Within 30 minutes in the morning at a busy coffee shop on Pham Van Bach Street, around 100 drinks were served, almost all in plastic cups.
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Plastic cups seen at a beverage shop in Hanoi on July 18, 2025. Photo by VnExpress/Thuy Truong |
The practice is common at most food and beverage businesses, who use plastic straws, cups and bags.
These contribute to the 1,400 tons of plastic waste discharged in Hanoi daily, 60% of it single-use items, according to the city government.
Plastic bags, meanwhile, are typically not recycled because they get contaminated easily and offer little profit for scrap collectors, who can earn more from a single shampoo bottle than dozens of bags.
Plastic pollution poses a significant challenge for Vietnam and other countries. Leaked plastic waste contaminates the soil, air, water, and sediments in lakes, rivers, and seas, eventually entering the human food chain.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh wants to turn the situation around.
In a recent directive, he ordered Hanoi to trial a ban on single-use plastics in eateries, hotels, beverage outlets, and within Ring Road 1, which goes around the Sword Lake and West Lake to encircle a core area of the city.
The initiative will begin in the fourth quarter this year and be expanded in subsequent years.
Before the directive some food and beverage businesses had already begun transitioning to eco-friendly alternatives.
Hoang Tung, chairman of F&B Investment, which operates six Pizza Home and Com Ga 68 (chicken rice) outlets, said their takeout packaging includes cups, lids, straws, boxes, plastic bags, and utensils.
Paper boxes and wooden spoons and forks have replaced plastic items, but scaling up the initiative is challenging since wooden spoons and forks cost four times more.
A 360ml biodegradable plastic cup with lid costs over VND2,000 (7 U.S. cents), seven times that of the popular plastic polypropylene (PP).
Cheaper plastic items flood the market thanks to their dirt-cheap prices.
Environment-friendly items have also proven to be less popular with customers.
Tung said paper straws often soften or clog if used too long, and paper bags lack the durability plastic provides, especially for distant deliveries.
These issues have plagued businesses like One Kitchen and the Ka coffee chain.
Despite using paper boxes, cups and bags, One Kitchen still relies on plastic bags for most deliveries and takeaways.
Vu Truong Giang, founder of Ka, said: “We haven’t found a viable alternative to plastic bags for takeout, though switching to paper cups was easier.”
Plastic manufacturer Hunufa’s management acknowledged that fully biodegradable plastic bags, unlike those mixed with petroleum-based plastics, do not match the durability of non-degradable plastics despite costing five to seven times more.
The company has halted production of these bags due to low demand, only making them now in case of specific orders.
“We’re researching ways to reduce costs and improve the functionality of eco-friendly products to better compete with plastics,” Nguyen Hong Vu, its CEO, said.
But transitions require time, he said. “Alternative solutions will only gain traction when they address cost and convenience sustainably.”
