Greenies want to kick plastic habit

Hanoi (VNA) - A public awareness campaign aimed at getting people to switch from
plastic bags to more eco-friendly alternatives wrapped up this week.

Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV), and the Go Green Club conducted the campaign as part of
the Go Green programme initiated by TMV in co-ordination with the Ministry of
Education and Training and the General Department of Environmental Protection.

People all over the world use up a huge quantity of plastic bags each year. While
convenient, they can take decades to disintegrate, and masses of them accumulate in
rivers and seas.

The Go Green campaign focused on office workers, distributing multi-purpose,
reusable eco-bags that can be used instead of plastic bags that are thrown away.
They are made from natural materials such as jute fibres. Undyed and unbleached,
they are environmentally friendly and easy to clean.

During three weeks in January, the campaign reached the Hanoi offices of Toyota
, IBM, Panasonic, Sony Erricson, Sun&Moon, Venus Communications, and the Institute
of Chemistry under the Vietnam Academy of Science. Go Green volunteers also
collected waste paper for recycling, giving one eco-bag for each 5 kg of waste paper
collected.

Toyota Vietnam deputy general director Dang Phan Thu Huong said said, "For the
next stage, the campaign will target the public through super markets."

The eco-bag campaign was part of a larger Go Green programme that includes
environmental protection in national parks and wildlife reserves, a biogas project
allowing farmers to produce fuel from animals' waste, an eco-village project, a
friendly school project, and a TV series on environmental protection and
eco-fashion.-Enditem