Officials on Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands have reached out to their Chinese counterparts in the nearby city of Xiamen to discuss the issue of trash management. Each year, 400 to 500 tons of trash are removed from Kinmen’s beaches, much of which has floated across from China.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00These are beaches on Taiwan's outlying Jinmen Islands,
00:04covered in plastic and other trash,
00:06much of which has been carried over by tides
00:09from China's Fujian province just a few kilometers away.
00:12Some of the garbage comes from China's
00:14coastal aquaculture farms,
00:16like these plastic barrels that don't break down easily
00:19and can harm Jinmen's inner tidal zones,
00:21as well as its fish.
00:30Jinmen officials say there are hundreds of beach cleanups
00:32each year, removing around 400 to 500 tons of trash,
00:37but this has not been enough to rid the island
00:39of all the rubbish floating in from China.
00:41Despite the complexities of cross-strait relations,
00:44with China continuing to assert
00:45its claim of sovereignty over Taiwan,
00:47Jinmen officials have approached their counterparts
00:49in the Chinese city of Xiamen
00:51to ask them to stop using plastic barrels
00:53and to stop using plastic bottles.
00:56Jinmen officials have approached their counterparts
00:58in the Chinese city of Xiamen to discuss the trash problem,
01:01hoping to collaborate on finding a solution.
01:04And it wouldn't be the first time
01:06they'd cooperate on waste management.
01:23Some of Taiwan's other outlying islands,
01:25including Penghu and Matsu,
01:26have also faced similar problems
01:28with trash from China washing up on their shores,
01:31as has Hong Kong.
01:32And while officials work on trying to find a solution,
01:35there are those here who feel that the management of trash
01:37coming out of China needs to start at its source.
01:40Devon Tsai and Cadence Cuaranta for Taiwan Plus.