Promoting a low-carbon circular economy in Vietnam from a Swedish perspective

The Embassy of Sweden, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), and Hanoi People’s Committee jointly hosted a workshop on “Promoting a low-carbon circular economy - a Swedish perspective”.

The workshop focused on discussions on Vietnam's policies and vision in promoting the circular economy, successful case studies in Sweden and in the region, as well as enterprises’ approach to access capital for implementing this model. One of the biggest obstacles for Vietnam in applying this model is the management of collection and recycling of waste resources, which is considered as input of the circular economy model. Therefore, the workshop also covered the evaluation of practical waste management in Hanoi, the Swedish waste collection and recycling model, and especially sharing about challenges and opportunities from a Vietnamese recycler’s perspective.

At the workshop Deputy Minister of MoNRE Vo Tuan Nhan said that the country is facing numerous challenges from the scarcity of natural resources, environmental pollution, and climate change. Thereby, promoting the circular economy would help Vietnam reach its sustainable development goals.

Sweden is aiming for a zero-waste society and would happily share its experiences with Vietnam

The Vietnamese government issued some policies to promote sustainability, strengthening the management of natural resources, and environmental protection, coping with climate change, promoting recycling, and reusing resources for circular economy.

Addressing the event, Swedish Ambassador Ann Måwe stressed that "In a circular economy, we see everything as a resource for something else – waste becomes a resource. Circular economy is good for both consumers and businesses. Companies that are moving in this direction have proved that recycling used products can be more cost effective than creating them from scratch. As a result, production costs are reduced, so that the sale price is also lowered, thereby benefiting the consumer. I hope this is inspiring for Vietnamese businesses."

"As one of the most sustainable countries in the world, Sweden is aiming for a zero-waste society. Thanks to the environmental awareness of its citizens, effective policies and incentives by the government and an efficient waste collection system in place, Sweden has made great progress in its ‘recycling revolution’ over the past two decades. The percentage of recycled waste by households has increased from 38 percent in 1975 to 99 percent today. Circular economy in a simple way means reduce, reuse and recycle. This also implies changed patterns of consumption. Sweden would happily share its experiences with Vietnam", continued Ambassador Måwe.

Sweden, at the other end of the spectrum, is one of the world’s leading countries in waste management and recycling. As a large amount of waste is recycled and used for other purposes such as biogas & energy, Sweden has now turned into a waste importer, importing more than 2.3 million tons of waste per year.

Mr. Jeffrey Fielkow, Managing Director, Tetra Pak Vietnam, a typical Sweden-based business pioneering in initiatives to foster a low-carbon, circular economy

Within the workshop framework, Tetra Pak - the Sweden-based food processing and packaging solution provider shared the Company’s journey towards a low-carbon, circular economy through environment protection initiatives. In particular, its key products – carton packages are made from Forest Stewardship Council certified cartons. The Company has recently started field testing paper straws for beverage products in Europe, becoming “the first carton packaging company” to launch paper straws in the region.

“Today, we should not think about global environmental issues such as climate and waste in isolation. We need to look at them together. At Tetra Pak, we are working to achieve this by delivering solutions with the lowest carbon footprint and highest efficiency, minimising the environmental impact on our own operations and working with partners towards circularity for our products.” highlighted Mr. Jeffrey Fielkow, Managing Director, Tetra Pak Vietnam.