Good news for those who love to pick up trash! A 3-cent bottle can be sold for 20 cents here

On October 30, 2023, the United Nations Environment Programme announced the winners of the 2023 " Earth Champion Award ". This award is the highest honor awarded by the United Nations in the field of environmental protection. Among the winners is an environmental protection project that originated in Zhejiang and went abroad - " Blue Cycle ".

Champions of the Earth Business Vision Award: Blue Cycle | United Nations Environment Programme

The theme of this year's "Earth Champion Award" is: Finding sustainable solutions to eliminate plastic pollution . How to collect the fragmented plastic waste in the ocean? Is this process profitable? How to achieve a virtuous cycle of recycling and re-creation? The "Blue Cycle" project provides a "Chinese solution" that can be replicated, referenced, and promoted for the treatment of marine plastic pollution.

In the future , there may be more garbage in the ocean than fish

The report "From Pollution to Solutions: A Global Assessment of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution" released by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2021 pointed out that plastic accounts for the largest proportion of marine litter, is the most harmful and the longest-lasting, accounting for at least 85% of the total marine litter .

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which also won this year's "Earth Champion Award," once stated in a report that at least 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year, equivalent to dumping a truckload of plastic into the ocean every minute. If no action is taken, by 2050, the weight of plastic in the ocean will exceed the weight of fish .

1 pound of plastic bag and 1 pound of fish | Documentary "Crazy Microplastics"

Marine garbage is mainly divided into coastal beach garbage, floating garbage on the sea surface and seabed garbage, which are widely distributed. There are many types of garbage, such as plastic, wood products, paper products, glass, metal, rubber, etc., which are difficult to collect .

Main types of marine debris in the monitoring areas in 2022 | 2022 China Marine Ecological Environment Bulletin

Zhejiang is a major maritime province with a sea area of ​​260,000 km, 4,350 islands and a coastline of 6,600 km, ranking first in the country in terms of both the number of islands and the length of the coastline. The task of protecting the marine environment and controlling marine plastic pollution is arduous.

The first step of the " Blue Cycle " is to collect marine plastic waste .

In the past, the main force of marine garbage recycling was people living in coastal areas and fishermen who often went out to sea to fish. Most of these recyclers are relatively old, and due to low income and lack of security , the main force participating in recycling is gradually decreasing. In addition, some ship owners and fishermen have low environmental awareness and do not understand the importance of recycling marine garbage. Even if they pick up seabed garbage during fishing, they will throw it back into the sea .

Blue Cycle mobilizes fishermen to collect and sort marine plastic waste | UNEP/Justin Jin

A bottle can be sold for 0.2 yuan , which means an extra 700 yuan in income per month.

How can we mobilize more people to actively participate in the cleaning and recycling of marine waste? The "blue cycle" model uses "high returns" to solve the problem of "no one collecting".

A mineral water bottle that usually sells for 3 cents in the market can be recycled at 0.2 cents in the "Blue Cycle" project, which is nearly seven times the traditional market price . As a result, more and more local people are actively participating in the collection of plastic waste.

In addition to selling the collected plastic waste, fishermen can also exchange it for free for items, whether it is plastic waste generated by production and life on the boat or waste salvaged from the sea. Fishermen can exchange it for mineral water, lubricants and other items for free . So far, these plastic wastes have been exchanged for more than 153,000 bottles of mineral water.

Photo | Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment

Chen Xiafang, a 74-year-old fisherman, often picks up plastic bottles floating on the beach at low tide, picking them up one by one with a clip and putting them into a recycling bag. The GPS camera on his chest fully records the picking process and location. Chen Xiafang said: "I use my spare time every day to pick up plastic waste on the beach and send it to the 'Little Blue House', which can increase my income by about 700 yuan a month ."

The "Little Blue House" mentioned by Chen Xiafang is a collection and storage point for marine plastic waste located on the front line, responsible for the unified recycling and sorting of marine waste, and is often set up by low-income people in coastal villages and small shops at docks. Here, recycled plastic bottles will be processed again, compressed and crushed.

This is the plastic flakes obtained after the discarded plastic bottles are crushed | Xinhua News Agency reporter Lin Guangyao photographed on October 30

When "Little Blue House" was first established, it also mobilized sanitation workers, left-behind elderly people, low-income households and disabled people in the surrounding area, and encouraged them to pick up garbage on the coastal beaches . If they continued to pick up marine garbage for 6 months, they would also pay for their health insurance and accident insurance. These marine sanitation workers, fishermen, coastal residents, etc. formed the collection network of the "blue cycle".

Little Blue House | Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment

The plastics compressed and crushed in "Little Blue House" will be sent to the granulation factory to be made into plastic particles. The factory will deeply clean these plastic fragments to remove surface contaminants such as glue and oil, and melt them into granules. The finished plastic particles after granulation can be used in packaging materials, industrial manufacturing, clothing and home textiles and other fields.

This is a photo of plastic waste raw materials used for melt granulation at Veolia Huafei Polymer Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. in Anji, Huzhou, Zhejiang | Xinhua News Agency reporter Lin Guangyao on October 26

How can we ensure that the plastic waste recycled comes from the ocean?

The "Blue Cycle" has set up an electronic fence within 3,000 meters of the coast, and also applied IoT monitoring equipment , such as the locator and video acquisition device worn by veteran fisherman Chen Xiafang, so that it can accurately grasp whether the collectors have collected the fish in the designated area in accordance with the regulations. All these data will be synchronized to the cloud platform of the "Ocean Cloud Warehouse".

Intelligent storage facility “Ocean Cloud Warehouse” in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province [6] | Department of Environmental Protection and Resources, National Development and Reform Commission

The "Ocean Cloud Warehouse" is a disposal plant located at the port terminal, equipped with automated, unmanned IoT smart equipment. It can classify and recycle all marine pollutants, standardize storage, centrally dispose of them, and supervise the entire process . In addition to marine plastic pollutants, it can also recycle and dispose of water pollutants from fishing boats.

"Ocean Cloud Warehouse" can recycle and dispose of ship water pollutants | Taizhou Ecological Environment

After the data is transmitted to the cloud platform, the "Ocean Cloud Warehouse" can know who delivered what pollutants and how much they were, when, and these pollutants can be arranged for transportation through the cloud platform. The entire process is achieved through platform scheduling.

Ocean Cloud Warehouse System | Blue Cycle

At the same time, blockchain technology is used in the entire process, and blockchain nodes are deployed among all participants such as ordinary people, fishing boats, and enterprises. All data are stored in a decentralized manner and cannot be tampered with .

Combined with the visualization technology of the supervision video, it is very convenient to see the whole process of recycling marine garbage into new products. Who collected these plastic raw materials, where they were collected, where they were stored and sorted, who transported them, which factory completed the recycling, and who manufactured them can all be checked .

Just scan the QR code to see the full process traceability from ocean to shelf | Blue Cycle

This full visual traceability effectively solves the traditional green fraud problem in the international market of using land-based recycled or new materials as marine plastics .

In addition to environmental benefits , there are also economic benefits

The "Blue Cycle" not only solves the problem of recycling marine plastic waste, but also brings considerable economic benefits, which are fed back to the people who work hard on the front line to collect marine plastic waste. Where does such high income come from ?

First, the premium for recycled marine plastics is high, and many international brands are willing to pay for it .

Under the trend of green development, many international brands will use marine recycled plastics in their products in order to achieve the goal of carbon emission reduction, even if these plastics are more expensive than traditional plastics - this is a means to improve the company's environmental competitiveness and brand effect .

After passing the high-value utilization assessment and certification, marine plastics have high green and environmental attributes, and their prices are 165% higher than those of traditional recycled plastics. The marine recycled plastics from the "Blue Cycle" project have completed carbon emission reduction and carbon footprint certification and traceability through digital technology, which not only shows that they are "real" recycled plastics, but also facilitates their application in the international market.

Visual tracing of marine plastics | Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment

Second, policies have begun to have clear requirements . For example, the introduction of the EU plastic waste tax requires that many products must contain 25%-30% recycled materials before they can enter the EU market .

More and more international brands, such as Lenovo and Dell in the electronics and electrical industry, automobile brands Ford and Tesla, daily chemical packaging brands, and sports brands Adidas and Nike, have pledged to increase the proportion of marine plastics in their products to 50% or even 100% by 2025 or 2030.

High-value utilization of marine plastics[7] | Jiaojiang Ecological Environment

Now more and more products are starting to use marine plastic waste as their raw materials, such as mobile phone cases, mice, T-shirts, shorts, slippers, hand-woven bags, shoes... allowing plastic to circulate along the path of "product → garbage → product", and its life is slowly extended in these cycles.

Mobile phone cases made from marine plastic waste | Taizhou Evening News

Microsoft's Ocean-friendly Mouse, 20% of the material used to make the mouse shell comes from recycled plastic from the ocean | Microsoft

MUJI launches the full range of OBP ocean recycled material series products | MUJI

To date, Blue Cycle has collected more than 10,700 tons of marine debris, becoming China's largest marine plastic waste recycling project.

The “Blue Cycle” Model for Marine Plastic Governance in Zhejiang Province [6] | Department of Environmental Protection and Resources, National Development and Reform Commission

In addition to Blue Cycle, this year's Champions of the Earth Award went to the following individuals and organizations (swipe right to view each one):

Policy Leadership Award

Josefina Belmonte

She is the mayor of Quezon City in the Philippines, where she has promoted environmental action through a series of policies: banning single-use plastics, promoting trade-in programs to address plastic pollution, setting up daily necessities refilling stations , and advocating for strong global plastics policy making.

Champions of the Earth Policy Leadership Award: Josefina Belmonte | United Nations Environment Programme

Science and Innovation Award

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa)

The research council, which is looking for sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics, used state-of-the-art technology to test the biodegradability of plastics, producing a compostable plastic that can biodegrade in 180 days or, when combined with organic waste, become compost in 90 days, leaving no toxic residues.

Champions of the Earth Science and Innovation Award: Council for Scientific, Technological and Industrial Research | United Nations Environment Programme

Business Vision Award

José Manuel Moller (Chile)

He is a social entrepreneur and founder of Algramo, a social enterprise dedicated to providing refill services , reducing plastic pollution, lowering the cost of daily necessities, and working on waste prevention, reduction and sustainable management.

Champions of the Earth Business Vision Award: Josef Manuel Müller | United Nations Environment Programme

Inspiration and Action Award

Ellen MacArthur Foundation (UK)

This is a non-profit foundation that leads the " full life cycle approach " to become a mainstream research method and promotes its application in the field of plastics. It has published many reports and established a communication network with decision makers and academia to develop full life cycle initiatives and solutions.

Champions of the Earth Award for Inspiration and Action: Ellen MacArthur Foundation | United Nations Environment Programme

Nowadays, the international community is paying more and more attention to plastic pollution. In addition to the theme of this year's Earth Champion Award, the United Nations Environment Programme has also set the theme of World Environment Day on June 5 this year as "A Quick Decision on the Battle Against Plastic Pollution".

Last year, 175 UN member states adopted a historic resolution to develop a legally binding international instrument on plastic pollution (including the marine environment), aiming to end plastic pollution by the end of 2024. I hope that in the future, we can truly solve plastic pollution.

"Earth Champions" Introduction Page | United Nations Environment Programme

References

[1] Introduction to the new model of “blue cycle” for managing marine plastic pollution, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment http://sthjt.zj.gov.cn/art/2023/4/13/art_1229725167_58938449.html

[2] Using digital technology to combat marine plastic pollution and create a “blue cycle” path, United Nations News https://news.un.org/zh/story/2023/11/1124022

[3] “Blue Cycle” Digital Management of Marine Waste, China Environment http://www.zhhjw.org/a/qkzz/zzml/202208/gz/2022/0907/15211.html

[4] “Blue Cycle” marine plastic waste management press conference held, Taizhou Ecological Environment https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RlsDgxIcs6NiQO8FA_6VKA

[5] The Fantastic Journey of a Plastic Bottle, Xinhua News Agency, https://xhpfmapi.xinhuaxmt.com/vh512/share/11747297

[6] Typical experience of local plastic pollution control (II): Zhejiang Province insists on systematic governance, promotes digital intelligence and accelerates the creation of a "blue cycle" model for marine plastic waste management, Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection, National Development and Reform Commission, https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/xwdt/ztzl/slwrzlzxd/202209/t20220928_1337505_ext.html

[7] “Blue Cycle” application (Taizhou pilot) won the “Best Application” of Zhejiang Province’s Digital Reform in 2022, Jiaojiang Ecological Environment https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TnKCGAtlHnO6Wv7vEjn4IQ

[8] When marine plastic pollution meets blockchain, a look at China’s “Blue Cycle” that won the United Nations “Champions of the Earth Award”, Xinhua Daily Telegraph http://www.news.cn/mrdx/2023-10/31/c_1310748190.htm

Author: Li Zilin

Editor: Little Towel, Mai Mai

Title image source: x