The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has urged Ho Chi MinhCity to reduce the use of plastic bags to protect the environment.
Thoughmuch research has been done on non-plastic bags and many businesseshave managed to produce environmentally-friendly bags, the use ofplastic bags in the city is yet to reduce.
According to the HCMCity Environment Protection Fund, supermarkets and traditional marketsin HCM City consume around 9 million plastic bags a day equivalent to50-70 tonnes.
Ngo Nguyen Ngoc Anh, the fund's deputy director,said it was because of the low price of plastic bags, which cost only30,000 VND (1.4 USD) per kilogramme.
Though the use of the bagshas been taxed since 2012 at 44,000 VND per kilogramme as part of theGovernment's efforts to raise environmental awareness and reduce theiruse by 40 percent by 2015, the situation has not improved since manybusinesses evade payment.
Makers of environmentally-friendlybags say evasion of the tax is not penalised strictly enough and sothere is no great incentive to stop producing plastic bags.
Only17 companies in the country, 11 of them in HCM City, makeenvironmentally-friendly bags that are bio-degradable and containapproved levels of synthetic materials. And they do not have a largemarket.
Le Sanh My of Vafaco, a joint-stock packaging companybased in HCM City, said the company now only soldenvironmentally-friendly bags to major supermarkets like Co.op Mart andnot traditional markets because the product could not compete with cheapplastic bags.
Che Van Khanh of Nam Thai Son Import-ExportJoin-Stock Company, said the price of such bags cannot be cut furtherbecause they have to be shipped to Indonesia for testing at a cost ofmore than 2,000 USD per sample.
Pham Hoang Thuy Nguyen of theBinh Thanh District Department of Natural Resources and Environment,said a pilot project to use the bags at the district's Ba Chieu marketshowed that besides the price issue, non-plastic bags also have othershortcomings like limited designs, sizes, and varieties.
Besides,information about the importance of environmentally-friendly bags isnot disseminated sufficiently, especially about how to distinguishbetween them and plastic bags.
As part of a plan approved byPrime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, by 2020 the use of plastic bags will bereduced by 60 percent compared to 2010 at supermarkets and trade centresand by 50 percent at traditional markets.
The plan targets collecting and recycling 50 percent of the plastic bags discarded.
Theministry has been tasked with implementing the plan in collaborationwith other ministries, industries, and local governments.-VNA
Thoughmuch research has been done on non-plastic bags and many businesseshave managed to produce environmentally-friendly bags, the use ofplastic bags in the city is yet to reduce.
According to the HCMCity Environment Protection Fund, supermarkets and traditional marketsin HCM City consume around 9 million plastic bags a day equivalent to50-70 tonnes.
Ngo Nguyen Ngoc Anh, the fund's deputy director,said it was because of the low price of plastic bags, which cost only30,000 VND (1.4 USD) per kilogramme.
Though the use of the bagshas been taxed since 2012 at 44,000 VND per kilogramme as part of theGovernment's efforts to raise environmental awareness and reduce theiruse by 40 percent by 2015, the situation has not improved since manybusinesses evade payment.
Makers of environmentally-friendlybags say evasion of the tax is not penalised strictly enough and sothere is no great incentive to stop producing plastic bags.
Only17 companies in the country, 11 of them in HCM City, makeenvironmentally-friendly bags that are bio-degradable and containapproved levels of synthetic materials. And they do not have a largemarket.
Le Sanh My of Vafaco, a joint-stock packaging companybased in HCM City, said the company now only soldenvironmentally-friendly bags to major supermarkets like Co.op Mart andnot traditional markets because the product could not compete with cheapplastic bags.
Che Van Khanh of Nam Thai Son Import-ExportJoin-Stock Company, said the price of such bags cannot be cut furtherbecause they have to be shipped to Indonesia for testing at a cost ofmore than 2,000 USD per sample.
Pham Hoang Thuy Nguyen of theBinh Thanh District Department of Natural Resources and Environment,said a pilot project to use the bags at the district's Ba Chieu marketshowed that besides the price issue, non-plastic bags also have othershortcomings like limited designs, sizes, and varieties.
Besides,information about the importance of environmentally-friendly bags isnot disseminated sufficiently, especially about how to distinguishbetween them and plastic bags.
As part of a plan approved byPrime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, by 2020 the use of plastic bags will bereduced by 60 percent compared to 2010 at supermarkets and trade centresand by 50 percent at traditional markets.
The plan targets collecting and recycling 50 percent of the plastic bags discarded.
Theministry has been tasked with implementing the plan in collaborationwith other ministries, industries, and local governments.-VNA
