By Van Nam - The Saigon Times Daily

HCMC – Ten local businesses have put their names down to participate in a campaign to switch to using environmentally friendly bags throughout November.

The month-long campaign is aimed at raising public awareness of the detrimental impact of plastic bags on the environment, said Le Van Khoa, director of the Waste Recycling Fund of HCMC (REFU).

Khoa told the Daily on Wednesday the ten participating businesses included Saigon Union of Trading Co-operatives, Phuc Le Gia, Kim Nhat Packaging, Saigon Paper, Big C Supermarkets, Maximark Supermarkets, Parkson, and Lotte Vietnam.

The first such program organized in HCMC by REFU will encourage shoppers to use ecological rather than plastic bags, Khoa said.

The city, he said, discharges around 60 tons of plastic bags a day at the moment and most of these used bags are not properly treated or recycled, doing harm to the environment.

The participating supermarkets and commercial centers will not deliver free plastic bags to shoppers every Thursday in November. Shoppers will get eco-bags such as those re-usable and recyclable.

REFU will also organize some other activities during the campaign to talk packaging producers and users into limiting plastic bag production and consumption.

The Vietnam Plastic Association is also preparing to build a plastic bag classifying and recycling facility in Phuoc Hiep Village in HCMC’s Cu Chi District at a total cost of some VND600 billion.