Everybody said he was mad to put all his savings and property into an idea for a new biodegradable shopping bag.

“When I saw plastic bags blocking the canals and scattered everywhere, I felt I had to do something,” Loc, the director of package producer Phuc Le Gia Company in Ho Chi Minh City, said.

He said manufacturers in Vietnam so far had only made plastic bags that physically disintegrate but not completely biodegrade.

“I wanted to make a real biodegradable product,” said Loc, who graduated with a chemistry major from HCMC Polytechnics University and did environmental research at a US company in Vietnam.

So five years ago, he started putting aside his work at the company to focus on finding a solution to Vietnam’s plastic bag problem.

“My colleagues questioned what I was doing. Scientists at the company, my family and my friends regarded my work as crazy,” recalled the 61- year-old.

“But my confidence in my knowledge and my concern as an environmental activist pushed me forward.”

He started out by doing consumer research by asking members of the public about what type of plastic bag would be most useful and how much it should cost.

His command of English and French helped him consult a lot of important documents and foreign experts.

Loc also studied the climate conditions in different regions of Vietnam saying, “Biodegradable plastic bags can be suitable for one region but not biodegrade somewhere else where the climate is different.”

He made regular trips to Hong Kong and China to buy biodegradable plastic pellets for his research. Although he needed only small amounts he had to make the trip as no local companies would import it for him.

Loc poured his savings into the project and mortgaged his property. Many banks refused to lend him the money, thinking that his investment would not work out.

He said most banks liked his idea but turned him down for a loan because they didn’t believe he would succeed, but eventually he persuaded one to lend him the money.

But Loc was obsessed. “Many times I couldn’t eat my meals as I was so preoccupied by the job I was doing,” he said.

Criticism of his project grew even more when some of his production trials failed but he continued his tests until he found what he wanted.

“I had to prove that I wasn’t crazy.”

Loc did it all on his own - studying the market, promoting the bag at supermarkets, restaurants and other packaging producers, then analyzing responses.

“I’m the one who knows my product the best… To make a product is hard but to persuade others to be confident in it is even harder.”

Loc says his biodegradable bags are the first for Vietnam and have been used at different localities nationwide and overseas.

The products will biodegrade after 49-103 days if exposed to direct sunlight, natural bacteria or high humidity.

Four years ago research scientists from HCMC-based University of Sciences also developed a material to make bioplastic bags much cheaper than imported ones from the US and Canada.

The material, known as nanocomposite, is made with nanotechnology from thermoplastic starch, polyvinyl alcohol, a kind of polymer clay, and some cooking additives.

It can fully degrade in landfill where microorganisms make it decompose in one to six months.

The project proposal has been submitted to the HCMC Department of Science and Technology for further research before the final product may come early next year.

Last month the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment granted Loc’s bags the “Environment Green Label” title while the Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3 under the Ministry of Science and Technology has recognized its safety and quality.

“I am very proud,” Loc said. “I think I have done a very useful thing for the community and the most important lesson I learnt was to believe in myself.”

VietNamNet/TN