China has made significant progress in cleaning up litter in bays near urban areas, with most debris in those zones cleared following a dedicated campaign launched last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Wednesday.

The cleanup campaign began in June 2024 after four central government agencies, including the ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission, issued a three-year action plan targeting marine debris in 65 urban-adjacent bays across the country.

At a news conference, Zhang Zhifeng, deputy director of the ministry's Department of Marine Ecology and Environment, said drone monitoring showed a marked decline in shoreline marine litter coverage — decreasing from over 0.5 percent last summer to about 0.13 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Authorities identified and cleared 157 coastal sections — totaling about 126 kilometers — where debris had accumulated, he said.

Zhang highlighted several innovative approaches adopted by local governments. In Zhejiang province, for example, a program called Blue Circle uses digital technologies such as blockchain and the internet of things to support plastic waste collection from the sea. The system allows individuals to track the entire recycling process and earn above-market prices for the plastic they collect through a mobile app. The recovered materials are authenticated and sold at a premium.

Under the Blue Circle program, 36 collection points have been set up across Zhejiang, covering all coastal prefecture-level cities and counties. So far, 50,800 metric tons of marine litter has been collected through the initiative, Zhang said.

He also pointed to improvements in managing pollution discharges into the ocean. The ministry has launched a digital platform to monitor and manage outfalls into the sea, with 63,000 such discharge points registered by the end of May. Environmental violations have been rectified at approximately 93 percent of outlets in key bay areas, according to Zhang.

The ministry reported that 83.7 percent of China's nearshore waters reached fairly good quality last year — defined as Grade II or above in the country's four-tier sea water quality system — an increase of 6.3 percentage points from 2020.