![[NCCU Diving Club] Reflections on a Beach Cleanup: A Little Inconvenience from You and Me, Infinite Opportunities for the Ocean](/_images/ff0f99b20ec7-1440w.webp)
the Editor says: For a long time, scuba diving has carried a relatively high price tag, drawing participants from older age groups, and the marine debris issue that advocates have been championing in recent years has largely remained confined to an echo chamber — which is truly a shame. Jio Diving has been nurturing the NCCU Diving Club in recent years, with the hope that more young people can rediscover the ocean-related issues we face through the experience of diving. This article was written by 韋佳婷, a student who took part in a beach cleanup independently organised by the NCCU Diving Club. If we often say the ocean changes because I dive, perhaps it is exactly stories like this one that we mean.
Sunlight spills across an endless expanse of deep blue, rippling and shimmering, utterly enchanting. That is what the ocean looks like through a wide-angle lens. But zoom in, and plastic, rubbish, and oil slicks immediately fill the frame, bobbing along with the waves on the surface and along the shore — seeing it that way, would you still find it beautiful?
Sadly, that is exactly the state of our ocean.
In late April, I joined my club for a beach cleanup at Keelung Chao-jing Park. Although the area around Chao-jing Park has been designated a marine protected area (MPA) by the Keelung City Government since 2016, the rubbish along the shoreline was still everywhere. Faced with all that waste, I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of sorrow — and shame — for this stretch of sea.
What hit me hardest was the sight of straw after straw — the very same straws I had used every single day. It had never once crossed my mind that those straws I grabbed for convenience would end up drifting into the ocean, and even become a weapon that kills marine life.
Photo / NCCU Diving Club Facebook Page
[NCCU Diving Club] Reflections on a Beach Cleanup: 3 Billion Straws a Year — Plastic Straws Are Killing Taiwan's Marine Life
According to statistics from Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan uses as many as 3 billion plastic straws every year — meaning every person uses roughly one straw every three days on average. If each straw measures 20 cm in length, the Central News Agency has calculated that Taiwan's annual consumption alone would wrap around the Earth 14 times. Year after year, this accumulates into a staggering figure that poses a grave threat to the way of life of every species on the planet — especially the countless creatures living in the sea.
Starting in 2015, a video went viral on YouTube showing an American marine biologist discovering a sea turtle off the coast of Costa Rica with a straw lodged in its nostril. It prompted people far and wide to become more aware of how vulnerable marine life is, and how important it is to reduce plastic use. In the footage, the sea turtle — seemingly in tremendous pain as the straw was being pulled out — writhed and cried out continuously, while blood streamed from its nostril. It was heartbreaking to watch.
Although the straw was eventually removed, saving that one sea turtle, people quickly realised that this turtle had simply been luckier than countless others. Even if one was saved that day, tens of thousands of sea turtles and many other marine life species were still out there, threatened by plastic-polluted oceans.
While straws are not the most deadly form of plastic affecting the ocean (plastic bottles are far more numerous as a consumer product), it is precisely because they seem so harmless that they have long been overlooked. The straws sold on the market are primarily single-use plastic, and these materials cannot be broken down naturally, nor can they be recycled and reused.
Moreover, plastic can break apart into microplastics under prolonged exposure to sunlight, wind, waves, and other external forces, becoming embedded in our ecosystem where marine life may ingest them. At the same time, because plastic straws cannot be easily broken down, even when we toss them into a recycling bin after use, their actual recycling value is extremely low. To cut costs, recycling facilities often end up treating straws as general waste, sending them to landfill instead. And so, carried by time and water, they wash out to sea and become near-permanent pollutants.
Photo / NCCU Diving Club Facebook Page
[NCCU Diving Club] Reflections on a Beach Cleanup: Government Plastic Restrictions Once Sparked Backlash — Effectiveness Still Has Room to Improve
The environmental problems caused by single-use products have attracted international attention, and as consumers, we should reduce our use of them. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Administration published Taiwan's Marine Debris Governance Action Plan, announcing that by 2030, single-use plastic products — including shopping bags, disposable cutlery, takeaway drink cups, and plastic straws — would be completely banned, with restrictions on single-use plastic straws in restaurants above a certain scale beginning in 2019, in hopes of achieving a "plastic-free ocean" as soon as possible.
However, when the plastic restriction policy was announced, it sparked fierce public backlash. Many criticised the relevant authorities for "failing to think things through and damaging economic interests." In reality, though, plastic straws can neither be recycled nor incinerated — the only current option is to bury or stockpile them. Year after year, we are still unable to resolve the environmental burden that plastic straws place on our world.
As the Environmental Protection Administration has noted, restricting plastic straw use requires viable alternatives and a phased approach before plastic waste accumulation can truly be reduced. One year has now passed since plastic straw restrictions took effect. According to ICC beach cleanup data published by the Wilderness Society in 2019, the average number of straws collected per kilometre of beach cleanup has decreased by 27% compared to 2018, demonstrating that the plastic straw ban has had a measurable effect. Even so, plastic straws remain the top item found during beach cleanups on the main island of Taiwan over the past five years. To truly change this, we must reduce the negative environmental impact of plastic straws — and the best way to do so is to cut back from the source.
Reducing plastic in everyday life is the real solution. Photo / NCCU Diving Club Facebook Page
[NCCU Diving Club] Reflections on a Beach Cleanup: A Little Inconvenience, Infinite Opportunities for the Ocean
In my view, the most direct way to meaningfully reduce plastic straw use is to start by changing our everyday habits. We can choose to stop using plastic straws altogether — by drinking directly from the cup, or by switching to an alternative. Drinking straight from the cup works well for simple beverages with no toppings; for drinks that do contain toppings, a reusable straw is a great option. Eco-friendly straws come in a wide range of styles and sizes, so you can find one that suits your drinking habits and carry it with you everywhere.
At first, many people find it inconvenient or awkward to carry a reusable straw around. But think about it: while we complain about this tiny adjustment, the creatures living in our oceans have no voice to speak up for their own lives, no way to protest human selfishness. In the face of these human-made threats, marine life can only silently endure everything — watching as ecosystems collapse and companions die one by one.
The ocean nurtures infinite life and brings endless hope to this world. Plastic waste keeps invading the ocean, destroying marine ecosystems and, in doing so, destroying the very nature that sustains us. If we don't change today, we will not only continue to harm the marine environment — plastic waste will also make its way up the food chain and ultimately threaten human health and quality of life.
There was a time when I was too lazy to bother with a reusable straw and resisted the idea entirely. But after that beach cleanup, I came to clearly understand the harm that plastic straws cause — and from that moment on, a reusable straw became something I never leave home without.
The change we make today is enough to give the ocean infinite opportunities. One less plastic straw used means one less invisible weapon washing into the sea, and just a little more of a chance at survival for marine life. I believe we all feel the same way — none of us can bear to see these small, vulnerable creatures disappear because of us. If you care, change is not hard. All it takes is your willingness, and one simple habit, to protect this ocean and give the creatures within it a safe place to call home.
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