classifying waste at its source. (Photo: VNA)
Two projects – Can Gio district circular economy of plastic waste, and District 7 plastic packaging collection are reducing GHG emissions + consumer awareness programs are a drop in the ocean of waste for 9.5+mil population.
Nguyen Thi Thanh My, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said the problem of plastic pollution has become a tough challenge for Vietnam, and asked for collaboration between the State and businesses to solve it. The city has introduced a project to promote a circular economy for plastic waste in Can Gio district, sponsored by Coca-Cola Fund and operated by GreenHub; and a project to collect used plastic packaging in District 7 in co-operation with Unilever Vietnam, she said.
Five scrap yards experienced an increase in their income after receiving project support to improve their facilities.
51 female scrap collectors received occupational safety training and were provided with work tools to enhance their performance – and also provides information on plastic waste collection and classification to more than 76,500 individuals.
The project raised awareness about plastic waste collection, classification and recycling, and responsible tourism for 2,000 tourists.
Coco Cola Foundation: Since its inception in 1984, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.5 billion in grants to support sustainable community initiatives —from water to women’s empowerment, from community recycling to wellbeing—around the world.
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When we visited Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam in April, we were gobsmacked and appalled / speechless, to witness tons of waste floating or blocked in the city’s prominent central the 10 km Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal – not only from the obvious aesthetic appeal, but indeed the health and wellbeing of the community. The lack of wastewater treatment plants and public awareness of environmental protection, as well as local government restructure is also to blame for the pollution.
Garbage blankets the surface of a Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal section in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre
According to a local news article, HCMC Urban Environment Co. Ltd. trash collectors kept collecting trash on the canals – over 10 tons of trash a day and more during the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday in February – although their contracts had expired in December and were awaiting the government’s HCMC Management Center of Waterway System red-tape in devising and approving tenders to choose garbage collecting units for city canals.
Makeshift houses encroach Doi Canal in HCMC’s District 8. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
Ho Chi Minh City also has a urban embellishment and development plan for 2021-2025 to compensate and resettle 6,500 shanty houses along canals to solve drainage problems, improve the environment and beautify the urban area at a cost of VND19 trillion (US$776.4 million).
