[2023 National Audit] Foreign Waste Covering Our Seas... 98% Comes from China

It has been pointed out that 98% of foreign waste washed ashore on domestic coastlines comes from China.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on the 25th to Choi Chunsik, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee from the People Power Party, the amount of foreign-origin coastal waste collected last year was 689 kg, about 3.6 times higher than the 190 kg collected in 2018.

Looking at the foreign-origin coastal waste collected last year by nationality, Chinese waste accounted for the majority with 2,372 items (97.9%). The rest came from Japan (14 items, 0.6%) and other countries (36 items, 1.5%).

In particular, Chinese coastal waste increased about 4.4 times over five years, from 528 items in 2018 to 2,372 items last year.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries adopted the "Joint Marine Waste Monitoring Research" as a cooperative project at the 22nd Korea-China Environmental Joint Committee in 2018, but the project has been suspended due to internal circumstances on the Chinese side.

Assemblyman Choi stated, "There is a need to resume the joint marine waste monitoring research to respond to the annually increasing Chinese-origin waste."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.