Aluminium recycling has improved the quality of lives for hundreds of villagers in Vietnam's Nam Truc District in Northern Province of Nam Ðinh. Ever since the residents here started using recycled aluminium for making handicraft items their livelihood has changed- changed for the better.
For more than 30 years now, people living in Bình Yên Village located near the Nam Ninh Hai River have been successfully collecting and recycling aluminium cans, containers, and used household items with a capacity of waste amounting to over 1,500 tonnes per month. Presently, more than 300 households in the village are associated with the profession.
Every day, about 1,000 odd labourers collect aluminium beverage cans to make trays, pots, basins and other household items of daily use. Most of the recycling process, including re-melting and casting, is performed at home or in small stretches of open area using simple methods. This is in stark contrast with what they would do to earn a living some three decades ago.
At one time, Bình Yên Villagers' livelihoods revolved around agriculture. Only four families recycled aluminium waste collected from Vân Chàng Village and the neighbouring areas in Bac Ninh Province. Later on, seeing the high profits they earned, other villagers joined in. Slowly, a cottage industry grew generating employment and hopes for many people.
However, an aluminium recycling based handicraft industry fledgling to get a new life in Vietnam has exposed the region to numerous environmental hazards. But this has got more to do with the lack of a structured system than the process of aluminium recycling itself.
According to test results by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, the water of Nam Ninh Hai River running through the district, is seriously polluted with toxic levels far higher than allowed. Chemicals discharged by aluminium recycling workshops are also harming aquatic creatures and ecosystem, the survey found.
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Time and again many international organizations have come forward with projects to help local households in limiting the pollution caused due to unsustainable recycling process. But none of the projects succeeded in providing a sustained guidance. It would be disheartening to see a cottage industry dying an untimely death due to lack of regulation and proper help from industry bodies from either within the country or abroad. So, earlier the villagers' plight get heard the better. Till then people of Bình Yên Village would be waiting for the much needed help to come their way so that they can carry with their aluminium recycling pursuits for a prosperous present and a greener and healthy tomorrow.
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