Stakeholders in Taiwan are working to manage the mountains of waste that end up in the oceans and wreak havoc on marine life, creating new revenue models in the process.

From government initiatives to company events, beach cleanups are popular in Taiwan. Residents are generally happy to take a day to do their part and clear some of the massive amounts of waste found on beaches. Considering that the average garbage density on Taiwan’s west coast is around 102 kg per square kilometer – nearly 50% higher than the global average – it’s a fine way to keep busy.

Further out at sea, things get more complicated. Ocean waste exists in vast quantities that are difficult and expensive to collect; the fishing industry alone produces an estimated 640,000 tons of sea waste per year, much of which comes from industry equipment like nets and hooks.

And the effects are detrimental – in fact, so detrimental that the UN has named marine debris a global crisis second only to climate change. One of the many species affected by the waste has recently made headlines in Taiwan, thanks to amateur photographers that have caught their perils on camera.

“Taiwan is home to five of the world’s seven species of sea turtles,” says Mina Huang, a researcher at the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST), a nonprofit that campaigns for improved relations between animals, people, and the environment. The sea turtles have been a major driver of increased scuba diving activity in Taiwan, Huang says.

Owing to the scuba divers, who often film their underwater adventures, footage of sea turtles suffering injuries due to fishing activities has surfaced. As an example, Huang cites a diver who in August shared footage of a green loggerhead turtle impaled by a barbed lure in the waters off Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County.

“Because sea turtles are classified as endangered species and their injuries are not always life-threatening, there is a general consensus not to intervene when turtles are found injured,” she says. “Citizens have documented countless cases of sea turtles dying after being caught on hooks or nets. The government must take action to address this problem at the source.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2017 released its Taiwan Marine Debris Governance Action Plan, which focuses on reduction at the source, prevention and removal, research, and collaboration. Although incentives to increase recycling in fishing ports are included in the plan, little focus has been placed on private fishers and regulating the types of materials used by them.

EAST is now advocating for the Ocean Affairs Council to amend its directions for the management of angling zones and restrict fishing in known turtle hot spots, as well as prohibit barbed hooks or lures.

Apart from government improving its policies, Huang says that “those in the fishing industry should be aware of the impact their actions have on our oceans. All types of fishing risk contributing to ocean pollution, especially modern commercial fishing practices.”

From harm to reuse

When it comes to recycling waste, someone must pay for it. The cost of collecting, managing, and recycling materials is noticeably higher than new production, and it’s a financial hit many retailers are unwilling to take. So, when Taiwanese chemical giant Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation (FCFC) decided to utilize its advanced recycling and manufacturing technology to manage ocean waste, its first mission was finding buyers.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and that’s also the case for ESG efforts,” says F.Y. Hong, chairman of FCFC. “We don’t seek to make a profit with our sustainability efforts, but we also can’t run them at a loss.”

Luckily, fishnets are made of nylon – a material with high market value – and retail brands like Patagonia and Nike have been willing to pay more for greener materials.

In 2018, FCFC initiated a project with Patagonia Vietnam to turn discarded fishnets into clothing. The company has since collected and recycled over 2,000 tons of fishnets from South America, and in 2020 expanded the initiative to include Taiwan. Since then, 70 tons of garbage have been shipped from Kinmen to the main island, where it’s been separated and recycled.

The process sounds simple enough, but the technology required is hard to come by.

“We’re one of the only companies in the world with the technology and capabilities to collect and recycle post-consumer nylon from the ocean,” says Chou Hung-an, FCFC team leader of the Seawastex project.

FCFC technology can re-palletize Nylon 6 into CPL, which has industrial use but can also be found in fabrics like hosiery, chiffon, and organza. The process includes melting, depolymerization, and refining the material before new nylon is spun and shipped to manufacturers. Unlike many polymer plastics, nylon can be recycled without a loss in quality, making the practice not only more sustainable but also more profitable.

“We work with local fishermen and their communities and pay them to collect the fishnets and deliver them to us,” says Hong. “The cost is very high – US$2.3 per kilogram. The price for virgin CPL, meanwhile, is only US$1.8 per kilogram, which means new material is more cost-effective. Luckily, Patagonia is willing to swallow the extra cost.”

The project’s success prompted FCFC to also shift its gaze to Chiayi County, which is known for its extensive oyster farming. Off the coast, about 750 hectares of horizontal racks and around 10,000 floating rafts have been placed for oyster culture. Each hectare of horizontal rack holds about 10,000 nylon clutch strings, and the county is estimated to generate around 1,375 tons of clutch string waste per year.

Clutch strings were traditionally piled up on the shores of Chiayi and left there without being processed. In response to the growing problem, the county’s Ocean Conservation Administration Bureau and private businesses in 2020 initiated a collaboration to encourage fishermen to instead bring used clutch strings ashore for recycling with FCFC.

“The process runs very smoothly but long-term, we need to make it more cost-effective,” notes Hong. Succeeding in doing so requires education on correct recycling, design for recycling among manufacturers, and improvements in technology – not an easy feat, but a necessary one, he says.

Although FCFC’s project has proven that collecting and recycling ocean waste can be possible and profitable, Hong says that making a substantial impact requires more parties to work together to keep the oceans clean.

“We only ask the government for one thing – to encourage fishermen to work with us,” he says. “If they can help us get together with fishermen, we can do much more. Regulations on separating plastics are part of the solution, but without proper education and collaboration, it won’t be effective.”