LookAtVietnam – On a trip to uncover a solution to the problem of improper disposal of household rubbish in urban areas, we were already aware of the fact that Vietnamese people consider rubbish as waste, not a natural resource.

Wearing self-designed costumes, pupils of class 4E at Nam Thanh Cong Primary School in Hanoi present a performance on environment/ During a lesson on 3R Project for environmental protection in class 4E of Nam Thanh Cong Primary School.

This has not only created a heavy load of environmental pollution for us to shoulder, but also wasted an opportunity to earn money from the things that seem useless.

3R – a pilot step

Hanoi, which was once considered as “a city of green trees,” is facing an environmental catastrophe due to inadequate resolve in dealing with household rubbish. In this situation, a technical assistance project entitled “Implementing the 3R (reduce, re-use and recycle) initiative in Hanoi to contribute to a sustainable social development” has been devised and implemented.

The 3R Project, the first of this kind in Vietnam, has received due investment and is considered an effective solution. It is supported by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

Although the project was implemented on a test basis only in four wards of Hanoi - Phan Chu Trinh, Nguyen Du, Thanh Cong and Lang Ha, it has thus far yielded good results. People living in the area around Nguyen Hong Street in Thanh Cong Ward said that before the project was implemented the streets in the ward were besieged with rubbish. Now the situation is quite different.

A bulletin on 3R designed by members of a 3R association/ A fashion show of dresses made from discarded gift-wrapping during the Mattainal Festival, an activity of the 3R Project.

On the day we visited the ward we saw people using two small rubbish bins, one red colour and another orange, to contain rubbish. A woman said: “Since the 3R Project has been implemented the houses and streets are so clean and beautiful. If the 3R Project is implemented everywhere no bacteria will exist”.

Le Minh Ngoc, communication assistant to the Hanoi 3R Project said it has taught most of people in targeted areas to separate the rubbish and drop the organic rubbish into the green bin and inorganic rubbish into the orange bin.

A large amount of organic rubbish is transported to Cau Dien Waste Treatment Factory in Hanoi to produce micro organic fertilizer. The 3R Project was also implemented in six schools in Hanoi.

A fashion show of dresses made from discarded gift-wrapping during the attainal Festival, an activity of the 3R Project/ Equipment and instruments used to collect, classify and treat household rubbish are displayed at the Mottainai Festival in Hanoi.

Thanks to the effective teaching programmes, such as videos, documents, games, lively scenes, posters and paintings, the extra lessons about the environment for pupils become livelier, helping them know more about the ways to classify household rubbish.

It can be said that the 3R Project has helped enhance the people’s awareness about rubbish.

A solution for Nam Son

Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Tokiko Kato attends a meeting of the 3R environmental education community in Phan Chu Trinh Ward (Hanoi)/ “For a green, clean and beautiful environment” is a message that the environment managers in Hanoi want to send to the community.

We went to “the dumping ground of Hanoi City” in Soc Son District. Deputy Director of Nam Son Waste Treatment Site, Nguyen Thanh Minh said that every day about 700 rubbish vans came to this place. The whole dumping ground is 85.3ha large and has 9 dust holes, but since 1999, 7 holes have been full.

According to a calculation by the Urban Environment Company (URENCO), a State-owned company, everyday Hanoi City dumps about 3,000 tonnes of household rubbish, or approximately one million tonnes per year.

At present, apart from URENCO, some units, such as Thang Long Joint-Stock Company, Tay Do Joint-Stock Company, Green Joint-Stock Company and Thanh Cong Cooperative also take part in collecting rubbish, but they can not deal with the increasing amount of rubbish. About 95% of rubbish in the urban districts is collected while the rate in the outskirts is only 60%.

Construction of new urban areas makes the solving of the household rubbish problem more urgent/ URENCO workers collect rubbish on Hanoi’s streets.

Our survey showed that the process of collecting and disposing of household rubbish in Hanoi is basically strict. Under the Japanese technology, everyday, rubbish from residential areas is collected and transported by specialized vans to Nam Son Waste Treatment Site where rubbish is treated with insect-killing and odour-eliminating chemicals, then bulldozed and covered with a canvas and a layer of earth, 0.2-0.3m thick.

Each layer of buried rubbish is 2 metres thick. Before the disposal, the management board of Nam Son Waste Treatment Site allows the rubbish collectors to enter the dumping ground to collect disposed materials that will not decompose, such as nylon, plastic, rubber, iron, metal, wood, stone, etc., thus helping classify the rubbish as well as enable the rubbish collectors to earn income.

Rubbish at the dumping ground is bulldozed and pressed, then covered with a canvas and a layer of earth, 30cm thick/ Before 3 am, about 1,000 rubbish collectors gather in front of the gate of Nam Son Waste Treatment Site to prepare to collect disposed materials.

Chu Van Chung, General Director of URENCO, the unit in charge of Nam Son Waste Treatment Site said that although the site is considered the largest dumping ground with required technical standards among over 90 dumping grounds nation wide, for the long term it needs greater investment.

In the near future, URENCO will expand the site from 85.3ha to 150ha and build a large incinerator of international standards to dispose of the rubbish while making the best use of a source of heat to produce electricity. If the project is successful it will be a key to solving the problem of the shrinking area needed for rubbish disposal.

Signals from Tam Sinh Nghia Investment and Development Company

Rubbish is treated with insect-killing and odour-eliminating chemicals, then buried in a hygienic process/ The buried rubbish produces a large amount of methane. So a research on a technology of collecting methane to power the electricity generator is undertaken at Nam Son Waste Treatment Site. In the photo: A methane-collecting system of a small electricity generator in service of the lighting system in the dumping ground.

While people still look on rubbish with indifference, Tam Sinh Nghia Investment and Development Joint-Stock Company in Ho Chi Minh City has given signals showing that it could earn a lot of money from rubbish. In April 2007 they decided to invest in building a complete rubbish treatment line using domestic technology at Thuy Phuong Waste Treatment Factory in Hue city.

Director of the factory, Nguyen Huy Chuong said that in the past the factory had a treatment line using French technology, but the line stopped running after 72 hours due to different substances in the rubbish, such as fruit and vegetables, bricks, stones, wood, animal bodies and even explosive materials left from the war.

After many years of research, Tam Sinh Nghia Company established a domestic-made technological line which had a treatment capacity of nearly 200 tonnes of rubbish a day. Rubbish is classified and reused to produce different products, such as fertilizer, plastic, water pipes, marker posts, concretes, etc.

The remaining residues accounting for less than 15% are buried. The line helps reduce the cost of disposing of the rubbish by burying it from 338,000 VND per tonne to just over 70,000 VND per tonne.

Talking about the technology of this line, Professor and Doctor in science, Nguyen Anh Tuan, who is Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Mechanical Industry and a member of the Russian Institute of Technology and Aviation Space, said: “This is a creative and reasonable option with a firm scientific foundation”. After the project was implemented in Hue, Tam Sinh Nghia Company invested in a new project, which has a capacity of processing 1,000 tonnes of rubbish per day, in Cu Chi, Ho Chi Minh City.

It may be said that, basically Vietnam has a solution to the problem of disposing and reusing the rubbish. However, this solution is only temporary, not decisive and sustainable. Therefore, the journey to find a comprehensive solution for the problem of household rubbish disposal and processing in urban areas should continue.

The buried rubbish produces a large amount of methane. So a research on a technology of collecting ethane to power the electricity generator is undertaken at Nam Son Waste Treatment Site.	Rubbish before being classified.
From the rubbish which has been treated and classified at Thuy Phuong Waste Treatment Factory in Hue, many materials, particularly nylon that can be reused are collected.	Microorgranic fertilizer produced from sources of organic rubbish at Thuy Phuong Waste Treatment Factory in Hue.
Many products, such as plastic grains, marker posts, concrete, etc., are produced from materials collected from household rubbish.	Water pipes made of recycled plastic produced from rubbish at Thuy Phuong Waste Treatment Factory in Hue

VietNamNet/VNP