Tonnes of plastic waste, particularly discarded plastic bags threaten our planet with environmental pollution, and by now almost everybody knows it.

Within three years, the bag will decompose into water and CO2, easily penetrating the soil, bringing nutrients to plants.

The current tax rate on plastic bags is VND50,000 per kilogram, which, according to Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Vo Tuan Nhan, is "not high enough".

The principle that waste is a kind of resource that can be used should be included in an amendment in the Law on Environmental Protection if Vietnam wants to minimize plastic waste.

Vietnam is listed among the five countries with the highest amounts of plastic waste. The average plastics consumption level in Vietnam increased from 3.8 kilograms in 1990 to 41 kilograms in 2015, with a growth rate of 10 percent per annum.

The sales of E5 petrol and environmentally friendly plastic bags remain low.

A primary school student in Hanoi wrote a letter recently asking schools to ban the use of balloons used to open the new academic year.

 In early and late April, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc released two documents noting that plastic waste is a ‘burning issue’ and calling all people to join forces to settle the problem.

Young people and volunteers have spent thousands of working days removing trash in ‘hot environment spots’.

The straws are not made of plastic but environmentally friendly materials such as plants, vegetables and bulbs which can be eaten or used to produce snacks and pasta.

Lotte Mart in HCM City pioneered the recent campaign of using non-plastic bags for food packaging. At its outlet in district 7, vegetables are wrapped in banana leaves instead of plastic bags.

Advertising campaigns and big money spent on activities still cannot familiarize Vietnamese with the habit of using environmentally friendly bags to ease the burden on the environment.

Two years ago, Emily Strady, a French researcher, visited Vietnam to conduct research on metal pollution in the river network. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Environmental experts have voiced their concern about so-called white pollution caused by plastic bags and products, which are very widely used in Vietnam.

VietNamNet Bridge - Accidentally discovering that the finest flour can create a thin film with tensile strength, two female students from Hue City flattened starch into film to make biodegradable bags.