On the afternoon of today (30th Beijing time), the United Nations Environment Programme announced the 2023 United Nations "Earth Guardian Award" at its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. Among them, the "Blue Cycle" marine plastic waste management model declared by Zhejiang Province has won the highest environmental protection honor of the United Nations.

The "Blue Cycle" is a sustainable marine plastic pollution control model explored and implemented in Zhejiang, which solves the problems of difficult collection, high disposal costs, and low recycling rate of marine plastic waste. Visual traceability is one of the main innovations of the "blue cycle" model, which utilizes digital technology to establish a full process visual traceability from the ocean to the shelf, solving the problem of difficult certification of marine plastic waste. As a result, the "blue cycle" model has been recognized by some multinational enterprises that actively participate in environmental governance and are willing to pay for the high cost recycling of marine plastics, achieving market-oriented recycling and turning marine plastic waste into treasure.

The "Blue Cycle" has been exploring in Zhejiang since 2020. Currently, 80 frontline marine waste collection points such as "Ocean Cloud Warehouse" and "Little Blue House" have been established in coastal cities such as Taizhou, Zhoushan, and Ningbo, covering more than 10000 marine fishing boats, commercial ships, and some coastline. Since its operation, more than 10000 tons of marine waste have been recovered, including over 2200 tons of plastic waste.

Since 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme has awarded the "Earth Guardian Award" annually, recognizing governments, organizations, individuals, and others who have had a transformative impact on the environment. This year's "Earth Guardian Award" is nominated for the scope of "Finding sustainable solutions to eliminate plastic pollution". After application, argumentation, and on-site inspection by a United Nations expert group, the "Blue Circle" ultimately stood out from 2500 global application projects and won the 2023 United Nations "Earth Guardian Award", providing a Chinese solution for the global management of marine plastic waste.