Viet Nam must deal with waste time-bomb

John McDonald, Australian, Ha Noi

For thousands of years, mankind has moved around the planet leaving behind little more than the culture and rubble of old civil-isations for archaeologists and others to ponder.

The rubbish created by millions of families in their daily lives quickly rotted down, providing fertiliser for gardens, The bricks, timber and mortar of old buildings was recycled, providing infill or structural materials for reshaping.

The iron and bronze of the two historical ages named after these basic metals was endlessly remoulded through the years. The little that has remained behind in its original form has mostly been dug up and placed in museums.

Then the 20th century hit with an explosion of technology that enabled people to extract new minerals, strange chemicals, toxins and plastics from the earth and the oil beneath the surface.

The natural balance between people and the planet came to an end. The new waste did not rot - or it took so long to do so that it became impractical to dispose of.

Horror waste products began to filter into streams, poisoning, killing and stinking out the environment. Industry and nations profited, but often at the expense of the countryside. Even the fertile farms that have nurtured civilisations for thousands of years are under threat.

What to do? So far no one has the answer. There has been talk of firing radio-active waste in rockets to the moon or outer space, turning the heavens into a garbage dump.

Others have suggested burying it and other highly toxic industrial waste in solid concrete and burying it kilometres beneath the earth. Then someone pointed out that the movements of the earth could easily rupture the nasty bundles, sending toxic filth spewing into underground artesian basins and eventually poisoning entire eco-systems above ground.

Some rich, developed countries have found it convenient to ship - at a price - their pustulous filth to poor undeveloped countries, including Africa. Viet Nam is high on the list of countries they are eyeing.

Factories have been established in one or two nations, factories that generate such extreme heat that it almost completely destroys the poisons in the waste. But much more needs to be done. Hazardous waste is becoming as big a problem as climate change.

Rosylin Loch, Australian, HCM City

Australia does deal in hazardous waste but to a limited extent. There are strict laws and criteria for the transport, handling and disposal of hazardous waste.

There are Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Health Departments and others in each State. Similarly there are Federal Departments involved in the import/export areas.

The history and records of this waste has been retained and made available for inspection. Permits and licences have to be obtained for transport, disposal and export. In some instances, police escorts are required to protect the public.

There are full time inspectors who are continually monitoring the situation and rely heavily and act on all public complaints or concerns. All sites and processors are examined by inspectors that people are complying to the conditions and laws required to cover safe disposal and processing.

Exporters rely on countries with lax laws, ignorance and corruption to dump their hazardous waste. China and Viet Nam were/are two of Australia's main hazardous waste importers, usually for disposal or alleged recycling. There are laws on what waste can be exported, and recently an Australian company was fined for illegally exporting rubber tyres to Viet Nam.

A breach of any of the laws range from a caution, heavy fines or a jail sentence. Some businesses and companies have been closed, owners, directors punished. If they are not capable of disposing the hazardous waste in a lawful manner, the relevant authority employs someone to perform the task and charges them the cost.

Vietnamese, Americans, Australians and New Zealanders all suffered from "agent orange" and still do 50 years later. I look at all the visible pollution about me, read about poisoned water ways, poisoned land, breath in poisoned air and wonder how poisoned is the food I eat.

Hazardous waste is poison, toxic and some much worse than "agent orange" because it can lead to a health crisis, contamination of aquaculture and agriculture and thus destroy this country's growing export industries.

I love Viet Nam and its people, they and their children do not deserve this; I can pack my bags and leave at anytime, but they can't.

Ryu Hashimoto, Japanese, HCM City

Japan trades hazardous waste with other countries, especially with developing countries, because the fee of waste disposal is cheaper than in Japan and other advanced countries. We have a few imports for recycling and many exports for disposal.

If illegal hazardous wastes are found in containers or other places, the owners are sentenced up to 5 years of penal servitude, or fined up to US$100,000 if the owner is an individual, and as much as $1 million if the owner is a corporation.

Japan became a member of the Basel Convention in 1993 and established a domestic law according to the Basel Convention which strictly regulated hazardous waste imports/exports.

Citizens are also concerned about hazardous waste and the treatment of waste, and sometimes strong citizen movements appear when they have some trouble with disposal traders, because we have many experiences of environmental pollution caused by industrial hazardous wastes.

From what I know, Viet Nam has ratified the Basel Convention since 2005, but it seems that regulations have been loosely enforced here. At least the fines should run into the astronomical numbers, the same as in Japan.

David Johnson, American, HCM City

I've worked in the recycling industry for many years, both in the US and abroad. The recycling industry involves the handling of not only recyclable but also non-recyclable hazardous materials.

The recyclable materials make their way to become newly-recycled product from normal household and office waste bins. They are then picked up by waste disposal trucks and go through the sorting process.

The sorting can be achieved by both manual labour and/or automated process. From time to time, non-recyclable items become mixed with the recyclable and they all get exported to other countries in containers to manufacturers of recycled products.

I assume that the way the importer or its country would consider hazardous materials can be determined by their intended use and the types of products received.

A paper mill or importer would only want to import specific wastepaper to produce recycled paper; however, if they discovered a large quantity of plastic, metal and/or other undesired materials mixed with intended wastepaper, the financial responsibility could be forced on to the exporter.

Because many of these recycled paper mills or factories import thousands of containers of wastepaper or recyclables a year, there are times that mistakes are made by exporters during their distribution process. Therefore, while I don't consider three containers full of household hazardous waste—including used plastics and nylon—a very serious environmental problem, ongoing intentional imports of hazardous materials for illegal financial gain is a serious problem that must be stopped.

To prevent these problems, the people involved, including importers, exporters and even the customs officials, must be closely scrutinised. Based on my experience, the importers and customs officials would have the greater weight of responsibility since they are the ones who are importing for financial gain and inspecting these materials for their intended use. While importers/exporters may pay a little extra for these inspection services, the export containers are inspected and sealed by paid inspectors to ensure the validity of their contents. — VNS