Estimates suggest Vietnam recycles only up to one-third of the imported plastic waste, said a research paper published in January.
That is partly because some imported plastic is often mixed with organic waste that makes it hard or impossible to treat, said one of the paper's authors, Kaustubh Thapa, from the Netherlands' Utrecht University.
A recycler at Minh Khai village was more upbeat.
“The amount of imported waste that can't be recycled is often about 5% of the volume, but at times it goes up to 25%,” said Chi, who declined to give his full name.
Most people contacted in the village in person or by phone declined to talk to media for fear of repercussions on their activities.
Much of the unrecycled plastic is dumped in “unsanitary” landfills, and about 15% of that is directly released into the environment and the oceans, the WWF report said.
“Exporting waste for recycling to destinations without sound recycling capacity raises questions of fairness and sustainability,” concluded the research paper by Thapa and co-authors.
Reuters
Top importer Vietnam struggles to recycle plastic waste
Image: REUTERS/Khanh Vu/ File photo
Countless discarded bags float on the canal running through Minh Khai village. The narrow streets are clogged with tall heaps of plastic waste spilling out from villagers' front yards and stacked near furnaces where non-recyclable scrap is burnt.
The plastic recycling “craft village”, an hour's drive from Vietnam's capital Hanoi, is where some of the plastic sorted for recycling in Japan, the US and Europe ends up for final treatment. Delegates at a UN summit in South Korea this week are discussing new global rules that could limit the trade, which UN data shows was worth $3.8bn (R69bn) last year. Stricter domestic requirements on waste imports will also be applicable in Vietnam from next year.
The southeast Asian nation has emerged as a major importer of plastic scrap in recent years after China, once the top player in the industry, banned imports in 2018. Vietnam was the world's fourth largest importer in 2022, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
However, that surge in imports has taken place as the country struggles to recycle its own plastic waste. Additional restrictions could reduce the trade, but the large size of the informal domestic industry may make it hard to monitor commercial flows and recycling rates, experts and officials said.
Image: REUTERS/Khanh Vu/ File photo
FROM SORTING TO LANDFILLS
More than one quarter of Vietnam's plastic recycling capacity is concentrated in craft villages such as Minh Khai, the World Bank said in a 2021 report, noting spare capacity to process imported plastic amounted to 300,000 metric tons.
That was well short of the 420,000 tonnes of plastic scrap Vietnam imported last year, which was up 11% from 2022, according to UN data, which does not capture the entire volume.
Vietnam's environment ministry did not reply to requests for updated figures.
Researchers have found recycling is being hampered by the inability to properly sort plastic waste offshore and in Vietnam. Only 30% of plastic waste generated in Vietnam is sorted, said a government-backed World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) report in 2023. As a result, in spite of shipment costs, Vietnam's recyclers rely on higher-quality foreign plastic scrap, according to FiinGroup, a research firm.
Image: REUTERS/Khanh Vu/ File photo
Image: REUTERS/Khanh Vu/ File photo
Estimates suggest Vietnam recycles only up to one-third of the imported plastic waste, said a research paper published in January.
That is partly because some imported plastic is often mixed with organic waste that makes it hard or impossible to treat, said one of the paper's authors, Kaustubh Thapa, from the Netherlands' Utrecht University.
A recycler at Minh Khai village was more upbeat.
“The amount of imported waste that can't be recycled is often about 5% of the volume, but at times it goes up to 25%,” said Chi, who declined to give his full name.
Most people contacted in the village in person or by phone declined to talk to media for fear of repercussions on their activities.
Much of the unrecycled plastic is dumped in “unsanitary” landfills, and about 15% of that is directly released into the environment and the oceans, the WWF report said.
“Exporting waste for recycling to destinations without sound recycling capacity raises questions of fairness and sustainability,” concluded the research paper by Thapa and co-authors.
Reuters
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