Cleaning Vietnam A resilient nation finds its match

Long Bien Bridge, A Symbol of Resistance Hanoi’s Long Bien bridge stands today as a symbol of Vietnam’s constant ability to endure and eject trespassers. Designed by France’s Gustave Eiffel and built by Vietnamese ‘coolies’ between 1899 and 1902, it became their own in 1954, after six decades of French rule.

It was bombed and much of it destroyed by air attacks during the Resistance War Against America. This was after they ejected a Chinese dynasty from a thousand-year occupation. But the rising tides of global warming are the newest and deadliest threat to Vietnamese freedom and prosperity.

Pause Current Time 0:10 / Duration Time 1:18 Remaining Time -1:08 Stream Type LIVE Loaded : 0% Progress : 0% 0:10 Fullscreen 00:00 Unmute Playback Rate 1 Subtitles subtitles off Captions captions off Chapters Chapters Hanoi Those arriving to Hanoi for the first time may experience headaches and difficulty breathing. Maybe a coarse, or ticklish throat. Pedestrians traverse a disharmonious sea of honking cars and motorbikes transporting cases of beer, livestock, construction materials and entire families. Ambulances become trapped in stand-still traffic while scooters use footpaths to bypass peak-hour bottlenecks and traffic jams. Just decades ago, Vietnamese rode bicycles. But engines are now a sign of economic freedom, and it’s easy to see why: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have become the twin beating hearts of Vietnam’s recent industrial revolution. While Hanoians sit beneath the smoggy plumes of Beijing and New Delhi in terms of air pollution, they have surpassed their neighbour Bangkok - whose 2019 population is estimated at over 10 million people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) found “more than 60,000 deaths from heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia” were linked to air pollution in Vietnam in 2016. Here and around the world, general air quality and economic growth go hand-in-hand with industrial production, transport, construction and improper waste management. The number of private vehicles increased by 4.6 per cent last year, while land allocation for transport grew 0.4 per cent. Hanoians now own more than five million motorbikes and five-hundred thousand cars between 7.7 million people But countries which have already outgrown their industrial revolutions’ recommendations for developing Southeast Asian countries have mostly fallen on deaf ears. This is due to their rising GDPs and new-found freedoms of transport, jobs, disposable income for travel and entertainment, and overall upgrades to quality of life.

Pause Current Time 0:06 / Duration Time 1:02 Remaining Time -0:56 Stream Type LIVE Loaded : 0% Progress : 0% 0:06 Fullscreen 00:00 Unmute Playback Rate 1 Subtitles subtitles off Captions captions off Chapters Chapters Ho Chi Minh City Weakening China - US relations have opened a lucrative trade window to Vietnamese workers and businesses. Labour-intensive manufacturing and massive development projects often take precedent over waste management and sustainability, with trade accounting for more than half of Hanoi’s GDP and nearly half of Ho Chi Minh City’s GDP coming from foreign investment. Though the disarray and pollution in the streets of Vietnam may be less than in other Asian cities, science still estimates the economic cost of air pollution close to US $1.6 trillion in Europe alone. And while it’s been shown that investing in improved technology will create new jobs and fossilise old ones, overall, it will reduce emissions and give nations a leg up in the expanding ‘clean tech’ industry.

This is the human and economic price we pay for air pollution: food contamination, damaged ecosystems, poor overall health and ability to work, damaging cultural and historical landmarks and, in often great numbers, human lives.

7 AM, Nhon Hai Beach, Central Vietnam Fifty-to-sixty people arrived at Nhon Hai beach on Vietnam’s central coast for a community clean-up in January, 2019. Local children, parents, the army and members from nearby Quy Nhon province scoured the beach together to tackle the area’s rubbish problems. In two hours, Nhon Hai beach was littered with hessian sacks full of clothes, plastic and polystyrene take-away boxes and cups, fishing nets, and single-use plastic shopping bags. But the small fishing village of Nhon Hai didn’t always look like this. Thirty years ago, locals used banana leaves as plates, throwing them into the ocean as they do now with pollutants. Extreme weather from neighbouring countries also brings clothes and other pollutants to Vietnam’s shorelines.

The Vietnamese mentality towards becoming environmentally friendly is slowly gaining ground. Understanding and education are on the rise. And it’s not just the locals that are to blame - Vietnam’s dramatic increase in tourism in recent times has put even more strain on its resources trying to accommodate for its US$26.75 billion tourism industry. Its pristine coastlines and developing cities attract tourists from the US, France, Australia, Malaysia, Germany, Russia and Japan. According to the Vietnamese Administration of Tourism, nearly 15.5 million tourists visited Vietnam in 2018 - a 19.9% increase from last year. While each country brought between 200,000 to 600,000 tourists to Vietnam, nearly 5 million Chinese and 3.4 million Korean tourists flocked to its shorelines in 2018. Environmental non-profit Ocean Conservancy says Vietnam’s rapidly growing GDP puts it among the five countries dumping more plastic into the world’s oceans than the rest of the world combined. And while it may not be the worst offender, neighbouring South East Asian nations are also enjoying the fruits of their first middle-class economies.

Hoi An, From Heritage City to Eco-City Originally an ancient trading port from the 15th to 19th centuries, Hoi An is now a popular tourist destination between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. In 2017, the small population of 120,000 welcomed its 10 millionth visitor to its UNESCO World Heritage Old Town, its beachside restaurants, bars and resorts. Before its economic decline in the 19th Century, Hoi An was a thriving mix of Japanese, Chinese and European trading for four hundred years - its remnants something UNESCO was able to preserve. But Hoi An now faces new problems like climate change, water pollution and sea erosion. Community groups and NGOs are trying desperately to address the issue in a race against time, developers and Vietnam’s swelling tourism industry. It’s now a major objective for NGOs and not-for-profits to increase communication and education to raise awareness. This plan though is time-sensitive, given the rate of development in the area. International development and planning schemes seem to be moving ahead as fast as possible and, without the proper infrastructure, water supply and land use, the province’s resources, industry, agriculture and tourism industry will suffer as a result. The Vietnamese government blocked developers from building restaurants and hotels on parts of Hoi An’s shoreline in 2015, instead building a playground and park to evade sea erosion and educate children in environmental issues. They also received Japanese aid worth US $9.8 million for a wastewater treatment plant next to its famous Japanese Bridge. In return, Tokyo now has direct flights to Da Nang City, only 30 minutes’ drive from Hoi An. Eight airlines also currently offer four-and-a-half-hour direct flights from South Korea to Da Nang International Airport. But Vietnam’s efforts seem to focus more on political and economic relations in the South China Sea than marine preservation and sustainable tourism. China continues to build artificial islands for economic resources, as well as missile developments for military power - a move that violates international laws and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Code of Conduct. This leaves collective action, education and private enterprise to make the necessary changes. If Vietnam wants to continue enjoying its rising income and industry, it’s up to its people to show the government what can be done.

Building An Eco-Community Canadian-born Alison Batchelor is the owner of Refillables in Hoi An. Her business is only months old and already seeing a positive response from locals, expats and tourists. Her aim is simple: to provide affordable, ecological household products which help fight Vietnam’s waste problems. After moving to Hoi An with her husband and daughter, Alison had a stint as a proofreader before she realised her time could be better utilised. Her business idea came from visiting a supply store in Vietnam with a friend from the movie business. “They had these big soaps and she’s like ‘oh, you should get one because you have a kid.’ I was like ‘hmmm, I don’t really feel like buying soap right now.’ Two months later, I was like ‘I really should have bought that big soap because it just would have been better.’ So I went back, but they had sold out of what I wanted and the woman said she could fill me a one-litre bottle of soap like they do for the hair salons.”

“All I could think was ‘do you mean for two years I could have been coming here and filling my soap?’ Even if it’s not environmentally friendly, at least it was a plastic bottle being saved. The whole way home I felt like: could I do that, open a store that’s a refill store? So I did.” Alison now serves customers from the lower level of her double story house overlooking an organic farm, selling reusable straws and drink bottles, eco-friendly tooth brushes and a variety of refillable household cleaning and personal hygiene products. “I did a market in November and the sales were amazing”, says Alison. “A lot of the kids were using their money to buy silicone straws or water bottles and asking questions. It was just really heart-warming to see that they were taking the environment very seriously.” Alison says educating kids and giving them information to take home to their families is a key factor in fostering change. She says environmental progress is slow and requires various groups working from all angles to make an effective impact, as well as being an active member of the community. Alison says Vietnamese eco-friendly stores must be competitive in price for their products to sell. “The economy here is different. We don’t have the same level of disposable income here. I’d rather keep my prices low and make that work than make the prices high and only have a few people buying - because then am I really doing something for the environment?” Although this is a small beginning, Hoi An has become a popular destination for tourists, Vietnamese nationals and expats. With close proximity to the beach and growing cities like Hue and Da Nang under an hours’ drive away, Hoi An makes for an ideal alternative to Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi.

The Problem With Single-Use Plastics Visiting Hoi An’s Landfill Site “Last month, there was a storm… it brought up a ton of garbage from the ocean. It was really shocking and it really struck a chord for a lot of people”, says Alison.

“My friend was there for one of the clean-ups and she came up with 28 bags of garbage and it was just a small space on the beach. I went there with my daughter and it was difficult to just find a path to get through”, says Alison. Megumi Kawada started making handmade soaps for her and her son in 2013 to care for their sensitive skin. She started SAPO a year later, an environmentally friendly soap company which blends natural vegetable oils and shea butter which takes four to six weeks to cure. A Japanese national currently living in Vietnam, Megumi’s plan to change the local mindset in Hoi An and finding government assistance has been an uphill battle, but one she says is worth it and has proven results. While eco-friendly business initiatives work to change cultural attitudes towards the environment, the reality of exactly how much trash is produced in Vietnam towers over any efforts and programs currently in place.

Megumi visited Hoi An’s landfill site in Cam Ha, just a 10-15-minute drive from UNESCO’s Old Town. “A few minutes after being present at the site, I [got a] headache.” Megumi wrote on her Facebook page in November 2018. “This is the reality. Pollution. It rains, and all the poison goes into the river, and eventually to the sea. It is extremely harmful to the marine environment and your own health… How can you call Hoi An beautiful without knowing this? Promoting tourism to bring more waste without taking any action?” Community awareness and education on Hoi An and Vietnam’s wider use of plastic is of high priority to the Eco-City Project, which encourages businesses to abandon single-use plastics for affordable, eco-friendly alternatives. They aim to replace plastic bottles, straws, bags, cups, chopsticks, knives and forks and styrofoam containers with bamboo and reed straws, sugar cane takeaway containers, paper cups and reusable bags. Some say traditional Vietnamese culture hasn’t yet caught up with globalisation and the world-wide use of plastics - something Megumi and Alison plan to address at this year’s Earth Hour meeting in Hoi An.

“They just started using plastic bags about 30 years ago. For plates they used banana leaves… I’ve seen pictures of Hoi An 30 years ago and I couldn’t see any plastic - everything was natural resources”, says Megumi. “I think the foreigners brought the plastic culture [to Vietnam]. At the time they threw their biodegradable waste in the street, but all of a sudden they were throwing plastic in the street… they don’t care at all to throw away their rubbish.” “I think the most important thing is to let people know to not use single-use plastics. Straws can be an easy thing to change, for a start. It’s not a big change but if you can change from plastic straws, you can change to plastic bags”, says Megumi. “If we shop in any shops or in the market, they naturally put things in plastic bags without asking you… people here don’t really refuse much now, so that’s what we want to start”, says Megumi.