This is a news footage from the conference “Reduction of plastic waste to the ocean in Vietnam / Educating the educators approach” by the VTC10 Vietnamese TV channel. The conference was held on August 18th to 20th, 2019, at the ICISE Conference Center, Quy Nhon, Vietnam.
[ SPEAKER ]
On August 19th, in Quy Nhon City, Binh Dinh Province, the Vietnam Meeting Science Association, the Binh Dinh Provincial People’s Committee and the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE), in collaboration with the Loyola University (USA) and the Global Geographic Society held the opening of the training workshop “Minimizing the harmful effects of plastic waste in the ocean: Educational model for educators”.
This is part of the International Scientific Conference and Seminars 2019 in the 15th Vietnam Meeting in Binh Dinh Province.
More than 20 representatives of high schools nationwide and leading national and international experts on environment participated in the training workshop.
At the discussion on August 19 participants stated that plastic products were one of the biggest harms polluting the environment, especially the marine one.
[ PROF. CLIFFORD SCHULTZ, Loyola University, Chicago, US ]
This is not only a short-term but also a long-term problem, because we have to recycle garbage, especially plastic bags, which appear a lot in Vietnam.
This responsibility largely belongs to young people. They have early access to science and technology. They know advanced equipment for recycling machines and producing sustainable and recyclable products.
The state policy is the most important thing.
[ SPEAKER ]
This training program has set out a plan to develop a course on environment protection for all the students nationwide.
The course will feature seminar with documentary film about the benefits of reducing waste into the ocean, experiments on plastic-waste collection, and survey on the understanding of plastic waste pollution and its impact on ecosystems, human health and socio-economic development at high schools before and after the seminar.
Prizes will be awarded to schools well implementing this community education program.
[ NGUYEN VAN PHONG, Youth Union Secretary at the Quy Nhon National High School ]
This program will be very helpful for students when learning about environmental protection.
The multiple-choice tests or presentations make the environmental protection issue more complete and meaningful.
We have organized programs such as sorting waste and raising students’ awareness of the environment via competitions
[ VO TUAN NHAN, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment ]
To reduce plastic waste into the ocean, we must perform more synchronously and comprehensively.
In addition to immediately handle the pollution of plastic waste and plastic bags in the oceans, we also minimize inland discharge.
Legal policy development, including regulations on promulgating standards in regulating the production process, tax mechanism to encourage the production of environmentally friendly plastic products, and minimizing the production of cheap plastic bags are necessary.
[ SPEAKER ]
The UN report shows that every year, the amount of discharged plastic waste is enough to band the earth four times.
One million plastic bags are used every minute but only 27% of them are processed and recycled.
Notably, Vietnam is ranked 17th out of 109 countries with high level of plastic pollution in the world.
This is a “burden” for the environment, and may even lead to a disaster called “white pollution” by experts.
There are many measures to minimize the discharge of plastic waste into the environment, but the prerequisite is still the consciousness of the people.