(Photo: baotainguyenmoitruong.vn)

Vo Tuan Nhan, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said the campaign aims to call on the public to remove single-use plastic products from urban markets, convenience stores and supermarkets by 2021 to make Vietnam free of single-use plastics by 2025.

Goods are put into a reusable canvas bag at a Saigon Co.opmart outlet in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: Quang Dinh/Tuoi Tre)

“State management agencies at all levels should thoroughly implement the Prime Minister’s directive, and not sacrifice the environment to economic growth. Instead, measures must be outlined  to minimize plastic waste in daily activities. Each individual can respond to the campaign by classifying, recycling, and re-using discarded materials and participating in environmental cleanup,” said Nhan.

Vietnam is facing a number of issues relating to environmental degradation and pollution, climate change, rising sea levels, and especially plastic waste pollution. Vietnam ranks 17th in the world for the plastic waste pollution in the oceans.