This was achieved partially thanks to the Carton Collecting Competition launched in November 2020 with the aim of encouraging nearly 1 million primary school students and parents to separate their school and household waste.

The Carton Collecting Competition was launched in early November 2020 by Tetra Pak, in collaboration with Hanoi’s departments of Natural Resources and Environment as well as Education and Training as part of the School Recycling Programme implemented by Tetra Pak in Hanoi for the past two years.

In particular, the Top Carton Collector contest was particularly successful in attracting the participation of schools. The top schools in the five groups (based on the total number of pupils to ensure fair competition), on average, collected approximately 200-780kg of cartons. Some of the top collectors include Kim Chung, Tan Mai, and Ngoc Hoa primary schools, as well as Son Ca, Thinh Liet, and Hoa My kindergartens.

Many primary school and kindergarten students in Hanoi participate in the Carton Collecting Competition organised by Tetra Pak

In addition, the two other contests including Most Clean & Tidy UBC Corner for schools that are the most creative in folding and stacking cartons to optimise space as well as in keeping their used beverage carton (UBC) corner tidy and clean to ensure hygiene for collection and the Most Inspirational Speaker for primary students to speak about the importance of segregating waste at home and school also captured school children’s interest.

The Most Clean and Tidy UBC Corner contest encourages schools to arrange used cartons neatly for convinient collection

“Our goal upon launching this competiton is to instill the habit of waste separation at home and school, and at the same time improve environmental awareness among pupils. We are delighted at the initial results of the competition, through which 125 tonnes of used cartons were successfully collected in less than two months, twice as many as the amount collected in the previous months. This is proof that the the competition is expanding its impact and we hope that students, parents, and teachers will stay engaged in this meaningful activity,” said Ly Quynh Trang, director of sustainability at Tetra Pak Vietnam.

100 per cent of used cartons collected from the competiton will be transported to Dong Tien Packaging and Paper Factory for recycling into other useful products such as eco-roofing, notebooks, and paper bags. Competiton winners are presented automatic water purifiers by Tetra Pak.

In less than two months, the contest has collected 125 tonnes of used cartons

The competiton is part of the School Recycling Programme in Hanoi and lasts until the end of January 2021. Details of the contest can be found at www. taichevohopgiay.com.