Plastic waste is one of the biggest threats to the world. The amount of plastic waste released into the environment is large enough to cover 4 times the Earth’s surface area. Plastic waste takes years to dispose and threatening people’s heath. Quang Ninh Province is undertaking a number of practical ways to raise people’s awareness and reduce plastic waste.
Turning plastic bottles into art works to propagandize environmental protection
In June 2018, Bai Tu Long National Park and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) jointly organized a competition on arts composition from ocean’s plastic waste with the theme “I love sea and islands – born to live wild” in Minh Chau Commune,Van Don District.
Bai Tu Long National Park is the place where sea turtles often appear. Sea turtles are often called environmental messenger as they only appear at places with healthy environment. So most of entries for the competition mention sea turtles.
“Help – Palstic waste tornado” by Dau Quyet Tien shows a sea turtle’s desperate effort in a huge pile of plastic bottles. All art works made from beach waste are displayed at Bai Tu Long National Park and used at every propaganda programs on environmental protection in core area of the park in Van Don District, with the aim of raising people’s awareness of their action toward the sea.
Selling single-use plastic for murals and gifts
In Quang Trung Ward, Uong Bi City, women collect beer cans, pastic bottles, waste paper… They even post their collection on social media like facebook to share and call for others to do the same. 40% of the money collected after selling the waste are donated to the local women’s fund. Every year the fund is raised with an amount of 60-70 million VND thanks to waste sale.
The money from the fund is used to buy gifts for disadvantaged women on special occasions. It is also used to hire painters to decorate walls which used to be dirty and had a lot of glued advertisements. To date, 50m of murals have been painted. According to Quang Trung Ward’s people, there has been no paper advertisements since the existence of murals.
Using pastic bottles to decorate living surroundings
The owner of Homestay Garden, Nam Dong Hamlet, Dong Tien Commune, Co To District uses recycling bottles to grow flowers. Many visitors are excited with the way that the homestays deal with plastic waste and they even selfie with recycled flower pots.
In Ha Long City, the municipal women’s union organized a training course on “building eco-bricks” and “making products from plastic”. In Ha Trung Ward, thanks to meticulosity and creativity, they build chairs and tubs of flowers at the ward’s community house and Nguyen Ba Ngoc Elementary School.
To meet the national target of no plastic by 2025, in the short-term, localities in Quang Ninh are trying to solve remaining problems left in previous years via practical ways and achieve initial good results.
Translated by Quynh Trang
