On 21 June, nine companies operating in the consumer goods and packaging industries in Vietnam came together to launch the coalition Packaging Recycling Organization Vietnam (PRO Vietnam) in Ho Chi Minh City. PRO Vietnam is meant to drive recycling efforts in the country and to ensure all packaging materials entering into the market are collected for recycling by 2030.
Formed by Coca-Cola, FrieslandCampina, Nestle, NutiFood, Suntory PepsiCo, TH Group, La Vie, URC and Tetra Pak, PRO Vietnam’s activities will be organized along four pillars: raising awareness on recycling and segregation among consumers, reinforcing the existing packaging collection system, helping recycling programs of processors and recyclers and working with the government to promote recycling.
The public-private partnership further hopes to improve livelihoods and promote job creation for companies and individuals involved in post-consumer packaging and coordinate with research institutes to investigate solutions that protect the Environment.
PRO Vietnam’s creation is timely as the country plans to phase out single-use plastics by 2025, although it is currently one of the five largest plastic waste producers in the ocean, at 280,000 tons annually, and solid waste is set to increase by 38% to 15.9 million tons in 2030.
(Sources: Vietnam News; Tuoi Tre News)
