Vietnam is wasting more than 2 billion USD a year because it does not recycle plastic
According to a new study published by the World Bank, Vietnam consumes 3.9 million tons of plastic each year, but only one third recycles. Specifically, of the 3.9 million tons of plastic consumed each year, only 1.28 million tons (33%) is recycled.
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Only 25% of the total value of plastic materials, or $872 million, is released annually (calculated at a 33% recycling rate and 77% of the value recovered from plastic recycling). The amount of plastic that is discarded is still 75% of the potential material value, which equates to a waste of $2.2 billion to $2.9 billion in potential material value from recycling each year.
The report recommends that this potential market opportunity can be capitalized by large public and private investments to improve waste collection/segregation, creating an enabling environment for improve the economic efficiency of recycling. The economics of recycling also help develop the domestic market for secondary materials, and utilize labor in the informal sector in Vietnam. It is estimated that, if all the PET, HDPE, LDPE, and PP plastics used in Vietnam were collected and recycled into valuable recycled products, theoretically the total value of the material liberated by recycling would be equivalent to $3.4 billion per year.
ctngoc