the fishermenspend a longer time at sea and uselarger fishing nets than those at SanlianPort. The traditional trash cans may takeup a lot of space and impact their dailyfishing. So Lü and her team stood in thefishermen’s shoes and tried to find betteralternatives.

Fortunately， this problem was solvedthanks to a special mesh bag hand-madefrom recycled waste by Zhao Yueying，an octogenarian volunteer at the HaikouBaishamen Environmental EducationStation. Zhao has been making such bagsfor local fishermen for three years.

Marine protection is not limited tocollecting ocean litter or cleaning upbeaches. Improving public awarenessand promoting marine conservationeducation are also important. SinceSeptember 2023， Lü’s team has held fourmarine conservation-themed activitiesin the Changhua Central Primary School.Apart from giving talks on marine scienceand the protection of ocean， theteam tells students stories of the fishingcommunity and about marine culture，especially the “plastic-free ocean” program.“We hope to motivate the pupils toprotect the ocean around them startingfrom a young age， through their interactionswith the fishermen volunteers inthese classes，” Lü said.

To attract more social stakeholders，Dr. Liu Xiao from GIZ proposes a “plasticcredit” scheme. You get a unit of plasticcredit if you clean up a certain amountof plastic trash. The credit is transferable，like carbon credits， and like thelatter， can be bought by both companiesand private consumers to compensatefor their plastic footprints.

In the long run， Hainan’s campaignis linked to the EU’s circular economyaction plan that is a key to Europe’stransition towards a carbon neutral andcircular economy. It is also one of theactions taken by China to contribute tothe implementation of the 2030 SustainableDevelopment Goals worldwide， theParis Climate Agreement， and of course，China’s own dual carbon goal of peakingemissions by 2030 and becoming carbonneutralby 2060.