Marine plastic debris poses a threat to ecosystems, coastal economic industries, food safety and quality, human health, and contributes to climate change. Taiwan has one of the world's highest densities of fishing ports (5.2/km).

To prevent the spread of marine debris from the coast to the ocean, we have developed and implemented innovative technology with various stakeholders. The "Azure Fighter" is a remote-controlled prototype catamaran measuring 3.8 meters that can pick up floating garbage in water environments. The international community is seeing rapid growth in technology for cleaning up marine litter, yet there is limited information available to the public.

Our research sheds light on the efficiency of garbage collection, provides a breakdown of garbage composition, examines stakeholder perspectives on the cleanup effort and also the policy challenges we have faced. We believe that preventing debris from entering the ocean requires not only innovative technology but also collaboration with stakeholders.