Le Minh Tan, a lecturer of Vinh University, central Nghe An Province, not only follows a green-living lifestyle but also encourages people around him to take a leaf out of his book and follow in his footsteps.
Members of Go Green Viet Nam clean up an area in the outskirts of Vinh City. — Photo zingnews.vn
Over the past three years, he has initiated a series of campaigns encouraging young people in his community to categorise garbage at source, recycle old items and raise their awareness about plastic waste.
“We can all protect the environment with the smallest action,” said Tan, a 31-year-old teacher at the Foreign Language Education Faculty of Vinh University.
One of his projects that attracts the participation of young people is Go Green Viet Nam oi – a green journey with activities aiming at creating sustainable, environmental values.
He hopes the project will encourage everyone to live green and make it a habit, not just a short-term campaign.
Tan started green living three years ago when he got married.
The amount of waste he and his wife discharged everyday surprised him.
“The waste amount increased when we bought items for our baby. Items we buy at the supermarket are wrapped with plastic,” he told zingnews.vn.
People living in suburbs are suffering from waste overload more than those living in the cities due to the growing of unmanaged waste dumps.
“Empty roads have become places to dump waste or construction materials. Solutions of local authorities are short-term. We really need to change public awareness to tackle the root of the problem," he said.
Go Green Viet Nam set challenges like cleaning waste and shopping without using plastic bags. A lot of young people in Vinh City accepted the challenges, recorded videos, photos and posted them on social networks to spread the word.
Shopping without single-use plastic bags. — Photo zingnews.vn
Tan’s projects also changed his wife’s habit of taking plastic bags while shopping. Instead, she takes her own bags to go to the market, sorts out garbage at home and makes compost from waste.
Go Green-Go Sharing, a campaign of Go Green Viet Nam, was recently launched sending the message of sharing utensils, reducing shopping and reducing waste. The project has created a network of nearly 200 people trying to live green and are always ready to take part in environmental activities.
Tan said videos clips of environmental protection activities of Go Green Viet Nam had been widely shared. An English teacher in Indonesia used the videos to spread the environmental spirit to his students.
Go Green Viet Nam has the ambition to create a network of people interested in making compost from waste in Vinh City. The compost will be used to grow vegetables and plants.
If the project is maintained regularly in households, a huge amount of domestic waste discharged into the environment each day would be significantly reduced, Tan believes.
He also wants to find a young team with a large amount of time, creative ideas, and enthusiasm for environmental issues to continue the mission.
He added: “Environmental protection is not the responsibility of just the government, company or organisation, but the responsibility of everyone. Every little action has a direct impact on the environment.”