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The project “Flatten the Plastic Curve” by Vietnamese students Hoang Nguyen Nhat Vi and Pham Quang Vinh (RMIT University) has won the third prize at the ASEAN Youth Social Journalism Contest. |
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The project is a social media campaign to raise awareness among young Vietnamese about the use of plastic packaging during the Covid-19 pandemic and successfully reached nearly 200,000 young readers after only one month of running the programme. Sharing about the project, Nhat Vi said, under the theme “ASEAN Youth and COVID-19 ─ Response, Recovery, and Resilience”, Nhat Vi and Quang Vinh decided to help young people who shop online to take small actions that have a positive impact on reducing plastic waste, through cartoonish designs and using influencer marketing. According to Nhat Vi, Covid-19 has been challenging the sustainable habits of Vietnamese people because they are forced to reduce face-to-face contact and are not allowed to travel unless absolutely necessary. As one of the most adaptable generations in the region, ASEAN youth have quickly adapted themselves to the situation by shifting their daily activities to online channels. But limiting face-to-face contact is making humans trade the environment for health. “New normal” life increases the use of single-use plastic packaging, Vi shared. With this project, the two students encourage young people to make changes, such as ordering from one store to reduce plastic packaging or texting the store owner or food delivery driver directly to remind them to reduce the amount of plastic packaging as much as possible when packing. Vi and Vinh’s project has reached over 40,000 young people with ads and received organic search traffic, and has also been mentioned on the Facebook pages of four influencers. Source: Nhan Dan Online |
