Norway, UNDP Spend $2.5M on Helping Vietnam Reduce Plastic Pollution

Norway and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) are working on two projects worth $2.5 million to improve waste management and reduce plastic pollution in Vietnam, local media reported. The two projects will be funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. Under the first project, the UNDP will cooperate with authorities in Vietnam’s localities of Quang Ninh, Danang City, Binh Dinh, Binh Thuan, and Binh Duong, and mass organizations such as the Farmer’s Union and Women’s Union, in order to boost waste segregation, collection, recycling, and composting. The project aims to develop integrated models of domestic waste and plastic management, and promote investment in green technologies. Meanwhile, the second project targets to terminate the plastic pollution in the coastal areas of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, which are considered as the worst ocean polluters in the world. The call for applications proposing innovative solutions will open to all ASEAN countries on June 25. The first phase of the project will take place at Ha Long Bay in Vietnam’s northern province of Quang Ninh and Thailand’s Samui Island this year. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has recently called for action to use no plastic in urban shops, markets, and supermarkets by 2021 and nationwide by 2025, as a part of the government efforts against the plastic waste. Each Vietnamese consumed only 3.8 kilograms of plastic in 1990, but the figure had jumped to 41.3 kilograms after 28 years, according to a report announced by France-based global growth strategy consulting firm Ipsos Business Consulting. (VietnamNews, VnExpress, QDND, Bao Xay Dung, Bao Phap Luat, Cong Thuong)