Vietnamese users are indifferent to the quality of disposable plastic products

Perhaps because they are so used to using single-use plastic, most users do not question or care about the quality of this product.

At Hom market, Dong Xuan market and some other markets in Hanoi, disposable plastic items are sold widely with many different designs. These products are quite cheap: lunch boxes, food are priced at 25,000 – 30,000 VND/100 units; spoons, cups and plates cost from 200-300 VND/piece, plastic straws cost 2,000-3,000 VND/bag of 50 pieces.

However, apart from the seller’s introduction, most of these products have no information about the address of the manufacturer, product quality, expiry date, instructions on how to use it safely…

According to a survey by PV, on average, a popular restaurant can consume hundreds of plastic rice boxes with spoons and straws every day. The owners of these rice stalls said that disposable products are not only convenient but also save on hiring labor to clean and wash. Besides, preserving them is not complicated, just buying and using it is very convenient.

In addition, to save costs, many stores still reuse these products many times, seriously affecting the health of users.

Talking about the reuse of single-use plastic, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Duy Thinh (Former lecturer at Institute of Food and Biotechnology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology) said, if it is plastic bottles that use several Three times to drink filtered water is not a problem. But if it is a bottle containing oil, milk … in general, a plastic bottle containing fat, it will be able to dissolve other substances in the water, the plastic has the opportunity to be uncontaminated, affecting human health.

In addition, the principle of single-use plastic for food is that after the first use, that plastic is collected and cannot be reused for recycling in the food industry in general. If you keep storing food in recycled plastic, the risk of getting sick from plastic is huge. This issue must be strictly controlled by the State in coordination with the Department of Food Safety and Hygiene to avoid diseases arising from this hazard.

However, for customers who use disposable plastic products, perhaps because they are so used to using disposable plastic items, chopsticks, and paper food, no one wonders or is careful. Ask to put food in another place.

According to regulations on food safety and hygiene, chopsticks, spoons, bowls, plates… are items in direct contact with food used in eating and drinking, so they are subject to control on food safety and hygiene. However, in Vietnam, the quality of this product is still not interested.