Plastic used to be a 'pet' after birth, why did it grow up to be a 'criminal'?

Environmental pollution from plastic waste, especially ocean plastic waste, is a problem that not only people but also businesses are very concerned about.

As part of a series of articles on the topic of environmental protection in response to the Ocean Plastic Pollution Press Award hosted by VTC News, the reporter had an interview with Ms. Tran Thi Nhu Trang - Director of VSF, about a different perspective on environmental protection and ocean plastic waste pollution.

- It is known that VSF is a prominent non-profit organization with activities in many fields related to nutrition, mothers, and children, but the Foundation is also currently having a strong voice in the field of Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection. What has brought the Foundation to this area?

Founded in 2014, the For Vietnamese Stature Foundation is a non-profit social charity organization with a mission to contribute to sustainable development goals, especially those of education, health, equality, and sustainable development, including environmental protection.

During the implementation of projects related to youth and youth in the Foundation's Talent Incubation program, we have had the opportunity to work with many young people and realize that environmental issues are in the forefront of today's youth.

Many young people are aware of environmental issues and have taken specific environmental protection activities. However, not all young people have this perception. Only a few of them have made environmental efforts, but unfortunately, their resources are limited.

Young people have not been able to reach stakeholders, nor have they attracted the attention of the community to raise public awareness of environmental issues.

That is why the Foundation has launched an initiative for young people, which is the Youth for Environment project in 2019. The initiative, when launched, immediately received the sponsorship of the Earthe Journalism Network. It was one of 12 projects funded in that year, and also the only project in Vietnam to receive funding from the Earthe Journalism Network.

The project establishes a core youth group to give opinions and creative ideas and mobilize to raise community awareness through social networks and the press. They are friendly and close to young people and community.

That is the inspiration and opportunity that brought VSF to the environment sector. After the first year of operation, the project received initial results. Up to 7,600 young people benefited, with dozens of press agencies reporting, interested and sharing about the project.

With the success of the Youth for Environment project, VSF was invited to participate and become a member of the National Coordination Committee of the Vietnam Alliance of Enterprises for the Environment, and participate in a number of networks on plastic waste. The Foundation has become one of the active members of environmental protection activities in these networks.

- In your opinion, what are the difficulties people are facing when protecting the environment and reducing plastic waste?

When we carry out work related to environmental protection and plastic waste reduction, in the process of working and interacting with stakeholders, young people, and the business community, I realize that there are some certain difficulties.

The first is that the plastic waste treatment infrastructure is still unsynchronized, causing difficulties for the reduction of plastic waste as well as processing and recycling to achieve the best results.

The second difficulty is that the alternatives to plastic are quite expensive now, thereby not suitable for the pocket of the majority of consumers and the community. Therefore, to be able to mobilize and propagate to completely give up on plastic waste is very difficult and not feasible in the current context.

Hopefully in the future, when people find cheaper and closer alternatives to plastic, the reduction of plastic waste can achieve good results.

Another issue, and also the most important, is the awareness of the community and stakeholders. The participation of everyone needs to be more synchronous to solve environmental problems.

- Understanding the consequences of plastic waste, from a business perspective, what solutions do you have to find materials to replace plastic?

Currently, the production of products using plastic at TH group is undergoing drastic changes towards environmental protection and sustainable development.

Take plastic straws for example. TH Group has chosen to replace them with straws that have a shorter decomposition time and are not harmful to the environment. However, these materials are usually more expensive.

In addition, the shopping bags of the Truemart store chain have also switched from ordinary nylon bags to biodegradable plastic bags. However, the protection of the environment and the reduction of waste depend greatly on the awareness of each people in their daily life. Reducing, recycling and increasing waste sorting are very important.

Leaders of TH Group have also organized many contests and initiatives in the enterprise to encourage employees to raise awareness in the issue of reducing plastic waste and protecting the environment.

Even in the production stage gives initiatives to optimize and save resources and materials to reduce waste.

Those are the remarkable efforts of the group in environmental protection.

TH Group has a very large and nationwide store system, so in addition to using biodegradable nylon bags, it also offers/sells cloth bags to consumers when buying products. The revenue from the sale of cloth bags will go to the Foundation to help raise awareness of consumers.

TH is a large corporation and has many partners in the production and packaging stages, so these partners also pay attention and sponsor the Foundation's environmental protection activities.

For example, in the Plastic Talk contest, 7 partners of TH Group related to packaging, plastic, paper, printing, and processing technology responded to the call and sponsored the contest. This shows the interest and cooperation of businesses, and at the same time shows that they are an important factor capable of promoting and creating success in reducing plastic waste and dealing with plastic waste and environmental problems.

- Through the Plastic Talk contest, how does the Foundation plan to spread its voice to reduce plastic waste?

The Plastic Talk contest is a cooperation activity between VSF and Center for Supporting Green - Green Hub, a strategic partner of many large organizations, enterprises, and corporations related to the field of environmental action.

The contest is open to young people aged 16-30, with the aim of finding communication works related to environmental protection issues. This is not a contest to find initiatives to reduce plastic waste or improve the effectiveness of environmental protection, but through this contest, VSF and Green Hub want to promote creativity, curiosity and passion among young people in creating art related to environmental protection.

Through the competition, we have found effective communication works to reach out to young people, the community and businesses.

As a member of the judging panel, I was extremely surprised when eveluating these works. The creativity and research show that the contestants did not participate in the competition half-heartedly. Not only did they understand the issues of environmental protection on the surface, but they also dived deep into researching from scientific data to reality.

Young people have done extensive research and had their own ideas to convey the work's messages in an attractive, interesting and close way. Viewers are deeply touched by these works. After watching, you can question yourself to change your habits and awareness about waste and environmental protection.

Businesses play a huge and decisive role in the success of plastic waste reduction, because they have the capacity, resources, finance, and expertise. They can be pioneering and decisive in reducing plastic waste, bringing success to environmental protection activities.

As for the young generation and young people, as the future owners of the country and the ones who have a say in environmental issues in the future, changing their awareness will then spread to the people around them as well.

- With hindsight and being objective, is plastic really "deserved to be boycotted?"

When interacting with young people, I realized that they have explored and discovered a multi-dimensional and fair perspective for plastic. Because so far, when talking about plastic, people will have a very bad view of it because of its harmful effects to our health and living environment. We even conside plastic to be a "criminal" and have no sympathy toward it.

But young people have done research, looked at plastic in a different light, and defend it. Young people also affirmed that, at the time when plastic was born, it was a great invention of man, a step forward in history. Plastic was revolutionary, and its introduction was widely welcomed and celebrated. So why, after a while, does plastic become the object of our rejection?

If so, we have to realize that plastic itself is not bad. It is the irresponsible use of plastic as today is a problem worth discussing. It is something we need to rethink and change, not just "blaming" plastic.

In reality, we all understand that the elimination is almost impossible in the current time. If, at present, we cannot find a alternative to plastic that is affordable to the community in general, the only way is to change the way we use plastic and the perception of each person. 

That is a very progressive perspective of young people, as they do not look at the problem in a one-sided and extreme way. Young people today have very dialectical perspectives, realizing the core issue here is changing our behavior.

No matter how widespread plastic is, if people do not use it irresponsibly, it will not affect the environment as much as it does today.

We also need to adopt another perspective. Before plastic, people used a lot of paper and cut down too many trees, making deforestation very serious. Plastic was an extremely cheap and effective alternative material, greatly reducing deforestation for the paper and packaging industry.

The introduction of plastic was a step forward and a great invention of mankind. Unfortunately, after only a short time of putting plastic into use, human behaviors have not been moderated, and they even abused and wasteful when using plastic, making plastic the "villain".

Therefore, people "hate" plastics and tend to shun them. People are now looking for alternative materials, especially paper, which is like a vicious circle. If you use a lot of paper, you will have to cut down trees and destroy forests.

Therefore, it is necessary to find ways to reduce and use plastic more appropriately, smarter and safer. There should be a harmony and balance in behavior change, gradually reducing the use of plastic, especially not using it irresponsibly as today.

- Personally, how have you been using single-use plastic and what will you do to reduce it?

To be honest, I have not been a pioneer in environmental protection and not a good example for everyone in reducing plastic waste in daily life.

In fact, there are times when I have to admit that I'm embarrassed because I myself use a lot of plastic. Looking back at my day and week, I am sometimes taken aback by the huug daily amount of plastic.

Although I used to be a judge in a contest on reducing plastic waste, I myself learned a lot in the process through the information provided by the contestants. Through that, I also made certain changes in my life.

To the maximum extent possible, I have also used alternatives to plastic and recycled nylon and used items that can be reused many times. For example, every time I go shopping, I will bring my family's bottles, jars, and boxes that can be reused. When shopping, I bring reusable cloth bags, thereby reducing the number of plastic bags.

My family members also regularly watch works on environmental protection such as videos, cartoons, and comics to raise awareness of reducing single-use plastic.

I was also very embarrassed with my children when I always told them to protect the environment and reduce plastic waste, but I am still dumping plastic waste every day.

Therefore, I think that each person should be self-aware in their daily behavior to reduce plastic waste dumped into the environment, then propagate and mobilize people around to do the same, changing perceptions of family members, especially their children.

Right in our office, everyone joins hands to raise awareness of reducing daily use of nylon plastic by regularly recycling food cans, reducing the amount of plastic, printing 2-sided paper, etc. In events and conferences, especially within the company, we will not use single-use plastic water bottles. Instead, everyone will bring their own cups into the meeting room to use, thereby limiting a lot of single-use plastic.

Each person, each event trying to reduce plastic waste will gradually form a habit and also reduce a lot of plastic waste discharged into the environment.

- Thank you!

Source: VTC News