Recycling milk cartons, gaining green awareness
Pursuing a green lifestyle since high school, Kim Truyen — a 4th year student at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Ho Chi Minh City) — often explores ideas to reuse milk cartons after drinking, such as making flowerpots and pen holders, but still has a lot of leftover cartons.
Recently, she has come up with a new solution: cleaning the cartons and bringing them to Vinamilk stores to participate in the recycled milk cartons programme.
“Collecting and recycling would help extend the life cycle of milk cartons, limiting the impact on the environment. With Vinamilk's programme, milk cartons are also recycled into useful items to give to disadvantaged children. Therefore, I began participating as soon as I learned about the programme,” she excitedly said.
With her interest in recycling packaging after use, Kim Truyen can be seen as a representative of the new consumer trend that her generation is leading.
Deloitte's 2023 survey showed that up to 69% of Gen Z are willing to change their behaviours to reduce their carbon footprint. That trend is gradually spreading to the next generation — Gen Alpha.
Vu Thi Phuong Chi (Ha Dong, Hanoi) shared that she learned about Vinamilk's programme through her daughter who is in 2nd grade. Once, the girl brought home around ten empty milk cartons she had received from her classmates. She was initially surprised, but when she learned that her child wanted to bring them to a Vinamilk store for recycling, she was very supportive.
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Collecting and recycling milk cartons with her child, Vu Thi Phuong Chi was happy to see her child gradually forming awareness and good habits regarding environmental protection. |
According to statistics from Vinamilk, the recycled milk cartons programme has been implemented at stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City since June 2024. To date, the programme has collected more than 180,000 milk cartons of various brands, estimated at nearly 1.5 tonnes. These numbers completely exceeded initial expectations.
Pham Hong Y, Head of Vinamilk’s Store Sales Department, said he was quite surprised to receive enthusiastic participation from the group of children. "Many customers are primary or secondary school students who come with their parents to exchange cartons. Many children also encourage their classmates to collect milk cartons for recycling.
“I think that is also the success of the programme, when it spreads the awareness of collection and recycling to children, the future generation and also helps change the consumer behaviour of parents and people around them," Hong Y continued.
Young generation leads trend of “green” consumption
In fact, not only in Vietnam but also in most countries, there is still a certain gap between environmental awareness and consumption actions.
Many customers said that they are interested in sustainable factors when consuming, but their decisions are still influenced by price or trends. Therefore, more efforts are needed, especially from businesses, to spread the green consumption trend more strongly.
“Specific programs and projects like the one Vinamilk is conducting have created conditions for consumers to participate in the story of sorting, collecting and contributing to creating a circular economy. This provides an important foundation in building awareness as well as appropriate infrastructure, so that sorting, collecting and recycling waste becomes a normal habit of Vietnamese consumers,” said Luong Thanh Thu , Head of Sustainable Development Department of Tetra Pak Vietnam, a partner accompanying Vinamilk in the program.
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Vinamilk is testing the installation of automatic product packaging sorting machines at stores. |
From the perspective of a leading fast-moving consumer goods company in Vietnam, Nguyen Quang Tri, Vinamilk Marketing Executive Director, said that sustainable consumption is one of the important pillars in Vinamilk's development strategy, aiming to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The milk carton recycling collection programme is a concrete activity towards the goal of promoting sustainable consumption.
Along with that, the company also continuously researches, develops and launches sustainable products that are more environmentally friendly.
A typical example is Vinamilk Green Farm — a product line that uses raw fresh milk from ecological farms, practices sustainable agriculture, and uses green energy and renewable energy to reduce emissions. Vinamilk's nut milk product line is also loved by young people and those pursuing a green lifestyle, thanks to the production process having little impact on the environment.
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Green factors, environmentally friendly are gradually becoming an important criterion in the product selection of young consumers. |
In the distribution stage, Vinamilk focuses on reducing plastic as well as switching to recyclable packaging, not only in retail units such as boxes, jars and bags, but also in distribution units such as crates and cartons.
In 2023 alone, plastics were reduced by more than 450 tonnes thanks to the solution of removing the outer film layer of Probi cartons and reducing the number of plastic spoons included in yogurt cartons. Vinamilk stores nationwide have also used environmentally friendly recycled bags and have had activities to encourage users to use cloth bags and sedge bags for many years.
“Today’s Vietnamese consumers, especially the new generation like Gen Z and Alpha, are highly conscious of protecting the environment. They tend to use sustainable, environmentally friendly products and require manufacturers to take action to reduce emissions. By understanding and meeting this need, businesses can conquer and retain them for a long time,” said Tri.
