Saigon Co.op is the first retailers to remove plastic straws to start an environment protection campaign.
Deputy Director General of Saigon Co.op Nguyen Anh Duc said that the supermarket will not only stop selling plastic straw but also remove plastic straws attached to its private label products as well as request booth owners in its stores to minimize the use of plastic straws.
Additionally, the supermarket also use environmentally-friendly materials such as banana leaves to wrap food instead of plastic bags.
Before, in 2011, Saigon Co.op was the first to replace single-use plastic bags with bio-degradable ones though the replacement put high pressure on price competition because prices of bio-degradable bags are higher than the single-use kinds.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the supermarket has made effort to reduce the quantity of plastic bags protecting the environment by using of bio-degradable bags and banana leaves to wrap food.
Currently, many countries such as the US, South Korea and Taiwan ( China) has set up road map to gradually replace single-use plastic bags. The S-shaped country government has issued the tariff on single-use plastic bags.
However, the new tariff has not been carried out synchronously for the past. It needs join hand of relevant agencies in eliminating plastic materials in life to help enterprises using environmentally-friendly materials more.
