Everywhere the problem of waste management becomes serious. Around a few large Vietnamese cities new plants were born, the fruit of large investments. But Vietnam is basically a rural country where capital is lacking and expensive. Waste cannot be carried over long distances, it must be recycled on the spot.

There are countless illegal waste dumping sites where they are burned at low temperatures, thus generating dangerous gases like dioxine etc.

Thiên Chí, strongly invited by the authorities, has launched a pilot waste recycling program in Tánh Linh: after a manual sorting, then composting, and finally mechanical sorting, the plastic (15%) is put aside and sold for recycling. It will be used to produce pipes, ropes, cheap bags etc. Organic waste (about 50%) will be used for compost. The rest is dumped.

The pilot phase has been successful and the program should now be replicated in other districts. The challenge is to set up a waste recycling and compost unit with an investment of less than 10.000 €. Half a dozen jobs are created in each district, two thirds of the waste are recycled.