The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the 14th of which is “Life Below Water”, namely: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Under this major goal, there are 10 targets, the 14.1 of which is “By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, inparticular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.”

●Current Situation

The World

More than 170 trillion plastic particles afloat in oceans, say scientists

Scientists have found that from 2005, there had been a rapid increase in the mass and abundance of ocean plastic. This could reflect exponential increases in plastic production, fragmentation of existing plastic pollution or changes in terrestrial waste generation and management. They estimate at least 170 trillion plastic particles are present in the oceans, with a combined weight of about 2million tons. They say that Cleanup is futile if we continue to produce plastic at the current rate, and we have heard about recycling for too long while the plastic industry simultaneously rejects any commitments to buy recycled material or design for recyclability. It’s time to address the plastic problem at the source. Without immediate global action on plastic production, the rate of plastic entering aquatic environments is expected to increase approximately 2.6-fold from 2016 to 2040.

Scientists have called for governments to take action to stem the plastic tide. Dr Edward J Carpenter, of the Estuary and Ocean Science Center at San Francisco State University, said: “We know the ocean is a vital ecosystem and we have solutions to prevent plastic pollution. But plastic pollution continues to grow and has a toxic effect on marine life. There must be legislation to limit the production and sale of single-use plastics or marine life will be further degraded. Humans need healthy oceans for a livable planet.”

Source: theguardian.com

China

Protecting the health of the sea, solving the problem “in the water” on the “shore”

According to the Bulletin on the State of China’s Marine Ecological Environment in 2021 issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China has strictly controlled sea reclamation in recent years, promoted the ecological restoration of sea areas, islands, coastline and coastal wetlands, and established a marine nature reserve system with national parks as the main body, natural reserves as the basis, and various natural parks as the supplement, providing an important guarantee for the population and habitat restoration of rare and endangered marine species in China.

The problem of marine ecological environment is “manifested in the sea and rooted on the land”. The sewage outfall into the sea connects the land and the sea, and is an important way to discharge pollutants into the sea. Featuring a large number, many types, complex conditions, rapid dynamic changes, and great difficulties in fine management; it is a regulatory difficulty for the protection of the ecological environment in the coastal waters. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has made a systematic deployment to strengthen and standardize the supervision and management of sewage outlets by tracing the source of sewage outlets, classified remediation, strict supervision and management, and put forward the phased objectives of “completing the inspection of sewage outlets in key bays and the regulation of sewage outlets in Bohai Sea by 2023”. For this reason, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in view of the large number and complex situation of sewage outlets into the sea, promoted the investigation of sewage outlets into the sea in the Yangtze Estuary--Hangzhou Bay and the Pearl River Estuary regions, and guided Jiangsu, Shanghai, Guangxi and other provinces (autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government) to establish and improve the accounts of sewage outlets into the sea. In view of the difficulties in refined management, the ministry has sped up the establishment of rules and regulations and the standardization of management, formulated the management measures for sewage outlets into the sea, prepared the technical guidelines for the demonstration of the setting of sewage outlets into the sea, studied to prepare the guidelines for the traceability and regulation of sewage outlets into the sea and other supporting documents, and guided the coastal areas to effectively carry out the inspection and regulation of sewage outlets into the sea and the classified supervision and management. In terms of plastic waste treatment, the “plastic restriction order” has been continuously upgraded, reducing the plastic waste entering the sea from the source. At present, the control on plastic pollution has been included in the overall plan of the pollution prevention and control battle, and the main responsibility of the local government for the treatment and supervision of plastic waste has been continuously stressed, and the implementation of its prevention and control responsibility has also been included in the central ecological and environmental protection supervision.

China also launched the seawater quality monitoring information disclosure system for the first time, and released the state-controlled marine monitoring water quality information on a quarterly basis, striving to meet the public’s right to know about the environment. It is hoped that new technologies will enpower environmental protection, make the “eyes” of monitoring brighter, the “ears” more sensitive, and the “brain” more intelligent, so as to play a good role in the comprehensive treatment of key sea areas.

Sources: ocean.china.com.cn

●Cases

The World

My art uses plastic recovered from beaches around the world to understand how our consumer society is transforming the ocean

My (Ms.Pam Longobardi, Regent's professor of art and design at Georgia State University) work collecting and photographing ocean plastic and turning it into art began with an epiphany in 2005, on a far-flung beach at the southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii. At the edge of a black lava beach pounded by surf, I encountered multitudes upon multitudes of plastic objects that the angry ocean was vomiting onto the rocky shore. By regurgitating them ashore or jamming them into sea caves, the ocean is communicating with us through materials of our own making.In 2006, I formed the Drifters Project, a collaborative global entity to highlight these vagrant, translocational plastics and recruit others to investigate and mitigate ocean plastics’ impact. I see plastic objects as the cultural archaeology of our time – relics of global late-capitalist consumer society that mirror our desires, wishes, hubris and ingenuity. I believe humankind is at a crossroads with regards to the future. The ocean is asking us to pay attention: Taking plastic out of your daily life; Taking plastic out of the environment. 

Source: theconversation.com

Samsung takes actions to reduce pollutants flowing into the sea

In 2022, Samsung took the lead in using marine waste nets on the Galaxy S22 series products, making the Galaxy S22 series the first smartphone made of marine plastic parts under Samsung. Among the Samsung Galaxy S23 series products, there are more components using recyclable materials than the previous generation products. Among them, the highly configured Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has 12 components of recyclable materials applied internally and externally, and the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+have11 components of recyclable materials. The Samsung Galaxy S23 series uses more recycled materials than other Samsungsmart phones. The Samsung Galaxy S23 series uses packaging boxes made of 100percent recycled paper. By the end of 2023, the material of the recycled fishing netsused by Samsung Galaxy S23 series is expected to reach 15 tons, which shows that Samsung is definitely a well-deserved environmental pioneer in the industry. It’s believed that with the help of numerous enterprises like Samsung, the sky will become bluer, and the water will become clearer.

Source: 163.com

China

Controlling marine garbage pollution through the whole chain

When you pull up your trouser legs, bare your feet, step on the soft beach, enjoy the happiness brought by the sea, and watch the sea sparkling and the blue stretching to the distance, you may also find the existence of disharmony with the beautiful scenery of the blue sea and the silver beach - marine garbage is everywhere.

Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, implements the comprehensive treatment of the bay, implements the normal cleaning mechanism, regularly carries out inspection and assessment, and selects “the most beautiful beach” and “the dirtiest beach”. Taizhou, Zhejiang Province has created a new model of “blue cycle” for controlling marine plastic pollution. The government and enterprises have worked together to organize fishermen and others to recycle marine plastic waste, and the recycled plastic has been uniformly transferred to relevant enterprises for batch regeneration, made into high-value-added products such as mobile phone shells, forming a new model of marine plastic pollution control featuring government guidance, enterprises as the main body, industrial cooperation, and public participation.

Ningde and some other regions in Fujian Province actively promote the transformation and upgrading of the mariculture industry. By transforming the traditional fishing raft farming into environment-friendly plastic fishing rafts or deep-water cages, and replacing the easily weathered and broken polystyrene foam floating balls with environment-friendly plastic floating balls, they have not only strengthened the control of dumping aquaculture plastic waste into the sea from the source, but also promoted the high-quality development of the marine aquaculture industry, providing valuable experience for the whole chain control of plastic pollution and the supervision of marine garbage.

Source:ecocn.cn

Shenzhen makes coordination efforts on both land and sea to unleash the charm of the ocean

Shenzhen is a city that is born of the sea and prospered because of the sea. As a “national demonstration city for ecological progress”, the city’s marine ecological protection red line covers an area of 394 square kilometers, the natural shoreline retention rate is 38.5 percent, and the sea water quality continues to improve. Among them, Dapeng Bay was selected as the first batch of “beautiful bay” cases in the country, and the marine ecological environment protection has achieved positive results.

On the road of guarding the “blue heart”, Shenzhen relies on laws and regulations in the first place. In the Regulations on the Protection of the Ecological Environment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, a special chapter on “the prevention and control of marine pollution” was set up to improve the legal basis for the management of marine ecological environment and ensure the “treatment of pollution according to law”. In addition, the Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone were further revised to form a legal network for marine ecological environment protection.

Shenzhen strictly controls the discharge of land-based pollution into the sea and implements the total amount control of pollutants discharged into the sea. With regard to the 526 sea discharge outlets in the city, Shenzhen has achieved the goal of “all outlets are inspected, and all outlets are managed”, and has implemented the full-caliber classified management of the sea discharge outlets including the rainwater and flood discharge outlets, forming a double-closed-loop long-term management mechanism of “inspection, measurement, tracing and control” and “setting, filing, change and cancellation”. In addition, the total nitrogen in the effluent from new (and modified or expanded) water purification plants should be limited below 8 mg/L, and the existing water purification plants will try “paying for efficiency” to further reduce nitrogen and phosphorus on the basis of reaching the standard by means of marketization.

The city has built a new pattern of marine environmental law enforcement and supervision. To strengthen the regulation of illegal acts of marine pollution, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment and the Shenzhen Maritime Police signed the Law Enforcement Cooperation Measures. Together with the comprehensive maritime law enforcement, maritime bureau and other maritime law enforcement forces, a joint maritime law enforcement mechanism was established; a joint law enforcement action was carried out quarterly, and information on maritime law enforcement in shared.

The city and sea blend and grow together. The ocean is the lifeline of Shenzhen’s survival and development, and also the “treasure bowl” of rich resources. Shenzhen is exploring a development path of “man and the sea live in harmony” that promotes the high-quality development of the marine economy through high-level protection of the marine ecological environment.

Source: cenews.com.cn

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.