"There's a lot of trash on the island. There's no end to cleaning up."
Emphasizing the seriousness of marine waste, an official from the Green Union, an environmental group, said such words.
However, the seriousness of marine waste does not simply lie in "a lot of quantity."
In fact, in terms of scale, no amount of marine waste can keep up with land. However, the infrastructure for collecting and cleaning land waste immediately is well maintained.
On the other hand, the ocean has few people to take out the trash. We're also badly short of equipment. This lack of infrastructure is the real problem of marine waste.
Haklimdo Island, a manned island in Hallyeohaesang National Park, 15 minutes by boat from Tongyeong. The village is formed around the port where passenger ships enter and exit. The other side of the village is a place where the sea breeze is strong, so there are no people living, and it is said that garbage that has been washed up is piled up here.
The village head said, "All the residents are old, so it is difficult for them to clean up the trash alone," and added, "We are collecting garbage with the help of volunteers or employees of the National Park Service."
Together with civic volunteers, civic group Green Alliance and National Park Service employees, we got on the boat of the villagers and moved to a place where the garbage was piled up. Countless styrofoam, which sits as if it were a rock through a large rock, was the first thing I noticed.
Pet bottles, ramen bags, and even waste tires that appeared when they lifted rocks, which I don't know since when they existed. It was a whole lot of trash. Styrofoam had to be crushed like sand, scooped up by hand, or sucked in with a device to remove fallen leaves.
The situation is the same for other nearby islands. There was always a pile of garbage in the inner recess of the coast, which was less affected by waves.
There was a large styrofoam waste fishing gear that looked like a rock from a distance, an unknown wooden stick, and even a floorboard. In that way, about 20 people collected about 100 40-liter garbage bags, or 4,000 liters, for three hours. The size, the weight, the stench was considerable.
By the way. I had to leave this hard-packed garbage on the beach 'as it is'. To paraphrase it, I could only "look good" the garbage scattered in 10 places. In order to recycle or incinerate these wastes, they have to be loaded onto land, because there are no ships to be loaded. Fishing boats for residents or ships from the National Park Service, which manages Hallyeohaesang National Park, are not suitable for carrying garbage.
First of all, they're all small enough to carry garbage. In addition, the front part is pointed and deep, so you can't make a berth on a shallow, reefy island.
The National Park Service said, "We go to collect coastal waste once a month or once a quarter as part of the coastal cleanup project," adding, "We don't have a ship to carry out each time, so we tie it to the beach and contact local governments to collect it."
He expressed regret, saying, "If there is a clean-up carrier that can collect garbage and transport it to land, we will be able to clean up garbage on the coast more effectively."
There are only 10 units in total in local governments, which are the main agents of clean transportation and coastal management. Compared to more than 3,000 Korean islands, the number is far smaller.
For this reason, Tongyeong-si is bound to have a considerable time difference until it actually collects garbage, such as collecting six to seven pieces of garbage with a large network that collects and binds garbage bags. During the coverage, I was able to see that the garbage bags collected last month and tied to the beach were still in the same place.
In response to these difficulties, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said last month that it would expand about seven clean-up carriers by next year. It is unclear whether that alone will be enough measures, but I hope that the plan will be faithfully implemented.
Writer: Grace Jun
(Picture from Unsplash)
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