Turn waste into money

Turn waste into money! Ho Chi Minh City has just approved the charter of TP waste recycling fund. The Fund provides businesses with preferential interest rates to modernize and develop waste recycling. Dr. Le Van Khoa, Director of TP waste recycling fund exchanged with VietNamNet reporter about the Fund's activities .

- Dear sir, after more than 1 year of preparation, Ho Chi Minh City just came into being and put into operation the TP Waste Recycling Fund. How will this fund support businesses operating in the recycling sector to promote waste recycling activities in Ho Chi Minh City, where each day releases more than 6,000 tons of garbage?

- Waste Recycling Fund works for non-profit purposes. The Fund aims to encourage and promote activities to reduce waste generation. In particular, the Fund aims to increase reuse and recycling to reduce waste into the environment.

Ho Chi Minh City Waste Recycling Fund, called Recycling Fund for short, international transaction name: Ho Chi Minh City Waste Recycling Fund, abbreviated as REFU for the purpose of lending to implement programs and deals. projects, pilot projects, applied research in waste management, recycling and reuse.

Dr.Le Van Khoa : "Using cloth bags many times or plastic bags self-destruct is conscious of environmental responsibility" (Photo: V.Giang)

On January 24, 2008, the Fund has a new charter. Through this fund, businesses operating in the recycling sector can find an additional loan. On the other hand, this is also a way to connect businesses operating in the recycling sector with state management agencies on the environment .

The Fund has the function of supporting businesses in the field of recycling loans with preferential interest rates, but has assets collateral for SX-KD facilities using private capital. Programs and projects valued at more than VND 200 million and decided on the loan amount for programs and projects valued at more than VND 2 billion at the proposal of the fund manager. Loan amount does not exceed 15% of the Fund's equity. The project has a loan of over 15% of the equity of the Fund decided by the City People's Committee. Loan term up to 7 years.

The fund lends to recycling activities such as recycling plastic, recycling biodiesel to recycling, recycling paper, recycling metal, recycling garbage for construction, recycling food waste, packaging, PET bottles .

- To put the TP Waste Recycling Fund into operation, it takes more than a year for the City to prepare . Why is this difficult?

- Difficulties first, because there is no charter capital, so when businesses borrow, the Fund must introduce them through the Urban Development Investment Fund. Meanwhile, the Fund aims to support capital for enterprises operating in the recycling sector. In addition, because of funding difficulties, the Fund's activities have not fully utilized, sometimes, in order to conduct research activities, the Fund must borrow capital.

Currently, with an initial charter capital of VND 50 billion, it is no longer difficult to operate funds but we still do not have a law on recycling waste. Still relying on encouragement and calling on people's consciousness, businesses . so the efficiency is still not high. We are aiming to build 'Waste Recycling Day', to raise the awareness of the people and to study more carefully to contribute to the construction of a recycling law. needed at this time. Recycling Day will take place every year, on the first Sunday of April, starting in 2008.

- In recent years, garbage in Ho Chi Minh City is mostly buried. And, there have been some incidents such as stinking or pollution from leachate . Is garbage recycling a new way to contribute to waste disposal in the city?

According to the forecast data of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the average amount of waste in the city. HCM may increase from 0.61kg / person / day in 1996 to more than 1kg / person day by 2010, meaning an increase of about 40% within 15 years. The amount of municipal waste can be up to 9,000 tons / day.

The above amount of waste is mostly treated by sanitary landfill method at the landfill. But the amount of waste is growing, leading to many concerns about the capacity of these landfills. Therefore, recycling will reduce a large part of the landfill area, address this concern and reduce pollution. In addition, improving economic efficiency is still very low in the use of recycled materials.

- In recent years, many businesses have participated in recycling trash spontaneously and many things are complained and complained. Is the Fund's contribution more positive to solve this problem?

- Because recycling facilities operate spontaneously, they are not aware of preserving the environment much but for economic benefits. Besides, equipment and investment in technical equipment is not high, so the environment in the residential areas with recycling enterprises is seriously affected, leading to many annoyances and complaints.

Recently, a survey of environmental issues in plastic recycling facilities showed that up to 97% of 473 establishments have no environmental officers. Only 13.4% of establishments pay environmental fees, while plastic recycling facilities always discharge a significant amount of emissions affecting the environment.

Recycling funds not only help to finance loans to improve machinery and equipment conditions, the Fund also builds research and issues around recycling, helping businesses better understand this issue. Therefore, in the future, the effective connection between private enterprises and the Recycling Fund may contribute to solving these problems.

- Thank you Sir!