Many fishing boats approaching Quy Nhon Port (Binh Dinh Province) these days are loaded with both seafood and net bags containing plastic trash collected on the sea.
Plastic waste floating on the sea is collected by fishermen
In the bustling atmosphere of Quy Nhon Fishing Port at the beginning of the new year, fisherman Phan Thanh Truong from Dong Da Ward of Quy Nhon City was happily unloading the captured tuna. His staff were also busy taking two large plastic waste bags, weighing over 13kg, to the environmental officers here in exchange for VND4,000 (US$0.164) per kilo. Truong shared that this was the waste disposed from daily activities on their fishing trip as well as the one floating on the sea.
Similarly, the fishing boat of Ngo Minh Chau from Hoai Hai Commune of Hoai Nhon Town carried about 22kg of plastic trash collected on sea. Chau joyfully said that his four ships have registered in the program of plastic waste circulation, organized by the functional agency of Binh Dinh Province lately.
“So far, fishing ship have thrown away plastic waste right into the sea, which is extremely harmful to the environment. This trash might then drift back to shore or sink deep into the seabed, damaging the ocean. This is also a waste of material since used items could be recycled to useful ones later. Therefore, when Binh Dinh Province launches this plastic waste circulation model, I immediately join in”, said fisherman Chau.
The plastic waste circulation model, where plastic trash floating on the sea is collected and taken to shore, is the idea of Dr. Tran Van Vinh from Binh Dinh Province Department of Fisheries. Dr. Vinh recalled that in 2021, his unit conducted a preliminary investigation, whose result reveals that most fishing boats just throw plastic waste directly into the sea.
It is estimated that each boat disposes of 10-15kg of such trash each trip (15-20 days). Binh Dinh Province now has about 3,200 fishing boats, meaning an amount of 3.9 tonnes per fishing trip. On a national scale, this volume would be truly huge.
The model invented by Dr. Vinh requires that a funnel-shaped net bag is installed on every fishing boat, along with special tools to pick up waste. These equipment pieces are user-friendly, cost-effective, and easy to repair. As the net bags are hung on the side of a boat, they do not occupy much space yet are able to withstand ocean waves without causing the trash to break open or bounce out even in big waves.
This meaningful idea was submitted to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and received full fund to pilot as well as construct a plastic waste processing and recycling plant.
At the end of November 2023, more than 200 fishing boats in Binh Dinh Province entered this piloting scheme. When successful, this model will be applied to all boats in the province.
In a long term, all fishermen will be asked to be responsible for fighting against scattering plastic trash into the sea. Their boats will have monitoring devices attached for convenient control and management. This is supposed to bring back dual benefits of protecting the ocean and creating a better image for Vietnamese seafood when exporting.
Deputy Director Nguyen Anh Dung of the Management Board of Binh Dinh Province Fishing Port shared that the plastic waste collected and brought back by fishing boats is transferred into a processing plant, where it is classified and compressed into plastic blocks. Certain environmental enterprises will then turn these blocks into useful products.
Other businesses in the province are encourage to arrange plastic-to-gift programs where fishermen can exchange the collected trash from the sea to vouchers, gifts, fuel.
By Ngoc Oai – Translated by Thanh Tam