On September 27th the ReThink Plastic team hosted the Seminar on ReThink Plastic Vietnam, with the ambition to raise awareness on the multiple challenges plastic waste is posing to Vietnam and to brainstorm on possible innovative solutions to deal with the reduction, reuse and recycling of plastic products into more sustainable products.
The main focus of the seminar was to update the audience about the latest developments in plastic reduction, reuse and recycling with presentations from the following guest speakers:
Dr. Carel Richter, Consul-General of the Netherlands in Ho Chi Minh City
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh My, Deputy Director DONRE Dr. Emily Strady, Researcher of the Saigon river case study Mr. Craig Leeson, award-winning film director of ‘A Plastic Ocean’
To bridge theory to practices, the seminar also introduced innovative solutions by welcoming four start-ups: Upp!Cycling, WAVE, IMPACT Vietnam and Reform.
Afterwards, vivid discussions took place during five working group sessions that focused on the following topics:
Raising awareness in the community;
Stimulating ‘plastic’ education;
Encouraging Sustainable Tourism;
Sharing lessons learnt from in-company plastic campaigns;
Promoting plastic reduction in production processes
Each working group consisted of a moderator, whom was chosen amongst the participants of each group, and representatives from the public, private and civil society sectors.
The seminar concluded by launching the Rethink Plastic Vietnam platform, a community action initiative with the objective of contributing to the reduction of plastic pollution of the Vietnamese and international community in HCMC.
The ReThink Plastic Vietnam seminar took place at the German House in Saigon, the first Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building in Vietnam. It also hosted the photo exhibition of the research of the IRD team and showed the marvelous possibilities of 3D printing applied by Reform.