Da Nang declares war on single-use plastic packaging

As the lead agency, the department is coordinating and guiding the implementation of legal policies on sustainable production and consumption, of standards for environmentally friendly raw materials and products and recycled products, and policies to promote distribution and consumption of environmentally friendly packaging.

The plan targets a five to eight percent reduction in the consumption of raw materials for manufacturing textiles, steel, plastics, chemicals, cement, alcohol, beer, beverages, paper and seafood processing. Some 80 percent of industrial zones and clusters and craft villages are raising awareness of sustainable production and consumption through information campaigns, and implementing models of cleaner and sustainable production and consumption to disseminate and replicate in the city.

By 2030, Da Nang city will reduce seven to ten percent in the consumption of raw materials of the manufacturing sectors.

Scholarships from garbage sorting

Already now, supermarkets and large shopping malls in the central coastal city have gradually switched to environmentally friendly bags and packaging. MM Mega Market, for example, is using carton product packaging, Coop Mart and Vinmart use easily decomposable plastic bags, and some supermarkets offer reusable shopping bags.

The Women’s Union of Da Nang has implemented various activities in residential areas such as sorting garbage at the source and limiting the use of plastic bags. The Hai Chau Women’s Union has formed a “Green Dream” Scholarship Fund, which helps disadvantaged children overcome learning difficulties, from money made on collecting and sorting recycled waste. On average, the fund can make VND6-10 million from each collection. For the 2020-2021 school year, Hoa Thuan Tay Ward awarded 67 scholarships of VND500,000 to 800,000 each for disadvantaged students.

Over four years of implementation, the ecological industrial park initiative at the Hoa Khanh Industrial Park (in Da Nang’s Lien Chieu District) attracted the participation of 29 enterprises, applied 228 cleaner production solutions for enterprises with a total investment of nearly VND47 billion, helped save nearly 2.63 million kWh of electricity, 51,531cu.m of wastewater, 2,180 tonnes of coal, over 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), and 2,793 tonnes of solid waste annually, cutting costs by over VND15 billion.