“NATIONAL COOPERATION TO ESTABLISH THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY OF PLASTIC WASTE IN VIETNAM” PROGRAM – NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

The “National Cooperation to Establish the Circular Economy of Plastic Waste in Vietnam” program is sponsored by DOW Chemical Vietnam Co., Ltd. The program is directed and implemented by the People’s Committee of Hoan Kiem district according to Plan 10/KH-UBND (January 7, 2020) on the implementation of “Waste management and segregation, preventing plastic waste and plastic bags in the district until 2020, a 2025 vision” program and Plan 95/KH-UBND (March 31, 2021) on plastic waste reduction and the circular economy of plastic waste in Hoan Kiem district with the support from the Center for Environment and Community Research (CECR). The “Community-based Circular Economy of Waste Model in Hoan Kiem District” program, focusing on low-value plastic waste, is built and first implemented in Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi. The model provides input and prioritizes issues in local waste segregation, collection and treatment. This pilot project is also the first step to supporting the citywide application of the circular economy model in waste management.

The model was piloted in Hang Dao ward, Hoan Kiem district from December 2021 to March 3, 2022, and has achieved the following results: 693.8 kg of low-value plastic waste, 2374 kg of high-value plastic waste, and approx. 45 tons of organic waste were collected. Based on the above, the People’s Committee of Hoan Kiem district has decided to expand the scale of the model to 06 wards: Hang Dao, Hang Trong, Hang Buom, Hang Bac, Cua Dong, and Phuc Tan.

The expansion process in 06 wards (March 17 – now) has achieved several positive results: 9700 tons of low-value plastic waste, approx. 42.7 tons of high-value plastic waste, and approx. 808.9 tons of organic waste were collected.

Until now, 5000 households and 45 core groups from 45 sub-quarters, along with 56 URENCO staff have participated in this model; approx. 10 tons of low-value plastic waste were collected, transported, and recycled into new products such as tiles, plastic pellets, etc. in recycling facilities. These are numbers that speak of the outstanding achievements of the project for over a year. Moreover, this is also a great encouragement to the tireless efforts of the project implementers and the whole community.