LookAtVietnam – The city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment has proposed a tax on the use of plastic bags to discourage their consumption and reduce their environmental impacts.

The HCM City authorities have proposed a tax on using plastic bags to discourage their consumption.

The proposal envisages the establishment of an organising board to encourage retailers participate in a pilot programme to be implemented at supermarket chains and trade centres in the city. A system of collection points in the city will be set up under the programme to gather used plastic bags for recycling.

The department also wishes to encourage businesses to replace plastics with other materials and promote recycling of plastic bags. Its proposal calls for providing businesses with incentives to do this by providing preferential loans from the Industrial Pollution Minimisation Fund, the Waste Recycling Fund and other sources.

The Government needs to issue policies encouraging people to use environmentally friendly packaging, the department says.

It estimates that 50 tonnes of plastic bags are used in the city every day. As a non-biodegradable substance, this poses a huge environmental problem for the city already struggling with disposal of the huge quantities of waste generated everyday.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News