Water, tea, energy drink bottles most common beach litter: NGO

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Empty water, tea and energy drink bottles are the most common types of beach litter in Taiwan, an environmental group said in a statement Thursday.

According to the Taiwan RE-THINK Environmental Education Association, 8,249 pieces of trash were collected from 59 beaches around Taiwan between April 2024 and April 2025, of which empty water bottles made up 28 percent (2,356 pieces).

Empty tea bottles were the second most common, with 1,826 pieces, accounting for 21.7 percent of the total.

In third place were discarded energy drink bottles, 1,313 of which were collected, making up 15.6 percent.

According to the organization, energy drink containers are small and easy to carry, making them popular with anglers and outdoor enthusiasts, but are often made out of glass.

Because glass does not biodegrade, many of these containers eventually end up on beaches, the NGO said.

In terms of material types, PET bottles top the chart at 67 percent, or 5,677 pieces, followed by glass bottles at 14.8 percent and steel and aluminum cans at 5.4 percent.

More specifically, over 50 percent of the PET bottles were collected from northern Taiwan -- including Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Yilan -- where nearly 20 percent of beach litter was brought from other countries by sea currents, the most in Taiwan, statistics showed.

The organization called on the public to properly recycle their waste, noting that littering on beaches is punishable by a fine of NT$1,200-NT$6,000 (US$40-US$202) in Taiwan.