Vietnam – Source reduction, reuse, recycling . . .

August 7, 2012

Vietnam is a complex country – communism and capitalism working hand-in-hand. According to the BBC, Vietnam intends to be a "developed nation" by 2020. As a developing nation, traditional lifestyles are evident side-by-side with economic growth.

On a trip to Vietnam in July 2012, I kept an eye out for examples of recycling and recycling containers. Perhaps not surprisingly, very few recycling containers, lots of source reduction, re-use, and recycling, were in evidence.

As one friend who lived in Vietnam for 5-years said, "Recycling really isn't necessary because everything gets re-used." Well, that might be an exaggeration in a growing economy, but residential recycling wasn't obvious from a Westerner's perspective.

What I did notsee on the city streets of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was litter. In part this was due to the total clean-up of streets and parks every morning. There were also scavengers evident throughout the day; gathering up the same cityscape items as here – bottles and cans. Unfortunately, I did see plenty of litter in the national parks. "Visitors are very good about their environment, domestics are not," my birding guide told me.

Examples of source reduction and reuse (although, I really doubt that was the motivation) included refilling cigarette lighters and selling gasoline in soda bottles. I saw recycling containers twice – both in city parks in Ho Chi Minh City. What I saw more of was the collection and consolidation of recyclables; especially corrugated cardboard, plastic bags, and large sacks.

I thought it was ironic that right outside my room in the national park was a large tote with fluorescent tubes poking out. At least they weren't broken (yet).

By Lynn Rubinstein (executive.director@nerc.org)