Vietnam Danang City Reviews USAID-funded “Ocean without Plastic” Project

Vietnam’s central city of Danang hosted a workshop on May 18 to review the outcomes of the “Ocean without Plastic” project, which was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from October 2017 to March 2019, state media reported. In the period, the project helped organize 169 training and dissemination programs with the participation of 138,840 local people, supported 21,000 households classify waste at source, trained 500 fishing vessel owners on no waste discharging to the ocean, and collected 7.69 tons of plastic waste and 29.85 tons of other sources of waste. Participants at the workshop also shared experiences in the field with leaders of nine other central coastal provinces. Organizers of the event said that Vietnam is one of the five countries with the weakest management on waste. Most of the country’s rubbish is buried. With 13 million tons of waste going into the ocean every year, the country ranks 17th in the world for ocean plastic waste pollution. (Bao Chinh Phu, viettimes, Cong Thuong, baodulich, baotainguyenmoitruong)