Mekong Delta
The WWF and KALEDEWEI are promoting waste separation in the MEKONG DELTA. To prevent 2,300 tons of plastic reaching the ocean in the first place.
The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Saftey (BMU) supports our model project with the WWF until 2023!
Plastic enters the ocean via rivers – particularly via the Mekong because in Vietnam most waste is still disposed of in the countryside. If the Mekong breaks its banks during the rainy season, it takes tons of plastic waste with it into the Pacific. The Long An model project aims to permanently prevent this.
Waste is being turned into opportunities.
Long An is a province in the northwest of the Mekong Delta. And, like the rest of Vietnam, it cannot cope with its waste problem. That is why the WWF/KALDEWEI model project is aiming to boost entrepreneurialism and turn waste into an economic factor.
“More than 80 per cent of the waste in the Mekong Delta is organic,” says Trinh Thi Long from WWF Vietnam. If the waste is already separated at household level, the organic and plastic components can be sorted out, and sold as fertiliser and/or reusable materials which will contribute to financing the system. It’s a win-win situation both for small local businesses and for the environment.
Vision: avoid 60,000 tons of plastic waste.
In this way, 2,300 tons of plastic waste can be collected per year in Long An alone. And freed-up capacity at dumps and incinerators can be then be used to reduce the mountains of waste scattered around the countryside. Involving the local population is also part of the project – because if the locals can be encouraged to join in, the model project will also be implemented in other districts and provinces in the Mekong Delta. That will then mean 60,000 tons of plastic per year that can be collected and recycled, instead of going into the ocean.
THE WWF MEKONG PROJECT IN FIGURES.
- Project location: Long An in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
- Development of a recycling system for 1.5 million people
- 2,300 tons less plastic waste in the short term in Long An province alone.
- In the medium term, 60,000 tons less plastic per annum in the entire Mekong Delta.
