You are now listening to the Green Blog of Phuc Khang Corporation – The pioneer Green Building Developer in Vietnam. In this broadcast, we would like to tell you a story named “RETURN US TO WHERE WE BELONG”.

Dear friends,

We have been thinking twice before writing this letter to you. First, we would appreciate your creation of values, forms and colors to us. It is our honor and privilege to be born, cosseted and dedicated by you.

We are made in simple forges or thousands-of-square-meter firms. Upon being just born, we are beautiful, fragile and colorful like tender and bashful petals. We are hot pink, pale pink, yellow, white, green and even black. At birth, we are “carefully escorted” on many means of transportation such as planes, ships, trucks, motorbikes … to many areas. We are taken home on the housewives’ hands; we excitedly appear “to work” in both luxurious and common stores. We cringe in the warm hands of sellers and shoppers. We are present in supermarkets, stationery stores, dining stands, flea markets and even homes. Generally speaking, we are everywhere, from green urbans to bright cities.

Comprehensively, we are much favored because we are thin, light, soft, flexible and durable. We challenge all kinds of weather because we are waterproof, moisture-proof and bearing. This is an advantage of our pride, also others’ reason to detest and exclude us.

“We are shooting our mouths off about ourselves a lot, aren’t we? You may know who we are now. Let us introduce ourselves: we are NYLON BAGS.”

Because we are born with many extraordinary characteristics, we are everywhere, playing a definite role in the circle of life and production. We are used to pack products, preserve goods, contain experimental items, wrap fragile things, protect fruits from harmful worms and fungus. Especially, we are used to keep everything from wet to dry such as: vegetables, fish, fruits, blankets, hats, clothes and even waste. In general, whenever containment is needed, people think about us immediately. And there are so many other situations in which we – tiny nylon bags, participate. Sometimes, we ourselves think how people would react if we disappeared one day.

Yet, it is just a little egoism of nylon bags when they are being used too much. Life is always up and down. No matter how many purposes we are used for, we are throwaway. They may economically reuse us two or three times, we then become useless. At birth, we are taken everywhere to serve people; but at uselessness, we are also dumped everywhere.

We are scattered on sidewalks, under the trees where people often sit resting, or by stone benches in green parks. Or we are also scattered after matches in stadiums, after gatherings in markets. And it couldn’t be sadder when we are thrown floating on rivers, canals, flowing with the current to the oceans or into fish and other species.

At the beginning, when people make us, they think about our convenience, flexibility, durability to serve a wide variety of uses. But it is a double-edged sword. That we are durable enough to meet all human needs also makes us exist for a really long time on earth. According to some scientific research, if staying unaffected by the Sun, a nylon bag remains indestructible for tens or hundreds of years (around a century). If you dump us somewhere on earth today, after ups and downs, we will still “witness” the birth and growth of your next generations. It’s why we feel not only proud but also disappointed and why people detest, even blame us.

They blame us for polluting the environment, harming human health. They also blame us for gradually destroying flora and fauna ecosystems. They blame us for blocking drainage systems, causing flood damage in cities in rainy seasons. They blame us on inhibiting the growth of flora, causing erosion and mudslide, enhancing the greenhouse effect. They blame some elements in us on saturating food, causing liver failure, brain cancer, lung cancer. And they also blame us on existing in the environment, eaten by animals, staying indigestible in their stomachs which then kill them, seriously damaging marine ecosystem.

BUT …

Who made us with toxic elements that harm human and other creatures’ health? Are they humans? We don’t want to or we cannot create ourselves. Who dumped us to the environment? Who buried us in the ground to damage the vegetation, ecosystems, environment and climate? Who floated us in rivers to make us “reluctant food” for species in water? Who turned us into “assassins” that commit killing fish, rivers and beaches?

We have contributed, haven’t we? We have served, haven’t we? We thank for being born, being used and being exploited. But when we are no longer needed, please “RETURN US TO WHERE WE BELONG”. We do not belong to any sidewalk. We do not belong to tree bases, parks or under the ground. We do not belong to football pitches, stadiums, cinemas or markets. And we do not even belong to rivers, canals or oceans. We DO belong to installed trash cans which are safe, hermetic and not scattered. Then, we are collected in dumps, categorized, recycled and safely destroyed, affecting nobody, no animals and no environments.

We have been serving with all we have since we were born and beautiful. Please return us to WHERE WE BELONG if we are not needed. We would rather be permanently destroyed than become “criminals” who caused a lot of damage, who are alienated and detested by people, who do not want to lie in “millennial sadness” and listen to criticism for centuries.

Nowadays, thanks to ideas of protecting the environment, many city dwellers choose other bags to replace us such as paper ones, AnEco compostable ones, and even cloth ones. Although we – nylon bags of old days – aren’t chosen or cannot reappear, we cannot stop hoping and believing in RECYCLE.

Ladies and gentlemen,

You have just listened to what a tiny nylon bag opens its heart to. We cannot deny that nylon bags bring great benefits to human daily life and production. But together with benefits, nylon bags are also “causes” to problems of environments, human health, natural operations and development, as well as other species. If nylons are to blame, is it prejudiced, subjective and structural? Nylon bags themselves cannot cause any damage. It is lack of conscience of people who scatter used nylon bags disorderly that causes abovementioned damage.

Through this story, Green Blog’s editorial staff partially hope that we can acknowledge the problems of waste, especially from nylon bags. Consequently, we all contribute our helpful activities towards limiting the amount of nylon bags dumped in the environment. We can perform simple but helpful activities such as practicing habits of using bags friendly to the environment to replace nylon bags. If we are to use nylon bags, we can wash and reuse them, place used nylon bags in appropriate places. We do believe that each and every tiny activity of us will help reduce the amount of waste, protecting the environment and the sustainable life of ourselves, our families and our offspring.

In the next broadcast, Green Blog team will tell you a story about “A SMART RHINO”. Perhaps, we are so much familiar with warnings about hunting for rhinos to serve the greed and selfishness of other people. How can the little rhino escape from cruel hunters? What is interesting in the next broadcast? Stay tuned for our next broadcast.

Goodbye and see you again.