HCMC – The fishing industry disposes of 8,700 tons of plastic waste in the sea yearly, with 7,600 tons discarded by fishing vessels.
The figures were provided by Nguyen Thanh Binh, vice head of the Vietnam Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning, at a seminar on plastic waste in agriculture held on May 31 in Hanoi.
Plastic pollution mainly stems from fishing and packaging.
He presented a survey carried out at the Quy Nhon Fishing Port by Binh Dinh Province. It showed that every 10 fishing vessels averagely discharge 138 kilos of plastic bottles and 58 kilos of plastic bags when they dock. That translated into over four tons of plastic waste being dumped into the ocean in a month.
Other plastic waste, such as styrofoam buoys, were discharged into the sea by aquaculture farmers. Local authorities collect the garbage and take it to dump sites for burning.
The fisheries sector released some 880,000 tons of solid waste in 2022, including plastic waste, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
If no drastic measures are taken to address the issue, it will be tough to achieve ecological farming and sustainable rural development, said Phung Duc Tien, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
“At this rate, each ton of fish collected will generate a ton of plastic waste,” Tien added.
