Buying online in Vietnam means you are adding to the global plastic waste problem

As we keep reading there has been a massive surge in buying online during the pandemic, and the owners of companies like Amazon and Lazada are becoming even richer.

Although this may be a convenient way of getting your books, furniture, and even food delivered to your doorstep, the downside is all the packaging that comes with your goods is adding to local and then the global waste problem.

The pandemic-driven surge in online merchandise sales is unfortunately also generating a huge volume of new plastic waste every day, mainly from the widespread use of “bubble wraps” to package goods ordered by consumers.

Packages draped in disposable plastic bubble wrap (file photo)

If you make an online purchase today, chances are you will receive the item that you ordered in a packet or carton draped in throwaway plastic bubble wrap.

The problem with these elastic wraps with air-filled cushions is that they cannot be reused. Once they are ripped to open a package, the wraps get put in the dustbin and adds to all the plastic waste escaping into our water environment.

It has become so bad that some country’s governments are taking action.

New Philippines Plastic Products Regulation Act

In the Philippines, they are preparing a bill that calls for the phaseout of all plastic products designed to be disposed of, destroyed, or recycled, after only one use.

The proposed Single-Use Plastic Products Regulation Act is already with the Philippines Senate after the House approved it in July last year.

Once the bill is enacted, all single-use plastics -- from drinking straws and beverage containers to sachets and wraps – would be phased out within one to four years.

Thereafter, the production, importation, sale, distribution, provision, or use of single-use plastic products shall be prohibited.

Eighty percent of all marine litter

The headlines have been focusing on global warming for a long time, however plastic waste, should also not be ignored.

Plastic waste which now accounts for 80 percent of all marine litter, is a persistent pollutant that degrades marine life.

Many marine species die when they ingest, get trapped, suffocate in plastic scraps, or starve to death when their stomachs become filled with debris.

Over time, ocean plastic fragments, which do not decompose, get weathered and disintegrate into microparticles that cause even greater damage to marine ecosystems.

Vietnam’s waste

Some of Vietnam’s specific waste management challenges include open-air city-centre dumps and waste burning, a total absence of street litter bins, an impractical waste recycling system, no separate collection of waste by authorities, rampant overuse of plastic grocery bags, and the need for financial and technical incentives.

Meanwhile it seems it is being left to volunteers to remove plastic waste from the World’s oceans and beaches.

But the campaign does not stop there – once the plastics are collected, they are further upcycled and turned into sustainable clothing.

However, although we can buy fabric bags at supermarkets and dispose of our rubbish in separated dustbins, the world must rely on politicians to solve the waste problem.

Here in Vietnam the priority is on improving the rail and road networks while the countries rivers, canals and seas are clogged up with plastic.

Not a great advert for international tourists, who want to enjoy a swim in the blue clear waters around our shores.

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