VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI DANG HUE AWARENESS AND WILLINGNESS TO REDUCE SINGLE-USE PLASTIC IN HANOI IN RELATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION MASTER’S THESIS LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI DANG HUE AWARENESS AND WILLINGNESS TO REDUCE SINGLE-USE PLASTIC IN HANOI IN RELATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION MAJOR: CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT CODE: 8900201.02QTD RESEARCH SUPERVISOR: Dr. TAKEUCHI RYO ASSOC. TAMURA MAKOTO Hanoi, 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PLEDGE I declare that this master thesis has conducted by the author. This result has not submitted to any papers and hasn’t published yet.
The references and citations from research paper, book, report, websites were in the list of references of the thesis. Author of the thesis Nguyen Thi Dang Hue i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT PLEDGE. i TABLE OF CONTENT. ii LIST OF FIGURES.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Purpose of the study. Structure of the thesis.
5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Single – use plastic. Plastic takeaway food containers. Plastic issue and climate change.
Heat emissions from crude oil making. Greenhouse gases emission from plastic waste treatment. Greenhouse gases emission from plastic. Impact on the oceanic carbon sink.
Waste management in Vietnam. Mitigating plastic related greenhouse gas emissions. Sampling and data collection. 30 ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Environmental impacts awareness. Willingness to reduce. Single – use plastic container. Single – use plastic bag.
52 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. Conclusion and recommendation. 67 iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Disposal of all plastic waste generated in 2015 .2: Single- use plastic bags life cycle.4: Waste collection process .5: Net greenhouse gas emissions from source reduction and municipal solid waste management option .1: Research process proposed by the author.1: Gender and aged of respondent .3: Number of single - use plastic container per week in general .4: Number of single - use plastic container used base on gender per week.5: The number of containers use base on ages .6: Reusable container usage .7: The reasons for bring reusable container .8: The reason for not bring reusable container .9: Number of plastic bags used per week .10: Plastic bags usage base on gender .11: Plastic bag used after carrying .12: Reusable bags usage status .13: The reason for not bringing reusable bags .14: Environmental impact awareness .15: Environmental impact awareness with detail .16: Important of the environmental issue (on a scale from 1 to 5) .17: Sources of information .19: Willingness to reduce single – use plastic container .20: Willingness to reduce single – use plastic container based on gender .21: Willingness to reduce plastic container based on age .22: Willingness to cooperate by paying for single - use eco-friendly container .23: Education level and willingness to cooperate by paying for single–use eco-friendly container. 46 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.24: Willingness to reduce the usage of single – use plastic bag in general .25: Willingness to reduce the usage of single – use plastic bag based on gender .26: Willingness to reduce the usage of single – use plastic bag based on ages .27: Willingness to cooperate to stop taking plastic bag at the shopping places .28: Education and willingness to cooperate by how people accept to stop taking plastic bag at the shopping places .29: The acceptance of strategies to reduce plastic bags.
50 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CO2 Carbon dioxide CO2e Carbon dioxide equivalent EPS Expanded polystyrene GAIA Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives GHG Greenhouse gas HDPE High-Density Polyethylene IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change LDPE Low-Density Polyethylene LLPE Linear Low-Density Polyethylene Mt Metric ton MONRE Ministry of National Resources and Environment kWh kilowatt - hour PE Polypropylene PET Polypropylene terephthalate PLA Polylactic acid PS Polystyrene PVC Polyvinyl chloride WRAP Waste and Resource Action Program ATSDR Agency for Toxic Substainces and Disease Registry vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGMENT I’m grateful to our faculty lectures of the Master in Climate Change and Development Program, Vietnam Japan University, who has given me many guidance to process my project. I’m very thankful to my supervisors - Dr. Ryo Takeuchi and Assoc. Makoto Tamura, who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research and always encourages me, and to Bui Thi Hoa – MCCD program assistant for helping me during doing survey, and to my classmates Tieu Thi Diu, who was patient to help me while I was processing the data.
I want to express my appreciation to the lectures, staffs in Ibaraki University and friend especially Suziki Shunya for supporting me so much during the internship. I would like to show my appreciation to all of friends who helps me to share my survey, and to everyone who spend time to review and give the comments. Finally, I would like to express our gratitude to all the people who help me by providing their valuable assistance and time for this study. Nguyen Thi Dang Hue vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background Increasing plastic waste poses threat to globally sustainable development as they are destroying ocean ecosystem and sustain in the environment for hundreds of years.
Plastic production is one of the industrial production activities causing serious pollution to the air environment (Center for International Environmental Law, 2019). The amount of harmful emissions with extremely unpleasant odors seriously affects the health of those exposed. In the process of burning plastic will produce toxic substances, including 3 toxic gases: CO2, SO2 and vinyl chloride. In the long term, they also affect the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect.
The plastic production in global scale has been increasing rapidly since past 50 years. When comparing the global production of 1950, which respectively accounts for 2 million tones, annual production has increased nearly 200-fold, reaching 381 million tones by 2015 (Plastic global production, 2018). While the impacts of plastic waste causing to the environment, the ecosystem, especially the marine ecosystem have been clearly shown, the effects of plastic on climate change are gradually being clarified (Center for International Environmental Law, 2019). The plastic production is highly dependent on fossil coal, a non-renewable resource.
In 2019, the burning and production of plastic contributed 850 million metric tons of GHG to the atmosphere. This is equivalent to emissions from 189 megawatt coal fired power plant. By 2030, this amount of emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year if plastic production and use grow under the current plan. This is equivalent to emissions from more than 295 new 500 MW coal fired power plants.
By 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2050, the accumulation of these GHGs emissions from plastics can exceed 56 gigatons per year, accounting for 10-13% of the remaining carbon budget, the plastics industry can account for 20% of the world's total oil consumption. The increase of GHGs emission from plastic sector will threat the ability of global communities to limit the total global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius and making efforts to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in October 2018 highlighted in an IPCC special report on the impact of global warming of 1. In particular, plastic product packaging (plastic bags, plastic bottles, product packaging) accounts for about 36%. Plastic construction materials, household appliances and other types of industries such as electronics, electricity, and transportation account for 16%, 36% and 12% respectively (United Nation Environmental Programme, 2018).
In 2015, plastic packaging waste accounted for 47% of the world's plastic waste, half of which seemed to come from Asia. Vietnam, China, Indonesia and Philippines are among top 20 countries produce the highest amount of plastic waste to ocean. Vietnam is ranked as the fourth country that discharge plastic waste into the ocean with 1.83 million metric tons per years, after China in the first place with 8,82 million metric tons, Indonesia in the second place with 3.22 million tons, Philippines in the third place with 1.88 million metric tons (Jambeck et al. According to the National Environment Report in 2015, solid waste is mainly treated by dumping or incineration.
The main sources of waste are Hanoi city, Hai Phong city and Ho Chi Minh city. With the proportion of products in the total volume of plastic products produced annually, plastic packaging in 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Vietnam has an average output of about 1 million tons/year. According to previous data, the average consumption of plastic is about 25 – 35kg plastic/person/year. Up to now, with the growth rate of plastic industry of about 15 – 20%/year, at the same time the economic life is growing, the average plastic consumption reaches more than 40kg/person/year.
Along with future economic and population development, the amount of plastic waste will also increase rapidly, while land fund for landfill is shrinking, outdated waste treatment technology, create a heavy burden on the environment and human health. In addition to the single - use plastic waste treatment measures such as applying modern treatment technology, sorting waste from sources, taxes and prohibited laws, reducing the use of single - use plastic from consumers is a solution in the context of a developing country like Vietnam. Therefore, it is necessary to raise people’s awareness on environmental impact of plastic waste and understand level of willingness to reduce the use of single-use plastic. The study will present the current situation of single – use plastic consumption in Hanoi.
And the results will be valued as the base for policy makers to issue regulation or to organize media campaign to reduce single – use plastic waste. Motivation Given the fact that plastic pollution becomes urgent all over the world in general and in Vietnam in particular, there is a lack of study on Vietnamese people’s awareness on single – use plastic consumption. In the context of the Government of Vietnam efforts to eliminate disposable plastic year by 2025 and prevent the amount of waste spilled into the ocean by the Prime Minister's decision to promulgate a national action plan on ocean 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com plastic waste management by 2030. On 9th June, 2019, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stated Vietnam has aimed to stop selling single – use plastic at supermarket by 2021.
Hanoi City President Nguyen Duc Chung also said Hanoi will make efforts to December 2020 to ban plastic bags in all shopping centers. As impacted by global movement on anti-plastic waste, Vietnamese government has organized media campaign to raise people’s awareness on plastic waste harmfulness. Purpose of the study The aim of the research is to provide the information relate to Hanoi population’s attitudes towards the consumption of single-use plastic bags by showing their level of willingness to reduce. This research also identified the Hanoi population’s awareness of human health impact and environmental impacts caused by single –use plastic.
Base on the results, some recommendations will be given. This result may be used by any organizations such as Government authorities, non-profit organization, or individuals in order to create the strategies and take actions based on the actual attitudes. Scope The study is aimed at people from 18 years old and older living in Hanoi. By creating an online questionnaire using Google forms, both closed and open; and face to face survey.
The questionnaire will be sent to respondents via Facebook social networks. The link to the questionnaire will be posted on the researcher's Facebook and ask everyone in the friends list to share it with others, to increase the diversity of respondents. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.