Environmental pollution due to plastic waste

Hiện trạng ô nhiễm môi trường hiện nay tại Việt Nam

Theo số liệu thống kê của Tổng cục Môi trường, chất thải nhựa chiếm 8 -16% chất thải rắn sinh hoạt đô thị ở nước ta. Việt Nam thuộc top các quốc gia xả nhiều rác thải biển nhất thế giới, với khoảng 1,8 triệu tấn/năm. Trong đó túi nilon chiếm khối lượng khá lớn trong thành phần nhựa thải và hiện diện ở khắp nơi trong đời sống xã hội, từ đô thị đến nông thôn.

Current status of environmental pollution in Vietnam

According to statistics of the General Department of Environment, plastic waste accounts for 8-16% of urban solid waste in our country. Vietnam is in the top of the countries that discharge the most marine waste in the world, with about 1.8 million tons/year. Plastic bags account for a large amount of waste plastic and are present everywhere in social life, from urban to rural areas.

The physical impact of plastic waste on the environment causes destruction or loss of biodiversity, kills organisms by getting entangled in lost or abandoned fishing nets in the ocean, kills organisms on the way eating, changing the structure, species composition of ecosystems including the transport of foreign organisms from other places. The chemical effects will increase as the plastic waste decreases in size. More than 260 species of marine life have been documented to be entangled in or ingesting plastic debris in the sea.

Photo: The situation of plastic waste seriously affects the marine ecosystem

In addition to the dangerous problem of dumping plastic waste into the sea, pollution problems partly come from the fact that the Vietnamese people have not formed the habit of sorting and recycling waste. Many types of waste are piled up at landfills, making it difficult to deal with said waste. In the immediate future, waste treatment measures in Vietnam are still limited to incineration and burial, potentially posing serious risks to air, soil and water pollution.

  

Image: Air and water pollution due to indiscriminate waste treatment activities