The hotels belonging to Melia Hotels & Resorts in Vietnam, including Melia Hanoi, Melia Ba Vi Mountain Retreat, Melia Da Nang and Melia Ho Tram, all now restrict the use of disposable plastic products. They have replaced plastic straws, cups and bags with products made of bamboo, paper, wood or glass.

Melia Hanoi has been running a ‘Say No to Single-use Plastics’ campaign since September 2018. Melia Ba Vi Mountain Retreat has begun using ecoheim, a kind of environmentally friendly paper, and recycled paper to print documents.

Melia Da Nang is implementing the Soap for Hope program, collecting used soaps, and sterilizing, pressing, drying and packing it into new soaps to send to areas with limited sanitary conditions.

Many hotels have stated they are no longer using disposable plastics at meetings.

Paradise Cruises, one of the leading cruise service providers at Ha Long Bay, no longer uses plastic straws on its seven high-end cruises, eliminating 36,000 plastic straws a year.

Edgar Cayanan, CEO of Paradise Cruises, said it takes plastic waste at least 200 years to decompose and it is harming oceans, including Ha Long Bay. The service provider understands that it needs to take action immediately to reduce the volume of plastic waste.

At Laguna Lang Co, bamboo baskets have replaced plastic dustbins, while paper glasses have replaced plastic glasses. Paper, bamboo and grass-made straws are now used instead of plastic straws. At the resort, products made of bamboo or wood are preferred.

Anam, a resort in Cam Ranh, has stopped using plastic bags, replacing plastic bottles with glass bottles, and using straws made of bamboo from sustainably planted forests.

Anam uses treated laundry water to irrigate gardens, conducts clean-up campaigns to clean the beach, and calls on employees, suppliers and neighboring hotels in the area to join hands to limit plastic waste.

Saying No to Plastic Straw is a campaign launched at Sol Beach House Phu Quoc. The resort commits to support campaigns to protect the environment and to eliminate disposable plastic use.

At the resort, reusable bamboo straws are used instead of plastic. The 100 percent natural and organic straws are made of bamboo and plants grown by enterprises and ethnic minority people in the locality.

Reports show Vietnam is a major source of plastic waste. Hanoi alone produces 600 tons of plastic waste a day, or 10 percent of total waste of the country , which mostly comes from industrial production and consumer distribution. 

Thien Nhien

Vietnam's tourism sector fights against plastic waste

The Vietnam Tourism Association and its chapters in the northern mountainous provinces of Phu Tho, Hoa Binh and Son La provinces are scheduled to launch an anti-plastic-waste action programme from July 15 to 17.

Photographer on a plastic waste mission

Nguyen Viet Hung has travelled over 7,000km through 28 coastal cities to capture 3,000 photos and videos of plastic waste.