By keeping plastic bags out of your recycling bin, you can have a significant impact on the long-term sustainability of recycling. So much so, that cities across the country are rethinking their recycling programs. Recycling is becoming less productive and less profitable. According to the City of Phoenix, plastic bags cost them $1 million in lost time every year. Some cities are losing up to $1000 per day because of these stoppages. That’s exactly what’s happened to the recycling industry.
Now, imagine if you couldn’t do your job for an hour daily? You probably wouldn’t be all that productive, would you? Plus, it can be dangerous, since facility staff have to scale the equipment and use sharp carpet knives to cut the bags free. This can take up to an hour every single day. Others schedule in time for employees to clear bags from the machinery. When workers see them, they toss them in the garbage-even ones that contain perfectly good recyclables. Some facilities don’t even bother with the bags. By work stoppages, we mean the whole recycling facility has to shut down. They jam the processing equipment, which creates work stoppages. Turns out your community’s material recovery facility (the place where your recyclables are processed) can’t handle plastic bags. No matter how harmless those plastic bags might seem, they’re a big no-no. Unfortunately, most of us like to put our plastic bottles, metal cans, and paper items in a plastic bag before tossing them into the recycling bin. The municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment is planning to work with plastic packaging manufacturers, swaying them into producing more eco-friendly products and distributing them to the market.There’s an easy way for you to make recycling economically viable for your community, and it only takes a second of your time. This year, the city will proceed with its ‘reduce-reuse-recycle’ motto to advocate for plastic waste reduction, with more training sessions and promotional campaigns on the harmful effects of single-use plastics on the environment and people. Ho Chi Minh City already initiated various programs to clear out waste in the communities, empty lots, rivers, and canals. Pham Ba, a resident of Binh Thanh District, was delighted to receive a biodegradable bag after shopping at the convenience store FamilyMart, as he knew the bag would disintegrate and not become a burden on the planet.Īt the same time, public and private offices are on board with the plastic elimination movement, many of which are ditching plastic water bottles for traditional cups and water jugs. Various campaigns promoting eco-friendly materials and choices to reduce plastic waste in 2020 have already enkindled positive behavioral shifts among dwellers of Vietnam’s southern metropolis. The environment department also pointed to tourism, marine economy, fisheries and sea resource extraction as other notable sources of plastic discharges, which could only be dealt with if dischargers are required to collect and transfer the waste over to authorities for recycling and handling.
Recycle plastic bags plus#
The city aims to eliminate all plastic bags in supermarkets and shopping centers, plus 50 percent of non-biodegradable bags in traditional markets, by the end of 2021, before cutting plastic packaging down to the minimum by 2030. It is essential that traders in markets and malls replace plastic bags with eco-friendly alternatives, while customers should pick up the habit of bringing their own containers.
The plan also looks to tackle plastic use in domestic life, more specifically the amount of plastic waste in circulation at shopping centers and marketplaces. Public facilities, including schools, hospitals, and clinics, should also phase out single-use plastics from all daily operations.
The plan aims to phase out single-use plastic bags and introduce eco-friendly materials as alternatives in all supermarkets and shopping centers of the city by the end of the year.Īccording to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the master plan would only work if monitoring of plastic waste at the source is heightened.Ĭonsidering this, the city authority requires all government offices to restrict the use of plastic packages, before completely eliminating them, in daily activities. A ban on plastic bag use in supermarkets and shopping malls is one of the key objectives in Ho Chi Minh City’s 2021 master plan for reusing, recycling, handling, and reducing plastic waste.