On April 23, 2022, the Non Nuoc beach cleanup event in response to Earth Day was successfully co-organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam Danang Chapter, Evergreen Labs, Sheraton Grand Danang Resort, and ReForm Plastic with the participation of more than 300 people. Over 800kg of solid waste was collected from the beach, with over 120kg of mixed plastic waste and the remaining volumes included styrofoam, glass and other materials. This event was made possible with its generous sponsors including gold sponsor Coca Cola, silver sponsor LovePop and bronze sponsors Glassia, Suntory Pepsico and Classic Fine Foods.
In honor of Earth Day 2022, the co-organizers planned this event to make an impact while raising awareness about important environmental issues surrounding waste. The participants had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience to understand waste, its damages to the environment, and a real-life solution to these issues. The participants were divided into groups to gather trash along the beach, then instructed to sort and weigh the waste before transporting it to proper disposal facilities. "At Evergreen Labs we live and breathe the motto ‘Earth Day Every Day’ and as part of our mission we aim to empower people with knowledge to take action towards living an environmentally responsible life and in turn preserving the planet for future generations. Through events like these, we can create a large impact on the environment and educate participants simultaneously creating lasting impact on our planet." Ms. Kasia Weina, co-founder of Evergreen Labs and Vice Chair of AmCham Vietnam Da Nang Chapter, shared her thoughts and motivation to organize such an event.
All waste collected from the beach was sorted by categories to ensure the materials could be used instead of only landfilled. The plastic waste was sorted for further processing by ReForm Plastic, a social enterprise transforming unrecyclable plastics into new products such as boards and sheets. ReForm Plastic hosted an educational booth during the event where participants were introduced to the innovated products as well as learned about circular economy and the journey of plastic waste from the time it is disposed of until it is collected, processed, and transformed into a tradeable product, rather than ending up in landfills or oceans. Furthermore, all plastics collected from this event will be processed by ReForm Plastic into boards to make school furniture that will be donated to local schools in need in the region. This further continues the impact of this event benefiting communities and children across the country.
