每年9-10月，mittag jewelry都會有一個小小的國內員工旅遊，因為公司還小、員工少，所以我們會輪流安排行程。我們在2018年漫遊了花蓮，2019年拜訪了嘉義，2020年選擇了宜蘭。今年由小編安排行程，才發現如果要讓大家都滿意，還真需要多花點心思呢...好險有位同仁是宜蘭人，給了許多不外傳的秘境景點（這下我把它寫出來不就昭告天下了嗎 XD)，宜蘭的朋友們請不要打我啊啊啊~~

 

第一天由台北出發抵達宜蘭後，我們馬上先衝去祭五臟廟，中午吃在地人隱藏版美食「三民大飯店」，雖然名稱叫做飯店，但是實際上是滷味黑白切，滷豬腳味道好得不得了，回台北到現在每天都懷念啊（口水）~ 之後我們就出發去第一個景點「林美石磐步道」，這條步道小編非常喜歡，因為它的步道非常融入森林裡，維持非常好的森林原貌，走起來幾乎完全曬不到太陽；許多蝴蝶在身邊飛翔，或著停在道路上休息，好像一點都不害怕路過的人們；沿途的溪水清澈又清涼，遠遠的就看見溪水裡有很多魚；走在這條步道裡，有種走在克羅埃西亞的「十六湖國家公園」的相似感，因為行走路徑非常融入自然景觀，很用心的保持森林原貌，實在是非常難得。

 

淨灘活動自己來，小小力量也能聚沙成塔

接著，就是mittag jewelry的重頭戲：「淨灘」。依照每年慣例，有一個時段是安排去淨灘，今年也當然不例外。如同我們在「耕耘一個品牌  讓世界看見台灣」一文提到，愛護地球、愛台灣是mittag jewelry的核心價值，用實際行動（淨灘）支持愛台灣，更別說淨灘之後心靈上的飽足感是無法用言語來形容的，小編真的非常喜歡與支持這個活動，並由衷希望公司的這項活動可以永遠延續下去。

 

到了目的地「利澤沙丘海岸」，一進入海邊閘口看見整片沙灘乾乾淨淨的，我們真的是又驚又喜，很訝異這片沙灘竟然維持的如此純淨（後來才發現原來這一區是剛好被淨灘過了 T.T）；然後我們往南方1公里以外的沙灘看去，發現有些散亂的白色小點，我們不是很確定那些是甚麼，於是往小白點走去，越靠近心越涼，越靠近心情越沉重，才終於看清楚那是一大片垃圾。我們每個人立刻拿出大垃圾袋，開始蹲下來努力的撿，撿了一個多小時，撿到大家的垃圾袋都滿了，可是還是剩下一整片的塑膠垃圾散亂在沙灘上，我們感到無力與難過，但是只能遺憾的離開...

淨灘撿的垃圾通常五花八門，甚至還有許多匪夷所思丟棄物是小編完全無法想像的（例如針頭）。而小編撿到許多菸蒂、吸管跟寶特瓶還有廢棄的魚網，很多塑膠類經過風吹日曬都已經脆化變成小小片狀物，非常難撿，可以想像的是許多更小體積的塑膠片已經變成塑膠微粒進入海洋，變成海洋生物的食物，然後海洋生物再變成人類的盤中飧，人類再把塑膠微粒吃進身體內...為什麼遊客要把垃圾丟入海裡呢？其實不是的，通常這些垃圾其實不是來自遊客，畢竟一般遊客的水平都滿高了，通常不會亂丟垃圾；而垃圾來源是海岸附近的垃圾掩埋場、河川出海口被風雨沖刷出來的，經過潮汐交替被帶到海岸上的。

 

塑膠垃圾嚴重威脅到生活在海洋中的生物。海龜會誤以為塑膠袋是水母，錯誤的吃下塑膠袋，身體無法排出塑膠袋而導致威脅到牠們的生命。信天翁媽媽會誤以為塑料碎片或吸管是蝦子等食物，而撿來餵給幼鳥吃，當幼鳥的肚子裡面充滿了塑膠碎片，牠們就會因為再也吃不下食物而餓死。海豹、鯨魚等會被廢棄釣魚線或漁網纏繞著，因而受傷、死亡。魚兒也會因為吃了滿肚子的塑膠碎片而死亡。而且，塑膠微粒會黏附有害物質，如果動物吞下塑膠微粒，有害物質會慢慢地在牠們身體內積聚，會使年幼魚類的行動變得緩慢，成長也會變得遲緩；當然，將這些生物吃下肚的人類一樣無法倖免。

 

拒絕一次性塑膠製品就能有效降低環境汙染

塑膠製品真的那麼不好嗎？其實不是的，重點是在於有沒有辦法長久或重複使用。如果只是一次性使用，那麼每個人每天產出的垃圾量真的很驚人，塑膠是可以存活500年以上不腐化、不分解的；但是如果是深思熟慮後確定會長久使用的物品，那麼購買塑膠製品在潮濕易發霉的台灣也許是一個好選擇。但是像是零食包裝用的塑膠袋，通常就真的是一次性使用，吃完零食後的袋子隨手就被丟棄了（尤其是精緻化小包裝，完全沒辦法做二次利用）。小編原本是個零食控，但是某一天數了一下自己吃零食後產出的小包裝袋居然快10個！！為了永久解除這個後患，小編在2020年的第一天發下豪願戒掉吃零食這個習慣，到現在發現優點好多喔：少了垃圾、省下荷包、還讓自己更健康，這麼多項好處，是小編一開始也沒有想到的。其實蔬果的採買，也很容易產生一次性垃圾，所以原先都上超市採購的小編現在也改成去裸賣店或是傳統市場使用自己的容器購買，可以有效的降低垃圾產生喔。

 

我相信大家都很努力在做垃圾分類、資源回收，但其實有效減少垃圾的產出才是徹底解決的方法。再次邀請大家跟小編一起隨身攜帶「環保三寶：餐具、水壺、購物袋」，這三樣真的可以幫地球減少非常多的一次性垃圾。這樣下次小編再去淨灘應該就比較不會撿到吸管跟飲料瓶了；小小動作，大大改變，和小編一起努力喔（手比愛心）。

 

回到下榻的礁溪老爺，驚喜的發現飯店也在推廣環保減塑，梳洗備品都由一次性小包裝改成可以重複補充的瓶裝僅供飯店內使用，各樓層提供飲水機鼓勵旅客減少使用瓶裝水，浴巾、床單若無髒汙也建議不更換以減少清洗消耗水、電能源，這些變更真的要大大比讚，好好鼓勵。最後，小編為自己沖泡一杯宜蘭特有的金棗茶，坐下來好好休息放鬆，為身心靈富足的一天畫下圓滿的句點。

 

如果大家想多了解海洋垃圾的嚴重程度，真心推薦「吳岳剛 海洋垃圾影像專題」。

#淨灘
#塑膠微粒
#不塑之客
#吳岳剛 
#海洋垃圾影像專題
#塑膠浪潮

 

 

 

 

mittag jewelry beach cleanup records : Plastic-Free journey on the coast in Taiwan

by mittag jewelry

Every September to October, mittag jewelry would host an employees’ domestic travel, because the company is still small and with few employees, so we take turns to arrange the itinerary. We roamed around Hualien in 2018, visited Chiayi in 2019, and chose Yilan in 2020. This year, it’s my turn to arrange the itinerary, then I realized that if I wanted to satisfy everyone, I really needed to make efforts... Luckily, one colleague is from Yilan, and she gave a lot of secret spots that are not well-known (oops, now I am telling everyone...). Please don’t hit me, friends in Yilan~~

 

After arriving in Yilan from Taipei on the first day, we immediately rushed to eat lunch at "Sanmin Hotel". Although the name is called a hotel, it is actually a simple diner, I liked its braised pork feet so much that I missed it everyday. After that, we set off to the first attraction "Linmei Shipan Trail". I like this trail very much because it is very much integrated into the forests and maintains. It is almost impossible to expose yourself to sunlight when you walk on the trail. Many butterflies fly around, or even stop on the road to rest, as if they are not afraid of people passing by. The stream along the trail is clear and chilled, and you can see fish from a distance. Walking on this trail has a similar feeling to walking in the "Plitvice Lakes National Park" in Croatia, because the walking path is very integrated into the natural landscape, and maintaining the original appearance of the forest, it is really worth visiting.

 

 

Beach cleanup here we come, every little makes a mickle

 

Then here comes the main task of mittag jewelry's journey: "Beach cleanup." According to the annual practice, there is a section for cleaning the beach, and this year is of course no exception. As we mentioned in the article "Cultivating a brand, let the world see Taiwan", caring for the earth and loving Taiwan are the core values of mittag jewelry. Use practical actions (to clean the beach) to support the love for Taiwan, not to mention the spiritual satisfaction after the beach cleanup, those feelings cannot be described in words. I really like and support this event, and sincerely hope that this event can continue forever.

 

When we arrived at the destination "Lize Sand-dune Coast", we were really surprised and delighted as we entered the dune gate and saw the entire beach was so clean (later on we realised that this area was just cleanup); then we looked at the south beach 1km away and found some scattered white dots. We were not sure what those were, so we walked to the white dots, and finally we could see clearly that they were large pieces of garbage. Each of us immediately took out the big garbage bags and started squatting down to pick them up. After more than an hour, we found that everyone’s garbage bags were full, but there were still a lot of plastic garbage scattered on the beach. Feeling powerless and sad, but we can only leave with regrets…

 

The trash picked up during the beach cleanup is usually diverse, and there are even many unimaginable discards that I can't imagine (such as needles). I picked up many cigarette butts, straws, PET bottles, and discarded fishing nets. Many plastics have become brittle through wind and sun and become small flakes, which are very difficult to pick. You can imagine many smaller plastic pieces have become plastic particles and enter the ocean, becoming food for marine lives, and then marine lives become human food. Humans then eat the plastic particles into the body... Why do tourists throw garbage into the sea? In fact, it is not. Usually the garbage does not come from tourists. The source of garbage is the garbage burial sites near the coast and the estuary of rivers washed out by wind and rain. The ocean tides then brought those to the coast alternately.

 

Plastic waste threatens the creatures living in the ocean seriously. Turtles will think that the plastic bag is a jellyfish, mistakenly eat the plastic bag, and their body cannot discharge the plastic bag, which threatens their lives. The albatross mother will mistakenly think that plastic fragments or straws are shrimps or other food, and pick them up and feed them to their baby birds. When the baby birds’ stomachs are full of plastic fragments, they will starve to death because they can no longer eat food. Seals and whales will be entangled in discarded fishing lines or nets, resulting in injuries and deaths. Fish will die from eating plastic fragments. Moreover, plastic particles will stick to harmful substances, if animals swallow the plastic particles, harmful substances will slowly accumulate in their bodies, which will slow down the movement and growth of young fish. Of course, humans who eat those fish are not immune.

 

 

Rejecting disposable plastic products can effectively reduce environmental pollution

 

Are plastic products really that bad? In fact, it is not. The point is whether there is a way to use it for a long time or repeatedly. If it is only for one-time use, the amount of garbage produced by each person every day is really terrifying. Plastic can survive for more than 500 years without corruption or decomposition. But if it is an item that will be used for a long time after careful consideration, then buying plastic products may be a good choice in Taiwan, which is humid and easy to mold. However, the plastic bags used for snack packaging are usually really disposable, and the bags are discarded after eating the snacks (especially the exquisite small packaging, which can not be used for second time). I was addicted to eating snacks, but one day I counted the small packaging bags I produced after eating snacks, and it was almost 10! ! In order to permanently solve this problem, I made a wish on the first day of 2020 to give up the habit of eating snacks. Now I have found that there are many advantages: less garbage, saving money, and making myself healthier. There are so many benefits that I didn't think of at first.

 

I believe that everyone is working hard on garbage classification and resource recycling, but in fact, effectively reducing the output of garbage is the real solution. Once again, I like to invite everyone to bring along the "three useful items: tableware, water container, and shopping bag". These three things can really reduce a lot of disposable waste. The small movements will change greatly.

 

Back to Hotel Royal Chiaohsi, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel is also promoting environmental protection and plastic reduction. Toiletries have been changed from small disposable packages to refillable bottles for use in the hotel. Drinking fountains are provided on all floors to encourage travellers to reduce the use of bottle water. If the bath towels, and bed sheets are not dirty, it is recommended not to replace them in order to reduce the consumption of water and electricity for cleaning. These changes are really laudable. At last, I brewed a cup of Yilan's unique golden jujube tea, sat down to rest and relax, and pleasantly called it a day.

 

If anyone wants to know more about the severity of marine waste, we sincerely recommend the article of "Plastic waves" by Y.G.Wu.

 

#BeachCleanup
#PlasticParticle
#PlasticFree
#ygwu
#MarineWaste
#PlasticWaves