HCM City encourages food enterprises to use eco-friendly packaging instead of plastic. —Photo ffa.com.vn

HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade has established linkages between 32 biodegradable plastic bag production enterprises and food enterprises.

The eco-enterprises are given preferential treatment for housing, technologies and equipment.  

Besides supporting policies, the government also has policies to minimize the use of plastic bags, such as increasing environmental protection taxes on goods using plastic bags for packaging from VNĐ10,000 (US$0.43) to VNĐ50,000 (US$2.14).

According to the city department, these plastic bag production enterprises have not cooperated with enterprises in the food sector.

This cooperation will give enterprises an opportunity to understand each other's demands, and bring eco-friendly bags into the food industry, according to the department’s representative.

According to the city’s Association of Food and Foodstuff, enterprises in the field of food and foodstuff tend to replace plastic packaging to eco- friendly packaging.

However, due to the high price of eco-friendly packaging, many food and foodstuff enterprises have not widely used eco- friendly packaging.

The cost of biodegradable packaging is always much higher than that of normal packaging, due to dependence on foreign supplies and technologies.

According to the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, about 30 tonnes of plastic waste are released every day from markets, supermarkets and 34 to 60 tonnes per day from household areas.

Burning and burying methods are the only two ways to decompose this type of waste and both have a negative impact on the environment.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mỹ, deputy chairwoman of the department, said the city would continue to to raise awareness and encourage people to participate in environmental protection activities.

In addition, the city will encourage people to classify waste at source and minimize the use of disposable plastic products.

Đỗ Thị DIệu Thúy, deputy manager of solid waste management department, said the city has been trying to minimize the use of plastic bags since 2010.

Supermarkets that participate in one city programme reduced plastic bag usage by 80 per cent per year, from 371 tonnes per year in 2010 to 80 tonnes per year last year.  VNS