Binh Dinh has the first fishing boat to bring garbage ashore.

The fishing boat owned by Mr. Nguyen Van Luyen, in Tran Phu ward, Quy Nhon city, brought it back to shore after 16 days of fishing at sea.

Fishermen happily receive trash bags and sign commitment to implement

Unable to hide his joy at being the first ship to bring waste ashore, Mr. Luyen happily said that his ship, which is a light-seine ship with 11 crew members, departed on November 29. Before leaving, he carefully instructed his crew that all household plastic waste must be collected and put into mesh bags, not thrown into the sea. If the mesh bag is full, put it in the hold, or bring a sack or homemade mesh bag to hold it. "I told them that if Quy Nhon fishing port checks that the amount of waste brought back is not enough to match the amount originally brought, the ship owner will be fined 5-7 million, so all the crew members listened," he laughed.

After the images of fishing boats carrying garbage back to shore were shared by Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Le, captain of the Fishing Boat Plastic Waste Collection Team, on the Zalo Group "Model of fishing boats carrying garbage back to shore", everyone felt very touched and happy. She said, "In general, it is very happy that fishermen are conscious of bringing garbage back to shore. I hope that boat owners and captains will promote and propagate the model so that it can be successful on a large scale."

Ship owner Nguyen Van Luyen (standing inside the ship) hands over a garbage bag to the Fishing Boat Plastic Waste Collection Team at Quy Nhon Fishing Port.

The pilot model of collecting plastic waste from fishing vessels to shore is for 200 fishing vessels across the province that regularly dock at Quy Nhon port. This activity aims to encourage fishermen to limit the discharge of plastic waste into the sea, gradually forming good habits in classifying, collecting and treating plastic waste on fishing vessels.

The person who came up with the initiative to manage plastic waste on fishing boats and created a “trash basket” specifically for fishing boats is Dr. Tran Van Vinh, Deputy Head of the Department of Fisheries of Binh Dinh Province. Mr. Vinh said, “In the process of researching waste management, I realized that the problem of ocean plastic waste does not only come from the mainland as many people know, but a large amount of plastic waste is created from the daily life of fishermen at sea.

The waste collection team at Quy Nhon Fishing Port weighs the collected waste before gathering it in the warehouse.

Most fishing boats today do not have waste collection equipment. All types of food, drinks, and necessities brought along after a nearly month-long fishing trip have become trash and remain in the ocean. Therefore, in addition to preventing waste from the shore, it is necessary to immediately approach fishermen so that activities on the boat can reduce waste emissions. First of all, it is necessary to make it easy for fishermen to collect and store plastic waste on fishing boats to bring them back to shore after the fishing trip.

Therefore, I proposed the idea of building a model for managing plastic waste on fishing vessels as one of the three main objectives of the non-project "Piloting models for managing domestic solid waste and waste from the fisheries sector to promote circular economy in Quy Nhon City", phase 2022-2024, funded by the United Nations Development Program, chaired by Quy Nhon City People's Committee in coordination with the Department of Fisheries and the Binh Dinh Fishing Port Management Board (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development).

Waste will be classified and compacted before being transferred to the scrap collection facility.

Previously, on November 27, Quy Nhon City People's Committee coordinated with the Department of Fisheries, Binh Dinh Fishing Port Management Board, and UNDP in Vietnam to organize a kick-off workshop combined with training to raise awareness on plastic waste management and marine environmental protection for Binh Dinh fishing vessels participating in the model.

At the event, offshore fishing boat owners of Binh Dinh were introduced by Project experts to the pilot model of collecting plastic waste from fishing boats to shore. The Project also supported 200 waste bags for boat owners to equip on fishing boats; provided equipment to support the plastic waste collection model and launched the Quy Nhon fishing port plastic waste collection team.

The project also inaugurated and put into operation the Plastic Waste Collection House for Fishing Vessels at Quy Nhon Fishing Port. Accordingly, the Plastic Waste Collection House for Fishing Vessels at Quy Nhon Fishing Port was newly built with the following items: Warehouse area for collecting, classifying, and packaging plastic waste with an area of 96 m2; changing room for garbage collectors; concrete yard of over 117 m2; fence system; electrical, water, and sanitation equipment... with a total investment of over 592 million VND.

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