The Centre for Natural Resources and Environment Communication under the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has recently organized the awards ceremony of the contest ‘Green solutions towards a circular economy, sustainable development’ in Da Nang.

Plastic waste can become a resource if there are effective technological solutions. Photo: NDO

Addressing the event, Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung, the Director of the Centre emphasised: pollution caused by single-use plastic products has been a major challenge for society. Plastic waste has a negative impact on the environment, negatively affecting wildlife, ecosystems and human health. Viet Nam has, therefore, been making great efforts to carry out many activities to reduce, find solutions and new directions to combat plastic waste pollution.

The contest was a joint coordination between the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment with the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) programme, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Viet Nam.

The contest focused on developing new initiatives and technological solutions helping improve the circular value chain, contributing to spreading and honouring effective experiences, ideas, models and initiatives in reducing and treating waste, especially plastic waste.

At the same time, it raised awareness and responsibility, promotes the creativity of the community in daily life and production to reduce, manage and effectively treat plastic waste, contributing to promoting a circular economy and sustainable development. The judges of the contest selected 20 out of the 80 initiatives for prizes.

Two first prizes were awarded to ‘Automatic device for collecting plastic waste on ponds and lakes running on solar energy’ by Nguyen Quang Nam and ‘The application of plant-based bioplastics (plant-based composite) to replace petroleum-based plastics in the packaging industry’ by Tran Ngoc Dung.

Creative ideas will become breakthroughs, pioneering in paving the way for a greener future, a sustainable circular economy, building production processes for environmentally friendly products, contributing to solving plastic waste problems and helping to build a green, clean, sustainable, globally integrated country.

Reporting by NDO - Translating by A.THU