Ninh Binh (VNA) – The northern province of Ninh Binh has moved toreduce the use of plastic bags as part of its efforts to protect theenvironment.

The provincial Farmers’ Union on July 8 labeled Song Van safe farm produce shopwith “no use of plastic bag shopping point” to raise public awareness of theimpact of single-use plastic products and plastic bags on the environment.

Chairman of the union Dinh Hong Thai said that many consumers have seen plasticbags as important invention of the mankind, and they have been popular amongthe community for years. However, the “white pollution” has cause criticalinfluence to people’s health and the environment.

Under the province’s Plan No.61/KH-UBND on the campaign against plastic waste,the union has mobilised and convinced safe food chains in the locality toreplace plastic bags and single-use products with environmentally-friendly oneslike paper and cloth bags, and natural wrapping such as banana and lotusleaves.

In the coming time, the union will work more to promote the “say no to plasticbags” campaign so as to change the consumers’ habit to protect the environment. 

According to Nguyen Van Tien from the Song Van safe farmproduce shop, his shop is now using available banana leaves instead of plasticbags to wrap vegetables and fruits. Natural wrapping helps raise the consumers’curiosity while popularising the campaign among the locals, he said.

PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has pledged to rid single use plastic products by 2025,saying the country must take concrete measures to control plastic waste.
He has called on urbanmarkets, convenience stores and supermarkets to stop using one-off plasticproducts by 2021, and he wants the whole country to follow suit over the nextsix years.

The PM has called on authorities to outline a series of measures to phase outthe unnecessary use of plastic.

Launching a national campaign to prevent plastic waste in Hanoi last month, thePM said: "As many as 13 million tonnes of plastic trash are dischargedinto oceans each year, it has left negative impact on the living environment,people’s health and sustainable development of each nation.

"Rationalmechanisms must be mapped out to cut and end the import of scraps andproduction of plastic bags that are hard to dissolve."

The Government leader said public awareness is key and called upon the press tospread the word about events like the one last month.


PM Phuc ordered theMinistry of Natural Resources and Environment and relevant ministries andagencies to work together to complete regulations and policies to scale downthe use of single-use plastic products, encouraging the development ofenvironmentally-friendly ones, and promoting the application of advanced technologiesfor plastic waste recycling. 

As for the local business community, the PM asked them to improvecorporate social responsibility by joining efforts to combat plasticwaste. Meanwhile, consumers were requested to carry their own bags for multipleuse while shopping.

A number of supermarketsin Hanoi and HCM City have already pioneered to use banana leaves to wrapvegetables and meat instead of plastic bags.

Coffee shops and restaurants have also begun to use paper straws and food boxesmade from sugarcane waste to replace plastic.

Vietnam is among the top 20 countries with the largest amount of waste,equal to the United States or Malaysia, and higher than theaverage level in the world.

Each year, about 8million tonnes of plastic waste are disposed in the ocean, of which 1.8 milliontonnes come from Vietnam. On average, each Vietnamese person releases 1.2 kg ofsolid waste into the environment per day, of which 16 per cent is plasticwaste, according to the University of Georgia report.

The country aims to reduce65 percent of non-biodegradable plastic bags used at supermarkets and shoppingmalls by 2020 compare to 2010. By 2026, it targets zero non-biodegradableplastic bags.-VNA