By ThienVinh Nguyen

This slideshow is Part 2 of the slideshow looking at plastic use in Vietnam. It focuses on electronics, large items, and plastic waste in Vietnam. See Part 1 about plastic in food, clothing, and hygiene here. The text of the article below is the same as in Part 1, but the photos and captions are new.

During the summer of 2010, I spent two and half months in Viet Nam, where I conducted field research for my Master’s thesis. I looked at people’s perceptions of water and the ways in which the waters of the Mekong Delta get polluted. As a developing country that is trying, like many others, to expand economically, the environment often times gets abused. With the growth of commerce and consumerism, materialism is at a high, at the expense of the natural resources found in Viet Nam and elsewhere. I will update this slideshow with my research findings when that time comes.

For now, this slideshow features my observations about plastic usage in Viet Nam, starting with the post below.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

The other day, when I was sitting at a vegetarian food stall in a bustling market in Chau Doc, Viet Nam, I started thinking about the "face of plastic" in this developing country. I’ve been based in Viet Nam for almost three weeks now, talking to people about water, agriculture, education, and environmental pollution. I hadn't thought that deeply about plastic, aside from minimizing my use of it while I was here (which has proven to be problematic, since people find it strange when I refuse a bag, and so, usually, they just ignore my request). I had the following conversation once:

Me (in Vietnamese): Don't need bag; no worries.
Vendor: It'll make things look cleaner, for sanitary reasons.
Me: Save it, you can save the money. ::Smiles::
Vendor: It's my bag to give away, my money. You don't worry.
Me: ::Walking away, with my goods, bagged up::

Back to me at the market. As I was surveying the happenings of this market, I became overwhelmed by the ubiquitous presence of plastic, in its various forms, that surrounded me. Practically everyone was interacting with plastic.

Every vendor (from those selling fruits to vegetables to meat to noodles to household goods) had bags of plastic, ready to use for their customers. Every shopper had bags of plastic in their hands. Even the food vendor in front of me was slushing hot noodle soup into a plastic bag, and then putting that plastic bag into another plastic bag.

This scene of my time in the market also features me sitting on a plastic chair, eating at a plastic table, slurping my tea from a plastic straw, while a pile of cheap plastic toys lay in a heap, waiting to get sold at the stall next to me.

The only people who didn't seem to be interacting directly with plastic were those trying to make ends meet by selling lottery tickets.

This slideshow features images and commentary about the face of plastic in Viet Nam. Despite some of the snarkier comments that sound as if they’re unique to Vietnamese society, please note that plastic is a major environmental issue around the globe -- in both developed countries like the United States and developing countries like Viet Nam.