Vietnam has almost no environmental policies that I can see

Not long ago when I was living in Thailand there was a nationwide push to get the country away from using plastic bags so universally. I did feel as though a lot of this was actually corporate profits masquerading as environmentalism (don't have to give away free bags anymore) because the shops still would sell you plastic bags with no issue.

Despite my nay-saying, it did have a positive impact on the plastic usage in the country since those plastic bags from minimarts or whatever stand very little chance of being recycled or even reused since they were such poor quality.

I was the kind of person that would carry a backpack or re use my bags anyway, so even though I had my reservations about it being truly in the interest of the environment, I was for it and I think there was some positive change enacted in the country as a whole as a consequence. Then I moved to Vietnam, where there is, as far as I can tell, absolutely no efforts to reduce plastic bag use.

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If you buy just about anything, a plastic bag is offered to you and it doesn't matter if you already have a plastic bag or if you are just buying a Coke that you intend to drink right after purchasing it, a plastic bag is offered. I admit that sometimes I do end up with a plastic bag if I forgot to bring my own but I try to avoid this as much as possible.

When I moved into my condo there was almost nothing left behind by the previous tenant but I did discover these in two of the cabinets.

While I appreciate the fact that the past tenant not simply tossing these in the trash I asked how long he or she had lived here and the landlord said "2 weeks." Folks, there is over a hundred plastic bags inside of larger plastic bags here accumulated over the course of 2 weeks. There are over 90 million people in Vietnam so go ahead and do some estimation there. Ok, i'll do it for you. Assuming that every person managed to use acquire just half this many bags it is still 630 million plastic bags every single day.

Vietnam also has the unfortunate reputation (perhaps deserved, I have no real idea) of being recognized as one of the worst polluters in the world as far as plastic waste ending up in the ocean is concerned. We don't see this in Da Nang or Hoi An where I live because there are catch nets on all the storm drains that end at the ocean, and they have people cleaning up the beaches every day to create the illusion of environmental responsibility. However, I have seen photo from areas that tourists do not visit and they look a bit different.

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I'm quite certain that this picture is cherry-picked and is meant to be a worst-case scenario for shock value. Be that as it may, I can walk down any street in this city and see plastic bags all over the place. When I end up with plastic bag, which is normally by mistake or because the stash I keep in my bicycle have run out, I hang on to it to carry with me when I take Nadi (my dog) on "poopy walks." It is completely unnecessary for me to do this though because on our usual poopy trail i will walk past dozens of discarded plastic bags on the way to my dog's preferred dumping ground.

_{This is an extremely common roadside sight}
I'm not trying to lecture an entire country on how they should handle their own sovereignty and I will keep my disgust to myself when I am in public but honestly, this is a truly disgusting aspect of this country. Plastic bags are literally everywhere except where visiting tourists are likely to be walking. It's all an illusion for the visitors.

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It's not all doom and gloom though and the government of Vietnam has proposed some very sensible legislation and ideas for the future. They realize that their population is too poor to impose a ban on bags altogether because markets are very popular and if people don't bring their own bags, what are they supposed to carry it away in? Even though this is a communist country, you can't just tell 90 million people that they can't have bags anymore.

Instead, they are working with the Institute of Materials Science as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to create a biodegradable bag that is both functional and affordable. I would imagine that the only way this will get mass adoption is if the government subsidizes the production because these products already exist but are much more expensive than plastic bags.

The problem is the same here as it is anywhere else: Plastic is just too damn inexpensive and useful and alternatives, even cheap alternatives, cost double, triple, or even more what plastic does.

While the situation as it exists now is deplorable, at least they are doing something. The idea being that all plastic bags in Vietnam will be biodegradable by 2025, and at least that is something.