Twenty-two young intellectuals representing ten ASEAN member states and Japan, on March 16, adopted a joint declaration in which they expressed their concern over marine plastic waste and gave 13 recommendations.
Nguyen Thi Trang, a Vietnamese predoctoral fellow at the Asian Institute of Technology and three other researchers from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand have received 30,000 USD sponsorship from a research grant competition of the ASEAN-Norwegian Cooperation Project on Local Capacity Building for Reducing Plastic Pollution in the ASEAN Region (ASEANO).
“It is time for us to take drastic and effective action to change models of production and the consumption of traditional plastic products in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner,” Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has said.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, has called on countries to combine strength and coordinate actions in a more urgent, drastic and practical manner to protect biodiversity – a priceless natural resource.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Directorate of Fisheries, in collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Center for Supporting Green Development (Greenhub), held a workshop on September 25 to tackle the issue of ocean plastic waste in Ha Long city, the northern province of Quang Ninh.
A community-based waste management project aiming to scale up classification and foster green investment was launched on June 8 in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh.
Thailand will ban the import, production and sale of beauty products containing plastic microbeads, effective from Januar 1, 2020, the Ministry of Public Health announced on December 24.
Vietnam has been listed as one of the top five plastic polluters in the world, so eco-friendly technical solutions and the use of bio-degradable plastic products need urgent promotion, participants at a workshop heard on November 29 in Hanoi.
The southern city of Lamitan in the Philippines has turned discarded plastic bottles into tulips in a garden of thousands of colourful flowers, capturing tourists’ attention and building awareness about recycling.
Single-use plastic products will be replaced by alternatives made of environmentally-friendly materials by business facilities in Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh, starting from Sept
Cambodian officials affirmed that strict measures have been taken to curb the illegal import of plastic waste after detecting 83 containers filled with the waste at a sea port last month.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has praised domestic and multinational companies in the food and beverages industry for their initiative of setting up PRO Vietnam, an organisation for recycling packaging materials.
A seminar in Hanoi on June 10 highlighted the fact that existing policies and laws on plastic waste management have yet to match this type of waste’s impacts on the environment and human health.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called on leaders of Asian countries to join hands in resolving the global challenges of reducing plastic waste in the oceans and promoting free trade.
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