Con Dao National Park in Con Dao district, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province. The district is among the 10 Vietnamese localities taking part in the Plastic Smart Cities initiative. (Photo: VNA) PSC, which aims to connect cities and tourist destinations injoint efforts to combat plastic pollution, has attracted the participation of42 cities around the world. It looks to reduce 30% of plastic leakage in pilotareas by 2025 and secure no plastics in nature by 2030.
Tenlocalities in Vietnam have committed to become plastic smart cities under thisinitiative, namely Phu Quoc and Rach Gia cities (Kien Giang province), ThanhKhe district (Da Nang city), Tuy Hoa city (Phu Yen province), Tan An city (LongAn province), Hue city and A Luoi district (Thua Thien - Hue province), Ha Tinhcity (Ha Tinh province), Con Dao district (Ba Ria - Vung Tau province), andDong Hoi city (Quang Binh province).
WWFsaid the first localities joining the initiative like Phu Quoc, Thanh Khe, andTuy Hoa have carried out a wide range of activities on a trial basis likeimproving waste collection systems, establishing the model of less-plasticwaste markets, sorting waste at households, and taking intervention measures toprevent pollution recurrence.
Thanksto experiences of those localities, the ones taking part in PSC latter havemade great strides, especially Hue and Con Dao.
InMarch 2022, Con Dao became the ninth in Vietnam to participate in PSC. It hasshown good performance in all the four aspects of the initiative – stepping upcommunications, issuing policies, building pilot plastic reduction models, andmanaging plastic waste in its marine reserve. The district has initially inventoriedwaste at the source, dealt with waste sources, and reduced plastic bags.
OnDecember 9 this year, the Con Dao People’s Committee coordinated with the PSCinitiative in Vietnam, airlines, airports, passenger ship companies and ports,and tourism service providers signed a commitment to plastic reduction andlaunched a plastic smart tourism check-in model.
HuynhTrung Son, Vice Chairman of the district People’s Committee, said about 24 - 27tonnes of solid waste is released in the district each day, and 41.5% of plasticwaste comes from service and tourism establishments.
Bycommitting to reduce plastic waste through concrete actions, businesses and thecommunity have affirmed their role and sense of responsibility towards theecological environment and the development of Con Dao, he noted.
InHue city, PSC has been implemented through a project carried out from 2021 to2024.
Tran Song, Standing Vice Chairman of the municipalPeople’s Committee and head of the project management board, said that theproject has strived to eradicate pollution hot spots by installing cameras toprevent unregulated waste dumping and placing 300 sets of dustbins for wastesorting at the source.
Asa result, 2,481 tonnes of waste has been collected, including over 287 tonnesof plastic waste of which 6.7 tonnes has been recycled. As many as 88monitoring cameras have been installed in 17 wards and communes and connectedwith the Smart City Monitoring and Operation Centre of Thua Thien - Hueprovince.
Awareness-improvingcommunications have also been promoted at tourist attractions, households,business establishments, and schools, providing information about plastic wasteand sorting waste at the source for more than 49,000 people. Various eventshave also been held to raise public awareness of the issue such as Hue Plogging2023 – a walking and waste pick-up event, recycling festivals, and othersencouraging reduction of plastic use, Song added.
Ta Dinh Thi, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly’sCommittee for Science, Technology and Environment, said the moves by localities have not only created a clean environment for residents ormitigated impacts of pollution on economic sectors like tourism, transport andfisheries, but also considerably contributed to sustainable socioeconomicdevelopment in those localities and Vietnam at large./.
VNA