COVID-19 has sparked online shopping in HCM City during the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, leading to the accumulation of plastic waste. (Photo: VNA)The pandemic has sparked online shopping in the southern largest economic hub during the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, leading to the accumulation of plastic waste.
Due to the disrupted production of eco-friendly packagingmaterials, local residents and business establishments have to replace them byplastic bags and bottles, and other single-use products.
Moreover, thanks to their convenience and low cost,plastic products have dominated shops and restaurants in the city over the pasttime.
According to Nguyen Thi Que Lam, from HCM City UrbanEnvironment Co., Ltd. (CITENCO), although the volume of daily waste has reducedover the past time, plastic waste has been on the rise.
From October 2021, CITENCO has resumed the collectionand recycling of plastic waste, she said, adding that it has also joined handswith the Packaging Recycling Organisation Vietnam to buy solid waste fromprivate garbage collectors for recycling.
Many localities in HCM City have also stepped up thecommunication work to raise public awareness of plastic waste sorting, collection,recycling and treatment.
Tan Phu district is an example, which has delivered leafletsguiding local residents how to classify garbage and presented trash bins tothem. The district will continue with waste sorting models and the exchange ofrecyclable waste for gifts.
The municipal Department of Natural Resources andEnvironment emphasised the target of minimising, towards saying no to non-degradableplastic bags and single-use plastic utensils at State agencies, schools,medical facilities and households in the city.
To that end, HCM City will review and evaluate sourcesof plastic waste, and then propose suitable, effective solutions in the managementwork, while encouraging supermarkets, commercial centres, convenience stores andmarkets to join the efforts.
Specifically, the supermarkets, commercial centres,convenience stores and bookshops should offer discounts to customers who comewith eco-friendly bags.
Many businesses in HCM City have responded to thelocal authorities’ call in the fight against plastic waste.
Phan Thi Thuy Phuong, Director of the Phuong LanEnvironmental Friendly Packing Import Export Trading Production CompanyLimited, said each month her company sells about 100 tonnes of eco-friendly products.
Vietnam uses about 104,000 single-use plastic bags perday, or 38 million plastic bags a year. Up to 46 out of 48 supermarkets areproviding plastic bags free of charge, and each supermarket consumes about1,454 plastic bags a day on average, statistics showed.
The country aims to use 100 percent ofenvironmentally-friendly plastic bags and packaging at shopping malls andsupermarkets by 2025, according to a project on strengthening the management ofplastic waste in Vietnam approved by Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh lastyear.
Other goals are to collect, reuse, recycle and treat85 percent of plastic waste; to reduce the volume of plastic waste dumped tooceans by half; to have 100 percent of tourism complexes, hotels and other lodgingfacilities not use non-biodegradable plastic bags and single-use plasticproducts by 2025.
Additionally, the project will gradually cut theproduction and consumption of non-biodegradable plastic bags and single-useplastic products in daily life; while raising awareness among organisations,enterprises and the community about the harmful effects of single-use plasticitems to the environment, ecosystem and human health, and encouraging consumersto shift away from single-use and non-biodegradable plastics to eco-friendlyalternatives.
It will campaign producers and distributors ofsingle-use and non-biodegradable plastic products to shift to eco-friendlyequivalents and promote the development and application of advanced technologyin plastic waste management and manufacturing of environmentally-friendlyproducts.
The project will also build a network of localcommunicators who are tasked to instruct people in how to properly classify,reuse and treat plastic waste and waste at large; and integrate knowledge aboutsingle-use and non-biodegradable plastics into school curriculums at alllevels./.
VNA
