Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - More than 3,800 plastic waste containershave piled up for more than 90 days at Vietnam’s three major ports of Hai Phong,Vung Tau and HCM City’s Cat Lai, according to the latest report by the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
Hoang Van Thuc, deputy head of the Vietnam Environment Administration, said intotal there are some 6,456 containers stacked at seaports containing plasticwaste and used commodities.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) has developed a regulation onclassifying imported waste into six groups. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry ofTransport have also set barriers to force enterprises and ship owners importingscrap to submit certificates of eligibility for environmentalprotection and declaration forms indicating whether the importingenterprise is still operational and the specific import volume.
Thuc said MoNRE had filed a report on imported waste management to PrimeMinister and would collaborate with related agencies to tighten control overscraps.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has tasked the ministry to investigate thecontainers of plastic waste.
“For stocks which violate Vietnam’s regulations, we will force ship owners tore-export them out of the country’s territorial waters,” said Thuc.
Since September 2018, Vietnam has shown positive signs in tackling wastecontainer problem at seaports following Prime Minister’s Directive No.27/CT-TTg.
“503 containers of plastic waste, paper waste, metal scraps and other rubbishhave been sent back to their origins due to failures to meet Vietnam’s standards,”Thuc added.
The General Department of Vietnam Customs’ data revealed a significant fall of the number of wastecontainers pilling up at ports across the country in 2019.
Until September 2019, 10,100 waste containers sat abandoned at ports, down frommore than 22,000 at the end of 2018./.