Single-use plastic products. (Photo: hanoimoi.com.vn) ISPONRE Deputy Director Nguyen Trung Thang said that withthe aim of reducing the use of single-use plastic products at retailers, the instituteand the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade called for businesses to sign acommitment to join the alliance of retailers to reduce plastic bags andsingle-use plastic products.
As of July, 15 retailers had agreed to join thiscommitment. This is an activity within the framework of the “Rethinking Plastics- Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter” project funded by the EuropeanUnion and the German Government. Expertise France is the organisationthat will implement this project in Vietnam.
According to Thang, Vietnam uses about 104,000 single-use plastic bags per day,or 38 million plastic bags a year. Up to 46 out of 48 supermarkets areproviding plastic bags free of charge, and each supermarket consumes about 1,454 plasticbags a day on average.
Vietnam aims to use 100 percent of environmentally-friendlyplastic bags and packaging at shopping malls and supermarkets by 2025,according to a project on strengthening the management of plastic waste in Vietnamapproved by Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh on July 22.
Other goals include to collect, reuse, recycle and treat 85percent of plastic waste; to halve the volume of plastic waste dumped to oceans; to have 100 percent of tourist complexes, hotels and other lodgingfacilities not use non-biodegradable plastic bags and single-use plasticproducts by 2025.
Additionally, the project will gradually cut the productionand consumption of non-biodegradable plastic bags and single-use plasticproducts 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./.
VNA
