Gathering all resources to minimize ocean waste

BTO - Being the southernmost province of the Central region, and owning various advantages in tourism, every year, Binh Thuan attracts a lot of tourists to visit. However, the locality is facing a problem of waste, especially plastic waste which increases rapidly, even though the local authorities have come up with many solutions.

Waste Plastic polluted the environment

Sea and ocean are the living sources, the extremely important human's living space, and the basic foundation for sustainable development. However, at present, the sea and the ocean are facing many serious problems. It is estimated that the ocean currently holds about 150 million tons of plastic waste and the rate of plastic waste emission into the ocean is about 8 million tons per year. Vietnam ranks 4th among 20 countries with the highest amount of plastic waste in the world, with 0.3 - 0.8 million tons/year. Plastic waste poses a high risk to aquatic organisms, having serious consequences for marine ecosystem and the sustainability of fisheries. Plastic waste pollution has many negative effects on the economy, society, and the environment, causing economic losses of about $ 2.5 billion per year.

In Binh Thuan, there are no complete statistics on the annual volume of plastic waste, but visually, it is easy to see many roads in residential areas, vacant land, or even coastal areas such as rags, plastic bottles, other solid waste, which seem to be only found in landfills. More sadly, trash is also present under the signboard "Prohibit garbage". It is the convenience in everyday life that makes the use of disposable plastic products increasing, while few people know in the natural environment, plastic bags take hundreds of years to decompose.

Towards building blue beaches

In order to improve and raise people’s and businesses’ awareness, behavior, and habits of waste separation at the source where they are operating at sea, recently the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the sponsored small project program of The Global Environment Facility (GEF SGP) has cooperated with the Provincial Women's Union (Women's Union) to launch the project "Connecting resources in reducing ocean waste" in Phu Quy district, Tuy Phong, TP. Phan Thiet.

The project has been implemented for 2 years and deployed 7 models including a fishing vessel model at Phan Thiet port (Phan Thiet City), Lien Huong port, and cruise ship (from the mainland coast of Lien Huong town to Hon Cau island) of Tuy Phong district; Nguyen Dinh Chieu coastal global citizen route model (from the beginning of the route to Hoang Ngoc tourist area, 6 km in length with about 200 establishments, households, Phan Thiet city) classifies garbage at source and not ocean waste. Residential area model in Binh Thanh commune (Tuy Phong) participates in waste collection and ocean plastic waste reduction; an approach to planning the integrated ocean plastic waste and zero waste management model in Tuy Phong; group model of recycling plastic collection based on waste separation at source to improve livelihoods for people in Phu Quy.

Ms. Le Thi Hai Yen - President of the Provincial Women's Union, said: The project will organize training courses to improve knowledge of waste prevention, skills in collecting, classifying, reusing, and recycling waste properly. Coordinating to propagate and mobilize each person, all levels, sectors, and the whole society to change their awareness and move to action, join hands in reducing and banning the use of some environmentally unfriendly plastic products; to reuse plastic waste to reduce pollution caused by plastic waste and plastic bags.

At the same time, the Women's Union will continue to focus on propagating to members, women, and people about the negative impact of plastic waste and plastic bags on the living environment and human health. Launched the movement "Anti plastic waste" with the direct participation of the community. At the same time, they joined the group to protect the environment, and combat plastic waste in residential areas; mobilize women to clean the environment, collect and classify waste according to regulations.

Also in Tuy Phong district, Phu Quy, Phan Thiet city and the Provincial Tourism Association also expressed their determination in reducing waste sources on land and at sea. The evidence is the establishment of teams to collect rubbish on the river, organize training, and build plastic waste prevention models, exchange plastic bottles for glass bottles, build flower routes, women's self-managed route, and the campaign "Phan Thiet people do not discharge garbage, wastewater, waste on the streets and public areas" ...

Ms. Sitara Syed, UNDP Resident Deputy Representative in Viet Nam said: Implementation of this project is very important in promoting local actions on the national action plan on sea waste management. The project will adopt an integrated waste management approach and implement multiple models, as well as enhance the role and promote cooperation between the informal and formal sector in waste management.

It can be seen that the supporting projects for Binh Thuan are expected to change the perception and behavior of people and tourists in order to build a green environment in coastal areas in the province in particular and residential areas in general.

Translated by Uyen Linh (Source: Binh Thuan Newspaper)