Vietnam has about 1.8 million tonnes of plastic waste discharged into the environment each year (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi – The Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are building steps to implement a project on enhancing the capacity of plastic pollution management in Vietnam.

It includes two component projects on strengthening plastic pollution control through promoting monitoring activities in Vietnam to provide information for the management and policy making process, and on intensifying plastic waste value chain management in target provinces with river basins through promoting circular economic models and innovative solutions to prevent plastic waste at source.

A wide range of activities are scheduled to be organised to increase the capacity of related parties at the national and local levels on monitoring plastic waste in rivers, and to improve public awareness on waste classification at source.

Statistics from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment show that Vietnam has about 1.8 million tonnes of plastic waste discharged into the environment each year, of which only 10% is recycled and the remaining is buried or burned.

ISPONRE Deputy Director Nguyen Trung Thang said that monitoring plastic pollution needs more attention to limit the negative impacts of this type of pollution, and moving towards perfecting the green economic and circular economic models in Vietnam.