Protection of the world’s oceans Hope for the “Blue Economy”

As of: 06/08/2021 12:59 p.m.

The seas are at risk from climate change, pollution and overfishing. But gradually a rethink is also beginning in the economy – the protection of the oceans is recognized as a business. From Notker Blechner, tagesschau.de Sometimes an accident can lead to a complete change in life. For example with Emily Penn. The architect and passionate sailor had her aha experience on a boat trip from Great Britain to Australia. “One night all the passengers woke up to a loud bang,” she says. “Our ship had rammed a plastic mountain – in the middle of the ocean, away from any civilization.” Since then, Penn has been committed to protecting the oceans, giving lectures, organizing events and doing research expeditions to find solutions to the fight against the plastic flood in the oceans. Penn is known as the “advocate for the seas”.

Shoes, sunglasses and backpacks made from ocean trash

The marine activist is encouraged by increasing business initiatives against plastic waste pollution in the oceans. Several companies and start-ups have developed methods of making new products from marine litter. Adidas offers shoes and jerseys made from recycled “ocean plastic”. Other manufacturers are making new sunglasses, backpacks and skateboards out of marine plastic waste. Even the Dutchman Boyen Slat, founder of the start-up “Ocean Cleanup”, now sells sunglasses with frames made from recycled ocean plastic. “Ocean Cleanup” collects plastic waste on the open sea with ships. The Italian Giulio Bonazzi has managed to make a special fiber – Econyl – from old fishing nets, which is used for tights and bikinis. Bonazzi calculates that every ton of Econyl saves six tons of carbon dioxide.

Marketing gimmick?

Environmentalists warn against being misled. Products made from ocean plastic are often a marketing gimmick and misleading. In some of them there is hardly any plastic waste from the oceans, according to the WWF. Nevertheless: The fight against the mountains of plastic has now begun in business and politics. The G20 states have announced that they will ban plastic waste from the world’s oceans by 2050. It is currently estimated that around 13 million tons of plastic waste end up in the oceans every year.

14 coastal countries are leading the way in marine protection

The pictures of polluted beaches after tankers leaked like now back in Sri Lanka show how important global marine protection is. A total of 14 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Norway, have come together in a kind of “Ocean Panel” and have committed to sustainably managing their national waters in the future. “For too long we have made the wrong choice between marine protection and production,” admits Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg, co-head of the Ocean Panel.

Danger to the species: A sea turtle that has become entangled in a drifting net. Image: picture alliance / AP Photo According to a study that was published in the journal “Nature” at the end of March, hundreds of millions of CO2 could be saved through marine protection. So far, not even three percent of the world’s oceans have been strictly protected. The study’s authors see the greatest potential in restricting bottom trawling. This controversial fishing method involves ships pulling a net across the ocean floor. The living beings on the ground are destroyed, plants are uprooted and spawning grounds for fish are destroyed. In addition, the agitation of the seabed releases organic carbon compounds and converts them into climate-damaging CO2.

Great potential for CO2 savings

The Ocean Panel has proposed several measures to promote marine and climate protection: In addition to carbon storage in the seabed, the panel recommends sustainable fishing and aquaculture, the expansion of offshore energy in the sea and ocean-compatible transport. According to calculations, this could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth, trigger investments of over 15 trillion dollars and create 12 million new jobs. Indeed, there is a gradual rethinking of the maritime economy. The International Maritime Organization has mandated stricter sulfur emissions values ​​in 2020. Instead of using heavy fuel oil, the ships now have to run on marine diesel. The only exception: ships with so-called scrubber exhaust gas cleaning systems are still allowed to use heavy fuel oil. Over 350 container and cruise ships as well as tankers have switched to liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG contains no sulfur, hardly any nitrogen oxides and 20 percent less CO2. However, the greenhouse gas methane allegedly escapes. “The liquefied natural gas turns out to be a harmful wrong path,” says Nabu in the meantime. Shore power systems have been put into operation in Rostock-Warnemünde and Hamburg so that cruise ships do not need the ship’s diesel for power supply while they are in port.

“Blue Economy” becomes a billion dollar business

Investors such as the DWS fund company from Deutsche Bank have long been interested in the “blue economy”. According to the WWF, the ocean’s annual “gross sea product” is $ 2.5 trillion. This would make the “blue economy” the eighth largest economy in the world. DWS fund manager Paul Buchwitz predicts that the “blue economy” will grow twice as fast as the established economy by 2030. The “blue economy” includes companies that help to reduce marine pollution and curb ocean acidification – as well as those that deal with the sustainable use of marine resources, ecosystems and sustainable fisheries.

In the long march version of the small knife national endurance challenge that has been launched in recent months, with the newly developed extended range system, the long march version of the small knife faces various uncontrollable weather environments, such as strong winds, rains, steep slopes, muddy, etc., refreshing again and again Endurance record, at the same time, the Xiaodao electric car also completed its original goal of 300 miles on a single charge and an 80% increase in endurance. Through this challenge, the small knife electric car allows consumers to see its powerful strength of “big power, energy saving, and long run”.

In fact, before this challenge, the Xiaodao electric car has not only been recognized by China Aerospace, but also won the title of a major country brand enterprise and a strategic partner of China Quality Miles. It has been recognized by many authoritative organizations, and the Xiaodao electric car is a powerful brand. The strength is obvious. In addition, at this year’s Tianjin Exhibition, Xiaodao Electric Vehicles and China Aerospace once again launched in-depth cooperation. With the formal preparations of the “Aerospace Technology Electric Vehicle Application Laboratory”, the Xiaodao Electric Vehicles will be responsible for power enhancement, battery life extension, and battery insulation. Heavy and long way!

While the technology is constantly innovating, the Xiaodao electric car has always not forgotten the improvement of its own brand influence. Since 2021, the Xiaodao electric car has not only been a special sponsor of Ace to Ace 6'', and a designated brand ofSister Riding the Waves 2”, it has frequently appeared in major variety shows, and it has also signed the female volleyball leader Zhu Ting as a brand friend and international football superstar C. Luo Wei’s brand spokesperson, after many big moves, let the brand image of the small knife electric car, which is already a household name, more popular.

With the blessing of China’s aerospace science and technology, the small knife electric car will inevitably gain greater development, which will have an extremely far-reaching impact on both the industry and consumers.The road is long and long. We believe that in the future, the small knife electric car will continue to uphold the original intention and continue to advance, bringing us

In fact, in our lives there are many “extraordinary profit” industries that are easily overlooked, and the cost is much lower than that of the health care industry. It is suitable for people who want to choose a light asset business, and they can get what they don’t want. To make a fortune, this “great profit” industry is the waste recycling industry. Used clothes recycling For many young people, disposing of waste clothes is a big problem. I feel that it takes up space when it is idle, but it is a pity to throw it away, and it is impossible to sell it on the Internet. In recent years, there has been a sudden upsurge of waste clothes recycling in various places, and there are many old clothes recycling bins downstairs in the community. In fact, my country exports a lot of used clothes overseas every year. According to statistics from the official website of waste textiles, about 26 million tons of waste textiles are exported overseas every year. After they are overseas, they are washed and disinfected by local distributors, and finally flowed in by hanging tags. In the market, the unit price can range from $1 to $10. One can imagine how high the profit is. And those old clothes that do not meet the export standards will be recycled and processed into industrial and agricultural materials. Many people also want to know whether we ordinary people can enter this industry? In fact, a long time ago, there were many small vendors who bought used clothes in rural areas, which cost about 0.1 yuan per catty. After sorting, resell the good clothes to used clothes wholesalers, and sell the different clothes to the renewable resource company, so that you can get higher profits. Waste paper recycling In addition to the recycling of used clothes, the waste paper recycling industry has also achieved wealth creation myths that people can never imagine. Zhang Yin, the founder of Nine Dragons Paper, started from waste paper recycling, and in 2009 she topped the Hurun Rich Women list. In April 2021, he was once again selected as the Hurun Global Rich List with 59 billion yuan in assets. Many people should be unbelievable. We usually disassemble the paper shells that we throw away from express parcels, and others have earned tens of billions of net worth! Recently, due to increasing papermaking costs and increasing paper demand, well-known domestic paper companies have issued notices to raise prices. Paper giants such as Vinda, Qingfeng, and Jierou all plan to adjust prices by more than 10%. In the future, the recycling and reuse of waste paper may become the focus of special attention. Recycling of used electronic products Nowadays, the replacement of electronic products such as mobile phones and computers is too fast. People are constantly pursuing the latest generation of electronic products, so that there are a lot of waste electronic products idle at home. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the total stock of used mobile phones in my country in 2014 was about 1.83 billion units, and the number of mobile phones eliminated in 2019 reached 499 million units. With the advent of the 5G era, it is expected that the number of mobile phones out of my country will increase to 524 million units this year. Although old mobile phones are of little value, the heavy metals in waste electronic products can cause damage to the environment. Many people have also discovered the business opportunities in this. By recycling electronic products, refining the metal for recycling, it can be environmentally friendly and profitable. Why not? Even Jack Ma has invested in the second-hand mobile phone platform “Cuihuibao”, which shows the potential of this industry. According to expert predictions, second-hand mobile phones will reach a market size of 100 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that the state has also “recognized” the waste electronic product industry. On March 23, 2021, according to the announcement of relevant departments, the “Waste Electrical and Electronic Products Treatment Fund Subsidy Standard” will be implemented from April 1 this year. It is stipulated that the subsidy standard for waste products such as televisions, washing machines, and microcomputers ranges from 25 yuan to 100 yuan per unit. The main reason is that electrical and electronic products such as televisions and microcomputers still have residual use value even if they are scrapped. For example, 90% of the old circuit boards can be recycled, which has a high recycling value. However, according to incomplete statistics, the number of circuit boards discarded every day in the world has reached several billion. Recycling through different processing methods will ultimately lead to different profits. However, here is a reminder that compared to used clothing recycling and waste paper recycling, the recycling of waste circuit boards requires qualifications, and private processing is not allowed. Therefore, if you want to enter this industry, the threshold is still relatively high. As the saying goes, “Three hundred and sixty lines, you will be the champion.” Those inconspicuous waste items around us are actually very “rich”! In addition, we shouldn’t take “tinted glasses” to treat people who do waste recycling, are you right?