Young people across Da Nang are becoming actively involving in the ‘Using Bamboo Straws instead of Plastic Ones’ movement.

Members of ‘Green Hero’ Group persuading an owner of a local coffee shop to use bamboo straws

In addition to responding the movement, members of the ‘Green Hero’ group have already implemented their own ‘Anti-plastic straws’ campaign to encourage their relatives and friends to replace plastic straws with bamboo ones.

The group was founded by 18-year-old Nguyen Luu Ngoc Han, a former pupil from the Phan Chau Trinh Senior High School in mid-2017. The intention is to raise public awareness about reducing plastic waste.

Ngoc Han said “I used to use many plastic things, until one day I watched videos about a giant dump of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean, the pulling of a plastic straw from the nostril of a sea turtle, and dead birds’ stomachs stuffed with plastic waste. Moreover, I have read articles and watched videos about two teenagers Melati and Isabel Wijsen from the Indonesian island of Bali who have campaigned against plastic bags in their locality. All have inspired me to set up this group”.

The workshop entitled ‘Microplastics’ last year made the debut of Green Hero. The event aimed to introduce participants to the true harm of microplastics in the environment.

Most notably, the group implemented an ‘Anti-plastic straws’ campaign from 8 August to 26 September 2017.

During that period, the group members visited some coffee shops across the city to convince shops’ owners to use bamboo straws instead of plastic ones.

Under the agreement between the group and the owner, the group provides a maximum of 50 bamboo straws for a coffee shop in the first month with 50% discount on prices of the straws. Each bamboo straw is priced at only 2,500 VND.

After one month of pilot implementation, the group will return all the money shops’ owners spent on buying the bamboo straws.

However, most of owners of coffee shop hesitate to use re-useable straws in public places which are not always hygienic or easy to clean.

Their efforts finally paid off as the Tipi Café at 57 Pham Van Nghi in Thanh Khe District and the Click Coffee at 2 Huynh Thuc Khang in Hai Chau District agreed to use bamboo straws on a trial basis for 1 month.

Currently, some coffee shops are using bamboo straws instead of plastic ones. Included are Goc Nha Tui Minh in alley No 36 on Le Duan, Goom at 144 Nguyen Chi Thanh, and 198X at 73 Ly Tu Trong.

Unlike members of the ‘Green Hero’ group, Thao Chuyen, a student from the University of Foreign Language Studies, is spreading the message about stopping the use of plastic straws by her own ways.

In particular, she usually brings bamboo straws with her to drink when visiting coffee shops, as well as to present them to her friends in order to encourage them to stop their plastic straw use.

Chuyen is also getting into the habit of using reusable shopping bags instead of disposable plastic ones, reducing the consumption of products of animal origin, and reading more environment-related documents.

Both ‘Green Hero’ group and Thao Chuyen are shining examples of using bamboo straws instead of plastic ones in a bid to keep plastic out of the landfill.