Following in the footsteps of other large cities around the world, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is pushing HCMC to reduce its reliance on plastic bags, reports Vietnam News.

Statistics from the HCMC Environment Protection Fund show that the city’s supermarkets and traditional markets go through around 9 million plastic bags per day equal to 50-70 tons.

While some businesses produce environmentally-friendly bags, they are used little since plastic bags cost only VND30,000/kg, according to Ngo Nguyen Ngoc Anh, the fund’s deputy director.

The 17 companies (11 of which are in HCMC) that produce bio-degradable, environmentally-friendly bags complain that there is little market for their products even though the government has approved policies and taxes to reduce plastic bag use.

“As part of a plan approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, by 2020 the use of plastic bags will be reduced by 60 per cent compared to 2010 at supermarkets and trade centres and by 50 per cent at traditional markets,” wrote Vietnam News.

Authorities have also levied a VND44,000/kg tax but most businesses ignore it as they are neither strictly penalized nor given incentives to do otherwise.

In addition to clogging waterways, non-compostable plastic bags can take centuries to decompose, and release toxic chemicals when doing so, contaminating soil and water which can be passed to animals and humans..

[VNS // Photo via Orangebromptom]