Approaching Environmental Fee to Plastic Bag Waste Management in Ho Chi Minh City Supermarkets Le Nguyen Thuy Trang & Nguyen Thi Hai Yen Vietnam Nov 05, 2010

Introduction Study objectives Methodology Results Discussion and conclusion OUTLINE

From the early 1950s in the United States and Europe, plastic bag has used in daily life. The number of plastic bag are used more and more increasing dramatically. Ex: At Metro Manila in the Philippines  1982, plastics accounted for 7.5% of the weight of solid waste generated (film plastics 5.9%, hard plastics 1.6%).  1990, this proportion had increased to 12.4% (film plastics 11.5%, hard plastics 0.9%). INTRODUCTION

The plastic waste can stay in the environment for a considerable length of time causing all sorts of problems (Halbekath, 1989). To manage this waste, there are many ways. However, the most popular measure is a tax on plastic bags (PlasTax ). Ex: The PlasTax in Ireland (2002), 15 cents/bag  a dramatic reduction in use by over 90%. Denmark (1994), introduced a tax on plastic bags upon the retailers and promoted using the alternatives to shoppers  a 66% drop in plastic bag use. INTRODUCTION (cont.)

Env. fee in New Zealand B E C D A Bag production Collection Disposal GSTRecycling Components of refuse bag charges in New Zealand

INTRODUCTION (cont.) Ho Chi Minh City The total area: 2,095 km 2 More than 7.1 million in 2009 Annual rate of economic growth 2.8%

INTRODUCTION (cont.) The plastic bags are delivered free of charge to the customers about tons of plastic bags transported to the landfill daily (Le 2008, and Pham and Huynh 2009) Figure 1. The proportion of supermarket’s group There are 61 supermarkets in HCMC, they are classified into three groups based on: The area Numbers of selling products

STUDY OBJECTIVES Study objectives Particular objectives General objective Studying the status and Environmental fee to manage waste plastic bags more effective by Government Find out the total amount of waste plastic bags Estimated price and cost of these recycling bags Proposed environmental fee’s regulations

Conceptual Framework METHODOLOGY Study the status and Environmental fee to manage waste plastic bags more effective by Government Find out the total amount of waste plastic bags at supermarkets Estimate treatment costs Proposed environmental fee’s regulations Management of waste plastic bags in HCMC supermarkets

DESIGN RESEARCH PLAN Research scope -Ho Chi Minh City -Supermarket Methods of data collection Amount of plastic bag waste Research subject - Plastic bags was given directly from supermarket Data analysis Cost of treatment or recycling Method of selecting and investigating data  Selected research institutions by type (treatment or recycling)  Select the basis of the scope  Interview  Questionnaire RESULT Method of selecting and investigating data  Select supermarkets -Corporation -Area or Square  Select time (day and hour)  Select checkout randomly  Observe and count the number of plastic bags per customers  Survey form

Sampling sites: 6 of 61 supermarkets in HCMC 2 representatives for small size markets (Group III) 2 representatives for medium size markets (Group II) 2 representatives for large size markets (Group I) Survey time Seven consecutive working days of a week 14 operating hours from 8:00 am to 22:00 pm  98 survey hours Methodology Survey cashier: different cashier for each survey hour. The cashiers surveyed located in the central or marginal existing places Counting plastic bags: Number of bags delivered to customers at a surveyed cashier were counted and recorded according to the size of bags Life cycle and recycling cost survey: 3 plastic bag production and recycling enterprises were selected to survey

1. Number of plastic bags released per year per survey supermarket Notes: - TPB ai : a total number of plastic bags in size ai delivered per year a selected supermarket, - n: the number of customers passing the surveyed cashier during a unit of survey time H ob, - N j : the number of plastic bags that the customer j th got from the cashier, - mC op : the number of operation cashiers during the survey time, - H op : the number of opening hours, - D op -year : the total number of opening days in a year. TPB ai = ∑ n N j H ob -1 * mC op * H op * D op -year (Equation 1) Methodology (cont.)

Plastic bag Waste Collection, washing Extrusion Film blowing Other plastic products Purify granulars Recycling granulars Cryc ai = A + B + C Estimation method of waste volumn and production cost of plastic bags (cont.)

2. The cost for each plastic bag Notes: - Pryc ai : the recycling cost of a plastic bag in size ai; - Cryc ai : the total cost needed to recycle or purify one kilogram of plastic bags having size ai ; - X ai : the number of bags in one kilogram of bags having size ai. Pryc ai = Cryc ai / X ai (Equation 2) Estimation method of waste volumn and production cost of plastic bags (cont.)

RESULTS Total number of bags released per survey hour

RESULTS (cont.) The estimation of total number of bags released per year P ≤ 0.01

Total waste volumn of plastic bags by supermarkets scale Total waste volume (tons / year) 1, tons/year RESULTS (cont.)

Plastic bag Waste Collection, washing Extrusion Film blowing Other plastic products Purify granulars Recycling granulars Cryc ai = A + B + C

The production and recycling costs based on life cycle of plastic bags Price (VND/kg)MinMax Plastic bags made from purified (A) 29,59053,900 Plastic bags made from recycled plastic granulars Collecting, washing, drying and separating (B) 2,20022,000 Extruding granulars (C) 3,850 Film blowing process (D) 2,750 Note: The presented price are included printing logo’s of supermarket and VAT. RESULTS (cont.)

The environmental fee estimated for each Type of plastic bags Environmental fee (VND per bag) Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 Type 4 Type 5 Type 6 Type 7 Bag made from purified granulars Min Max ,1901,772 Bag made from recycled granulars Min Max ,210

Environment fee applied for each survey supermarkets based plastic bag life cycle study Environmental fee = (billion VND/year) RESULTS (cont.)

Environmental fee = (billion VND/year) RESULTS (cont.) Estimation of environment fee for 61 supermarkets in HCMC

Basing on the plastic bag’s life cycle, applying the environmental fee for a certain size of a plastic bag is totally possible. If any of customer requests for the bag, he/she will pay the amount of money including the cost of the plastic bag plus the environmental fee (Cryc ai = A + B + C). A scenario of the above-mentioned environmental fee for the plastic bags can be applied completely to a certain supermarket in the similar group. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Certainly, the above-remarked Equation 1 and 2 can be applied to supermarkets in different sizes, together with the total number of plastic bags in one kilogram to calculate the environmental levy for plastic bag in respective sizes. Finally, since there is no research on CO 2 emissions during the process of production and transportation so far. Hence, it is necessary that the further researches about CO 2 emissions need to do so that the environmental costs will be more perfect. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION (cont.)

Le Nguyen Thuy Trang, University of Natural Science, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, University of Natural Science, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam For Further Information