Volunteers collected waste at public places in HCM City on April 22 in response to Earth Day 2018. (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Nearly 2,000 volunteers collectedwaste at public places in Ho Chi Minh City on April 22 in response to Earth Day2018 which has the theme of “End Plastic Pollution.”
The campaign was jointly launched by the organisation“Vietnam Clean and Green” and HCM City’s Youth Federation.
A survey conducted by the HCM City Department ofNatural Resources and Environment found that the volume of plastic trash in thecity is just behind food waste, with an estimated 250,000 tonnes of plasticwaste discarded each year.
According to HCM City’s waste recycling fund, if 48,000 tonnes of plasticwaste, which are buried in the southern metropolis each year, are recycled, thecity can save about 15 billion VND (660,000) annually.
The same day, more than 500 representatives frombusinesses, organisations, clubs and volunteer groups and locals in the centralcity of Da Nang also joined hands to clean up beaches, classify rubbish andorganise a range of activities aiming to raise public awareness of plasticpollution as well as environmental protection.
Earth Day 2018 was also observed in other localitiesacross the country, including the capital city of Hanoi, the central provinceof Thua Thien-Hue and the island district of Phu Quoc in the Mekong Deltaprovince of Kien Giang, drawing the participation of more than 4,000volunteers.
According to earthday.org, 8.3 billion metric tonnesof plastic has been produced since plastic was introduced in the 1950s. Theamount of plastic produced in a year is roughly the same as the entire weightof humanity. 91 percent of plastic waste isn’t recycled. And since most plasticsdon’t biodegrade in any meaningful sense, all that plastic waste could existfor hundreds or even thousands of years.
Of note, 8 million metric tonnes of plastic winds upin the oceans each year. That’s enough trash to cover every foot ofcoastline around the world with five full trash bags of plastic compounding every year.
A recent international survey revealed that Vietnamis one of the five countries in the world discharging the most plastic waste,with about 1.8 million tonnes dumped each year.-VNA
VNA
