Green Industry: Challenges from Waste Treatment

Green industry is known as an industry producing products friendly to environment, accelerating economic growth and development, but still assuring natural resources for prosperity (OECD). During the processes of production, green industry prevents bad impacts from these processes to the environment. Furthermore, green industry also comprises of reusing waste, energy waste, saving and using effectively energy and other natural resources.

 

Indeed, Vietnam is a developing country with overgrowing emissions and greenhouse gas (GHG), which causes unsustainable usage of natural resources and energy. Along with the improvement of a modern society and industry, industrial waste treatment activities need to be more noticeable. Therefore, the development of recycled energy becomes a top priority of Vietnam green industry development. Regarding the statistic, industrial production index in the first quarter of 2012 grew 4.1 percent over the same period last year. In particular, processing and manufacturing industries had major impacts on general production index with their highest proportions of 75 percent of overall industries, but they are also known as the most pollutant industries discharging huge emissions to the environment.

 

Moreover, in Vietnam, the growth of household waste in both urban and rural areas, industrial waste and health waste is higher than that in other countries, for example from 2003 to 2008, the waste volume has doubled. The waste is mostly gathered in big cities, such as: Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang... It is estimated that the growth of household waste in Ha Noi is 15 percent per year, and in Ho Chi Minh City, there are over 7,000 tonnes of household waste discharged and it needs VND 235 billion per year to retreat the waste.

 

Recently, in the Green Information Technology Forum and consultation workshop of the Global Compact Network organised in Ha Noi, main reasons relating to challenges of waste treatment in Vietnam are: Technology, investment scale and awareness of individuals and businesses...

 

About challenges from electronic waste, Mr Rene Van Berkel - Head of Clean and Sustainable Production of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) informed that the impacts of toxic waste to environment and health have three levels, namely the product itself (if buried); insufficient treatments and chemical ingredients used in recycling processes. He also expressed that how valuable metals can be produced without polluting environment by electric waste is a problem which is needed to be solved.

 

Waste recycling has not only environmental meanings, but also makes economical benefits. Waste recycling diminishes human dependence on the exploitation and use of depleting natural resources. However, in order to improve the efficiency of recycling, management procedures need to be well implemented from the beginning, at the very waste generation stage. Based on the compositions and characters, waste will be divided into various categories.

 

In recent years, Vietnam has promulgated and implemented policy framework toward “Greening existing industries” orientation, such as: constantly implementing sustainable development orientation, supplementing Law on Environment Protection, promulgating Law on Energy Saving and Efficiency... But problems of waste have not been solved satisfactorily. In fact, the issue of overgrown household and industrial waste is still a sophisticated question for local authorities. Waste mostly is buried, burn, and the amount of recycled waste accounts for a quite low proportion. Some locals like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Ninh Thuan, Hue... invested and constructed waste recycling plants. Notwithstanding, the plants are limited in number and insufficient in performance, which is caused by the fact that waste is not divided at the first stage, lack of professional equipment for household waste collection and transportation, low-tech and used waste recycling technology...

 

According to the analysis of experts in the Green Information Technology Forum and consultation workshop of the Global Compact Network, there are many chances in businesses of waste treatment processes. Waste derived from paper, plastic, metal... will be collected, recycled and turned into materials for paper, plastic... industries. Difficultly or lowly-effective recycling waste like rubber, leather, garment... will be burn to recover energy. So, most of waste compositions are recycled and just low proportion is left and must be buried.

 

Specifically, with advantage from recycling electric waste, many experts stated that chances of businesses in this sector are enormous with significant profits, such as: services of recycling spare parts (ink cartridges, rewinding...) which may be repaired and reused; for electronic parts, which can be removed to handle in the first degree, may be sold to domestic or international recycling plants, and contaminated parts can also be sold to foreign businesses for filtering precious metal.

 

In fact, Vietnam possesses many favourable conditions to become a green industry. However, green growth and green economy require investments and innovations of enterprises. Vietnam needs to carry out targets and soon realise them as other many countries to achieve better results in the following time.