Vietnam

Vietnam is among the top five offenders in polluting the oceans. As with other developing countries, the increasing GDP growth since the 2000s also comes with the implication of dealing with mounting piles of trash left by the uprise in consumerism. Waste collection in Vietnam urban areas is over 80% while in rural areas, where more than two-third of the population lives, the rates remain limited at 40-50%. The remainder of the waste inevitably ends up improperly disposed of, into canals and rivers, and eventually the ocean.

To combat this issue, Vietnam government has its National Waste Management Strategy, setting a goal that by 2025, complete household wastes in urban areas would be collected, and 90% of this waste to be recycled or reused as organic fertilisers or to produce energy (Schneider et al, 2017).

BARRIERS

FACILITIES

“85 percent of the waste in Vietnam is being buried without treatment in landfill sites, 80 percent of which are unhygienic and pollute the environment.”

- Pham Trong Thuc, Director of Renewable Energy Department

Indeed, left-over food and plastic waste such as bags, straws are left unsorted and untreated while being dumped at landfills. The lack of monetary incentives and manpower for state-run environment agencies to sort out waste in the current collection scheme leaves these plastic recycling firms pale in comparison to informal house-hold recyclers.

While these informal recycling systems surrounding Hanoi have its flaws, it demonstrates the country's local solutions to address a global plastic waste and marine debris problem. Local governments and communities are aware of the gap in resources and capacity of these waste management facilities. The need to create and maintain jobs and employment is critical hence it would be challenging to close huge numbers of such small enterprises even though they lack the resources to upgrade safe and efficient facilities. This situation could be expected to be worse in rural areas, when formal waste collection is almost non-existent and waste are often informally dumped or burned. Technical and resources support would be needed from international organisations such as Ocean Conservancy and Trash Free Seas Alliance®. The government could further step up in regulations to monitor these household recyclers businesses.

Prevention is always better. Currently, there are limited education campaigns in the country targeting on reducing plastic usage and proper waste sorting and management thus more could be done in this aspect.

Woman with Conical Hat: in the streets of Ho Chi Minh city, we can see women who roam the city by bike. They buy all kinds of recyclable waste such as plastic bottles, aluminum cans, metals etc, to sell to recycling plants.

Image Source: Flickr/Sylvain Marcelle