The seminar was jointly held by ISPONRE, the Authority ofIndustry and Trade of Hanoi, and Expertise France – the European country'spublic agency in charge of international technical cooperation.
Nguyen Trung Thang, Deputy Director of the ISPONRE, said that being aware of serious risks of plastic wasteto the environment, Vietnam has issued a lot of legal documents related to thisissue. The country strives to use 100 percent of environmentally-friendly bagsat commercial centres and supermarkets.
He cited a survey by his institute as saying that up to104,000 single-use plastic bags are used at supermarkets each day, equivalentto 38 million bags a year. Among the 48 supermarkets surveyed, 46 are providingplastic bags for free of charge.
The PLASTIC ALLIANCE gathers 16 retailers that pledge toreduce the use of disposable plastic bags. It is part of the “RethinkingPlastics - Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter in Vietnam” projectfunded by the European Union (EU) and the German Government, and carried out byExpertise France.
The alliance has stepped up communication programmes directlyat retailers and online on social media platforms to change consumers’ behaviourin reducing the use of single-use plastic bags and plastic products./.