Hoi An goes green for a day by doing without plastic bags

The ancient town of Hoi An, a favourite tourism destination, dedicated one day to banning plastic bags. Tourists above enjoy shopping in the sun on Tran Phu Road. —VNA/VNS Vu Cong Dien

HA NOI — A Day Without Plastic Bags – Nature Day was launched yesterday for the first time in the ancient town of Hoi An, central Quang Nam Province, as an initiative from the Centre for Support of Combating Climate Change (SCC) and the Science and Life newspaper.

“The danger of plastic bags towards people’s health and the environment has received more response from the community day by day. We hope that the initiative will be expanded in many other provinces and cities in Viet Nam and in the world,” said the Chairman of the SCC, Nguyen Thanh Luu.

Communication and education activities during the day were promoted with the aim of strengthening awareness for the whole society about the harmful effects plastic bags have toward human health and the environment.

Volunteers also traveled around the city to collect discarded plastic bags, delivered 20,000 paper bags to local families and encouraged visitors and locals not to use plastic bags. Stores that don’t use plastic bags were inaugurated in the city.

During the event, it was estimated that 10,000 organisations, families and tourists voluntarily signed commitments not to use plastic bag.

In March 2009, the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment asked the local government to implement a programme to restrict the use of plastic bags in the city.

It is estimated that each Vietnamese person uses about 328 plastic bags yearly, while the figures are 250 bags in Australia and 153 bags in Scotland. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Plastic firms told how to save power

Tien Phong Plastic JSC transports plastic pipes to its sale agents. Viet Nam exported $600 million worth of plastic products in the first nine months of this year. Exports are expected to increase to $1.5 billion by 2010. — VNA/VNS Photo Phuong Thao

HCM CITY — The nation’s plastic industry is being offered financial and other incentives to invest in power-saving technology that would pay off in the long term.

Power-saving equipment and knowhow is being offered under a co-operation arrangement between the city’s Department of Science and Technology and two companies specialising in industrial energy saving solutions – US-based Neptech Centre Inc and HCM City’s ETEC Automation Technology Ltd.

Nguyen Viet Toan, director of ETEC, said his company was willing to pour US$1 billion to support plastic enterprises with repayment plans under which they would make a down-payment of 50 per cent and the rest in installments over the next six months.

The ETEC will also help the enterprises with advice on equipment selection, and installation as well as production processes towards increased efficiency.

Toan stressed that the enterprises could save from 20 to 65 per cent of energy consumption if they applied modern energy-saving models in their factories.

Hoang Thien Kim, head of the College of Electricity’s Technology faculty, said electricity was vital to plastic production and saving on power costs would certainly help the firms in the long run.

There are now 1,400 enterprises producing plastics but most of them are small and medium sized enterprises.

Therefore, they do not have enough capital to invest in power-saving technology, and continue to use equipment that use a lot of electricity, according to Kim.

According to the Viet Nam Plastics Association, domestic plastic consumption is increasing rapidly. Per capita consumption of plastic products was 12 kilos in 2000, but this year, the figure has gone up to 20 kilos, showing the development potential of the country’s plastic industry.

Viet Nam exported plastic products worth $600 million in the first nine months of this year, an increase of five per cent against the same period last year.

The figure is expected to increase to $1.5 billion in 2010. —

Ho Chi Minh City: Less plastic equals less pollution

HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City environmental experts and officials have proposed limiting the use of plastic bags by supermarkets to reduce pollution in city waterways.

Experts spoke on August 26 at a seminar in HCM City held by the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the HCM City Waste Recycling Fund and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

The city fund and the UN, in a joint survey, said their findings showed that restricting the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and trading centres should be done as soon as posible.

Every month the Maximark chain uses 10 tonnes of plastic bags and the Big C supermarket 20 tonnes. More than 30 tonnes of plastic bags are used in supermarkets and other shops every day in the city, the survey found.

Ms. Kim Ae Seon of the Korean Environmental and Resources Corporation of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Environmental Ministry said the use of instant use containers at fast food restaurants or coffee shops and other non-biodegradable products needed to be controlled.

Kim said many customers in RoK still preferred plastic bags instead of paper bags.

Associate professor Doctor Bui Cach Tuyen, deputy general director of the city’s Environmental Department, said raising awareness among consumers was critical and that a media campaign was needed.

Many residents still throw plastic bags in rivers and canals, Tuyen added.

He suggested a tax on plastic bags used in supermarkets and new policies on encouraging waste collectors to recycle.

Le Van Khoa, head of the city’s recycling fund, said a fee should be charged to customers who want to use plastic bags.-

Plastic enterprises must work together

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) reminded plastics enterprises that co-ordination was the key to fulfilling large and long-term contracts.

Currently, most of the nation’s 2,000 plastics producers are small to medium -sized operations following family business models.

Plastics producers should pay more heed to new technologies to make high-tech products for use in cars, motorbikes, electronics and consumer plastics products, added MoIT.

The Viet Nam Plastics Association (VPA) suggested that high-tech plastic products and local enterprises must reduce production costs if they want to be more competitive on the market.

Furthermore, businesses in plastics need to co-ordinate in order to stand up against foreign products in both domestic and overseas markets, as more and more foreign investors eye Viet Nam for plastics factories.

Over the past 10 years, the annual growth rate of the Vietnamese plastics industry has increased by 15-20 per cent. However, since the beginning of the year, material, production and transportation costs have steadily gone up due to the high price of crude oil.

Many operations cut production and even suffered losses in a bid to shield consumers from inflation.

While the price of plastics products increased only 10 per cent this year, current material prices have risen 50 per cent over costs in Q1 2008.

According to VPA, fluctuations in material costs directly impacted producers as many necessary materials are hard to come by domestically.

Currently, the only two domestic suppliers of PVC resin are TPC Vina Plastic and Chemical Corporation LTD, with an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes, and LG Vina Chemical Joint Venture Company, with an annual capacity of 150,000 tonnes.

Locally-made resins presently meet only 10 per cent of total demand from plastics firms. —