Starting August 1, Fahasa, Vietnam's biggest bookstore chain, will use a paper band to wrap books purchased from their shops for customers who bring their own bag, the company has recently announced on its official Facebook page.

Fahasa will stop using single-use plastic bags, replacing them recycled paper bags and wrappings.

For stationery items likes pens, pencils and cases, Fahasa will use bags and wrappers made of recycled newspapers and magazines. The recycled paper bags are part of the bookstore's initiative launched in May.

By the end of this year, the bookstore chain expects to use 500,000 paper bags to replace 10 percent of the nylon bags that it currently uses.

The company has previously said that it aims to slowly replace nylon bags with bags made with recycled paper in the coming years and eventually manufacture bigger packages made of fabric and paper to accommodate larger items.

The bookstore chain’s move comes after PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc said last month Vietnam should strive for zero disposable plastic use in urban stores, markets and supermarkets by 2021 and for no plastic products to be used in the entire country by 2025.

Vietnam has been ranked the fourth biggest polluter of oceans in the world, behind China, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to a report on the countries polluting the oceans the most in the world by The Wall Street Journal.

A total of 1.8 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste came from Vietnam. China and Indonesia are the top sources of plastic bottles, bags and other rubbish clogging up global sea lanes, accounting for more than a third of plastic detritus in global waters, the report said.

Vietnam Book Day helps promote reading culture: Deputy Prime Minister

The establishment of the Vietnam Book Day has contributed greatly to restoring and developing the reading culture, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said at a national conference on April 18 reviewing the impacts of the Book Day since it was first observed five years ago. 

French officer’s book on Dien Bien Phu Campaign debuts

An event was held in Hanoi on May 3 to launch a new book on the Dien Bien Phu Campaign authored by a French writer. 

Martin Yan auctions books for Vietnamese charity

American celebrity chef Martin Yan of cooking show Yan Can Cook came to Vietnam this week to raise funds for a children’s charity project.

Festival 2019 to highlight book role and knowledge connection

The Book Festival 2019 will take place at the Hanoi Library on April 19 under the theme “Books – Connecting Knowledge and Development”, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

Book fair within Hung Kings Temple Festival framework opens

A book fair opened at Hung Kings Temple historical relic site in the northern province of Phu Tho on April 6, as part of the 2019 Hung Kings Temple Festival, which falls on April 5-14 (the first to the tenth day of the third lunar month).

Source: VnExpress