Hồ Hoàng Oanh at the “No Waste To Go” store in Đà Nẵng City's Ngũ Hành Sơn District. —  Photo nhandan.vn

ĐÀ NẴNG — Replacing plastic packaging with environment-friendly materials, Hồ Hoàng Oanh from Đà Nẵng City hopes to spread this shopping habit to everyone.

The 35 year-old opened a grocery store “No Waste To Go” in Mỹ An Ward, Ngũ Hành Sơn District two years ago.

Oanh told Nhân Dân (The People) newspaper: “Environmental issues were a concern at the time I opened the store two years ago.

"Now we are more active in working together on climate change, on waste treatment, from agencies to the people. Many good signals are coming together at the same time, so I was more determined with my project.” 

She said she wanted to do something to contribute to changing human behaviour and to raise awareness over the damage caused by plastic waste. 

Oanh thought the best way to tackle the problem was to incorporate change in her daily lifestyle. 

She has bought a cloth bag and refused to use a nylon bags provided by stores whenever she goes shopping.

Before opening her shop, she had consulted some models of green shops. 

All products and foods in Oanh's store are clean and eco-friendly products from cakes, nuts, spices, cosmetics, to toothbrushes and candles.

Oanh also asks distributors to minimise the packaging when supplying goods to her shop. 

Coming to her store, customers have to bring their own bags to store their goods. 

If they are not familiar with it, or forget to bring bags, Oanh's store uses paper to pack products or lends a paper box to the customers.

In the first four months, only a few customers came to her store. She thought that she needed to make more effort to promote this model. 

Oanh opened a stall to take part in clean markets in the city, joining environment associations and groups. 

With the aim to live greener, all her products are sold at affordable prices and good quality. 

More and more customers began to come to her store.

“Many people also bring unused clean glass jars, bottles to help others have something to put their products in when they forget," said Oanh.

She also uses a corner of the store to help people bring items that they no longer use to the store so that others can reuse them if they want.

"It can be clothes, shoes, suitcases, household electrical appliances and school supplies, books or table lamps," said Oanh.

On one weekend of every month, Nguyễn Thị Hồng Phúc, a local resident, often brings reusable items to “No Waste To Go” store. 

She knows Oanh's shop is a prime place for environmental issues in the locality. 

Phúc often visits Oanh's shop to buy or donate old things. “I often buy toothbrushes, soaps, scented wax for myself and for friends because they are very friendly to the environment,” Phúc said. 

In the first year, Oanh's store reduced the use of more than 4,300 nylon bags and plastic packaging and this number has increased to 10,800 in the second year.

She also plans to increase the products from 40 to 200 items.

To welcome the Lunar New Year festival, Oanh sells more home decor items made from recycled materials.

“The goal that “No Waste To Go” store wants to achieve is to popularise this model as widely as possible and make the habit of “green consumption” as a normal thing to everyone. When we have one more participant, it means we will have more ballots for green living," Oanh said. — VNS