Hanoi’s agencies requested to stop using single-use plastics
The Hanoi People’s Committee has asked all of its organisations and agencies to refrain from using plastic bags and single-use plastics starting from this month.
Hanoi (VNA) - The HanoiPeople’s Committee has asked all of its organisations and agencies to refrainfrom using plastic bags and single-use plastics starting from this month.
Luu ThiThanh Chi, deputy head of the Hanoi Environment Protection Division, toldreporters at a recent press conference that the municipal People’s Committee hasapproved a plan to reduce plastic waste in the capital.
It wasthe latest effort by authorities to combat "white pollution" inthe city that sees about 80 tonnes of plastic and nylon bags discardedevery day, not all of which can be properly collected or treated.
Accordingto Chi, the Hanoi People’s Committee demanded that 100 percent of the cityorganisations stop using polyethylene (PE) plastic bags – the most common typebut takes the longest time to decompose – and single-use plastics products fromNovember.
Thecommittee also set the goal of reducing the number of plastic items which arehard to recycle and decompose used in those organisations by 80 percent.
Publicservants, meanwhile, were encouraged to convince their family members to notbuy single-use plastic items and nylon bags.
Thecity’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment has signed a plan withthe Department of Education this year to roll out a programme to collect,categorise and recycle milk cartons and plastic straws in schools, Chi said.
Theprogramme was carried out in 637 schools across 16 districts and townships inthe city, she added.
Accordingto a 2015 study by the Hanoi-based Centre for Environment and CommunityResearch, household waste reached 27 million tonnes and sustained an increaseof 5 percent a year./.
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Urban waste is collected in Hanoi. (Photo: VNA) 
